Observable difference in performance?

This is my first post, so a big 'hello' to all the regulars!

I'm in the market for a PDA/phone and I'm very excited because it'll be my first one since an old Handspring Visor Deluxe I bought years ago. I've looked at the options and decided that it'll either be the XDA2i or the XDA2s. The XDA2s has a 400Mhz processor and a thumbboard. The XDA2i has a 520 Mhz processor. In view of this, I have two questions:

1. How noticable a difference will this extra 120Mhz make to performance? I'd like to PIM it up, play some games, watch some films, use Skype and certainly multi-task. Will the 400Mhz do me fine, or would things fly much nicer with the 520Mhz? If so, how much nicer?

2. How much faster are thumbboards than handwritnig recognition or soft keyboard input? Input speed is very, very imortant to me.

You see my dilema, I want the fastest obviously, but I have to balance speed of input with speed of applications?

I will value all opinions, shower you with thanks and let the board know my final decision!

[Charlie]

Welcome to our forums.
1) In my opinion you wont really notice the difference other programs will maybe load faster but that’s about it....if you can afford the 520 then by all means go for it.
2) I suppose this depends on how comfortable you get with the recognition or the onscreen keyboard. I personally use the onscreen keyboard and am hopeless at using the recognition (probably because I’ve just never spent to the time to get used to it); overall though a specific keyboard is faster in my opinion.

Good luck with whatever model you get, I'm sure you'll love it.

Thanks for the quick response!

The 520Mhz model is actually the same price as the 400MhZ model, the main different being the thumbboard. I kind of suspected the speed different would be minimal, thanks for the confirmation!

Has anyone got any experience with these thumbboards things? For example, did anyone experience an epiphany moment and fall ni love with them, or was it 'meh, no change'?

[Charlie]

I've used the model your looking at and if it wasn't so pricey I'd have one in a instant