The HTC Advantage X7501 stretches the boundaries of what defines a PDA. A cross between a personal digital assistant and a tablet PC, the Advantage tries to provide the best of both worlds and, for the most part, succeeds admirably.

The Advantage weighs less than 13 ounces, is roughly four by five inches and a little more than half and inch thick, so it's not the most compact of PDAs. But that's the point: this larger frame gives it room for a five-inch display and a lot more power than most PDAs can boast.

The core processor is a 624MHz Intel CPU. HTC pairs that with 128MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM, so applications open quickly. Storage space is not limited to flash ROM either--there's an 8GB microdrive inside the PDA, so there's plenty of room for multimedia files.

But even with that power and storage space, what impressed us the most with the Advantage was the unique attachable QWERTY keyboard. This thin add-on attaches via a powerful magnet, holding the PDA sturdily at the right angle for typing. It's not as comfortable as desktop and laptop typing, but it's the best we've seen for a PDA. And the magnet is extremely strong, so you don't have to worry about the PDA falling over (there's even a warning about keeping the magnet a safe distance away from your credit cards).

The Advantage has all the extras you can think of packing inside a PDA. There's a built-in GPS receiver so you can use it as a navigation device. The 802.11b/g wireless lets you browse the Web at your favorite hotspot, while the quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 3G support mean you can connect via wide-area cellular networks (and use it as a large, but functional cell phone as well). There's also Bluetooth for synching to your PC or adding wireless peripherals.

And there's a three-megapixel digital camera complete with auto focus and flash, so you can take some pretty good pictures with this PDA as well. The TV/VGA output ports let you output the video signal from the Advantage to a computer monitor or television, making it handy for delivering presentations.

Even with its laptop-esque appearance, large screen, and keyboard, the Advantage is still a PDA. It runs Windows Mobile 6 and features large on-screen icons that make maneuvering menus an easy process. And with all its features, battery life was still rather impressive--it lasted longer than five hours even with multiple functions running.

As is almost inevitable when you pack so much functionality into one device, it comes at a hard price. But the Advantage can do more than almost any other PDA on the market. If you're looking for an all-in-one device that can serve your mobile needs completely, the HTC Advantage X7501 delivers it all.

Pros: Excellent all-in-one PDA, large screen, magnetic keyboard
Cons: Expensive

Warranty
1 year, limited