The PSION Series 5 and 5mx - Let's take a look at how PSION arrived at these little marvels!
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- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- The PSION Series 5 was a seminal moment in portable computing history - let's take a look at PSION and this wonderful little machine!
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I worked for a company making gambling/slot machines, but also quiz machines as could be found in many UK pubs and bars. One day we heard about our machines being beaten by some professional players. It turns out that these guys had Psions, had bought machines and logged every question in the machines 5000 question database (which was just on ROMs back in those days). They wrote a program for the Psion which gave them hotkeys to quickly enter questions ("In which year was...", "Who was the top goalscorer..." etc etc). These guys would take a second or two to get the question and correct answer, and beat the machine. It costs us tens of thousands, and meant we fitted floppy disks and asked pub owners to change question banks every week or two. I spent weeks writing new questions! Fun times. Great video, thanks 😊
Amazing!
Fun fact : I used to work for the department that was in control of all the traffic lights in a one of the big 4 cities in the Netherlands. We used these all the time to communicate with the traffic lights and change settings on location. The black+white screen was readable outside, it took AA batteries, had a serial connector and a built in terminal program. This was ofcourse only for the older generation that did not have a touchscreen built in or didn't have a connection (yet) to the office.
I still have it, brilliant stuff.
I still have the 3C. I used to connect it to the Siemens 840D CNC control to take and load backups and subroutines. Those were the days
That is what I miss in modern devices. Old black and white LCDs could do perfectly in bright sunlight. Still have no replacement for my Psion Workabout MX based bicycle computer that I have built. I have Symbol MC9060G, but being the G model (gun one) makes it hard to mount on handlebars.
@The Retro Shack - I was one of many employees hired at the Greenford PSION factory, when the PSION Series 3 was first put into mass production in the early 90's, soon after they installed a £5 million auto pick & place machine there. The series-3 in my opinion, was a vast leap in pocket PC design and it's performance was amazing over it's predecessors, with it's easy to learn programming language, thankfully replacing the Series 2 (brick-like) PSION cartridge eating PDA. I still have a series 2, 3a, 3c and the smaller PSION Revo in my collection, accompanied by a few 128mb RAM cards and a few software cards. I once had a series 5, but the hinges on them, like the series 3 were prone to catastrophic failure.
This video really brought back some fond memories of my time employed at PSION. Thanks for sharing. 👍🏻
I had a 5 or 5mx and used it as a satnav w/o the GPS part. Had to go from Dijon, France back to Germany. Since you could only have the map of one country in memory I decided to route to Luxembourg (border) and go to Germany from there. Hours later I found out I was on the wrong way since Paris kept getting closer and closer. The thing was on route to the Gare du Luxembourg, Paris. :-)
I’ve had and loved them all. The 3,3a,3c and the 5MX. Psion were always on another level. I still have all those models in my library. I have manuals, cables and even a modem card !! My favorite trick back in the day was to use the speaker on my psion 3c to make phone calls by placing the speaker up against the receiver and playing tones on the psion to dial the numbers. Brilliant !!
loved mine too - sold my 3c to buy a 5mx and never regretted it. Sadly, 5mx screen cracked so don't have it any more. Had the printer cables etc. Did have a revo at one point but the internal batteries were rubbish!
@@mattsword41 I had a 3c and upgraded to the 5mx too. It's still in a box somewhere at my parents home. I was the only one in high school (the 3c) and later college with an electronic organizer.
Sadly I had to sell each model to pay for the upgrade so when I moved over to a Palm Treo 650 I sold the 5MX but it was not really being supported by then anyway. Great memories though, mobile computing was so obvious but few people seemed to get it before Apple did their thing in 2007.
I remember the PSION organiser 2 when being a BT Engineer in the late 80's to early 90's these were introduced to replace the paper job reports used when closing off the jobs. The custom program allowed you to enter the job number, then the codes for travel, fitting equipment, installing and commissioning the line etc. We then handed in the memory packs to a lass in the office every Thursday for her to process.
