This whole thing was Chris’s fault. It was that comment he made in yesterday’s issue about handheld vs. ? multimedia machines.

It’s a puzzle, to be sure. I don’t think any of the options you mention is truly suited for a real multimedia machine. In the case of anything that could qualify as a handheld, the screen has to be a killer. It’s too small to be worth the money and that includes any PDA I’ve ever seen. The portable DVD players aren’t bad, but few if any of them can qualify as ‘multimedia’. I don’t know of many that will play an audio DVD, much less a CD, CD-R, or CD-RW.

Currently, I don’t anything that can stand up to a well-equipped laptop or especially one of the new class of laptop Media Center PC’s. One good laptop I’ve seen is the HP zd7000 series, with its 17″ screen, large hard drive, and DVD-+RW combo drive. It’s capable of handling most multimedia chores and if it’s really maxed out, I think it can handle many modern games, as well.

Another promising entry is the Toshiba Qosimo Windows XP Media Center Edition laptop. It claims to be capable of being a media hub to rival a desktop system. I figure it must come close or it wouldn’t be Microsoft certified as a Media Center PC.

I suppose the ultimate dream is to have something the size of a deck of cards that keeps unfolding until it’s capable of widescreen HD TV and movies, as well as all the rest of the multimedia chores. I think we’ve got a long wait ahead of us.