Pager-like Handheld for Textual Input?

Mike Hizgaard asks: "My good old RIM 950 has suddenly died on me. This tiny, 'thumb-typing' machine was my favorite text-entry device ever, especially because I could keep it in my pocket for more than one week without recharging/replacing the battery, and then upload all my notes into a computer using an RS232 connection. Now I am looking for a replacement, and would like to get something that uses either USB, IR or Bluetooth (since my laptop doesn't have a serial port), while retaining the tiny dimensions and thumb-typing as an input method. What are my options? (I never really made use of the email functionality, which was touted as the 950's main purpose.)" Please note that USB->Serial converters do exist, so if there are any serial devices that might also work, they are still valid options. Are there any decent RIM 950 replacements out there?

Nokia 9300

[Pete (big-pete)]

I recently bought a new Nokia 9300 [nokia.co.uk] with a mobile contract in the UK. I had the 9110 [nokia.co.uk] and the 9210 [nokia.co.uk] communicators in the past and I love the format.

The thumb keyboard is very good, and it can easily cope with SMS, emails, documents, etc. I also have a version of PuTTY installed to ssh to servers.

Okay, so the battery life isn't anywhere near as long as your old RIM950, but then almost nothing does these days. You certainly won't need a PDA if you have a 9300, it does everything in a very nice format, and at last a reasonable size that can be carried around everywhere. The 9500 [nokia.co.uk] is identical, but has a camera and wi-fi, but for me the additional bulk is far too much to pay for the limited additional functionality that I would rarely use.

In fact, I welcome the lack of a camera on the 9300, as a contractor I need to be aware that in future I may receive work at locations that object to you bringing a camera onsite, which would cause all worlds of pain with any camera phone...

-- Pete.

if you don't mind larger...

[Anonymous Coward]

...tiger direct has the HP Jornada 680e and the NEC 780 [tigerdirect.com] on sale now. Never used either one but they look nifty with a more reasonable screen size and decent keyboards. No idea if they are good or anything, someone here must have used them, maybe they will chime in, the price seems more or less reasonable.

Tungsten C

[macemoneta]

I typically go 2-3 weeks between charges, and it syncs via WiFi (802.11b). It works great with Windows, Mac OSX and Linux (with none of that pesky USB/udev configuration). You can get them for as little as $170 lightly used on EBay (I just bought a second unit for my wife). Full specs here [palmone.com].

Re:Nokia 9300

[BenjyD]

I have a 9500. The wifi is nice, but it is far too big and the keyboard is crappy. I think the problem with the keyboard is that it's half way between a thumb board and a proper keyboard: too big to reach all the keys easily with your thumbs, but the keys are shaped wrongly for typing with your fingers. (Note to Nokia designers: look at every other keyboard in existence. See how the each key is indented in the middle? There's a reason for that.)