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Sharp Mobilon HC-4500

Sharp's first CE device offers color and multimedia

Ever since Microsoft introduced Windows CE late in 1996, industry insiders wondered what Sharp's reaction would be. Sharp, after all, owns a big chunk of the organizer market and has also eked out a sizeable market for its Zaurus K-PDAs. The big question was whether Sharp would continue the proprietary Zaurus line in competition to Windows CE, or bow to the (almost) inevitable and start building CE devices.

The answer is "sort of" to both parts of the question. The Zaurus will continue, but the ZR-3500 is really the sole viable product left in the once proud lineup. It's quite possible that Zaurus functionality will quietly be merged into the lower end organizers, ending the line of US Zaurii.

Sharp, of course, has always had many irons in the fire. Its Japanese line of keyboardless Zaurii remains very successful, and the Color Zaurus in its ever more impressive manifestations continues to receive rave reviews. Sharp also introduced the Pilot-class SE-500 in the US, a product certain to encounter heavy competition from the PalmPilot and, soon, Microsoft's wallet PC platform. Frankly, if Sharp were a lesser company, we'd be concerned about what could be interpreted as a lack of focus and direction in the handheld marketplace.

The fact, however, is that Sharp is a seasoned competitor with a global vision. It would be a big mistake to count them out just because the company hasn't decided yet where to place its bets. This said, it comes as no surprise that Sharp has now introduced its first CE device, the somewhat oddly named Mobilon.

The Mobilon fits right in with the emerging class of second generation CE devices. It's a handsomely designed clamshell sized a bit larger than the new Velo 500 and a bit smaller than king sized LG Phenom II and the NEC MobilePro 700. Like all new CE devices we're aware of, the Mobilon sports the wide format 640 x 240 screen. However, while most other vendors have shied away from exploiting CE 2.0's color support for the time being, Sharp went for it. This is no surprise as Sharp is also a world leader in LCD technology. The Mobilon's HC-4500's 6.5" color DSTN screen supports 256 colors. It's not quite as vibrant as depicted on the somewhat optimistic photograph accompanying this review, but it is worlds ahead of having no color at all.

The Mobilon is powered by Philips' impressive TwoChipPic Plus, yet another implementation of Silicon Graphic's powerful MIPS architecture. The plus version of the chip set is brand new and delivers around 80 Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS at a clock speed of 75MHz. The PR31700 processor part of the chip set consumes about 350mW, no more than the less powerful chips used in first generation CE devices. Best of all, it continues to comply with the MIPS R3000 reference profile, which means that it can execute standard R3000 binaries. The chip set also offers softmodem support, providing an energy-efficient 33.6kbps data/19.6kbps fax port.

The Mobilon has serial and IrDA ports, and a Type II PC Card slot, but lacks the increasingly popular CompactFlash slot of some of its competitors. The 4500 comes with 8MB of RAM and is internally upgradeable. The keyboard has 64 keys plus seven one-touch shortcut keys.

Not surprisingly, Sharp chose to draw on one of its strengths and equipped the Mobilon with extensive multimedia capabilities. There is an optional 640x480 digital camera card (under $400), an image editor, a voice recorder, and multimedia email support. This combination has been dazzling owners of the Japanese Color Zaurus for a couple of years, and it should be a big hit in the US market as well. Owners of older Sharp devices will welcome the IntelliMigrate software that allows data transfer from Zaurii, Wizards, and organizers to the Mobilon.

All in all, Sharp's first CE product is quite impressive. The Mobilon is technologically competent and offers some options not found anywhere else. The availability of a color screen will no doubt be well received, as will the novel camera attachment. Retail pricing will range from US$600 for a grayscale HC-4000 to US$900 for the color HC-4500. Very reasonable.

But what about battery life with that color screen, you will ask. Sharp indicates four to six hours for the color unit, as compared to more than 25 hours for the grayscale screen. You're paying a price for color, but I think it's well worth it.

- Conrad H. Blickenstorfer

Sharp <www.sharp-usa.com>