Honestly that sounds like it was a much better user experience than when Openreach engineers had to use Windows CE devices with shoddy styli in the 00s, I remember them getting so frustrated and entering only the minimum of text.
I love real world use cases like this.
I had the portable printer for the Psion II and with the plug-in spreadsheet cartridge, I designed an invoicing system where I could print out invoices & statements from it and store separate a/cs too... it was a great machine & I still have it in a drawer somewhere... 🤔
😎👍☘️🍺
I had the 3a and 5mx. In some ways, nothing I've had since has recreated the feel of using those devices. The great keyboard, long battery life, instant-on and responsiveness, easy programmability and excellent diary. It really felt like it was a proper companion and obviously wasn't reliant on external communications to do this.
So true. I still mourn my 5mx. The word processor actually had object linked embedding.
I loved my Psion 5! Symbian FTW! Shame that the weak point was the internal flat-flex screen cable that killed most of them.
I also had a Psion Series 5, and really loved it. The way it unfolded was a genius bit of engineering, with just one flaw: I had to replace that awful flat-flex screen-cable more than once before I switched to a Sony Clie NX-73V, which was another uber-cool device. It's only when I replaced that (with an iPhone4) that I entered the world of smart-phones.....
I loved it. But the hinge broke on mine after many years…
Yes I loved it until a connection inside the charging port broke. It was made so that you had to destroy the keypad to get to the connections... Good thing I never met the people that designed this... I would have given them an EARFULL.
@@RadioHist i have their email addresses if you would like
Had one, tried to repair it... it has been sitting in a shelf for a while. Bought it while I was in the military and used it in disaster relief and large scale biological events... but did I used that machine and miss using it still. 2 aa batteries and a week worth of work.
What a fantastic little machine. Between the excellent keyboard and the non detachable rotating battery cover I'm very impressed. A magnificent little productivity tool that can be taken out to the cabin for a few weeks.
You get a big like for the nostalgia factor. Not just the Psion, the dictaphone gag 😂
Yep, the dictaphone gag was as retro as the Psion 😂
Good throwback to other times. Had an MX myself and loved it. Once stayed at the hospital one night for some checks and it kept me occupied with, yes, the ZX Spectrum emulator. Also, was able to read my e-mail through my mobile phone GSM data connection. Slow by our modern standards, but perfectly usable then. The doctor performing the tests was curious and mightily impressed. 😁
Me too! And don't forget the XT emulator - a DOS machine in your pocket!
I had the 5 when I was a technology journalist in the '90s. I used to use this for writing up interviews and reviews on my way back to the office on the train. It felt like I was living in the future.
Good Video. When I was in college, I did a work experience at Psion in Greenford, London. Where there were making the Psion 3/3a. It was an experience. This was in 1995. But I have stories I can tell that were positive and negatives.
Do
My Dad was the Psion warehouse manager. I still have an Organizer 2 and it works. Also have the extended memory pack, spell checker and leather case.
I loved my 5mx and had it almost always with me (in a padded bag with shoulder straps). I played NetHack whenever I had at least half a minute time, as the 5mx was waking up instantly when it was unfolded. *BUT you have withheld literally the killer drawback of the Psion 5's!* They all failed due to breaking internal display ribbon cables and it wasn't possible to fix them. The cable had to be replaced which involved soldering. Very tricky to do. The speciall "ribbon" cables were actually a kind of a very thin flexible circuit board. It had a little hole in the middle, maybe required for the manufacturing process, and the cracks always started to develop there. It was for this reason that I left the Psion platform, but I never had any handheld device ever again with such an awesome keyboard 😪.
I wanted to emphasize the same thing. The 5 also has a hole in the ribbon but it's not in the middle but on the side. Psion 5MX's are rare today because none of 'm have a working/repairable screen anymore. I sometimes see a regular 5 come by though...
