Useful Laptop/PDA Hybrid

Alphasmart's $399 Dana is an affordable and lightweight laptop alternative: A miniportable with a full-size keyboard, it runs on Palm OS 4.1 and can store 8MB of data or programs, and even more with cards in its two built-in Secure Digital slots.

Think of this unique 2-pound hybrid as a handheld on steroids, combining the convenience of a Palm with some of the power and features of a notebook. Its 560-by-160-pixel touch screen is 7.5 by 2.25 inches (3.5 times larger than most handhelds') and displays 11 lines of 12-point text. That was more than enough to use the included, full-featured AlphaWord word processing program or QuickSheet spreadsheet package. The slightly raised gray-scale LCD screen--which can be backlit--also rotates from landscape to portrait format to show 42 much shorter lines.

The preproduction model I tried out operated for more than 20 hours with its rechargeable battery pack. And if you don't bring the unit's AC adapter along, you also may use three AAA batteries.

AlphaWord and the basic Palm apps (Date, Address, To Do, and Memo) are tweaked to handle the Dana's entire screen; any other Palm apps you may use fit into a smaller 160-by-160-pixel Palm-style screen that you can call up on the Dana's larger display.

I found syncing data between the Dana and my PC a one-button snap with the included USB 1.1 cable. One of the Dana's most distinctive features is its ability to act as the PC's keyboard when the two are connected. Even more convenient is its ability to pour the text contents of Dana documents directly into any productivity application currently open on the PC.