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Hewlett Packard 360LX and 620LX

The evolution of the handheld PC continues

When the first generation of Windows CE devices was unveiled at last year's Fall Comdex in Las Vegas, Hewlett Packard wasn't quite ready. It took the company several more months to get their entries--the 300LX and the 320LX--to market. The extra development time, however, was well spent: HP's entries had features that couldn't be found anywhere else, such as direct printing, and they were the first to use the wide format 640x240 screen that's now been universally adopted. Despite the larger screen with its greater number of pixels to be moved, the HP units were also faster than most of their competitors. But that was then and this is now. All new CE devices now support direct print, and they all have adopted HP's wide format screen.

Evolution with a punch

In response, Hewlett Packard has announced two new products, the HP 360LX and the HP 620LX Palmtop PCs. Unlike the initial offerings, the new models are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Like all second generation handheld PC hardware, they use Windows CE 2.0 with all its new features and capabilities. Both units are a bit larger and heavier than their predecessors, a general trend with all new CE devices. System ROM has grown to 10MB--user upgradeable--and there is 8MB of RAM in the 360LX and no less than 16MB in the 620LX. Both units are powered by a faster 75MHz version of Hitachi's SH-3 microprocessor (the 300/320LX run at 44Mhz). This should make for excellent performance.

The most visible changes are in the display area. The 360LX gets a high contrast 16-grayscale LCD with natural-white backlight. The 620LX will be the first palmtop PC from Hewlett Packard to feature a color screen'a 256 color backlit DSTN LCD. This makes the 620LX one of only two currently announced CE devices with color screens (though we have no doubt that others will follow). In order to handle the increased power requirements of this screen, the 620LX comes with a Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery pack. The 360LX has rechargeable Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries, but can also use regular AA Alkalines.

Most other features are carry-overs from the 320LX: there are serial and infrared connections, a Type II PC Card slot, and a CompactFlash slot. Unfortunately, Hewlett Packard does not offer a softmodem, which means you'll have to use a power-hungry PC Card modem to check your email and browse the web.

The 360LX and 620LX systems will be packaged with user guides, battery, charger, two CDROMs with software, a sync cable, and a docking cradle. The software includes Microsoft Explorer 2.0 for the desktop, a full set of financial applications, and some trial 2.0 software from some 3rd party vendors. Applications also include bFAX Pro and bFind from bsquare development. Upon registration, the user will receive HP 100/200LX and HP OmniGo 100/120 translation software to transfer data from their old machines.

The 360LX will have an estimated street price of US$699. Pricing for the 620LX was not released at press time.

- Conrad H. Blickenstorfer

Hewlett Packard <www.hp.com>