A reply to another mobile warrior

This is the main content in my reply to a message from another veteran mobile warrior.

For the moment, I still consider Jornada 720/728 the best HPC for me. The form factor is just so right. None of my smartphones or portable computers can beat that. Sigmarion 3 (or possibly 2) comes close. In comparison, Sig3 is more responsive and has a gorgeous screen (because of its smaller size in higherresolution), But I don't like the unconventional keyboard layout. Unless I can find a way to hack the keymapping, I would stick with my J720 as my primary HPC.

Of course if Sig3 gets to run Linux (preferably Debian), my preference may change as everything would become hackable.

The Psion line has always been piquing my interest, but I know nothing about EPOC and the 5MX still commands a pretty high price on the used market.

Didn't notice HTC Advantage X7500 in the past. The sliding mechanism is surely interesting though not my favorite clamshell design. WM seems a totally different beast from WinCE. Specs-wise it trumps all the old HPC for sure. Battery life seems not as long, I wonder.

Just by the look, the JVC Victor is like a predecessor of Sigmarion III. Would be interesting to see how they compare in benchmarking.

The Casio Fiva is a work of beauty. The casing is made of magnesium alloy, which feels light yet stronger than the Libretto (quite a few in my trove have shown chips and brittles in the casing here and there).

The one in my picture is MPC-103, the one with the highest specs (Geode GMx @ 300Mhz, 164MB RAM). I have already rebuilt the battery and swap the small HDD with a SDHC 8GB. Now it's running Windows 98. I've installed Win2k before but I prefer Win98 for its compatility with a lot of (very) old programs. I actually like Fiva more than Libretto in terms of performance and build quality. The keyboard is a joy to use, unlike the minuscule keyboards on the Libretto (which I can never touch type onthem).

Then again, just like the vast majority of subnotebooks, UMPCs and netbooks, the Achilles' heel is always the short battery life which renders the devices not so portable anymore despite their small dimensions.

I have a pretty large collection of the Libretto: 20, 30, 50, 60, 70, 100 (dead), 110 (multibooting 98, 2000 and Debian), several 1000s and 1100, plus a dissembled M3 and 50M. My 110CT and 50M are really the Franken Libretto. I managed to upgrade the 110CT to 96MB RAM (original maximum is 64MB). The 50M is a very unique model as it is the only one with touchscreen capability! Plus the meager CPU has been overclocked to a crazy 200Mhz (extremely rare, probably just 2 or 3 in this world!) and the battery has been modded to carry a much higher capacity. 

Perhaps the most precious in my collections is the IBM PC110. Originally it had the ultra rare 20MB RAM module, but unfortunately at one point the RAM stopped working. Lately I found its screen has developed the "vintage syndrome". It's one of my near future plans to fix it with a new polarizer film.

This machine is truly a small wonder. If you put it side by side with GPD MicroPC you may find a lot of striking similarities in design.  One cool feature of PC110 is it's running on a camcorder battery. The same type of batteries are also found in the classic Thinkpad 235, which I have two.

I haven't paid too much attention to the newer UMPCs like GPD and One Netbook. I've heard quite positive reviews of them and pleasant stories of using them as actual daily drive. At one time I was also debating with myself whether to get one of these.

It seems the Kohjinsha line in general suffers from short battery life. The form factor and design seems not as good as GPD and Lenovo.

Anyhow right now I've started gathering the good old HPCs (my next acquisition could be a Sigmarion 2). I find the HPC platform quite charming, It's weird but I seem to love its limitations in contrast to the almighty Windows proper. There just seems to be a certain taste of minimalism to it, which I find refreshing even to this date.