Entertain your audio and video options
 |
Winner: Windows Mobile
With more multimedia,
Windows wins. |
For years, when it came to playing games, watching movies, and listening to music, Pocket PCs outperformed Palm OS PDAs because the core Microsoft hardware included a relatively fast processor, a high-resolution (320x240 pixels) screen, and digital audio capabilities. Indeed, the mobile version of Windows Media Player enabled audio and video playback right out of the box.
Until the arrival of OS 5, Palm users mostly were stuck with slow processors, low-resolution screens, and Apple II-quality audio. (A few high-end Sony CLIE models changed all that before OS 5 arrived but did so with proprietary tweaks to the operating system.) Now Palm OS supports the same Intel XScale processors used in Pocket PCs, as well as 320x320-pixel (and higher) screens and MP3 playback courtesy of RealOne Mobile Player. In short, Palm OS has caught up with--and, in cases such as screen resolution, surpassed--Windows Mobile.
Yet not all Palm OS handhelds take advantage of these newly supported capabilities. The Zire 21, though it runs Palm OS 5.2.1, has only a low-resolution grayscale screen and rudimentary audio capabilities. Even the $199.99 Sony CLIE PEG-TJ25 doesn't have digital audio. All Pocket PCs, on the other hand, feature the same core capabilities they've had for years and now carry faster processors to boot. In fact, several third-party Windows Mobile media players enable you to view native MPEG movie files, no conversion required. At press time, Palm OS users enjoyed no such privilege.
| |
Round 1 |
Round 2 |
Round 3 |
Round 4 |
Round 5 |
Round 6 |
Round 7 |
Round 8 |
| Palm |
 |
|
-- |
|
|
-- |
|
|
| Windows Mobile 2003 |
|
|
-- |
|
|
-- |
|
|
|
|
