The Original Laptop (Psion Series 3c)

Member Name: Donf18

Product:	Psion Series 3c
Date:	24/11/05 (196 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very portable and easy to use.

Disadvantages: Quite hard to find now.......but well worth the effort

Sadly My Psion is on it's last legs, the hinges where the screen flips up are broken............it still works great just needs a new body, a bit like myself.

My wife bought me my Psion Series 3 years ago, and I have used it continuously since then. The basic unit is 16.5cm * 2.2cm *8.5cm, which is a bit bigger than the PDA's going around just now. At it's heart is an NEC V30 7.7Mhz processor. I know what your thinking 7.7Mhz very slow. Well by today's standards it probably is but you wouldn't think it while using this little baby. It can be run using a power supply or by 2 AA batteries which last a decent amount of time.

Many games and Programs are available for the Psion, and they come on an SSD ( Solid State Disk) which simply plugs into one of the 2 available slots.They are still readily available which in itself is a terstament to the popularity and longevity of the Psion series.


The Word Processor is excellent and has a built in spell checker. The keyboard is very tactile but fat fingers could be a slight disadvantage in the spelling stakes. You can write many lengthy documents comfortably. The Psion has 1Mb of memory which can cope with a large quantity of info such as Word processor files, database files, and spreadsheet files.

It also has a Spreadsheet, which has all the basic functions and a few more.You can have a good few hundred rows and similar columns which means your Spreadsheets can be quite comprhensive.

The built in database, can hold several hundred records. I've used my database to keep track of all the videos/DVD's we have hired. We rate them out of ten just in case we wish to watch one again. We check the database to see if it got a high rating.The setting up of a database is very easy.

It has a neat little voice recorder for recording memo's to self. You can record lots of notes but they can only be a certain length which is determined by the memory which is available at the time of recording.

The world time program is a flat world map with the capitals and their times highlighted. You can set your home town and place it on the map.You can also find out the longditude and latitude of places using the map. And using this principle you can add any town if you know its latitude and longditude.

The agenda program is probably one of the most useful. You can set reminders, recall birthdays and anniversaries, dentist's appointments and the like. You can set alarms to remind you of that important 2.30 race at Doncaster etc.

It has a built in calculator as well which is really good, with more than just the basic functions.

There are a few games that come along with the system, patience being one, this game is very addictive and we play it quite often.

Finally there is a nice little program called OPL. This basic language computer program which you can make do lots of neat stuff. There is a computer language guide to help you write your own programs. I wrote one which is supposed to calculate the result of a horse race. A pin and a newspaper might have been more effective than my meagre effort.

The manual which comes with the Psion is quite comprehensive with the exception of the opl section, for this another manual which is easily bought is far more helpful.

When it eventually packs up I'm really going to miss my Psion, I've searched the NET and you can still get them on EBAY for about £40-£50, so I might just invest in one. You can buy new cases but I have not been successful in that venture yet.

All in all the Psion is a brilliant piece of kit................the ORIGINAL LAPTOP in your pocket

Summary: A superb piece of kit even in todays market.

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