Symbol's MC50 rough and tumble Pocket PCs

Symbol, (who you probably know for making barcode equipment, and in some cases Pocket PC handhelds) announced today their new MC50 series of Windows Mobile Pocket PC devices, which, in addition to being pretty tough in anticipation of heavy use, also have integrated WiFi for VoIP, a one megapixel camera, a 65k color, 240x320 QVGA TFT LCD screen, SDIO port, 64MB RAM and ROM, and a 520MHz XScale CPU. Oh, and a barcode reader. Because it just wouldn't be a Symbol without one, right guys?

[Via Geekzone]

[Gene Dashiell @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

The Symbol MC50 may be very useful in the field if its battery life is 8 hours and it can be used as a data collector with a GPS running ARCPAD (ESRI) or similar software. If the price is right, and it truly is rugged, I would use it. I have broken a lot of IPAQs in the field because of their shoddy connectors and fragile construction, not to mention their battery shortfalls.

[CRWhitehead @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

This is gonna hit big for the Wal-Mart crowd. You can be surfin the web while yr looking thru house wares. UH-OH! The price tag fell off, no worries, no more 'price check on aisle four please'. Whip out yr trusty MC50 and PRICE CHECK IT YRSELF!!!!!

[christopher wanko @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Yeah, you can read the barcode, and then what? How ya gonna lookup the code, against what database? Idjit.

I like Symbol pushing the envelope on these. Intermec has rugged PocketPC devices too, with some pretty wicked scanner abilities. A camera on the device would help with equipment inspections and calibrations (there's no disputing an actual photo of the as-found and as-left conditions).

Battery life won't go 8hrs, not with camera use. Hopefully they ship with battery docks and separate chargers.

[Lance Miller @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Little surprised that it doesn't have more
guts.. 64meg rom/ram is marginal considering
it's use. Plus, what happened to the CpU...
Other "PPC" handhelds designed for heavy use are all over 600 mhz..?? Plus, the interprise
group doesn't need a barcode scanner.. Hope they
offer a model without it..

To few of the essentials for me to spend
that kind of money..

[Pi Chen Lin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

64mb of memory isn't enough. Having just one SDIO slot isn't enough when you want a gps unit and more memory (maps).

We just bought two to try out.

[chris @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM]

Just got one for data collection in vineyards. The wifi setup program does not seem to work. I have had many headaches associated with this device. I hope it starts to get easier.