That ribbon problem copied into designs of old Sony flip phones, Nintendo ds hinge
I have a 5. Back in the day I used it as a portable serial terminal to to diagnose problems with industrial barcode scanners on factory assembly lines. I also had a C compiler installed on it and I would write/compile things during staff meetings.
in school (a long time ago) i used a Psion 5 to write all my essays and then printed them in the computer lab using the LPT cable
kinda weird to think that even today doing that with a pocket sized device would be a rare and unusual thing
Aah, the parallel printer link module... Costed a lot!
The designer of that excellent keyboard currently works with Planet Computers, where they make Psion-shaped devices with Android. I have been using their Gemini PDA for about four years and despite its many limitations, I like it a lot.
Yes, the keyboard really is effective and I still use a Gemini. I miss the screen readable in direct sunlight though.
Ditto on that Gemini. My first one expired due to moisture, thankfully they honoured the warranty (I definitely won't make that mistake again!) My device at the time wasn't a Psion but an Atari Portfolio (but I always lusted for the Sharp/TRS). The Portfolio was cool; but really quite useless. It got stolen or lost or something shortly after I got it so I never really had a chance to get into it. My coworker had blown a bundle on playing around with a Newton in '94, my conclusion was all this PDA stuff is just a big gimmick so I never got into Palm or anything. To this day I still prefer my 1st gen iPhone SE (based on iPhone 6), everything else is too big or fragile.
I'm pretty sure I bought every bit of software and hardware from Psion over the years. A fantastic company.
I used the Psion Organiser as a BT Engineer in the80's, later moved to a 3A then the 5 then the 5MX - which was awesome - ultimately it lost ground to the Compac iPAQ which everyone jumped to when it came out because of its amazing (for the time) , bright colour touch screen. I loved the 5 keyboard so much I did leap to the Planet Computers Gemini, but the rest of the Gemini hardware and software just wasn't as good as the keyboard - shame really - I still think that keyboard is the best sub-full-size keyboard ever designed.
My first Psion was the Psion Siena, which I got for 100 DM in a shop. Convinced by the concept I quickly upgraded to the 3c. The Series 5 was too expensive to me, I preferred Powerbooks from Apple then. But as more mobile devices I used the 3c for quite a long time. At that time, my employer wanted to buy Palm Pilots for our mobile workers, but I showed them the Psion. So my employer decided to buy the 5mx for them as it was much more practical. After the year 2000 Psion became somehow arrogant. They ignored private customers and produced for trade only. The Psion Book was highly overpriced, they forgot to put in a slot for SIM-cards, and Psion made themselves obsolete. My employer is using iPhones today... Psion could have been today the No.3 after iOS and Android...
I remember my dad having the 2nd gen organiser when he was at BT and then later on, one of the 3 series that I inherited from him as he upgraded. Great review ❤ takes me back!
I worked for Psion at the end of the 90's as a repair technician. I repaired almost all models except for the model 7. And I have still the 5mx and works good, including the backlight.
I loved my Psion devices. I had the Series 5, Series 5mx, Revo, Series 7
Excellent video. I still have my Psion 5 original box and manuals. Upgraded from a 3a. A master piece of technology so ahead of its time.
I used the Revo for about six years until my first smartphone. Loved it! IR internet connection through my Nokia 8210. Great machine!
I had a 3a, then lusted after a 5MX, which I never got - I managed to get the Ericsson MC218 (2nd hand for a good price), an officially branded Psion Series 5MX in cool Ericsson colours and a couple of extra built-in apps. I did 60% of my university degree on that. Also completed several Infocom interactive-fiction games, too!
They gave us a 5MX on starting work back in 2000, I still have a couple of development series 7s given on leaving in the shed. Excellent machines. I hate glass these days, but there's no getting back.
I had a 3 for years, and used it to type up Formula 1 testing updates sat on the pitwall at Silverstone Circuit. All I needed to do when I got home was download the text file, tidy it up a bit, and then I could post it up to the website that had asked me to go on their behalf. Great days, and an excellent piece of kit.
