Psion Series 3 3a

It's a superb portable writing tool, as was the Psion 5 in its day. The keyboard is better than anything available on any tablet or pocketable device in the world in any market. It's that good. No Surface or iPad addon comes even close; it is an order of magnitude better than any mainstream vendor's offering. I found it almost useless as a phone or tablet, though. But I have several of those so I don't care.

> an Acorn Pocket Book A rebadged Psion Series 3. https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/Computers/Pocket... 256 kB RAM. Psion 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3#Psion_Series_3 Important note: the pic at the top of the Wikipedia article shows the later, improved 3A with a much bigger screen. > the additional memory of the Psion 2 I do not understand this. The APB was a Psion (Series) 3. The Psion 2 (Organizer II) was an older, smaller device. The S3 and APB take memory cards: 2 slots onboard, for Psion SSDs ( NOT the modern usage of the term "SSD". See: https://pulster.de/Psion-Solid-State-Disk-SSD-memory-cards The Psion 3A had more memory. The 3C more still, and the 3MX more still. When you say "Psion 2" do you mean Acorn Pocket Book 2? http://superdecade.blogspot.com/2017/12/acorn-pocket-book-ii... That was a rebadged 3A, so with from 256kB to 1MB RAM as stock. Psion did a 2MB model, but Acorn didn't. As an owner of a 3 and 3A, the 3A was the usable version. The 3's screen was too small, and its storage meagre (but expandable, and I did.) The 3A was 2x the speed, a much bigger screen with better contrast (but no backlight) and versions with up to 2MB were available, which for this class of machine was a vast amount of storage you'd never fill. Thing 2TB for comparison now, plus 2 drive bays for more if you need it. A laptop with 6TB? That is plenty for almost anyone.

I had a 3a and found it more convenient to use than the heavy/bulky laptops of the day. My use cases were diary management, expenses, task tracking/todo, and short emails (via the add-on modem/mobile phone cable). The message app also allowed you to send SMS. The batteries seemed to last forever and being a standard size were available everywhere. I dont know if a "new psion" would sell in sufficient numbers. It's a device I find myself wondering about (along with a chocolate-bar sized version of the iphone (Nokia 6300 size)). I'd buy one of those for sure, for when I'm not working and need a phone, but dont want the full "slab" to carry around with me.

I loved my 3a - which followed my Nokia communicator, which replaced my cassiopeia, none of which I actually really used lol... The 3a held the most promise with it's built in basic language... looking back I wish I had just enjoyed it more rather than being tied up in the illusion of the dot com boom. Thanks for the nostalgia!