From: Charles Broderick (chabro_at_sbcglobal.net)
Date: Fri Jul 16 2004 - 16:47:09 PDT
> Tony Kan wrote:
>
>> Not that I want to put you on the defensive, but I'd be interested in your
>> comparison of the MP platform v Psion 5MX
>
> As I use both, I might throw in a couple of centimes:
>
> The Psion (sorta) fits in a coat pocket, has a very good keyboard, an
> O/S designed to work very well with it and an extremely good suite of
> productivity apps. It's also much better than the Newton in the
> printing department.
>
> It does have a lousy screen and severely limited connectivity options
> (no ethernet). Oh, and no HWR, of course.
>
> Karel Jansens
I have a Psion 5 (not mx) and a Psion 7, so I can respond as well.
Ditto all the above.
If you had never used a Newton, you would think the Psion was the best PDA.
Definitely beats WinCE by a mile, but as we all know, the better OS/machine
does not always prevail in the marketplace.
The Psion 5 has a barely usable keyboard for typing, but it will do the job
( I have heard people have achieved high rates in terms of wpm on it, but
I'm not one of them). In fact, somewhere out there is a hack to hook up a
newton keyboard to a Psion, to better type with.
You are much better using your thumbs to input data via the keyboard. I've
never used the HWR software for it, as the stylus and screen aren't
comfortable for me, but it is available. Plus after the Newton HWR, why use
anything else?
Connectivity-wise, I give it higher marks than Karel, but the lack of
ethernet is a severe limitation.
I could go on and on...I love my Psion 7 (uses the same OS, ER5 as the 5mx),
and it really does almost everything a could want in a notebook. In fact, I
do a lot of writing and printing reports with it, as it handles headers and
footers, and there is a program to "Print to PDF", so I just take the CF
card out and use a card reader hooked up to a desktop to print stuff out.
Like I alluded to before, if I hadn't had a Newton, I probably would have
stopped looking for a PDA with the Psion. There is a wonderful community out
there and plenty of free/inexpensive shareware available. Plus, plenty of
commercial programs, but that is drying up now that the machines are
orphans.
If you want to discuss the merits/limitations more, email me off list. Oh,
and if you want to use a Newt and Psion 5mx cooperatively, you can IR
between plain text between them, using IRObex software.
HTH,
Charles
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Jul 16 2004 - 19:30:00 PDT