I loved the Series 3a and Series 5. I even programmed a 3D Monster Maze tribute game on the 3a in OPL, along with an Icon editor that was almost a fully fledged art program. i did this mostly on my train commute to and from work, which is a testament to the portability and usability of those amazing devices.
I loved how the 3a could last over a month on a set of batteries, though it was prone to a fault where the battery wire would twist and break over time, necessitating opening the machine to replace it.
The Series 5's form factor and keyboard were incredible but the machine was let down by the murky and not very responsive LCD touch screen.
I'd love to have a modern Android or Linux based PC in that form factor.
www.www3.planetcom.co.uk/gemini-pda
I've still got my 5 mx somewhere, would love to get it repaired. Still the best little work horse I ever used, brilliant machine. Could write documents, insert spreadsheet tables, connect to my Nokia and send/receive emails. No internet but then there was no internet to suck away the day back then. Mate of mine way back used to work for Psion but never got any deals from him.
My first 5mx was purchased around 1999, and got the modem too. Won the odd eBay auction at work using it. Sold it for pretty much what I paid for it.
Got 2 as a lot for about £30 a couple of years ago, one boxed. Not done much with them yet, but lovely machines for their time.
Had one of those. Wonderful device. Switched it for a newton 2000 later... Fond memories!
Wow. As a user of one of the Psion Series 5's modern descendants, seeing how long ago the keyboard design was finalised is fascinating. Compared to Planet Computers' products, the Psion Series 5's keyboard is practically identical - heck, most of the key legends are the same. Even with the knowledge that both product lines share a designer, it's wonderfully strange for something as old as or older than oneself to feel so familiar.
I written a book report for school in 2013 on this when I found one at a flea market to me this was back then amazing having such a small laptop
I had an Oregon Scientific Osiris 4MB, which was basically a cutdown version of the Psion 5 - similar keys on the keyboard but without the fancy mechanism.
It had a IR receiver so that you could use a phone with a built in IR modem with it, in order to get it on the (fledgling) internet. I had an Ericsson R320 (I think) for this purpose. So basically full mobile internet access over 23 years ago. 🙂
I remember having a Spectrum emulator on it too, which was great for playing retro games (which seems a bit meta now that the Osiris is also now retro.)
Did sunlight interfere with the IR connection? I could imagine that being annoying on a train
@Kaitlyn L to be honest, the connection was soooo slow it would have been hard to tell.
A web page took forever to download. But emails were relatively quick. (These were the days it took about 2 hours to download a postage stamp sized 30 seconds trailer of Lord of The Rings over dial up on to a PC)
@@fredsmith1970 haha yeah, I started using dial up in 99 and waited for hours for some things. Mostly Flash games to be fair but definitely some tiny RealPlayer and QuickTime files. (Edit: oh crap, no, I actually also suffered through RUclips on dialup, briefly! We were quite late to the DSL game, in 06 or 07.)
I suppose I’m so accustomed to web servers’ fast timeouts nowadays, forgetting 5-20 second blips were also normal on dialup and servers were more patient!
Plus of course I expected the use to be text-only, emails being quick like you said ;) that’d only be a few seconds unless it was a loong email/website
I watched this on my Samsung fold, amazed at how far we've come
I feel compelled to copy/paste this very comment, because that is exactly what I did around 1997-99 :
_I had the 5 when I was a technology journalist in the '90s. I used to use this for writing up interviews and reviews on my way back to the office on the train. It felt like I was living in the future_ .
But I was writing on the metro in Paris instead. The Psion 5 was a fantastic machine to type on during press conferences. I wished I would have got myself a 5MX for the brighter screen and the gray paint instead of the rubberised stuff that peeled off from the 5.
I had a series 5 and found it genuinely useful. I had nothing to match it until my first smart phone.😊
I had a Series 5 during my Uni days (98-01) and it really was an amazing piece of kit for the time.
In the late 90’s I worked for a company that manufactured the springs and pressing that went in to psions.
I managed to get hold of a 5 back then and hooked it up to a modem .
The build quality and design features were amazing .
