PALMTOPS
Sharp Mobilon HC 4500 640X240 lines 256 Color display 16 MB RAM Built in 33.6 K modem Audio Recorder Optional P.C. Card camera
The latest addition to the Sharp palmtop family is this excellent model called the Mobilon. A truly unique feature to this is an optional PC card Camera which when attached to the computer would allow you to take still digital photos.
The Mobilon should be in the price
range of about a $1000.00, excluding the P.C. card camera.
Also, the Hewlett Packard LX 620 is a serious piece of machine
offering a 640 X 240 display panel with a rich 256 color display
capability, costing around $ 900.00.
For the economical buyer, there exists this new Casio machine
called the Cassiopeia A20 costing around $600.00.
All of the above mentioned models run on the new Windows CE
Ver 2.0.
I tested the Cassiopeia A 20 to install and run a few programs
supplied with the unit. Out of about 5 titles the most
interesting were the Pocket Power point and a sound recording
program called Sounds Vega. The power point application is very
far from the PC power point but like they say, something's better
than nothing. It allows you to download Powerpoint files into the
HPC (Hand Held PC), sort the frames and do a presentation from
within the HPC using the optional PC card VGA adapter.
The sound recorder is pretty good too allowing you the choice of
compression format from 8 bit to 16 bit, although you 'd wonder
the use of a 16 bit file in an HPC with no way to out put the
sound except through the inbuilt 200 MWatt speaker or from your
desktop after uploading it .
The overall speed of the unit is acceptable. I felt like I was on
a 66 MHz Pentium running a tiny Powerpoint file.
Apart from all that medieval options, the PIM software was
tolerable and the improved Pocket Word and Pocket Excel showed
signs of real improvement from Ver.1.0. They allowed printing
from within the application and Excel now offers Sorting. The
communications software included is from 'bFax', which offers
both transmission and reception of fax messages. If not for the
contrast difficulty, I'd say the machine gives a run for your
money.
Cassiopeia A 20 80 MHz SH- 3 processor 640X240 lines backlit display 8 MB RAM Audio Recorder
These features are pretty interesting to have in an HPC, but since most of us purchase a palmtop PC to rid ourselves of that dreaded dead weight we lug around for miles on our travels called the Laptop, we gradually expect these little machines to have almost all the capabilities of that thing we lug around on our shoulders. And once you add up all the little features that CE Ver 2.0 doesn't support, you are much better off with a Psion Series 5 or even the Series 3C, the best hand helds I've ever worked on. Now this is not a biased opinion.....You just have to get yourself one....or just borrow one to see what I mean.
Geofox One, another very interesting Epoc 32 machine
Please choose a model or brand from below for full report
Hewlet Packard LX 620
Casio E10
Toshiba Libretto
Philips Velo
3Com Palm Pilot
If you'd like more info on any of these products or any palmtop PC for that matter, E-mail me at Sheraj@emirates.net.ae for free, professional advise.