Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!crl!squirrel!ellis
From: ellis@squirrel.LABS.TEK.COM (Cynthia Ellis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Portfolio, HP-95, M-100 &
Summary: Not necessarily sucker bait!
Message-ID: <1752@crl.LABS.TEK.COM>
Date: 10 Jun 91 18:48:53 GMT
References: <1991Jun9.152710.20556@lsuc.on.ca>
Sender: news@crl.LABS.TEK.COM
Reply-To: ellis@squirrel.LABS.TEK.COM (Cynthia Ellis)
Followup-To: comp.sys.handhelds
Organization: Computer Research Laboratory, Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton OR
Lines: 53

In article <1991Jun9.152710.20556@lsuc.on.ca> jimomura@lsuc.on.ca (Jim Omura) writes:
>
>Cut to the Chase:
>
>     Both the Portfolio and the HP-95LX are, for the most part, "sucker
>bait."  Sorry guys, but if your read the ads and then think about
>practical field usage, the conclusion is inescapable.  And the sales
>trend of the Portfolio confirms it.  They are toys for people like me
>who like to "play with technology."  If you want something practical
>to get real work done, go elsewhere.

[the rest of Jim's text deleted ...]

I disagree with Jim's conclusion here. I get "real work" done with
my Pofo. I think it depends on what kind of work you expect from it.
I don't expect my Pofo to be a laptop computer. I expect it to
function along the lines of a Casio BOSS or a Sharp Wizard, with
the added ability to be able to do a little bit of DOS on it.

I used to carry a Geodex everywhere with me; that's what you're
supposed to do to make it useful. It was a lot bigger than my
Pofo. My Pofo fits in my purse, which my Geodex never did. I
find the Pofo much more useful because of this. 

I also used to carry around an 18C calculator (the current model of
the same thing is the HP19B) in my purse, which is just slightly 
smaller than a Pofo. So I figure I saved a couple of _pounds_ of stuff
to carry around by trading the calculator and the Geodex for a Pofo. 
And the Pofo does almost as much. I don't have storage for hand-written
notes, that's the only thing I miss about my Geodex, and there isn't
a built-in financial calculator, which is the only thing I miss 
about the 18C. However, the Geodex didn't have an alarm to remind me 
that it was time to get to a meeting, and the 18C didn't have a built-
in spreadsheet, so I figure the feature pluses/minuses are about a
wash. So the weight/space savings makes the Pofo worth the money
(I only paid $249 for my Pofo. I don't think I'd be willing to pop for
$500+ for the HP95LX ...)

I use the spreadsheet a lot for various things, including current
balances on credit cards. I find that I tend to transfer the
spreadsheet data up my computer to actually work on it, then 
download it to the Pofo to have it available for quick reference.

I don't think of my Pofo as a word-processing machine. I have my
Compaq SLT/286 for that function. I use the WP in my Pofo to "jot"
down notes.

In summary, I am very pleased with my Pofo, and I feel I do a lot
more than just "play" with it (although I do have a RAM card with
some games that I downloaded from Compu$erve :-).


Cindy