Old and broke ... no not me my Psion (Psion Series 3c)

Member Name: Plymyphil

Product:	Psion Series 3c
Date:	12/01/04 (161 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Battery life

Disadvantages: Nasty, No touch screen

So, here's a trip down memory lane. I saw this product listed and thought I would share a slightly historical perspective on this no longer available early player in the PDA market.

I have a hand in bringing technology into schools and have to walk a fine line. On the one hand we don't want to buy untested cutting edge technology only to find we struggle to put it to good use in educating our young folk. On the other hand, new technology tends to be exciting and motivating in itself and conversely buying redundant clunky technology has a demotivating effect and is generally rejected.

So, onto a review of technology that has been in school and gathering dust for about seven years now.

First of all the 'why?'.
In a survey of use we found that many laptops and indeed desktops in schools seven years ago were being used to enter and manipulate text. This seemed expensive as a tool and we looked at alternatives. One of those we trialled and reported on into national computer press was the Psion 3c.

Now, compared to some of the other devices at the time this was relatively versatile. It could handle databases and spreadsheets as well as text and had the ability to function as a PDA using the diary function.

There were at the time many positive points about the 3c.

THE COST
Then, it cost just under £200.00. This made excellent value for money when put alongside the cost of a PC.

THE PORTABILITY
This is a tiny device and compared to many other similar devices of the time reasonably robust. (These bounce when dropped - a Revo for example explodes into a million pieces when dropped.) Working on AA batteries made operation simple and the batteries went on and on. A massive jump from the power problems of laptops seven years ago.

So, why are they broke - what has gone wrong. Well, 'broke' here refers to the usability as much as the physical aspect. Most of these will fire
up and work, a couple have died but they are the exception in a bunch of about thirty.

The connectivity of these machines was poor at the time and is now worse. There is no infra-red which is the key for these small devices and no docking stations. The supplied 'com' lead now connects to a port that doesn't exist and I know adaptors can be found but read on as these have really had there short and unhappy day.

They had one big pull over other similar machines which was the keyboard. Although small it was reasonable and had a nice feel compared to similarly priced products.

The key downfall for useability with the 3c was and still is the screen. You see, it is not pen driven. Similar age machines that have pen driven screens and allow menus to be selected by touch have lasted well and do still get used. Without the touch screen this is like giving a PC with MS DOS and no Windows to the modern day man. A combination of buttons can bring up menus and the funtion key is heavily used in this respect. No pen, no touch screen, really significantly affected the useability.

The software was great. I loved it and many others like me flocked to Psion and enjoyed the bundled office software. However, it soon became apparant that life could be easier. Those who were purchasing the Windows CE devices at the time were having a significantly better experience when moving files around. (Granted the machines were crashing more frequently but file transfer was seemless.) Psion needed users then to purchase additional software, PsiWin, to transfer files. This software wasn't cheap either at about £50.00 for each user. Later they had the foresight to bundle the software but to be honest it was too little too late by then.

OVERALL
This is a history lesson. You can't buy these machines now and you won't even see Psion operating as a company much in Europe. The machines could be picked up now for just a few pounds at
a boot fair but really, unless you collect these as memorabilia, don't bother. Psion still shifts hardware in fairly significant numbers in Asia and actually got awarded a contract to deliver Psion 7s (big brother more akin to a laptop than a PDA) to every child in Malaysia - one to one access but not with a PC - I do struggle to understand the logic of the decision makers there.

Psion have made better machines and although the Revo corrected many of the faults of the 3c it was still very poor, as I mentioned, exploding on dropping. The Series 5, particulary the 5Mx was my Psion of choice and with infra-red data transfer and the PsiWin software bundled made for a good choice. If I could get hold of one cheaply now I would probably still run a Series 5 Psion. The 3c though, emotionally if not physically ... these are broke for me and have been for a long time.

Thanks for taking the time and trouble to read this opinion and I look forward to reading your comments.

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