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HP Palmtop PC Screen Makes Others Look Green

Palmtop PC is first to feature backlit notebook-style screen; plus new handhelds from Casio, Sharp.

By PC World staff   

No longer. Hewlett-Packard%squots new Windows CE 2.0 handheld, the 620LX Palmtop PC, is the first to sport a notebook-style backlit color screen. Legible in any lighting environment, it represents a huge improvement over the sickly green monochrome displays of most handheld PCs. Two other new arrivals, Casio%squots Cassiopeia A-20 and Sharp%squots Mobilon HC-4100, don%squott stack up as well.

The $899 HP 620LX sports a better-than-average keyboard and a very generous 16MB of RAM. But the price you pay for the 620LX%squots splendid screen is limited battery life--about 4 hours in the shipping version I tested, versus the usual 10 or more for monochrome handhelds. And because of its proprietary battery pack, you can%squott just pop in fresh AA batteries; you must recharge the battery with the included AC adapter.

The 620LX faces competition from one other color-screen Windows CE 2.0 palmtop, Sharp%squots $999 Mobilon HC-4500. That product wasn%squott available in time for this review, but I did get my hands on a shipping Mobilon HC-4100, a similar $699 model with 12MB of RAM, a built-in 33.6-kilobits-per-second modem, and a typically dim monochrome screen.

The most intriguing thing about either Mobilon is Sharp%squots optional $399 digital camera PC Card. Plug it in and the palmtop becomes a serviceable digital camera that can download good-quality color photos to your PC.

The least expensive of these three Windows CE 2.0 units, Casio%squots $599 Cassiopeia A-20, has 8MB of RAM and no gee-whiz features like a color screen, camera option, or built-in modem. The shipping unit I tested had the weakest keyboard of the three, a mushy design that led to lots of typos.

For the complete story, see Harry McCracken%squots %dquotHP Palmtop Screen Makes Others Look Green%dquot in April%squots PC World magazine.