Looking More Like Windows

A latecomer to the Windows CE hand-held PC ranks, Hewlett-Packard leapfrogs everyone with a standard 640-pixel-wide screen.

David Essex

Windows CE -- Microsoft's scaled-down version of Windows for hand-held PCs -- is single-handedly responsible for making these tiny computers a viable platform after years of disappointed expectations. Now, Hewlett-Packard, the company that led the first move toward desktop standards with its Lotus 1-2-3- equipped LX line, is finally offering its first Windows CE units, the 300LX and 320LX.

The 300LX series' breakthrough feature is an 80-column, 640- by 240-pixel screen, a first for Windows CE hand-held PCs. Even w ithout the optional backlight, the screen is eminently readable once you angle it to avoid glare. With the bluish light on, the display is crisp -- in fact, it's good enough to play solitaire in bed with the lights off.

I tested a 320LX prototype ($699) that lacked several features found in the final units that HP expected to ship by midspring -- a CompactFlash backup card, a docking cradle, and a fax modem. The 300LX, which costs $499, has 2 MB of RAM instead of 4 MB and lacks the screen backlighting, fax modem, and CompactFlash.

Both units' connectivity options include any network or modem device that will fit in its Type II PC Card slot, a 115-Kbps IRDA-compliant (Infrared Device Association) port, and an RS-232 interface that requires an optional adapter. Bundled connectivity software includes a terminal emulator, remote networking, an e-mail inbox, and the Pocket Internet Explorer that come with Windows CE, and Microsoft's H/PC explorer for transferring file s to and from your PC. Also included is bsquare development's bFax Pro. HP throws in a CD-ROM offering additional communications software.

Though it comes with downsized versions of Microsoft Word and Excel, the 320LX -- like its competitors -- is still a glorified Day-Timer in many ways. Thus, it comes with tools for synchronizing contacts, schedules, and notes between hand-held and desktop machines. Special software lets you synchronize with the desktop version of Microsoft Schedule 7.0a. You can also synchronize to the Outlook personal information manager (PIM) in Microsoft Office 97 and print directly to a printer.

The keyboard is as cramped and stiff as that of any competing hand-held PC, though the unit is roughly a half-inch wider, at 7.2 inches. Windows CE hardware vendors have avoided using handwriting recognition for input, what with that technology's well-known failures.

The alternative -- using the stylus to activate the mostly standard Windows mouse events, supplemented with min imal keyboard entry -- is workable. This is especially true of Pocket Excel, which requires less user input than Pocket Word. Also, with faxes and e-mail now dowloadable in essentially desktop format, and with extensive data sharing between the desktop and hand-held PCs, the 320LX won't lack for useful input and output.

HP still has a way to go to top the classy Philips Velo 1 (see "This Hand-Held Stands Out," April BYTE), which has a built-in CPU-based modem and voice input. Still, the 320LX has one big, wide feature that no other hand-held PC can beat -- for now.

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Product Information

HP 320LX......................................$699

Hewlett-Packard Co.
Cupertino, CA
Phone:    800-443-1234
Phone:    970-392-1001
Internet: 
http://www.hp.com/handheld

Circle 1100 on Inquiry Card.

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Ratings

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Key:

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**** Very Good
*** Good
** Fair
* Poor

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HP 320LX

photo_link (43 Kbytes)

The standard-width screen lets you view Windows without scrolling to the right, as on other CE hand-held PCs.

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David Essex is BYTE's director of reviews. You can reach him at .