Psion 5

7owners with an opinion

50%of verdicts positive

2/1positive/negative since 2024

0happy after 3+ years

Praised for comfort and performance; criticized for ease of use and portability.

Where people moved

Left this for

Palm V1

Came here from

Psion 3a1

What people wrote

Likes it

I just bought NOS Gemini! I tried some of the Windows CE Pocket PCs like the Journada and the Psion 5 line in the mid-2000s but CE was too limiting, the Psions were better. The Planet Computer devices have kinda been the fulfillment of that 20y dream. I haven't had time to install Linux on the Gemini yet but it's fun. Not sure it would replace my main phone though.

Doesn’t like it

I had a Psion 3a - it fit in my back pocket and was strong enough it didn't break when I sat on it. I carried it everywhere and used it as my main device for taking notes in meetings - the combination of form factor and a usable keyboard was great. Then I lost it and got a Psion 5 as a replacement. Despite the keyboard and software being way better, it was just that little bit larger and heavier so that I didn't carry it everywhere. It lived in my bag, not my pocket, so in the end I used it less. So I switched to a Palm V, which was a wonderful light form factor and looked fabulous, but I found I didn't really use it at all, except as an address book. The lack of a physical keyboard made it basically useless for my main purpose. In the end, I ended up with an ultra-lightweight Sony Vaio PCG-505 laptop, ran FreeBSD on it, added a Ricochet radio modem, and never looked back. Even 27 years later, I still think the PCG-505 form factor looks good, and at 1.3kg it weighed the same as today's lightest Macbook Air.

Likes it

I had "just" a Psion 5, but I still think the keyboard was better than many of todays small notebooks. I had even Doom on it (to slow, buts still). I used mostly the spreadsheet app for all kind of things. The biggest miss was difficult to get access to a network for email or so.

Likes it

Not to overly denigrate some of the more pessimistic reply here, I have to say that my Gemini was easily one of the best computers (not just phone) I ever had. The keyboard was fantastic (better than the much larger GPD Pocket 1 that I also got at the same time), and with a fully-fleshed out termux install, I ended up coding on that thing far more than I probably should have. Yes, Planet Computers have a very poor record on delivering machines (still waiting for my Astro Slide), but the hardware, when done right (Planet again are poor when it comes to QA, which might explain some of the other responses), is great. I think the keyboard designer (who also did the original Psuon 5 keyboards, back in the day - I had one of those also), is really an idiot for letting his design be run into the ground by the sheer business incomptence that is Planet Computers. He should team up with a company that CAN deliver, then more could see that the great Psion5 isn't really dead

Neutral

Can confirm, as my first Psion was the Paion II, a calculator formfactor device with full keyboard and OPL programming language. My later Psion 5 ended up spending most of its time running a zx spectrum emulator - go figure :-)

Likes it

I had a Psion 5, an amazing device. It had the same apps as the 3, if I remember correctly. The keyboard was astoundingly good. The keys, if larger, would make an excellent normal keyboard. What I really loved about the 5 was that it could run Java. I think it never got past JDK 1.0.2, or maybe 1.1. But it was clunky to use. I wrote a little shell for it, which provided basic functionality, including much simpler compiling and execution of java code. ( http://geophile.com/jshell . It should still run, except that it relies on an obsolete parser.)

Doesn’t like it

I recently bought an Psion 5 off of ebay -- I've never had one before. The one thing I can't really get over is how awful the screen is -- the reviews online seem to indicate that mine isn't unique in this regard. Hard to see in anything but perfect lighting. The keyboard is pretty good although not as good as I would have expected given the ravings about it. I should probably open it up and re-enforce the cable but I'm a bit afraid of messing it up in the attempt.

Doesn’t like it

But it's just not how most people work. If you want to do something useful a MacBook Air, Windows eqv, or even just a Chromebook is hugely more productive. The keyboard is full sized, the screen is bigger, it's fast enough for Office (etc) and browsing, it has more memory, and it's not all that much heavier. If you just want to read and send text, any phone will do. And it won't have the annoying slow update on e-ink display. (Have you tried typing on one?) The Psions were nice toys, but not a lot more than that. I had a 5 and the build quality wasn't great. The pointer clip inside the body broke fairly quickly, and the covering on the device itself started peeling off. The folding action was very clever and the software was decent enough. But I'm not sure I ever used it for anything except occasional notes and some basic spreadsheeting. Its appeal was that it looked like a serious business-y microlaptop. That was impressive when real laptops were still blocky, thick, and very heavy. Now that they're not, it doesn't really have a use case.

Likes itDoesn’t say they own it

I had the fortune of being in one of the launch markets for Ricochet, which tried to sell a wireless modem back in the days of the Psion 5 and before GPRS was really a thing. The modem had I found the highest mAh rechargeable batteries so I could use the internet in cafes. Never really got it to be a daily use device. But that is still one of my favorite keyboard designs ever. The double hinge on the clamshell was really cool.