I think psion sold the software / os side of the business to Nokia in early 2000’s
I loved my old Psions and still have a Siena knocking about. In all the years since I haven't found a calendar app that's so fully featured as the old Psion Agenda. The OS was bulletproof, and they were so well optimised that they could run for a good while on a couple of batteries. Another thing worth mentioning is that 8MB memory probably doesn't sound much, but the best available programs were only around 100KB! You could fit loads on your Psion
great step back in time, thanks, i had a few psions over the years and loved em, the programming environment was great for me too
I never used one of these, but I loved the Gateway Handbook I had in the mid ‘90s.
wish i could give you an extra like for the nob gag!🤣🤣
TYPO 11:04 I think you mean resistive touchscreen, which is why the stylus can work since the screen would be slightly deformable.
What an interesting device. I never owned, or even used, anything like this. My job as a field service technician with an electronic gauging company meant that I had a company-supplied laptop (and before that, a Compaq “luggable” computer with orange plasma display).
Loved the Dictaphone gag, by the way. Never heard that one before!
Its a handsome looking device - I recall these being sold in Dixons and Tandy
Psion5 and 5MX , Compatibile on my Amiga1200 060/PPC ,and AmigaOS4 NG for Classic and news hardware 👍
Lovely little things. I have a 5mx and a Revo. The 5mx really feels like a full on computer to use, what with being able to browse and copy files, save documents, write programs and send emails. And the keyboard! I seem to remember there being a web browser too but can't remember which had it. I had the little infra-red modem too, probably still got it somewhere - not that I ever really used it :)
I had a rebadged Revo (Diamond Mako) in high school and got a lot of great use out of it. I gave it away at some point but now wouldn’t mind playing with one again.
I have the same modem here , somewhere forgotten in one of my boxes in the cellar . I used it very much in earlier days , but then my 5mx broke somewhere in its monitor, and there was no one to repair it.... 😞
The Psion Organiser was also used by Maplin Electronics in their shops for stock take counts up until around 2001-2002. Stock take used the till when counting the components as it was close by, but shop floor counting was often done on the Psion. The back office computer was a DOS machine running what looked a bit like Real32 concurrent DOS on a 486 and the three tills out the front were a 286 and two 386 machines, all booting from floppy then acting as serial terminals back to the back office machine. Delightfully archaic for the early 00's. Obviously things changed when they dumped DOS for Linux a couple of years later, but I had left before then.
Brilliant video. My mate had a Psion 5mx in 1999 here in South Australia and it was a magic machine! I still feel good just looking at it, after all these years. The new incarnation is the Planet Computers devices, but I sure WISH that Apple would release a tiny Mac with this very keyboard. Thanks for making this content. Cheers.
Thanks for this video. I have just dug out my 5mx replaced the batteries and fired it up, it still works fine. In it’s day it was a great tool that I used for work and took on holiday and wrote my travel diary. Still got the hard copies I printed out.
I worked for Psion in the 90s when when the 5 and then 5mx came out - I loved my 5mx. I understood that PSION stood for Potter’s Scientific Instruments Or Nothing :)
Love the TARDIS description of the keyboard, I always felt it seemed to grow as you opened it. Psion owned 50% of the design agency Therefore who were responsible for the product design and therefore (sorry) that keyboard.
I still think the subsequent Series 7 running a modern OS would be a killer device.
I seem to remember Douglas Adams being a fan of the Psion. There’s an article in The Salmon of Doubt about arriving somewhere with a laptop, but no charger cable, and subsequently writing all his articles on a series 3 while in the bath.
