The dependable companion (Philips Nino 300)

Member Name: AaronJB

Product:	Philips Nino 300
Date:	25/10/00 (404 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Robust, good range of software, battery life

Disadvantages: Size, mono screen, limited memory

I've owned my Nino since they first came out - in fact I paid full price for it at the time (near enough £500), with it replacing a Psion 3c as my PDA.

My only gripes with it are that the memory is a little small for heavy duty work - although it had the largest amount of memory at the time of release - 8Mb would have been better than 4Mb, and the fact that if you let both the main batteries & backup battery run *almost* flat - it has a tendency to crash. Other than those caveats, it has been a very stable little Windows CE device.

The built in applications are the standard Microsoft affairs, but lacking IE - since IE for CE only comes designed for machines with a keyboard, good free-text recognition software, as well as T9 Predictive text input (the same as the new Nokia mobile phones), and it's own character set - similar to the PalmPilots system, all three input methods lend themselves to relatively speedy text input - which is a godsend with a total lack of keyboard. It also comes with voice recognition software (which works well, after a little training), and a voice-memo recorder.

The Nino synchornises seamlessly with the desktop PC - although the original version of the Windows CE connection software was a little unstable, that's all fixed now - allowing you to synchronise messages from Outlook, appointments, contacts, and Web-channels between the two devices.

The construction is robust - mine has seen a few trips onto the floor - and the screen is tough and scratch resistant, and works well with the supplied stylus, or even your finger if you're just clicking buttons.

All in all - a highly reccommended PDA, that won't let you down in a hurry.

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