REVIEW - PSION 5

by Earl Dallas: earl@dallas.freeserve.co.uk

COMPUTING ON THE MOVE

There are many reasons why someone might want a portable computer. Maybe you do a large mount of travelling or have to use a computer in more than one location. Whatever the reason a fully IBM compatible portable laptop capable of running the applications that you have on your desktop machine is the obvious choice, although such machines have several disadvantages. Modern laptops may seem light when you lift them up for a few seconds in the show room, but after carrying them around for several hours even the smallest laptop can be a strain to lug around. Laptops are not as small as they first appear. Even the modern super compact models are bulky once you add all the accessories swap-able drives, spare batteries, power supplies and cables. This lot usually fills a good sized bag. Other disadvantages are high purchase price and short battery life. The manufactures do their best but you are not going to get 8 hours work done on a portable with a large colour screen, hard disk and stereo sound, all driven by a Pentium class processor.

THE SMALLER ALTERNATIVE

An alternative to a laptop is to go for a palm top computer. There will obviously be compromises. On the positive side you will get a much smaller machine, that costs less and will be usable for longer on its batteries. Disadvantages include a small and possibly cramped screen and keyboard and you will not be able to run your favourite applications. The programs that you get with the machine will not be as powerful as the full blown application that you have on your desktop.

Once you have decided to go for a palmtop computer most peoples natural instinct will be to go for a Windows CE machine, to avoid having to learn how to use another computer. This is partially true as the software on a Windows CE palmtop screen looks very similar to a desktop PC. However, once you look past the surface you will see that all the CE applications are very limited . They bear little resemblance to the full desktop versions of the software once you get past the very basic functions. I spent some time in a high street shop comparing a Windows CE machine with the Psion and the Psion had more applications. Even where both machines had similar applications the Psion's had more features.

This review will cover the Psion series 5. I picked up an 8 Mb model in a sale. This model has now been superseded by the MX version, although 4 and 8 Mb Psion 5s can be purchased second hand from Computer Exchange (www.cex.co.uk). The MX model specification is equal or better than the model reviewed here. I will give specific details later.

WHAT IS IN THE BOX

Within the box you get the Psion 5 computer with its integral stylus and a serial cable that allows direct connection to a desk top computer. Also contained within the box is a 206 page spiral bound 'User Guide' and a multilingual PsiWin2 'Getting Started' guide. PsiWin is a piece of software that allows all files generated by the Psion to be converted to various PC file formats. The Psion software is contained on a CD-ROM. This CD-ROM also contains various OPL (Psion's built in programming language) documents in Adobe Acrobat format. The documents contained on the CD-ROM are sufficient to enable any one who has some programming knowledge to generate programs using the OPL language. Also contained on the CD are various pieces or trial software, utilities and a Windows movie that illustrates the Psion's major features. The final item on the CD-ROM is an Internet browser and e-mail program known as Message Suite. This application can be downloaded and installed onto the Psion via PsiWin and the serial cable.

ESSENTIAL ITEMS

One essential item that I would recommend to anyone who has a Psion is a case of some type. Leather cases are available from various manufactures and cost about £20 to £30. The case will protect the Psion and prevent the rubberised surface coating from being damaged. The second essential item is a set of four nickel metal hydride (NMHi) batteries and a mains charger. See the power management section of this review.

SPECIFICATION

The basic specification of the Psion is given below. The Psion 5 MX specification is given in brackets where it is different from the basic version.

Size	172 x 89 x 24 mm
Weight	350g
Screen	(640x240) touch sensitive screen
ROM	6 Mb
RAM	4 or 8 Mb (16Mb)
Disk drive	Flash memory drive (4, 10 and 20Mb sizes available)
Processor	32 bit ARM 710 core 18.432 MHz (36 MHz)
Sound	1/4W, 8 ohm, Microphone
Power	2xAA (Alkaline batteries give approximately 35 hours, without back light). Backup battery CR2032) Optional mains adapter
Keyboard	53 QWERTY layout
Communications	RS232 serial link, up to 115200 baud IrDA SIR optical link for infra red communication

 

