Psion Series 3a

[jcwuk]

Sorry if this is in the wrong Forum.

Just found my old Psion 3a in the Loft after a clear out.

Does anyone remember these devices ?

Mine has the 256k Flash Solid State Disk with 1MB Ram and the Autoroute Express version 1.0 !
I Loved it at the time !

Was it Dixons who used to sell these gadgets in their day?

What happened to these devices ?

Great in their day !

[n3il123]

Had a psion 5mx (the silver one) hmmm I think I used it about 5 times.. was too big to be lug around... think I sold it on eBay (when you could get decent money for stuff!)

[bridgdav]

Still Going...!

http://www.psionteklogix.com/products.htm

[john_p]

They were awesome, especially once I invested in the PC-Link and got to play Jumpy

I didn't know Autoroute was available on it, that's pretty impressive. Did it do GPS then, with a dongle of some sort?

[BigBen]

For a guide to what happened to Psion see

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/26/psion_spec...

I had a 5 then a 5mx, both excellent machines with no real modern equivalent thanks to the 5's fantastic keyboard. Until recently SonyEricsson smartphones were very closely related software wise so were not so bad but not the same.

Ben

[AlexKP]

I've got a couple. I remember paying somewhere between £200-400 for differing models.

They were great in their day. Nicely made too.

Amazing how fast technology progresses isn't it?

[Bungleaio]

Great devices, I used to use mine to take notes at uni I started with a Sienna then a 5 and finally a 7. Instant on and the batteries lasted far longer than laptops used to. I keep looking at getting another 5 but it would purely be for nostalgic reasons.

[bridgdav]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

You are Joking, surely..

After a few months of daily usage - the Hinge would break.. 3, 3a, 5 & 5Mx.

We had them for many years at work instead of the old Time Manager series diaries.

[AlexKP]

bridgdav said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

You are Joking, surely..

After a few months of daily usage - the Hinge would break.. 3, 3a, 5 & 5Mx.

We had them for many years at work instead of the old Time Manager series diaries.

Really? They always felt pretty solid.

Mind you, I probably didn't use mine that heavily.

[jcwuk]

john_p said:

They were awesome, especially once I invested in the PC-Link and got to play Jumpy

I didn't know Autoroute was available on it, that's pretty impressive. Did it do GPS then, with a dongle of some sort?

Hey John

I think is was a Basic Map Route - just checking it out now!

Got to say though the gadget still looks well made.

[jcwuk]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I agree - Always felt pretty solid.

I remember when in New York the Psion was cheaper than in the UK.....but was it not a Cambridge based product (design wise) or was it built in China ?

[trooperiziz]

I had a 3, a 3a, a 5 and a 5mx!

But then I did used to work for Psion Dacom testing the Gold Card modems, does anybody remember them?

[jcwuk]

trooperiziz said:

I had a 3, a 3a, a 5 and a 5mx!

But then I did used to work for Psion Dacom testing the Gold Card modems, does anybody remember them?

Gold Card Modems - Oh Yes ! I feel old now Trooperiziz ! I kind of remember the Psion sold at WH Smiths / Dixons and then the Gold 'Card' came out !

How did you find it at the time ?

[Zod]

I still have my 5 in a drawer and I was one of the idiots who bought a 7. If it had been able to take a normal PCI card, so that it could use wifi, it would have been a great netbook. Sadly, it couldn't. It would only take the Psion Gold Cards and they never made a wifi one.

I actually used to travel with a Psion5, a serial PC card adapter, Gold Card and mobile link and connect to the net and email using my Nokia 8110 at 9.6 kbps.

[trooperiziz]

jcwuk said:

trooperiziz said:

I had a 3, a 3a, a 5 and a 5mx!

But then I did used to work for Psion Dacom testing the Gold Card modems, does anybody remember them?

Gold Card Modems - Oh Yes ! I feel old now Trooperiziz ! I kind of remember the Psion sold at WH Smiths / Dixons and then the Gold 'Card' came out !

How did you find it at the time ?

It was a great little place to work, but it was my first real job out of uni and I didn't know any better

The Gold Card modems were top of the tree for a while, and I had the joy of travelling round europe, sitting in an airport, running a load of tests on a laptop, getting on another flight and doing the same, over and over again.
I did get to fly Suckling Airways, now they were good!

[anonymous-user]

I had a 3a, I plugged it into my old nokia phone, extended the aerial, and used the keyboard to send a text

I thought it was brilliant. I think I had a card game on some kind of disk also.

[Nolar Dog]

I was at mum's a few weeks ago and she had one of these (a 3a) in the kitchen "stuff" drawer.

I remember her using it lots when I was younger.

[Moose.]

Still got my 3a in the loft somewhere. I've even got the developers kit for it and wrote a few silly apps. It had an excellent keyboard for such a small device, you could actually touch type on it!

Edited by Moose. on Monday 9th March 20:58

[Chairman LMAO]

got a 3a here... well, somewhere...

They (5mx) seem to fetch good money on ebay.

[BigBen]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Nope they were based in London although ARM who did the processor are a Cambridge outfit. Think some were made in the UK and some in China by a contract manufacturer. I did some work with them as they were winding down the consumer products business.

In the article I linked to in my other post one of the Psion executives states the problem they had was people did not upgrade regularly as the products were so good there was no consumer incentive!

Ben