While some vendors such as Dell have left the PDA market, others like Mio Technology have recently entered the fray. Their latest PDA, the Digiwalker P550, combines everything you'd expect in a Pocket PC, along with a GPS device, at a surprisingly affordable price.

Powered by a 400MHz Samsung processor and 64MB of RAM, the P550 won't win any PDA speed competitions, but applications opened with decent speed and we didn't notice any sluggishness maneuvering through the menus. Mio includes an excellent 2GB of storage ROM on the P550, which provides enough room for full maps of North America pre-loaded on the device itself. There's an SD/MMC card slot, so you can upgrade the storage space with a flash memory card or add new maps and functionality to the PDA.

The P550 runs Windows Mobile 5, which gives you mobile versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It features Bluetooth and 802.11b/g wireless, so you can synch up to your laptop or desktop PC without wires as well as browse the Web at any WiFi hotspot.

The P550's 3.5-inch screen offers fairly typical 320x240 resolution. It didn't seem as crisp as other PDAs we've looked at, but it was bright enough to be viewed easily in any lighting environments. In addition, you can rotate the screen view and watch videos or browse Web pages in widescreen format.

On the GPS side, the P550's ready to go on the road anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. In addition to the preloaded maps, its Points of Interest (POI) database contains over 11 million entries, so you'll always be able to find a nearby gas station or restaurant.

Mio includes a car mounting kit with the PDA, complete with a car charger adapter, so it's ready to hit the road right out of the box. The P550 uses the company's own MioMap software for navigation, and it works in a similar manner to that of TomTom and the other big GPS vendors, although it can often take multiple taps to find something (such as a POI menu).

The P550 acquired GPS signals quickly and offers voice directions, although it doesn't include text-to-speech capability that you find on some higher-end GPS devices.

The biggest problem with the Mio P550 is its extremely low battery life. It only lasts for a few hours in the most energy saving of modes. If you're running the wireless or GPS receiver on foot, you'll need a recharge in a little over an hour.

But the price is definitely a big plus on this PDA. If you're willing to overlook the low battery life and don't mind learning your way around an uncommon GPS interface, the Mio Digiwalker P550 is one of the better deals for a combo PDA and GPS.

Pros: Good combo device, great price
Cons: Weak battery