Hand-sized and lots of fun (Psion Series 3c)

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Product:	Psion Series 3c
Date:	08/09/00 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The right size, excellent battery life and everything you need

Disadvantages: Could be a bit faster

I got my Psion 3C a few years ago when they were the best Psion available in the UK, and I haven`t regretted it for a moment, even when newer models have come out.

It is small, just small enough to fit into an average pocket in a jacket or coat, and certainly in any reasonable bag you might have for work. It is almost indestructible - don`t try this at home but mine has survived being driopped down the stairs, in the washing up bowl and even an attack by a psychotic parrot - and the case is still as good as new.

The battery life is amazing - I get upset if I get less than 20 hours use out of it for a set of 2 cheap and nasty AA batteries - I`ve hit more than 40 hours with a decent set of batteries. The only problem with the batteries is if you get the Psi-Win connection cable and software then you need to bear in mind that the Psion powers the cable. This can reduce the battery life to 2 hours or less even with a good set of batteries, so use a mains adaptor.

Apart from that tiny failing, I adore everything else about my Psion. I adore the fact that I can get free software off the internet and send it over in seconds, I adore the fact that I can sit in university playing games when I should be paying attention to my lecturer, I even adore the fact that it isn`t the most beautiful looking machine in the world. Don`t get me wrong - the design isn`t ugly, but it does loom a tiny bit dated.

One thing you should bear in mind with buying a 3C, rather than one of the newser faster (and more expensive) models is that it can be a tiny bit on the slow side. It works well enough but if you are doing complicated data evaluation with the spreadsheet you might end up spending a lot of time sitting around waiting for it to finish. Also remember that it only has 2 megs of RAM, so you won`t be able to use it to carry huge files around with you. You can easily fit a book or two into it`s memory along with a few other extra aplications or ga
mes, but you won`t be able to use it to work on your 20meg data set from a university experiment.

All in all this could be exactly what you want - it`s relatively cheap because it has been supersceded by newer models, but if it is good enough for what you need then you will never regret this buying decision.

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