Hewlett Packard 200LX

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I started using this amazing machine about five years ago (and before that the 100LX and 95LX), and I still haven't found a worthy successor. Although HP discontinued the model in November 1999, if anything it has become more capable as time goes by. So many good companies and individuals continue to support this product, even developing and releasing new hardware/software after its demise.

In a nutshell, (well actually a 6.3" x 3.4" x 1", 11oz clamshell), it is a wonderful fusion of an electronic organiser and an IBM PC. The hardware is a genuine IBM compatible PC, with an 8086 type processor, 1, 2 or 4 MB of RAM (which doubles up as a pseudo disk drive), CGA compatible screen, and an average three week battery life from two AA cells. The software comprises MS-DOS 5.0, Lotus 1-2-3, Pocket Quicken and a suite of organiser type apps written by Lotus. Also, if it's MS-DOS, CGA compatible and runs in 640K RAM, then you can run it on the 200LX too! Have a look at the S.U.P.E.R. site to see the enormous wealth of software available.

What do I use it for?

• Maintain all my business and personal contact info with the built-in customisable phone book.
• Manage my diary and todo list on the built-in agenda program.
• Keep info handy in the built-in database program.
• Manage lists and todos using the unparalled GrandView 2.0
• Read and write my e-mail and newsgroup mailings with WWW/LX bought from D&A Software.
• Harper-Collins 190,000 word (UK English) dictionary and 270,000 word thesaurus, complete with definitions, pronunciation and etymology. I have a lot of dictionaries, and this is my favourite. Buy it from Thaddeus in the USA.
• Read books downloaded from Project Gutenberg on Gilles Kohl's free Vertical Reader program.
• Use Borland's Turbo Pascal and Turbo C compilers. Download these for free from Borland's web site!
• Use a Perl interpreter. Again, this very powerful piece of software is available free.
• Experiment with PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) using DOS version 2.6.3ia
• Use the built-in Lotus 1-2-3 for calculations and timesheet billing.
• Use the built-in calculator (the word doesn't do it justice) for solving equations and converting units & currency.
• Play games. There are so many wonderful DOS games available. A lot are free. Have a look at Curtis Cameron's web site.

I find the machine so useful, indispensable even, that I have had mine upgraded. Thomas Rundel's company, Rundel Datentechnik in Germany has replaced the motherboard crystal with a doublespeed version so that the CPU now runs at 16 MHz (believe me, it's enough). The internal RAM has been upgraded to 8MB (up to 96MB is now possible should you feel so inclined) and I have a 48MB SanDisk compact flash card in the PCMCIA slot via a CF <-> PCMCIA adapter. The next upgrade on the horizon is to have the screen replaced with one that has a backlight. I still get two weeks solid daily use from two NiMH batteries before it needs a five hour recharge. Yes, two weeks, not two hours.

Sound good? Well you can't buy one any more, because evidently Microsoft's Windows CE is where it's at.
Someone should tell Porsche it's about time they stopped building the 911.

Normally, when I see a scene like this in a restaurant, I cringe, because I know that it'll be people calculating their share of the bill. No such worries here. These are fellow palmtoppers (left to right) Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz, Tony Hutchins and Avi Meshar. Tony is demonstrating browsing the world wide web on an HP200LX, using Avi's WWW/LX software (see link above) via an infra-red connection to a mobile phone. One day, we'll all be doing this, then running Java applets to calculate our share of the bill ;-)

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