Just Thank you ❤
This made me dig out my 5MX and have a play (once I found a suitable power adapter) I can't believe how much I used that little thing. I remember being able to send an email on the go by using the IRDA connection from the Psion to my mobile phone and also connect my dive computer to it through the serial interface. I wrote the best part of an entire book on it, and the fact you could program on the go using OPL meant I had loads of code on there. I managed to get as far as writing a Z80 disassembler. What I would say though, that in the past 20 years, my eyes have degraded a bit and I have to shove my face about 4" from the screen now to see it :)
My dad loved these since the days of the Series 3 and when he upgraded from a S5 to a 5MX he gave me the older 5. I was just a small kid and was ecstatic. My friends thought it was so cool. I remember a distinct difference was the 5MX could set a desktop wallpaper and I was jealous 😅 As tech moved on he went with a HP Jornada palmtop and I had a Jornada PDA
Oh wow! Brought back memories for me! I recall my Quality Manager buying 2 Organiser 2s gave me one to play with. I set up a stock programme using the bar code pen and tested it out at home on the cereal packets. He was most impressed when I enthusiastically showed him how it could be used for stock control at the factory.
Got to say the battery compartment is pure genius!
Oh this brings back memories! I loved mine!
My first job after graduating was working at Psion as a programmer at the HQ in Marylebone.
Programmed the Organise 2, using some C but mainly assembler (never OPL.) Worked on some prototype hardware, including a Racal pager, to allow Yuppies to receive stock price updates.
I remember seeing -but didn't work on- the early prototype of the clamshell Psions, much bigger than the ones that were eventuly sold.
When I needed a break from coding I used to go and answer calls in tech support, where the most common question was how do you turn it off :)
I loved my 3mx and then 5mx. Such a genius device for the time, I’d forgotten all about it until this video showed up on my home page here!
I started programming thanks to Psion Series 3c ❤ using the OPL programming language. My first two programs were a paint-like program and a fifteen puzzle game.
I remember when 5mx came out. I was still in elementary school back then so couldn't afford it whatsoever. Trying to find one on a local auction site nowadays is almost mission impossible.
You didn’t mention the Psion Workabout. That was the series 3 version of the Series 1/2 form factor for industrial use. I used to work for a company in the mid 2000s that used them in conjunction with PC software to produce a solution for porter serviced for hospitals and other hospitality uses. They were robust little things, but we also needed to get them serviced as users would still manage to kill them. The parts were getting harder to find by then and psion was starting to push windows ce.
I’m glad I looked it up, that shape is pretty wild and 90s. It kinda reminds me of a multimeter, too
@@kaitlyn__L yeah, that is what it reminds me of. Like a fluke or r something similar. They had extra jackets they could wear that did stuff like barcode scanning and that kind of thing.
@@memsom …I’m pretty sure I sure those doing stock at the shelves in Sainsbury’s around the turn of the millennium! Being festooned with buttons is what first fascinated me, but I also liked watching the barcode scanner stuck on the end go.
@@kaitlyn__L yeah, more than likely. The windows ce ones looked the same, but they were later than you described, so it probably was the Symbian based ones. By the time we were EOLing them, I believe Psion was mainly in Canada. I think the European division was all but gone. I have vague recollections of there being something in Holland. I know getting spare boards was hard and a lot of our units had to be reconditioned by an electrical engineer locally by that point.
@@memsom the ones I saw them using had a vertical form factor, all screen and no keyboard, maybe it had technically moved to the name beyond CE by then! Psion is a shame, I wish they’d kept going
Wonderful trip down memory lane! Thank you…
Glad you enjoyed it 👍
brings back memories! I had the psion revo when I was a junior house officer in hospital. Well before hospitals used any computer records. I used to keep a list of jobs and patients on it, and was able to print them off (much to my consultants amazement) on the ward laser printer via the infra-red port. worked flawlessly, unlike today when you have to download 8GB of drivers before the printer will even attempt to print!
Felt uber cool being able to check my emails via infra-red dial up and my Ericcsson T68.
The TRS-80 pocket was a re-badged Sharp PC-1211, so I would assume that the Sharp actually came out before it.
brings back good old memories. Never used the psion but i used the Ericsson MC218 which is exactly like the Psion 5mx. Always wanted to get the Psion Revo which was smaller but by that time the Compaq ipaq was out and I wanted color 🙂
I had a 3c my uncle got bored with and gave to me when I was 16, I used it for college in 96. Absolutely fantastic machine, I would have never stopped using it but the batteries leaked. Picked up the 5 Mx on eBay as a spare repair a while ago. Time to get it out and get repairing.
