Small Size and Weight

• Handhelds are small, so these devices are more portable than laptops.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Size is the obvious advantage of a handheld device. Able to easily fit into a pocket, these little machines weigh little more than a mobile phone and therefore can easily be taken into a meeting, used on planes and trains and even to keep the kids happy on long car journeys. Typically weighing in at about five or six ounces, they offer a lot of processing power for a little space.
  
  

Functionality

• Handheld computers have come a long way, from early devices like the first Palm Pilots, with their black and white screens and wired synchronization, to the most advanced Blackberry and iTouch machines, which synchronize wirelessly and have full Internet access. The displays on the devices are upwards of three inches in size, and are bright and clear. It is just as easy to watch a movie as it is to read an email on most of them. For business users, tools such as Quickoffice, which allows spreadsheets, documents and presentations to be viewed and worked on without the need of a laptop machine, offer maximum convenience.
  
  

Phone Integration

• Blackberries are popular handheld devices.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Increasingly, personal handheld computers and mobile phones have become integrated into a single device, negating the need to carry both. Blackberry's, iPhones, Android Phones and many others now have full phone, Internet and wireless synchronization capabilities built in.
  
  

Disadvantages

• Ultimately, there are some drawbacks to handheld devices. The absence of a mouse and keyboard will always limit the ability to input information. Although there are keyboards on most of them, the buttons are very small, making typing a slow process. The small screens mean that text can be hard to read and the magnifying function tends to reduce the viewing area, making it hard to see a whole spreadsheet at once, for example. Many of these machines do not come with USB ports, preventing portable media such as memory sticks from being used with them.