POWER AND POWER MANAGEMENT

The Psion is powered by two AA 1.5V batteries and uses a CR2032 lithium button battery to maintain memory while the main batteries are changed. A mains adapter can be used but this must be purchased separately at around £15. I have been using my Psion for several months and have found no need to use a mains adapter. I began by using alkaline AA batteries. Under my work load I found that these batteries lasted between one and two weeks. I now use rechargeable nickel metal hydride (NMHi) batteries. You can get four NMHi batteries and a mains charger for around £20. This allows two batteries to be in used in the Psion and two to be recharged and ready to replace the two in the Psion when required. I find that the NMHi rechargeable batteries rundown much more quickly than the alkaline batteries. The NMHi will go from its normal full voltage to a low voltage in a very short time so you should always have a charged set of batteries ready to replace the current ones. The Psion has the best power management that I have seen on any portable equipment. It not only tells you whether the main or backup batteries are good but you are also informed of the current battery voltage, (for both main and backup batteries), and even the immediate and average current consumption. You are also told the amount of time the present and previous batteries have been used and the amount of charge consumed from the current battery.

SCREEN

The LCD screen's physical size is 134 x 50 mm and has a resolution of 640x240 with 16 grey levels. The screen is touch sensitive and all software within the Psion can be driven using the built-in pen or via the keyboard. Surprisingly, once you get used to the Psion it is easier and more convenient to use the keyboard rather than the pen, except when using the sketch application. The screen has a back light that is green in colour, works well and allows the Psion to be used in low light environments. The only time I had difficulty viewing the screen was under very bright direct sunlight. The only disadvantage to using the back light is that the power consumption of the Psion goes up considerably. The Psion consumes 41mA when the back light is off and 139mA when the back light is on. You can see that three times as much power is consumed, which means that your batteries will last 1/3 of the time that they would last if you did not use the back light.

KEYBOARD

The 53 key keyboard is arranged in the standard QWERTY layout. The keys are a good size and have a reasonable amount of movement, so it is possible to achieve a good typing speed using the keyboard. The key repeat speed and audible key click volume can be adjusted within the Psion's control panel. When the Psion is opened the keyboard slides out 2 cm. past the edge of the machine. That puts the keyboard and screen in a good operating position and also makes the computer very stable when in use. Because there are only 53 keys many non alphanumeric characters have to be accessed by using a function key. Having to use a function key slows down typing since you have to press another key to access a character. As well as the main keyboard the Psion also has three keys that can be accessed when the Psion is closed. These keys are primarily used within the sound recorder application although pressing any one of these keys will silence an alarm. These three keys are accessed by sliding back a small cover, which prevents the keys being pressed accidentally. The Psion is provided with a pen that is designed to be used as the screen pointer, although it is possible to use a finger or any other item that is not too sharp. (Sharp objects will damage the screen). The pen is stowed inside a hole in the side of the Psion.

MEMORY

All of the Psion's applications are stored within the 6 Mb of ROM. The 8 Mb of RAM is used by the system but most is available for user files. Unless a flash card is fitted into the drive bay this is the only medium where data is stored, so the Psion should be backed up to a desktop computer regularly. As soon as the main batteries run down they should be replaced to prevent data loss.

SERIAL LINK

The Psion has a high speed serial link. The port is accessed by sliding a cover on the rear of the unit to reveal a miniature flat connector. The supplied cable connects to this miniature connector. The other end of the supplied cable is terminated in a 9 way D-type connector that can connect directly to a 9 way serial port on a desktop computer. The serial link can also be accessed via the built in infra-red port. This port can be used to send or receive data like the cable serial link, although since I do not have any equipment that can communicate via infra-red I cannot comment on the performance of this feature.

PC COMPATIBILITY

Compatibility is provided at a basic level by some of the applications within the Psion having the ability to import and export files as raw text. The main method of achieving PC compatibility is to use PsiWin. PsiWin is extremely easy to use. Once installed a "My Psion" icon appears on the desktop and this operates in the same manner as the "My Computer" icon. When the "My Psion" icon is opened a window is displayed allowing all files within the Psion to be accessed. Converting a file from Psion to PC or vice versa simply involves dragging the required file to or from the "My Psion" window. The Psion file will be converted automatically. When moving a file to a PC you are given various options as to what file format you wish the Psion file to be converted.

Specifically the following file formats are available:

Graphics files	BMP
Word processor files	Ami Pro; Rich text format; text; Works for Windows; WordPerfect; Word for Windows
Spreadsheet files	Lotus 123; Microsoft Excel; Quattro Pro; Works for windows
Data base files	CSV, Access, dBase, FoxPro

Apart from moving and converting files the other major features of PsiWin are backup and the ability to install specially written programs onto the Psion from a PC. Backup allows all data within the Psion to be backed up to a PC's hard disk, so in the event of a complete power failure or accidental deletion of a file the data can be restored.

