Psion Series 5 PDA

I owned one of these back in 1997 when they were new. I had a laptop, but hated bringing it to classes to take notes. And in '97, laptops weren't known for their great battery lives...

So shopping around for something smaller, I found PLENTY of devices that fit the bill. '97 to about '02 were the "hay days" of pocket PC's. So many choices. Problem was, many of them had the "hunt and peck chicklet keys" which were a pain to use for long(er) writing. That's when I found the Psion Series 5. I got to play around with it at Office Depot and after two minutes, I knew this was "THE" HPC I was looking for.

It's got a nearly full size keyboard that slides out, a nice big screen and most importantly, SUPER battery life. I can last nearly a month on a single set of double A batteries! Perfect for the student on the go.

Now, despite it being a fantastic device, it does have its short comings. Most notably, is the screen glare. It's hard to get the screen in an area where light won't reflect off the screen. Even with the back light on, it doesn't help much. Now the screen is crisp and clear, it's just way to prone to glare.

Second short coming is the VGA cable. After an X amount of "Open and Closes", the VGA cable "could" wear out. Luckily, I've not had this problem. (Yet.) This is a design flaw, but as far as I've come to read, it doesn't effect every Psion S5 machine.

But overall, it's an excellent palm top. The software is great and I'd say rivals many of their desktop brothers, even in 2010! Battery life is super, great screen (despite the glare) and most importantly to me, the GREAT keyboard!

10/10 from me, wish Psion was still in the hardware game!

Excellent item, wonderfull to use, so easy and light to carry. I have already made 2 fan fiction stories on it whilst on breaks or at friends. And the fun never seems to end as there are loads of programs to make for it and download. All in all i think this product will come back into style. my dislikes are the battery cover is a pain to close also the stylus, the plastic part on the end is broken off so i have to get a new one but thats all. my ratings :

key * = star max.5 stars

looks ****
ease of use *****
weight ****

wonderfull item

ive had a 3c before so I am delighted with my 5 series looking foreword to inputting my data. I personally think PSION are still an up to date product that a lot of other pda makers could learn from.

A multitasking computer. Spreadsheet, database, ir link to phone to enable email, graphics and basic FTP/ complex word processing. This is a great machine for people who want to do the basic things quickly and easily. I get just over 30 hrs out of 2 duracells. Typing is fairly easy and there are lot
S of good software on the net or on eBay for it. Expansion through cf cards make it easy to transfer files to my pc.
If you can get a better computer that is as easy to use and as fully featured as this for under £10, I want to know about it!

I can understand why these vintage machines were so popular. They included a very comprehensive suite of software and an intuitive 'Windows-like' operating system. Couldn't be easier to learn or use. Only drawback is rather dim mono screen and poor connectivity. But hey... for the price it's just excellent!