Mobile Computing: Tips for Saving Money

Used or refurbished gear, other bargains, and tax write-offs.

James A. Martin

Feature: Tips for Saving Money

My New Year's resolutions last year included spending money wisely, traveling more efficiently, and because I'm self-employed, giving myself permission to goof off on occasion.

I've been succeeding admirably on the last count. It's the first two areas where I could use some help, and I suspect I'm not alone. This week's issue brings together tips from my 2002 newsletters (along with new ones) designed to help you save money. Next week, I'll offer tips on minimizing the pain of traveling with a notebook.

Buy Refurbished or Clearance Equipment

Refurbished notebooks, PDAs, and mobile phones have been returned to the manufacturer for whatever reason, retested to ensure they work, and resold at a discount. Refurbished devices (also called "remanufactured") can be significantly less expensive than new products. Depending on the manufacturer, they often come with warranties and money-back guarantees. Be sure to check an online retailer's fine print before buying, however. Net Liquidations, for example, has a five-day restriction on returns and charges a 15 percent restocking fee. Also, refurbished equipment generally can't be customized (unlike, say, a brand-new Dell notebook configured online), and tend to be slightly older models.

Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sony (click "Computers and Peripherals," click "Vaio notebooks," then click "Clearance"), and other manufacturers offer refurbished or "clearance" notebooks (slow-selling or over-inventoried products) on their Web sites. Refurbished PDAs are available at the Handspring, Palm, and Sony (click "Handhelds/PDAs," then click "Clearance") online stores. And you can find refurbished mobile phones at online mart ReCellular. For a variety of refurbished and/or returned products, check out Net Liquidations and ReturnBuy.

The PCWorld.com Product Finder provides the latest prices on a variety of technology products, including notebooks and PDAs, along with shipping costs and inventory status. The online retailers listed are rated on a five-star scale. Often, you'll find notebook prices that vary by hundreds of dollars. A recent check of Toshiba's Satellite 1115-S103, for instance, found a low of $899.98 and a high of $1202.90. That's a difference of $302.92--enough to buy yourself a digital camera or another cool gadget.

Check for Rebates and Bargains

Go to Techbargains.com for the latest price drops, rebates, coupons, and other savings on notebooks, PDAs, software, and other products.

Make an Informed Buying Decision

One of the best ways to save money is to make sure the gadget you're buying is right for you. If you're unsure what type of notebook or PDA would fit your needs, PCWorld.com's notebook and PDA buying guides are a good place to find out. The guides help you through a variety of decision points such as screen size, CPU speed, and more.

Donate Your Old Gear for Tax Write-Offs

It's too late to do anything about your 2002 tax bill, but you can start planning for 2003. You can reduce your taxes by donating outdated notebooks, PDAs, mobile phones, and other gear to a charitable organization. Californians, for example, can donate PCs, peripherals, and other devices at Computer Recycling Centers throughout the state for a tax credit.

Notebooks & Accessories

News: Turn a Notebook Into a Portable Phone

New voice-over-IP software, currently in beta, promises to turn notebooks and Pocket PCs into portable telephones. The technology from TeleSym, a Bellevue, Washington-based company, can be used in a Wi-Fi-enabled workgroup (such as hospitals and warehouses) to let workers use their handhelds or notebooks for one-on-one conversations. By adding a SymPhone Connector on a company's server, TeleSym users can connect to their corporate PBX system, from which they can place regular outbound calls.

News: Prop Up a Book on Your Notebook

Many of us spend long flights using our notebooks to work or watch DVD movies. But there's another alternative you may have forgotten about: reading a book. Given that airline lighting is generally poor, and the vast majority of book lamps provide inadequate illumination, you may want to consider using the LightWedge. The battery-powered strip has a slide-on clip to secure it and an acrylic screen that, when resting upon a page, fully illuminates it. The LightWedge measures 6.75 by 9.25 inches, costs about $35, and is available at Levenger and other retailers.

Review: Best Buy's House-Brand Notebook

Nationwide electronics retailer Best Buy is now selling its own notebook. In tune with Best Buy's bent toward entertainment, the VPR Matrix 200A5 is designed to handle typical computing needs as well as provide top-notch audio and video. The $2400 notebook includes a 2-GHz Pentium 4-M processor, 512MB of DDR SDRAM, a NVidia GeForce4 420 Go graphics card, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, two USB 1.1 ports, two FireWire ports, and integrated adapters for Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Most notable, however, is the 15.2-inch-wide display with 1280 by 854 native resolution, which provides the largest wide-screen aspect ratio yet for Windows notebooks. In our tests, the wide-screen DVD playback was awesome.

Handhelds

News: A BlackBerry Contender

Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Palm's I705 have some new competition: Good Technology recently launched an e-mail pager device. The G100 is being sold through Cingular Wireless in Atlanta for $399; monthly service is $35 per user for up to 1MB of data delivered over the 9.6-kilobits-per-second Mobitex network or $40 monthly per user for 2MB of data. The G100 features built-in support for e-mail attachments, while BlackBerry users must install third-party software.

News: Sprint's Combo Palm-Phone

Samsung Electronics' Palm OS-based SPH-i330 cell phone-PDA is thinner, more feature-packed, and more stylish than its predecessor, the SPH-i300. Available in the United States from the Sprint PCS Group, the dual-band, tri-mode device is compatible with CDMA at 800 MHz and 1900 MHz, the analog AMPS network, and Sprint's CDMA2000 1X data service (with packet-based data transmission speeds up to 144 kbps). Sprint PCS offers the phone for $500.

News: Kyocera Smartphone Wises Up

In other Palm-OS PDA/phone news, Kyocera Wireless is now selling the Kyocera 7135 in the United States; the combo device is available through Alltel for $550 when combined with a service plan.

The Kyocera 7135 has been completely redesigned to look more like a traditional (though large) clamshell-style phone than a Palm PDA. It has a 65,000-color LCD, a Motorola DragonBall processor running at 33 MHz, 16MB of memory, and a slot for MultiMediaCard and Secure Digital cards. The device runs on Palm OS version 4.1 instead of the newer OS 5. A tri-band phone operating on CDMA 800-MHz and 1900-MHz bands and the AMPS analog system, the device can also play MP3 files. It also comes with PhotoSuite software for displaying images downloaded from a PC.

Wireless

News: Wi-Fi Access Spreads at Marriott

Need wireless Internet access on the road? Check with Marriott. The hotel giant is planning one of the hotel industry's largest deployments of high-speed Wi-Fi Internet access, the company said recently. Complementing its current in-room high-speed access, Marriott will offer wireless access in hotel lobbies, meeting rooms, restaurants, and other public spaces at 400 hotels in Germany, the U.K., and the United States. The rollout is expected to be completed by June.

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