Book of Jornada: Chapter 1 Henshin! The Ultimate Form!

HEN--SHIN!!!

Even after the partial transformation of the system board from J720 (Japanese ROM, 32MB RAM) to 728 (English ROM, 64MB RAM), my Jornada 720 was still in a burning need for a replacement keyboard. And today, the wait is over!

I got this J728 VERY cheap from a junk seller on an online second hand market in mainland China. He originally asked for RMB120 (around USD$15), but since it's no longer possible to ship batteries across the border from the mainland to Hong Kong, he agreed to sell only the machine to me for RMB100 (around USD$13). It's an awfully great deal, even though I am not actually looking for a working machine. I just need the parts, especially the English keyboard.

It turned out that the J728 was not in a very good shape. Apart from a small number of scratches and marks on the casing, the unhappy display refused to brighten up. With the power source in, I could hear the WAV playing during start up, but I couldn't see anything on the screen. It's quite likely that either the screen itself was dead or there's something wrong with the display controller.

An amusing bonus event is that I remember I asked the seller to remove the backup battery (an ordinary CR2032) from the bottom beneath the CF card slot. I even walked him through step by step as the seller was saying he knew nothing about the machine, let alone much English. From the circumstantial evidence I can deduce that trivial operation actually cost the black lever which was supposed to keep the coin battery in place!

On a positive note, this old machine has retained its chastity (all three red warranty seals being intact) after all these years.

Those five screws are the secret to solve the puzzle to release the keyboard (and the memory board inside) from the main body. 

So here they are. Despite their tiny sizes, there is still a salient difference in terms of key pitch. Specifically, the Japanese keys are just 13mm wide, standing in a stark contrast to the 14.4mm wide keys on the English keyboard. This may not be enough to appeal to those who simply find touch typing on the HPCs a suffering experience, but personally this is worlds apart. I can touch type on the English keyboard at normal pace with ease, but that's impossible when using the Japanese one. 

You see? My Jornada totally agrees with the Solo Champion on this one.

I understand this can be purely personal preference. While many users would prefer the look and colors of the J728 casing, I strongly favor the deep dark bluish scheme of J720. J728's silverish bazel feels distracting, while on J720 the dark frame around the screen makes the screen look brighter and also seems to help me better stay in focus. 

So now, behold! My Jornada has finally completed the henshin into this (dark) Ultimate Form, just like what the legendary Kuuga did in the Millenium Year.

It's time to rock! 👿