Got a bunch of 9200s last week. Their ability to scan a barcode in any orientation while holding the PDA level is amazing. No more swiveling the wrist 85 different directions because retards can't stick and face barcodes on casepack shelves properly.
But I think that my list of positives ends there. I'm not including positives such as all triggers work, backlights work, etc. My list of negatives is thus:
- Character repeat. It doesn't exist. With the 9090 and 9060, let's say you meant to press 4 keys, but accidentally fubared your way to pressing 10. Just press and hold backspace until the 6 extras disappear. 9200s? Nope, you gotta press backspace 6 individual times. Same with trying to scroll through 10 pages of batches in something like POGs. That's 10 key presses, not just holding the down button once until it scrolls to the bottom. No key repeat == BAD. This is in RF APPS.
- On the MyHome screens. when pressing most menu selection items (my progress -> logistics -> top button on that screen -> heading for any given caf hour), pressing the selection once only highlights it. I have to wait about one second and press it a second time, THEN the menu selection actually activates. On the 9090s and 9060s one press both highlights and activates.
- With all three PDA models, there is a little beep right when you successfully scan an item. This is independent of the beep that can be muted via the volume button; this one can't be muted. THIS beep, is WAY too loud. I scan my badge instead of typing in my TM number, and holy sh** that beep is really loud in my ear.
- The sound that is made when you press a key on the keypad is very slow. If you're very fast with the PDA, as any experienced backroom TM is, the mismatch between physical key press and the key press sound can throw off your rhythm and slow you down a little. It's disconcerting. You do 6-8 key presses in less than a second or two (bouncing around between menus, functions, and shift+7 toggles), but the 9200s speaker may only register half of those key presses. This was not a problem on the 9090s and 9060s - they were 1-to-1, no matter how fast you were.
- With a 9090 or 9060, when you press the trigger to scan something, and the item registers, the laser disappears and the PDA does it's whirs and beeps and buzzes and screen changes as needed. If you are fast enough, you can enter your quantities, point the PDA at the next barcode to scan, and hold the trigger. The red laser won't show up until your previous actions have all completed. When those actions complete though, the red laser immediately activates since you have the trigger already pressed. I don't know if I described that well enough, but believe me it makes the daily backroom quantity audit a tad less painful. With the 9200s, this preemptive trigger holding doesn't work. When the PDA catches up with your actions, and you are holding the trigger, the laser won't show up. You have to release the trigger and re-press it (or, obviously, don't preemptively hold it).
- The scan distance is bad. With a 9060 or 9090, I can basically snipe barcodes from pretty far away. Handy for those casepacks shelves that are allllllmost out of your reach. With the 9200, it seems I have to be less than 9 inches or so away from the barcode. Not good for shelves on the threshold of your reach distance.
I know these probably sound like minor and insignificant things, but backroom TMs live and die by the PDA. We use them for nearly 8 nonstop hours. We are very experienced with them and very fast with them. They are like an extension of ourselves we use them so much. As such, we notice and feel EVERY difference, no matter how small. When you live and die by the PDA nonstop for 8 solid hours, these tiny problems become magnified 100x and are really, REALLY annoying.
I know it sounds like I'm complaining, but I really am grateful to have new equipment. Even with these shortcomings, I still choose a 9200 when it's in the cabinet over a 9090 or 9060 because it really is a luxury worth having to have a working trigger scanner, working screen backlight, working keyboard backlight, and scanner that can tag barcodes in ANY orientation.
Also, this is all aside from the problems my store still seems to have such as really slow scanning responsiveness for functions like STO, SUBT, and NOP. This is universal to all PDA models and all software versions currently on our PDAs and hasn't changed.
