Palmtops: HP200LX (DOS 5) compared to the Cassiopeia A-11 (WinCE2)The HP200LX, if compared to the Cassiopeia A-11, is definitely a more mature palmtop. This is based on my practical experience using both platforms. I can well understand why the HP200LX (although obsolete) remains a popular choice while the WinCE platform does not really find widespread acceptance.
Athough the Cassiopeia A-11 is relatively more advanced and has features far exceeding those of the HP200LX, it suffers serious shortcomings at a basic level. Overall the Cassiopeia A-11 is
too slow
its battery life is too short
the range of standard applications in ROM is limited
a number of its ROM applications are inadequate.
Some of what I have to say about the Cassiopeia applies to the WinCE platform in general as well.
The strengths of the Cassiopeia are its
Windows type interface which is familiar, can deal with both graphics and text and provides support for, for example, different font types and sizes
support of the standard Microsoft applications, that is, MS Outlook, MS Word and MS Excel
very good desktop synchronisation/file transfer ability
capable of recording and playing sound
more generous available RAM.
Unless the above are very important, the HP offers better a better balance of features.
I have used both palmtops extensively. I used a HP200LX for two years and switched to a Cassiopeia A-11 (6 Mbyte) four months ago - more to find out what exactly WinCE has to offer. Of course, the Cassiopeia is not the latest model, although it is not significantly different to the current crop of WinCE devices either. Both the HP200LX and the Cassiopeia A-11still require a deliberate investment in time and effort in order to get to know them well, and I can at least claim to have been through both learning curves.
I use a palmtop mainly for managing names and addresses, appointments; keeping a log of activities; storing and accessing information; doing the odd calculation; recording financial transactions and entering small amounts of data (numeric and text). I do not use it for communications, web access or graphical applications.
My case rests on both hardware and software considerations. Although the Cassiopeia A-11 (WinCE) appears better in terms of hardware (except battery life), its ROM software is insufficient. Its operating system is slow and its application software is lacking in critical areas although I must admit there are very attractive features as well.
HARDWARE
1. Keyboard: The Cassiopeia has a somewhat better (larger) keyboard. The HP200LX's keys are just too tiny. However, the Cassiopeia is not really suited for compiling long documents either.
2. Screen: Not much different. The Cassiopeia A-11 does have more fonts and font sizes to choose from.
3. Graphics and video: Of course, Cassiopeia A-11 wins this contest. The stylus can be used to draw pictures (Paint and Task) and also doubles as a mouse. Apparently (I do not use it) the Cassiopeia A-11 is capable of recording and playing sound (not standard software), which is lacking in the HP200LX. The Cassiopeia A-11 also has good backlighting which enables it to be used in the dark. However, I find that both the HP200LX and the Cassiopeia A-11 (both mono screens) fall short. Both screens are too tiny and can be hard to read at times.
4. Desktop synchronisation/file transfer: Although I use MS Outlook on the desktop, in practice I find little advantage in using the Cassiopeia A-11. In my view the HP200LXs Laplink style of file transfers where both the source and destination folders appear simultaneously, is sufficient. I admit however, it is better on the Cassiopeia, although slow - which is also the case for the HP200LX.
5. Storage capacity: The Cassiopeia A-11 with 6MB of internal memory is clearly better than the 2MB of the HP200LX.
6. Battery life: The Cassiopeia A-11 fails in this critical area. I only get 4 hours of battery life on the Cassiopeia A-11, which translates to about two days of use. In comparison I consistently obtained 4 weeks of battery life in the case of the HP200LX (using rechargeable batteries in both cases).
SOFTWARE OVERALL
Operating system and user interface:
Although the familiar Windows interface is an advantage, in practice WinCE is simply too slow. It takes ages for applications to load (although the ROM applications appear to load faster). In comparison, the HP200LX (DOS 5) is quick and responsive.
Although WinCE is better at multitasking (although slow), and boasts more memory, in practice the HP200LX is sufficient (although constrained by memory).
