A pocketful of PDAs - evaluations of Apple's Newton MessagePad 130, HP's OmniGo 120, Motorola's Envoy 150, Psion's Series 3a, Sharp Electronic's Zaurus 5800FX and U.S. Robotics' Pilot 5000 personal digital assistants - includes related product summary box - Hardware Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1996 by Rick Broida

Despite this drawback, we think this is the PDA most likely to be found in James Bond's briefcase. Those of us with a budget to consider, however, might have to pass on the Envoy.

Psion Series 3a

Rating: ** 1/2

Psion bills its Series 3a as a palmtop computer rather than a PDA, and we agree with the company's assessment. Although it does incorporate the traditional daily planner and address book, the Series 3a breaks with many PDA conventions. Most notably, it eschews pen-based input in favor of its QWERTY keyboard. No pen means no handwriting recognition--a PDA staple. Fortunately, the Series 3a compensates with other desirable features.

Using the Series 3a is indeed similar to using a miniature PC. Imagine running Windows with the keyboard instead of a mouse, and you'll have a pretty good picture of this operating system. It takes a little practice to master arrow- and tab-key navigation, but you should feel right at home with the interface's dropdown menus. More important, the Series 3a has the best nonbacklit screen in the group, with a five-inch wide viewing range. It boasts ultrasharp contrast and does not suffer from any glare. By the time you read this, Psion will have released the backlit Series 3c. These new models could prove to have the best PDA screens in existence. The built-in applications are a mixed bag. They include an appointment calendar, word processor, spreadsheet, multifunction calculator, Solitaire-style game, and customizable database that doubles as an address book. The latter is great if you want to design a database, but as an address book it's severely limited. The appointment calendar, on the other hand, is terrific, sporting graphical views and even an anniversary calendar. The unit's spreadsheet capabilities are admirably robust, and the word processor features everything from a spell-checker and thesaurus to styles and outlines. Moreover, there's a giant catalog of shareware available on Compuserve, so the Series 3a isn't limited to what's installed. Commercial applications are available too, including Symantec Act!, Microsoft Automap, and Berlitz phrase books.

The Series 3a has two Type II PC Card slots. Unfortunately, they're only compatible with memory-expansion cards. It does have communications options: a 2.4Kbps fax/modem ($299) and connectivity bundles for Windows and the Macintosh (optional). With PsiWin (or MacLink), you can establish a serial connection and transfer files to and from your PC. Admirably, the Series 3a's word processing and spreadsheet files are compatible with many desktop applications.

The optional fax/modem is, of course, too slow for anything but short transmissions. You'll probably want to skip Psion's $149 PsiMail software, which only works with cc:Mail and Microsoft Mail. Instead, there's a shareware utility available that provides access to CompuServe.

If word processing tops your list of road chores, the Psion Series 3a is superbly equipped for it. Buy Act! to replace the mediocre address book, and you'll have a fine traveling companion.