People at my school use thier PDA's for different things. I live out of mine. I use it for scheduling, e-mail, carrying documents and presentations, drug reference, lab reference, contact information, etc. You need to decide what you are going to use it for, and what features you need.
Bluetooth: A form of wireless connectivity between PDA's, cell phones, etc. Only really usefull if you have other bluetooth devices allready. If not, you're adding $50-100 to the cost of the PDA for nothing.
Wi_Fi: Great for web surfing, but only if you have a WiFi connection wherever you are. As someone already mentioned, if you've got Wi-FI at your school, you probably have computer terminals sitting everywhere anyway, and this becomes redundant. Also good for checking e-mails, but I usually have my palm download e-mails while it's hotsynching each morning and read them through the day.
Keyboard: Almost everyone I've spoken to has gotten used to graffiti quickly, and those that bought PDA's with keyboards don't use them for long. A separate fold-up keyboard for e-mail or for editing documents may be usefull, but the small keypads on the PDA's don;t lend themselves to speedy data entry once you get proficient with your stylus.
Memory: You want lots of it. My old Palm m505 came with 8mb, it could no longer hold even just my medicine programs. Not all programs are compatible with a memory card, so don't assume that you can just overflow onto one, you want to maximize your onboard memory. My new Palm T3 has 64mb, but I think 32 would be plenty for most, unless you start carrying pictures, videos, music, etc.
Expansion ports: You will never be using more than one card at a time, so multiple SD ports are redundant. You certainly need at least one.
Palm vs. Pocket PC: Pocket PC used to have the advantage in multimedia applications. Being a Bill Gates product, it also hogged huge amounts of memory space and required whiz-bang processors to run at speed. The simpler Palm OS has caught up with PC in the multimedia dept, and the new Palm PDA's actually have better screen resolution than any of the currently available PC's. Plus, most medical software is available for the Palm, hit or miss for the PC. I genuinely believe tha PC is fading from favor. The one exception: a software package called Up-to-Date. A very powerfull (read: very expensive) platform that is only available for PC. I think the new expanded versions of Epocrates Essentials rival it, cost less, and are very much available for the Palm. Check with your school, however, some are supplying subscriptions to up-to-date and it would be a shame to buy a Palm only to have it not run the software your school prefers.
So, what does this come down to? I decided I did not need Wi-Fi. I wanted a Palm with lots of memory. I looked at the Palm Tungsten E, but did not like the fact that it did not fit the universal Palm docking cradle. I also fell in love with the larger screen of the Tungsten T3.
Cost: Palm Tungsten E $199, Tungsten T3 $399. You can probably find them both much cheaper online. Start at the website MySimon.com, which will run a search of online vendors to find you the lowest price.
Also, don't just take my word for it, read some reviews. Try Cnet.com for starters.
Good luck!
