Summary
Gadget Review
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Review at a glance
Manufacturer: Semson's & Co. Inc. Price: $34.99 Pros:
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Semsons & Co. Universal Windshield PDA Holder
August 27, 2002
Product Requirements: Your Car's Windshield, or any Smooth
Surface
Device:
Works best with Square
Shaped PDA's
Will Hold any PDA
I really tried with this one. Really I did. You'll notice the date on this review...Its almost a month over due. While I owe Julie and Judie a big apology for blowing the deadline on this review, I did it for a good reason. I really, really tried to make this one work. I wanted it to so badly.
I'm talking about the Semsons & Co. Universal Windshield PDA (and Cell Phone) Holder. You'll notice I've put "and Cell Phone" in parentheses. This device is supposed to securely hold your cell phone too. I say "supposed to...;" but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's get the prelim's out of the way so that I can get to the heart of why I was so disappointed with what could have been a really neat, affordable accessory.
The Semsons & Co. Universal Windshield PDA Holder consists of two main parts...three if you count your PDA. The first part is a long goose necked arm that attaches itself to your windshield with what is supposed to be a strong suction cup.
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| The Semsons & Co Gooseneck Arm and Suction Cup Mounted on my CRV's Windshield |
As you can see from this picture, the Arm is mounted to my windshield, goosenecking its way forward towards my steering wheel. It ends in a large, flat, black plate with a sticky pad covered with white wax paper. The sticky pad is an adhesive based square. You peel off the wax paper cover and plaster your cell phone against it; or at least I think you do. The device itself came with out ANY documentation, and the Semsons and Co. web site doesn't really offer any real information on how you're supposed to use this device with your cell phone as of this writing.
From what I can tell, you're just supposed to stick your nicely kept, very expensive, Gadgeteer-styled cell phone on the very sticky, gonna prevent you from peeling it off and using the phone anywhere else besides your car (at least not without ruining it), adhesive square. I don't know about you, but if these guys think I'm gonna stick my $300 Motorola V60c phone against that adhesive square, they're NUTS!! Who the heck thought up this mess?!? Did this person skip class the day they taught product engineering? PUH-LEASE!!!
While this device has the POTENTIAL to be used as a cell phone holder, this Gadgeteer-in-Training won't even consider using the Semsons and Co. Universal Windshield PDA Holder to hold his cell phone. The adhesive square seems like a drunken afterthought, and WILL ruin the back of your phone; or at the very least I think it will. I can't find any documentation to counter this assumption either on the product box, or on the Semsons & Co. web site.
Now...on to what appears to be this product's core competency: Holding your PDA. I think you'll be much happier with the results I have to report here.
As a PDA holder, I have found the Semsons & Co. Universal Windshield PDA Holder to work, well, ok. I have 4 PDA's that could have fit in this accessory, 5 if you count the Clie' NR70 that I just sold to a close friend of mine. The results of a week's (or more) time in the hot seat with the Semsons & Co. Universal Windshield PDA Holder can be found below: Pictures of some of these in the Holder can also be found below
| PDA | Comments |
| iPAQ 3765/3835 |
The HP/ Compaq iPAQ body fits in the Holder. However, the bottom part
of the Holder covers the Speaker/ Action button on both models. On the
3835, the sides of the Holder cover up buttons 1 and 4, preventing you from
using them. It is also impossible to use the Action button on the iPAQ
3835. On the iPAQ 3765, the bottom half of the Speaker is covered by
the Holder, muffling the sound. When driving around town with the iPAQ's in the Holder, I found that the HP/ Compaq iPAQ was too heavy for the magnet in the Holder, and the iPAQ slid off more than once. After locating a few of Nashville's missing potholes, they smacked the floor. I honestly didn't feel comfortable riding around with either of my naked iPAQ's in the Holder. |
| Jornada 567 |
The HP Jornada body fit the Holder. However, The bottom of the Holder
covers the Speaker and the Action button below the Directional Pad.
The bottom of the Holder also prevented ideal use of the Jornada's cover.
In order to use the Holder with the cover, you had to open the cover, place
the Jornada in the Holder, and THEN close the cover. The bottom of the
Holder prevented the Jornada's cover from sitting flush against the device. The HP Jornada 567 was also too heavy for the Holder. It slid off the magnetic plate more than once, and also hit the floor when traveling over bumps in the road. |
| Toshiba e310 |
The Toshiba e310 body fit the Holder. Between it and the NR70, the
Toshiba e310 fit the Semsons & Co. Universal Windshield PDA Holder the best.
All of the e310's buttons are accessible while the device is in the holder,
and 99% of the device's speaker is free from any blockage. The device
is also light enough that when traveling, it rarely slid off the
magnetic plate.
When traveling over the same bumps that sent my iPAQs and Jornada plumeting to the floor, the e310 just slid down ever so slightly. However, the Toshiba e310 is one of the smaller, lighter Pocket PC's on the market today, and is, in my opinion, not of typical weight. |
| Sony Clie' NR70 |
The Sony Clie' NR70 body fit the Holder.. However, the unique clam
shell design of the NR Series Clie and the pivoting screen presented some
interesting problems for the Semsons accessory. When closed, screen
in, the Clie' fit the Holder quite well, though the device was largely
useless unless the bottom of the Holder fit in between the clam shell; and
then the device wouldn't stay seated in the Holder right. When closed,
screen out, the Clie' fit the holder well, but the sides and bottom part of
the screen and virtual Graffiti area was partially covered. by at least an
1/8th of an inch. I also had trouble with the Clie' sliding down the magnetic plate and hitting the floor when the vehicle was moving, and traveling over bumpy pavement. |
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| Toshiba e310 in the Holder | iPAQ 3835 in the Holder |
Here are some more shots of the Semsons & Co. Universal Windshield PDA Holder in action.
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| Close up of the Toshiba e310 in the Semsons Holder |
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| The back of the Holder with the e310 inside. Notice the piece of elastic holding the cloth sides of the front together... |
According to the Semsons & Co. web site, the Universal Windshield PDA holder "Fits any type of PDA (including Expansion Slot) with the elastic holder." I don't see how. The front arms of the Holder are pretty stiff. The elastic in the back will only stretch so much. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get my iPAQ 3835 with PC Card Sleeve in the Semsons & Co. Holder.
After careful consideration, while there is some potential here, I really can't recommend the Semsons & Co. Universal Windshield PDA Holder for use with your PDA unless you have a very light, very thin PDA with either a built in CF or SD slot; and you have a very large CF or SD card. I'd want to use it to hold my device while I played music with it. Unless you have a large CF or SD card in your built in slot, you won't play a lot of music. The Holder doesn't accommodate the iPAQ or Jornada PC Card Sleeve. I also had trouble with the Holder sliding off the gooseneck, especially if you hit a pothole or bump.
Price: $34.99, on Sale (as of this writing) $24.99
Pros:
Portable
Magnetic
Works with (Just About) any PDA
Inexpensive
Cons:
Suction Cup isn't Very Strong
Magnet isn't Very Strong
PDA's tend to Slide Off
PDA Holder only Holds Naked PDA's
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Manufacturer: Semson's & Co. Inc. Price: $34.99 More reviews like this one: |
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