I had an Ericsson MC218 and loved it. I could write my emails and then send them by connecting to my Nokia 6210 over infrared, while sitting on the train. I bought a hard case for it, which was built like a tank, but later I mostly kept it in a shoulder holster type of rig. Good times :)
I used a Psion 5 for a long time. It had a broken screen cable so the touch screen no longer worked. The software is completely usable with just the keyboard and I had a lot of use out of it. Many hours were spent on it, both at home and at school. The fact that it runs on standard AA batteries is also great, because I can just carry a set of spare batteries.
The form factor is great. I dislike tablets and modern cellphones, opting for a UMPC in a similar form factor (GPD micropc and such). Sadly the modern devices do not run on AA batteries.
By the way, I remember running a PC emulator on it - it is enough to boot Windows 3.1 (IIRC), but it is not very fast. Psion series 5 or 5mx can also be made to run Linux.
Haha. I love you showed the Libretto running as a Hackintosh 😂
I really like the look of the battery door on that
Back in the day, we used to use a Psion series 5 with the link cable to connect to the console on computers - far easier than reeling a dumb terminal around.
I got a 5mx after several years with a 3a. On my sample the screen was just too dim no matter how I adjusted it, so I reluctantly returned it. (I loved the buttons on the outside of the case for doing quick voice recordings too) Instead I bumped up to a Series 7, and the 3a and 7 remain two of the best consumer electronics devices I've ever owned, I've photographed and written about them on my site Mass Made Soul. Thanks for this trip down memory lane!
I use to love my Psion series 5 until I broke the screen. It did what I wanted it to, it was pocketable, batteries lasted forever and were easily replaceable, and the clamshell design with a proper keyboard was a bonus, I could actually type properly on it as a touch typist.
My first PDA was the Organizer II, and then a Series 3 and a 5, I forgot which one had voice recorder keys at the side for quick access, I used it together with a feature phone via IR to check email dial up to my provider. If E-ink invented earlier then can be used on those units for the best viewing experience.
Yah yah yah. Let’s lunch was hilarious. Great video. I remember being jealous of these as I had an Acorn Pocketbook II which was purchased from school. I used to play with them in Boots and PC World. Happily though, I was given a HP 300LX for Christmas in 1997 - Windows CE for me!!
i've had all of them.. still have an original psion3 also the 5 and 5mx and the ericcsson branded version, I wrote a program for the company i worked for to use the original psions with the serial cable as a programming and display device for those scrolling led message boards like what you see on the buses. ended up using it on those big multi line orange ones that you see on the side of the road.
At university, the head of department (and my lecturer for Object Oriented Programming), had a 3a in what can only be described as a gun holster!
I lusted after the 5mx, but it was out of my price range, so I got Psion Revo instead. I loved that thing, I wrote large chunk of my final thesis with that little machine.
Years a go I ran my own mobile PC build/service/upgrade company and, I had a Psion 3C personal organiser/computer. MAN I LOVED THAT THING! (Until some TW@T broke into my car and stole my briefcase with it and other stuff in it). I put all my purchase orders in it, spreadsheets of multiple suppliers parts with columns for supplier costs, and two other columns for my different mark up percentages my etc, a customer database, pretty much everything a small business owner needed on a small mobile device.. Gone with a smash and grab! 😠 I linked it to my PC & printer, it was quite a powerful little unit! I also LOVED the design, fold it open and it sat with a raised keyboard. Psion made some GREAT little pocket computers! 👌 😎🇬🇧
Mine did my accounts as I was self employed at the time. It wasn't in any way compromised. The perfect portable tool. I even wrote a.golf game using OPL. It was arse.
