In the past year or so I've had the opportunity to review a number of other
PDAs: the Palm IIIx, the Psion 5mx, the Casio E-105 and the Psion Revo. This
opportunity to "try before I buy" really cured me of ever wanting to own a
Palm or a WinCE machine. The Palm IIIx was pretty good as a calendar and
eBook reader, but was miserable at everything else I wanted a PDA for. The
Casio's hardware seemed nice, but navigating through WinCE was like finding
my way through a maze.... tap, tap, tap - dead end. Hmm... left turn, tap,
tap, tap - dead end. Really frustrating! I liked the Psion 5mx, but found it
a bit too bulky to comfortably carry in my pocket. Then Psion introduced the
Revo in November - wow! Finally a PDA which in many ways is a worthy Newton
successor. Fits handily in a jacket pocket, has a very clear screen,
built-in apps (word-processing, spreadsheet, agenda) are really top class
and the keyboard allows for rapid and easy data input. The email app can
easily view multiple attachments (Word97 docs, JPEGs, zip files, etc), and
desktop synchronization (at least for Windows machines) is pretty good. The
NetHopper-style web-browser (complete with JPEGs and cookies, but no
advanced Newt's Cape functions)is simple but useable. There are third party
programs available that also let you zip/unzip files right on the Revo,
write programs, follow newsgroups and participate in ICQ chats. The Revo can
also exchange agenda and contact info via IR with Palms, and works
flawlessly with IR enabled hard-modem cell-phones (Ericsson I-888, Motorola
Timeport, etc.). In addition, it's easy to convert standard WAV files and
listen to them on the Revo, and sending and receiving faxes is no problem
(although Psion claims the Revo doesn't fax!). The Revo recently won the
"best hardware" award at Comdex - and it deserved it, too: - based on the
units I've reviewed, this is the only PDA that comes even remotely close to
the Newton in terms of functionality. A really fantastic machine, and a
pleasure to use and own.
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