Organisation Revo-lution (Psion Revo)

Member Name: pbyron

Product:	Psion Revo
Date:	14/05/02 (349 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, Great little organiser, Range of features

Disadvantages: No backlight, Limited expandability

I was happily wondering through Comet the other day (always something of a minefield for me as far as my wife is concerned) and happened to pass the manager’s specials desk. This magical desk contains items which are deemed discountable, usually due to them being end of line stock or simply returned or damaged goods.

My eyes fell upon one item in particular on this day, a white box with the word Psion printed on it and a picture of a sexy streamlined little organiser. It didn’t so much scream out to me as grab me by the throat and strangle me until I gave in to its tempting offer of organisation and functionality. Psion has always been a name I’ve trusted for quality since the days of those first organisers which, to me, always resembled the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy from the TV series. Their ability to create something that not only worked as a lovely organiser and diary, but had so many functions that you could use it for hours without getting bored. Needless to say, I grabbed the box and did my best puppy dog impression (which always works on my wife until the bills come a month later) then skipped out happily with my new toy, which I hoped would revolutionise my life.

After a quick read through the initial instructions I realised that I’d have to recharge it for about 6 hours before being able to play. This gave me no excuse to leave the manual and get straight to the machine, so I duly opened the thick tome that came in the box and read all of it. Well, the English section anyway. 6 hours passed by quickly, helped by beer and Saturday evening TV (Thanks Casualty) and it was soon time to open the lid on my lovely new machine.

Dimensions and looks
---------------------------
When closed the unit is about right for a large inside pocket. IT’s about 15.5cm long by 8cm wide and only about 0.5cm thick. If you are going to carry the little beast around then you should also i
nvest in one of the many wallets available in Comet, Currys or on the net. When you finally open the case, you are presented with a full QWERTY keyboard, such a cute one too. It really is a joy to use compared to a Visor’s separate keyboard or other clumsy contraptions provided on other handhelds. Above the keyboard is the screen. Would I go as far as describing it as sexy, you know, I just might! Lots of tiny icons are dotted around the outside, giving you options for Contacts, Agenda, Email, Phone, Time, Calculator, Jotter and Extras (and we will get on to the great Extras feature a little later).

The machine also comes with a docking station, which plugs into a PC’s serial port and acts as both a recharging unit and a link to backup and download data between the computer and the Revo. The Revo sits open on this station and a little red light shows when the unit is recharging.

Screen
--------
When on, the screen provides a sharp monochrome display. Unfortunately, it’s not backlit so all you bedtime users will have to keep that lamp on (I mean, who uses an organiser in the dark anyway?). A stylus is provided in a neat little slot at the back of the machine and can be used to point at the screen in an accusing manner until an option is clicked on. If you are used to using a mouse, it may seem a little strange at first, but you’ll soon wish you could use the same feature on your PC before long. Menus at the top will be a familiar sight to Mac users, but work in the same way as most Microsoft packages too, with File and other options presenting easy to use drop down boxes.


Programs
------------
Clicking on an option or icon on the screen itself will instantly take you to a program. Word is virtually like a cut down version of Microsoft Word, Sheet too is like Excel and anyone familiar with these products will be instantly drawn to their Psion counterparts. The Contact function allow
s for address and phone number storage and instant retrieval. It also has a nice little name search function. The agenda is wonderful, looking for all the world like a paper based organiser, right down to the ring binder effect! It will show a whole week per page and simply clicking on the corner of the page will turn it over. It also lets you jump straight to a date for easy reference.

World time is great if you need to know about time zones in different countries. Just press somewhere on the rough area and it will give you the time and place, great for geography lessons too (I admit that I didn’t know Chita was in Russia before I got this little Revo). The Calculator is just what you’d expect, as is the handy jotter for simple note-taking when in a hurry. Email and Phone dialling is amazingly included in this package and you can use the infra-red function to connect to many mobile phones to use a simple version of the internet on the move, or buy a portable modem as another solution. I haven’t tested these two functions out yet, but rest assured I will endeavour to try!

Extras
-------
As well as the functions listed above, there is a little section called Extras. This is where Word and Sheet are contained, but more than that, it’s also a fully customisable section which you will find invaluable given a PC net connection.

All over the net (in places like ZDNET and many others) you can find shareware and freeware which you can download to your Revo. Games, arcade and card based, New spreadsheets, Arabian scripts, Language Translators and many more fantastic items can be picked up for free and used on the Revo within minutes. The downloads are sent via the docking station and the software automatically handles this once told where to find the downloaded program.

Pretty soon you will have a fully customised machine, changing everything from the background to adding a startup sound. I
have a Spanish to English translator which I find invaluable and I’m looking a various shareware routefinder programs I’ve seen as well. Of course, you can always buy more professional (and therefore more expensive) products in many electrical shops and from Psion’s website. They have a lovely version of the European Autoroute and even games such as Vrally for the pretty little thing. It’s so flexible that you can even get a programming language to make your own software.

Shortfalls.
----------
I know what you’re thinking; ‘it can’t be THAT good, there must be something wrong with the machine, or the reviewer…’. Well, it does have several shortfalls, true. The battery is pretty much fixed in place and can only be replaced by Psion themselves, fine until they decide not to support it anymore. It should (so they say) last around 3 years with everyday use. As mentioned before, there is no backlight either on the screen, so be warned if you’re a miner or anyone else who works in dark places (FBI, perhaps?). Also, there are no removable memory or flash cards like the Revo’s older brothers in the Psion collection, but even the small 8 Megabytes should be enough for anyone, considering you can add and remove programs easily using the PC.

Does it get my whites whiter?
----------------------------------
In conclusion (damn, I sound like a student chemistry paper now) the machine is a wonderful little helper for anyone wishing to organise their life. It can do all the usual and much, much more including being used as a portable web browser. I paid £99 for mine at the time (about 6 months ago) because the box was slightly damaged, but expect to pay about that much for it new now. You may even find it cheaper on the internet, so look around.

I love my little Revo and would recommend it to anyone. Just be careful when you first find the Cascade game include
d with the machine, it’s addictive!

Summary: