Today the Solo Champion got struck by an existential question: Why the Handheld PCs instead of hot chics like GPD Pocket 2 or Lenovo Yoga One?
Short answers:
- True instant on: The CE programs are so small that they are all running in ramdisk (the small RAM). No hibernation or PC style suspend is necessary. UMPCs and Netbooks can't compete with that.
- Elegant form factor: I am so obsessed with the handheld body. The stylish look of the Jornada (esp. 710/720) is so unassuming, inspiring and motivating. On the other hand, netbookish designs are too commonplace and too large to fit in one hand. Most UMPCs look too complicated to my taste. I don't really fancy playing with rotating/flipping displays.
- Super long battery life: After replacing the old dead cells with new ones with much higher capacity (mAh), the revived battery packs can keep my HPCs running for more than 10 hours.
- Minimalistic feel: As just mentioned, the CE programs are so compact yet effecient. Just a tiny fraction of memory size, resource (both hardware and software) requirements, power consumption, startup speed (Pocket Word pops up in the blink of an eye, vs. Office 365).
- Offline-ness: This is so retro and so anti-tech. The truth is my personal data is safest if it's not online. You can even think of the HPCs as a palm-sized memory storage device with a touch-typing friendly keyboard and a spacious screen.
- Enduring legacy: Those HPCs still surviving the talks to this date have stood the test of time. These are the legendary warriors in the great hall of fame.
- Low cost: For one GPD Pocket 2 I would be able to acquire 8 or even 10 of these good old HPCs on the used market today. How cool is that!
... How about nostalgia? In my case, I am new to HPCs, so I consider myself immune to this affliction. :)
Completely agree. Specially points 1 and 5.
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft Pocket Excel is PURE GOLD, for example. I've never needed, even in my professional life, anything beyond the included functions in Pocket Excel. I'm sure someone does - but then, at what cost? Excel takes 30 seconds to load in my machine with 32GB of RAM and 2GB/s storage.
Spot on. People who keep mocking at the poor performance of the HPCs may not really know what they are talking about. Hypnotized by consumerism and FOMO, so many gadget owners blindly chase the latest, believing cool equals useful. Frankly, many old DOS programs (such as WordStar and GrandView) can still compete and even surpass much of the bloatware today.
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