At this year's ScanTech show in Chicago, Symbol Technologies introduced no less than three new mobile computers based on the Windows CE operating system. All three are vertical market products, combining bar code scanning, rugged design, and wireless LAN connectivity for use in a variety of industries, and even the military. Two of the newcomers-the PDT 7200 and the PDT 7500-are part of Symbol's line of Portable Data Terminals, and one-the PPT 2700-is part of the company's line of Portable Pen Terminals.

If the PPT 2700 looks familiar to you it is because it shares its design and housing with the Palm OS-based SPT 1700. This makes Symbol the first manufacturer to offer the same compelling design with a choice of two completely different operating environments. Though the 1700 and the 2700 look the same, they are very different inside, both in terms of technology and in terms of design to accommodate that technology. Whereas the SPT 1700 is basically a ruggedized Palm IIIx, the new PPT 2700 is built around a NEC VR4181 RISC processor, a single chip version member of the VR4100 family of processors found in a number of Windows CE handhelds and palmtops. The PPT 2700 comes with 16MB of RAM and 12-24MB of flash ROM. It also comes with the same Symbol SE 900 miniature scan engine found in the SPT 1500 and 1700. There is also a version of the PPT 2700 with an integrated Spectrum24 wireless LAN radio called the PPT 2740. The basic PPT 2700 has a footprint of 3.6 by 7.0 inches, is an inch think, and weighs less than 12 ounces. This makes the PPT 2700 a bit larger than your typical palm-size PC, but smaller and lighter than the original Newton MessagePad. This tool-designed for enterprise, hospitality, sales force automation, healthcare, retail, and public safety markets- easily fits into a pocket. The 2700 should cost in the $1,200 range, survive four foot drops, and is built to IP54 standards for resisting windblown dust and rain. The radio version should be about $500 more and will allow both data and voice communication.

The two new members of the PDT family are entirely different animals. In fact, they don't even look as if they were from the same product line, with the 7200 looking like a "PDA on a stick" (Symbol's moniker, not ours) and the 7500 more like a conventional flashlight-style data terminal. The two new PDTs do not use the 2700's NEC VR chip. Instead, they are built around AMD's SC400 "Elan" chip, allowing them to run both DOS 6.22 and Windows CE 2.11. According to Symbol, the 66MHz Elan chip makes the new PDTs "almost as fast" in real life performance, and the Elan can run in lower temperatures.

The 1.3 pound PDT 7200, undoubtedly one of the most attractive and innovative computer designs to come to the industrial market in a long time, comes with 16MB RAM and 4 to 32MB Flash for the CE version. The PDA part of the 7200 measures just 3.7 by 5.9 inches. The pistol grip makes the whole thin roughly 8 inches tall. The 7200 comes with Symbol's SE 1200HP scan engine, can survive four foot drops (six foot in the optional protective boot), and has a vibrating pager that informs of successful scans in noisy environments. The 7200 uses the standard palm-size PC screen format of 240 x 320 pixels and its 1.6Ah Li-Ion battery lasts about 15 hours per charge. A Spectrum24 wireless LAN radio with voice paging is available, as is a plastic-bezel keypad with 16 keys. The polymer-clad PDT 7200 is designed for data collection in potentially punishing environments such as loading docks, storerooms, receiving bays, as well as on sales floors.

The more traditional PDT 7500 shares most of its electronics with the 7200, using the same 66MHz Elan processor and memory configuration. The device, designed for use in logistics and transportation environments-such as warehouses, docks, and yards-is 3.7 inches wide, 2,2 inches think, 8.4 inches long, and weighs 1.35 pounds. It is the most rugged of the three new computers, able to withstand multiple 6-foot drops, and operating in temperatures from -13 to 122 degree Fahrenheit. The 7500 comes with Symbol's ultra-fast SE-2200 scan engine and can also be ordered with a Spectrum24 LAN radio. Though the 7500 has a scratch-resistant 240 x 160 touchscreen, most data entry will probably occur on its keypad. A 1.45Ahr Li-Ion battery lasts about ten hours between charges.

These three new models considerably broaden Symbol's mobile computer lineup. They also represent the hard-charging company's first foray into the Windows CE marketplace. With the PPT 2700, Symbol now offers customers a choice between the Palm OS or Windows CE in the same lightweight, rugged package. The two new PDTs-one revolutionary, the other evolutionary-are true dual mode machines, running legacy DOS software while providing customers an opportunity to explore the emerging Windows CE platform. By hedging its bets and giving customers a choice, Symbol has solidly positioned itself into a leadership role in the emerging market for rugged computing devices with graphical user interfaces.

-Conrad H. Blickenstorfer