User interface: I do not think that the use of a graphical user interface on a palmtop offers any substantial advantages - except when used for handwriting recognition, for the input of graphics and for mixing text and graphics. On the Cassiopeira, the graphics competence is too much standalone and not well integrated with text, perhaps because WinCE is modelled too much on the desktop. The difference is that on the desktop, the tablet (stylus input) is not generally used while it is standard input on the palmtop. This means that, for example in Pocket Word one should be able to switch effortlessly between keyboard (text) and stylus input (graphics). One should also be able to input text by the use of handwriting which of course requires handwriting recognition software.
Handwriting recognition: I was surprised to find that WinCE which supports the use of a stylus, lacks ROM software for handwriting recognition. Of course one can buy applications that support this function but at an additional cost. I expect to find complete and well integrated software in ROM, at least for basic applications.
Extent of applications in ROM:
The HP200LX includes a set of mature programs that cover the most important uses of a palmtop. WinCE only includes scaled down versions of Word, Excel and Outlook (addresses, calendar and tasks) although Pocket Paint (graphics) can be downloaded free. Quicken (financial software) is included with the HP200LX but is lacking in the Cassiopeia.
Although there are many WinCE applications, and the list is growing, these cost money. I expect to find the standard applications in ROM.
Availability of (third party) applications
An advantage is that (almost) any DOS program can be run on the HP200LX.
WinCE cannot run DOS, Win95 or Win98 applications.
However, there is a growing list of WinCE applications.
SOFTWARE: SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS
Word processor
Pocket Word in WinCE is much more powerful than the standard HP200LX word processor. I particularly like Pocket Word's ability to retain (the most important) formatters when transferring files between the desktop and the palmtop, the inclusion of a spelling checker, its ability to import graphics (from Pocket Paint) and its support of multiple documents.
I am prepared to accept that Pocket Word lacks many features found on the desktop version.
In my opinion Pocket Word is the maturest application in WinCE.
Spreadsheet
In my opinion the full version of Lotus 123 on the HP200LX is more useful than Pocket Excel. Pocket Excel does not support graphs and also has no programming language (both are included in Lotus 123 on the HP200LX).
My major complaint against Pocket Excel in everyday use is that it is unacceptable slow for basic operations.
Some minor (but irritating) quirks exist in Pocket Excel. For example, when inserting a new row or column in Pocket Excel, the cursor returns to the top left hand position of the worksheet.
An advantage of Pocket Excel is that (most) formatting is retained when files are exchanged between the palmtop/desktop. Also nice, is Pocket Excel's ability to support multiple worksheets (Lotus 123 on the HP200LX only supports one sheet).
Database
There is no database amongst the standard applications in WinCE, at least in my version of WinCE. The HP200LX does include a simple database which allows for the user definition of fields as well as basic queries.
It does however help that Pocket Excel can double as a simple database in WinCE.
What I found particularly disturbing is that there is no standard Note application in WinCE which allows one to store notes (text) by keyword and category fields.
Calculator
The standard calculator of WinCE is totally insufficient. Although it is the same as the standard Windows calculator, I expect more.
The HP200LX boasts a well-designed calculator which has scientific, financial, business, statistical and equation solving capabilities and works in both algebraic and RPN mode. I am still looking for a WinCE calculator, which provides the same functionality. I could probably get one (Coolcalc?), but at an additional cost.
Summary of ratings (each characteristic is rated out of 100)
Hardware Importance / weight (%) Cassiopeia (100=perfect) HP200LX (100=perfect)
Keyboard 25 40 30
Screen 25 50 40
Graphics and video 5 60 10
Desktop synchronisation/ file transfer 10 80 60
Storage capacity 10 60 20
Battery life 25 20 90
Total hardware 100 45 49
Software overall
Operating system 30 50 70
User interface 20 80 60
Handwriting recognition 10 30 0
Scope of included applications 20 40 80
Availability of 3rd party applications 20 40 80
Total 100 50 65
Software: Standard applications included
Word processor 30 70 30
Spreadsheet 30 40 70
Database 20 0 40
Calculator 20 10 80
Tota
