For Road Warriors Only

Michelle Campanale

Psion makes some exciting advancements in usability and convenience with its Psion Series 5. We were unable to test the system because, at press time, the PsiWin 2.0 software was in early beta. However, we were impressed with the look and feel of the unit. A touchscreen and a stylus are used for data input. It has a large screen--5.5 inches wide by 2.75 inches tall--with a resolution of 640 by 240, the same as the HP 320LX's display. Its relatively large QWERTY keyboard--6.5 inches wide by 2.5 inches tall--expands outward, like the IBM Butterfly, when you open the cover. The keys are more than half an inch apart f rom each other, making it easy to touch-type and not have to hunt and peck the way most hand-helds' keyboards make you do. The Series 5's 32-bit multitasking EPOC32 operating system can share files with Windows 95 and Windows NT PCs and Macintosh systems, and it can synchronize with Microsoft, Lotus, and Corel office suites out of the box. T he system comes equipped with standard CompactFlash and an RS-232 port. You also get an external voice recorder that can record for 30 minutes on an 8-MB machine. Psion estimates up to 35 hours of typical-use battery life. Besides already supporting Organizer Programming Language (OPL) and C++, Psion plans to add Java support for application development in 1998. Available in August, the Psion series 5 will sell for $599 for the 4-MB model and $699 for the 8-MB configuration.

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Good Looks in a Feel-Good Unit

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