Even new Palms have weak IR ports hence my statement earlier in this thread:
I've never used a Pronto... is there something it can do that a cheaper Palm can't? (other than distance which is moot if you're gonna extend the IR transmitter via wire anyway).

The really old Palms that didn't come with built-in IR have decent range (don't know actual numbers) when you buy the add-on IR module. Also, some of the Sony Clie models claim to have a "Universal Remote" feature, but they don't explain this in detail... I'd assume it at least means having a decent IR range. The current top-of-the-line 760C says "no" in that row, but the /. crowd overlooked that when babbling about it.