OPL (BUILT IN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE)

Anyone who has had any programming experience should not have too much trouble using OPL, which is very similar to modern versions of BASIC. Functions are provided to allow graphics and menus to be controlled, but it is quite easy to ignore these advanced functions and just use the simple commands to create programs. For example, the one feature missing from the Psion's scientific calculator is number conversions. I used OPL to create a program to convert base 10 numbers to base 16 quite easily, just using the documentation supplied on the PsiWin CD-ROM to guide me though the program creation procedure and OPL programming syntax.

 BUILT IN APPLICATIONS

Each application available on the Psion 5 is listed below together with its major features, to give you some idea of the software's capabilities.

Word (Word processor)

Features include:

Application password protection
Import / export of text files
Undo / Redo
Insertion of: sketches, graphs, word processor file, database record, spreadsheet, special characters
Text adjustment: bold, italic, underline, font selection, font size from 4 to 50 point
Control of line spacing, text alignment, borders, bullets, tab positions and indents
Multiple zoom levels and tool bar control

Tools include:

View preferences adjustment
Spell check
Word count

Sketch (Graphics application)

Features include:

Undo / Redo
Multiple zoom control
Tool bar and cursor type control
Colour (grey scales) control
Flip and rotate

Tools include:

Re-size and crop
Insert text and clip art
Drawing and palette tools

Sheet (Spreadsheet application)

Features include:

Application password protection

Undo / Redo
Multiple zoom
Tool bar control
Format control of: fonts, numbers, alignment borders, shading, row height and column width
Preferences including grid view and auto recalculation

Tools include:

Recalculate now
Protection

Data (Database application)

Feature include:

Import and export as text file with control of text qualifier, label separator and entry separator
Undo / Redo
Multiple zoom
Audio dial for phone number records
Database field order control
Sort by label, (ascending or descending), up to three labels

Agenda (Organiser application)

Feature include:

Multiple zoom
Multiple views
Day, week, year planner
Anniversary list
To Do list
Calendar
Entry preferences configurable uniquely for day, event, to-do and anniversary

Program (OPL built in programming language)

General features are:

Import / export as text
Undo / Redo
Insert special character
Multiple zoom levels
Font and indentation control
Editor view preferences
Show last error

Comms (Terminal program)

General features are:

Load / save settings
Clear screen
Multiple zoom
Script control and syntax check
Transfer; send and receive file, using XModem, Ymodem batch or ASCII
Terminal emulation; VT100 or TTY
Character height and width control
Control of all serial port parameters
Link selection: RS232, cable or infra red

Record (Audio record feature)

General features:

Record modes: record & append or record & replace
Sound edit modes: erase all, crop
Repeat sound
Goto time

Calc (Scientific calculator application)

Main features:

Copy result
Number formats: Normal, fixed or scientific
Angle formats: Degrees, radians or gradients
Calculator mode: Scientific or desk (including result printout)

Time (Clock and alarm application)

Main features:

Change alarm details (Up to 8 alarms)
Occurrence: Once only, next 24 hours, daily, weekly, workdays (definable)
Alarm Sound: 6 different plus user recorded sound or silent alarm (flashing light)
Prevent audio alarms from sounding for a period of time
Define date and time formats

Spell (Spell check application)

Main features:

Personal dictionary: add or delete word and show contents
Multiple zoom
History list
Tools: anagrams, crossword and thesaurus

Other programs

Bombs, a game similar to Windows Minesweeper

The Control Panel

The following can be configured:

Date and time
Password definition and when and how often the password must be entered, (never, at switch on or once per day)
Switch on / off: when screen touched, when case opened or closed, auto switch off (time configurable)
Screen contrast level and back light idle switch off time
Keyboard repeat delay
Sound: beeps, key clicks and screen clicks volume level adjustment
Add and remove programs
Printer; via PC when linked with PsiWin, or specific printer (6 printers listed and general printer driver, including dot matrix, ink jet and laser)
Audio dialling timing settings
International setting for time, date, numbers, currency and units of distance

The Psion 5 MX can be purchased from any high street computer store and many mail order outlets. You can expect to pay between £380-£420. If you want a second hand unit you should check Micro Mart magazine or Computer Exchange. An alternative is the Oregon scientific Osaris Epoc 4 Mb hand held computer. This machine has a similar specification and operating system to the Psion except it has a smaller screen, only 4 Mb of RAM and no pop out keyboard. It is available for £199 from Argos and other high street shops.

  

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