What makes Psion Series 5 stand out from the competition?
OK, first the boring stuff. Psion has been doing this longer than anyone, its palmtops dominate the worldwide market, and it has the best designers of any portable PC company (it’s the Apple of the palmtop world – Apple before it fucked everything up, that is). The new Series 5 machine has the largest, highest-definition screen on the market; a proper keyboard instead of one of these stupid little button things (the keyboard itself is bloody revolutionary, and the machine has a stylus, too); and a built-in digital dictaphone – a proper one, with buttons on the outside of the case; and a full range of accessories (modems, printers, et cetera).
But what's really cool is that the Series 5 runs on a StrongARM chip, developed jointly by ARM of Cambridge, England, and Digital Semiconductor. Have you heard about this? It's what’s inside Oracle's network computer. The chip is amazingly fast, and Psion has written a new operating system for it that comes ready with full Windows/Mac translation software. The chip will also be used in mobile phones and other intelligent consumer gadgets. In fact, because Psion also owns modem maker Dacom, the company is busy working out extremely cool new data transfer protocols that will have a serious impact on mobile communications. So, as well as being the best piece of kit on the market, the new Psion palmtop stands at the center of all this.
Told you it was good. As you might have guessed, I already use a Psion 3, which I think is fantastic. But this new one is unbelievable.
Psion Series 5: US$599 for 4-Mbyte version, $699 for 8-Mbyte version. Psion: (800) 997 7466, +1 (508) 371 0310.
This article originally appeared in the October issue of Wired magazine.
