Psion Series 5 5mx

Very early on, mobile data was essentially an emulation of an analogue modem call, at blazing fast rates like 19200baud or less, held over the same channels as voice calls with a bit of extra jiggery-pokery, and were charged by the minutes just like voice calls. Sometimes they were charged as normal voice calls, sometimes you ended up being charged extra (or not being charged extra as such, but with data calls not being counted in any pre-paid minute allowance your plan had). It was vitally important to check this before making modem calls, as some providers charged data calls in the same band as premium rate voice calls, meaning that just picking up a few text emails could be quite expensive. [cue misty eyed memories of trying to get my Psion 5mx to connect to the Internet by infra-red serial link to my phone, to try get updated connection information for my next train as the one I was on was going to be too late to make the planned connection…]

Halcyon days ... interesting devices, ideas, and I loved my psion 5mx ... I remember hooking up to the internet while waiting in line at a concert and thinking I was damned business magnate cum console cowboy I followed the story of Nokia, Symbian and Psion closely after that and the whole thing just felt like one of the biggest dropped balls in corporate history. Sad ... too many cooks, maybe ...

The Psion series 5mx provided an impressive amount of portable computing power and ran on two AA batteries plus a coin-shaped memory backup battery. I used mine to take notes in university classes because I couldn't afford a laptop and it worked great. The keyboard was a bit small, but big enough for touch typing. The built-in office programs made it a productivity beast and the compact flash slot meant I had a whopping 16 MB of storage which held several hundreds of documents and files. After owning such a useful and charming little machine was sad to see Psion leave the hardware business and turn EPOC into Symbian.

I'd a Psion 5 Mx and loved it. It had one of the best small keyboards. It's folding mechanics was superbly engineered.

I spent ages trying to find a smartphone equivalent of a psion 5mx to no avail. It was perfect for writing. The fact that theres still high demand for them decades later is telling.

I had a Psion 3a, followed by a Revo and then a 5MX. What was great about them was the ability to quickly flip them open and take notes, or run a command-line program in it's OPL language, pretty much instantaneously. In the 90s this thing was in some ways more powerful than your regular desktop computer - it had pre-emptive multitasking, SSD storage, ability to use email and connect to the web via IrDA modem phones, as well as a built-in microphone and digital audio. It's Agenda program has still not been bettered in my opinion - giving you the confidence that your appointment is in the right place in the calendar (having just had a reminder come up on my pixel for an appointment meant for this time last year). I tried to keep the dream alive with the Nokia E90 (which was too app focused and slow, sadly), the N900 (a fantastic machine, hampered by a very limited, tiny keyboard, and again, quite an app-focused desktop/phonetop). After reading online people repeatedly saying that I should just give in and use any modern phone with a bluetooth keyboard, I can now say conclusively that these people had no idea what the Psion was all about. My hope is that they can make Android or Linux work well with this form factor. The hardware looks perfect (ok I'll admit I would have traded the colour screen for a kindle-like screen for the discretion and battery life), but the thing about the Psion was the speed and ease of operation. I really hope they pull this off!

In the early 00s the Psion Series 5mx ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5 ) was an amazing portable computing device. It was more portable than a laptop, had a hardware keyboard large enough for touch typing, fit in your pocket, came with a full suite of office / productivity software, and ran on 2 AA batteries. Sadly it and the other handheld computing devices Psion made were discontinued and the software was converted to power feature phones.

I hate it, but at the same time, I regularly get told I'm really fast and asked how I do it. The answer to that is Swype. I bought it about 12Y ago and that paid copy still works on Android 10. I tried to explain why it's the best here: https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/06/swype_come_back/ I am a big guy: 6'2" (1.88m) and I can hold 5 pint (half litre) straight glasses of beer without the glasses touching. I can hit keys 11 white notes apart on a piano with 1 hand. Most smartphones and almost all iPhones until the 6+ were too small to be usable for me. A 6.5" phablet is a one-hand phone for me. Hardware keyboards... I had a Blackberry Passport for a year. Lovely OS, if a bit unfinished. (E.g. sometimes it got hot in my pocket and I had to go hunt unterminated background apps and kill them.) The only Blackberry with a keyboard large enough to be usable. It was much slower than Swype, but much more accurate, so overall less frustrating because I spent less time on corrections. The only good mobile keyboard ever made was Psion's in the 5 and 5MX. Planet Computers licenced this for the Gemini, Cosmo and Astro. I have a Gemini; it's a wonderful mobile writing tool. No American device ever even came close to the Psion keyboard. I've tried 'em all -- this is my living -- and they're all toys. Sadly most Americans never saw or tried a Psion. But it's too big for a modern phone, sadly.