Such great machines. I had a Psion Organiser II, then a 3 and was issued a Psion Revo at work. Was mind blowing for me at the to be able to write-up and email visit reports after visiting clients whilst on a train using the Revo and the IR to link to my Nokia. I remember seeing the Oragniser II's in use for years at M&S and various transportation companies / warehouses I visited with work.
I have three 5mx. Two of them are new, still in their boxes. The third I am still using and it is just great. ;-)
Had a Psion 2, 5 and 5mx, brilliant machines. I seem to remember getting online with a lead and Nokia mobile phone. Can’t quite remember how this worked, but it was says before data so I think it used the Nokia as a dial up modem.
Sausage!
The Series 5 was a thing of loveliness, I'd probably still be using mine if it hadn't succumbed to the usual frailties. Which reminds me, high time I tried a repair... or finally do that replacement motherboard and screen I've been contemplating for years - the former wouldn't be so hard as it would just be something to interface a Pi compute module, but finding a suitable screen has been a bit of a...
Never had a Psion, I was only a teenager when they were doing the rounds, but my dad had something very similar to the Radioshack(this was a Casio) device you shown earler. Said he used it for spreadsheet functionality until he got the A1200 as it was better than the C64 for a few reasons. First being he didn't have to load any programs off tape, or buy a ludicrously expensive floppy drive, then he could save to backup RAM(which apparently kept for years on one battery) unless he needed to use a different file or back up for his permanent records, for which he would use this dock that had a tape deck that used what looked like dictaphone tapes and a small printer that printed what resembled old till receipts.
Great overview and thx. I loved them and used them for several years to organize my work. Bad things are they were very expensive at the time and with the heavy use I did they had a lot of wear on the plastic coating they had and the flatcables between the screen and keyboard. I missed the Netbook in your list, for me the 5 big brother. i still own one and it also saw heavy use.
I had a Series 3a then a 3c from new (I smashed the screen on the 3c so ended up taking the screen out of the 3a and fitting it to the 3c!), then a Revo which got me through university. I always lusted after a 5 but couldn't justify the price. I recently picked a 5mx up and it is amazing, I can only imagine having it when it was first released. Loved the video :) Oh it's a resistive screen btw!)
I still have the Psion Revo which is often overlooked. It was the successor to the Psion Series 3 and sold as a light version of Psion Series 5mx.
Just checked, my series 5 still works great 😁👍 ( an old friend of mine even purchased a netbook after seeing my series 5. We used them for university back in the day…)
Had a II and a 3a organiser. Taught me a little programming, and good for typing homework while at mum's. Like another commenter, I also enjoyed showing dialling the phone via playing tones :)
I had several Psions, up to the 5MX; one thing it taught me was that it made really economical files - small, yet functional.
The PSION Series 5 was brilliant, in theory, and partially in practice. The ONE main problem: the stiff keyboard!! You really had to hammer down on each key to get it to register. If they had had a key activation with something like 35g or 45g, it would have been fantastic. Now if someone could get to work and redesign that keyboard ....
First had a Psion 3c and after the hinge on the screen broke I got the Psion 5MX. Everyone had cheap 150 Dutch fl. Texas Instruments calculators on School. The build in phone dialer. And my own voice for different alarms where the main features my fellow students loved the most. My agenda, spreadsheet, word editor. And self-build basic scientific calculator where my favorite apps. Also the modem card and token ring card was really something else. They didn’t thought such a small device had so much power.
The 3c was 499 fl. At the time. And the 5MX Was 899, way cheaper then laptops at the time. Way cheaper then a laptop back then.
There are also scripts to emulate RC5 remote control codes. All Philips devices and the many companies that run the same remote code could easily be used as a universal remote control. Had a lot of fun changing peoples tv channels and changed volume/mute intermittently.
I had the Psion Revo. Was a very nice little machine!
I loved my Psion 5 and also the Netbook which was same software but larger tablet-size and had a colour screen. At the time I was a fan of the roguelike game Nethack so I ported it onto the Psion 5 and Netbook. Then I ported Python as well and reused a large chunk of my Nethack code to drive the screen.