Power in your palm - HP 200LX, Sharp Wizard OZ-9520FX - Hardware Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, Jan, 1995 by Jonathan Karl Matzkin

Rating: *** 1/2

Hewlett-Packard 200LX

List Price: $549

Average Street Price: $460

Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard, (503) 715-2004, (800) 443-1254

Rating: *** 1/2

Sharp Wizard OZ-O520FX

List Price: $750

Average Street Price: $499

Manufacturer: Sharp, (201) 529-8200, (800) 237-4277

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) such as Apple's Newton have been all but a complete bust. This doesn't mean that other handheld computers haven't found some measure of success, however.

Two cases in point are palmtop computer offerings from Sharp and Hewlett-Packard. These pocket-size systems offer many of the Newton's PDA capabilities but ignore notready-for-prime-time features such as handwriting recognition.

Sharp's Wizard, from its humble electronic organizer beginnings, has evolved into a surprisingly capable telecommunicator. Actually, it's a little misleading to refer to Sharp's OZ9520FX as a new model; it's really just the OZ-9520 Wizard bundled with Sharp's recently introduced CEFM4 fax/modem (sold separately for $180). But the combination is far more than the sum of its parts.

Attaching and removing the 9,600 bps fax/2,400 bps data modem takes just seconds, and it's light enough to remain attached to the Wizard all the time. That means you can instantly take advantage of the fax and telecom capabilities that have always been built into the Wizard's software. The Wizard lets you fax text files directly from the word processor or send freehand drawings or handwritten notes from the Scrapbook application.

You can also assemble assorted documents--notes, memos, drawings, address book records, and so on--in a folder and fax the entire thing in a single operation. The fax functions are worked intelligently into the Wizard's graphical interface; simply select a document, then tap the Fax Send icon with the Wizard's pen. The moalem also works with the Wizard's built-in terminal software, which lets you access online and e-mail services.

On the downside, the Wizard's proprietary software limits the range of documents it can handle. There is virtually no compatibility with file formats other than ASCII text, and the Wizard's modest memory and storage resources, though expandable to a degree, rule out big files.

Like the newest Wizard, the HP 200LX builds on pre-existing strengths. And new features enhance the HP's desktop connectivity and personal productivity applications. The DOSbased LX palmtops have always had the advantage of compatibility with millions of desktop DOS and Windows PCs. But the addition of the venerable LapLink Remote software to the 200LX makes that relationship much cozier.

You can connect the HP 200LX to your DOS or Windows system and use the palmtop as a local drive. Under File Manager on your desktop system, the palmtop's drive appears simply as an additional drive letter that you open and work with as needed.

LapLink Remote simplifies HP 200LX file management, but the process gets even easier with Extended System's wireless model JetEye PC ESI 9610A infrared transceiver ($135 ). The transceiver allows you to exchange files between the HP 200LX and a DOS or Windows system via LapLink Remote without a cable.

Once you have attached the JetEye PC ESI 9610A infrared unit to a serial port on the desktop computer, you simply aim the palmtop's infrared port at the 9610A transceiver, start LapLink on both machines, and you're ready to go.

The 200LX also offers a slimmed-down version of Intuit's popular Quicken personal finance software. Pocket Quicken offers the same basic account management as its full-scale counterpart as well as expense account tracking.

Though both the 200LX and the Wizard are palmtops, they are targeted toward different business audiences. If ease of use, light telecommunications, and personal information management functions are your primary needs, the Wizard will do the trick. On the other hand, Hewlett-Packard's 20 0LX, with its DOS and Windows compatibility, is more of a palmtop for the computer savvy. Both of these little systems prove that there's more to pocket-size computing than just PDAs.

Mighty Power Mac

Thought you'd need a Pentium to power up your CAD, multimedia or DTP applications? Think again, speed snobs. The new PowerMacintosh 8100/110 bests all PCs as the first mainstream personal computer to crack the 110MHz barrier. Apple backs the system's blazing

PowerPC 601 CPU with 16MB of memory, a gargantuan 2GB hard drive, as well as a double-speed CD-ROM drive--high-end features that justify its high-end price ($6,379). If you have a need for speed, check out Apple's latest. Apple Computer, (408) 996-1O1O, (80O) 538-9696.

Image Editing Is Everything

A sophisticated image editing package just reached a new peak. Adobe Systems's Photoshop 3.0 for Windows ($895) introduces features people have been clamoring for, including CMYK preview, so you can see your four-color separation results before converting the image; support for multiple layers-- with which you draw, edit, or apply special efffects to different layers of an image--and a Sponge tool, which lets you instantly saturate colors. Photoshop is designed to take advantage of Windows 95's 32-bit architecture and ships with a Deluxe CD-ROM that includes the Adobe Acrobat