Best Newton. 130 , 2000, or 2100?

[brickfish]

I'm interested in buying an old Messagepad but I'm just now getting into them. I should have bought one two years ago instead of my Palm IIIx that's already died twice!

Just from looking around today I think the 130 is newer, but the 2000/21000 seems to have a lot more support? What's the best one to get in your opinion?

-mike bass

[SineWaveAu]

The MP130 is older than the MP2x00. I have an MP130, it has an ARM 610 RISC proc. running at 20MHz. The MP2000/2100 has a StrongARM-110 RISC proc. running at 162MHz. It also has a much bigger screen than the MP130. Newtons are lovely machines. Why anyone would forfeit their power for other PDAs is beyond me.

[stercusaccidit]

The 2100 is the newest. Go for it. You'll never look back. Not only is it a whole lot faster, but it gets much better battery life, supports proper IrDA, has a larger screen, and two PCMCIA slots. It also has Newton OS 2.1, which supports ethernet and you can get an 802.11b driver and take it wireless. The screen is also greyscale instead of black and white, and the button bar is soft, meaning you can move it about or collapse it. I lke to use mine in landscape with the button bar on the right, but you've all sorts of options.
The disadvantage is that it doesn't have a normal serial port. It has what is known as the "Newton Interconnect Port". In order to connect it to your computer, you'll need an adaptor known as a serial dongle (or you can go with IrDA). After you do that once, you can install ethernet or wireless drivers and do it the modern way.
The difference between the 2000 and 2100 is only the amount of heap (the Newton equivalent of RAM in a desktop). The 2000 has one meg, while the 2100 has four. This makes quite a difference when playing MP3s or browsing the web.
2100s have also gotten fairly cheap recently. You can grab them on eBay or from places like J&K Sales, where you can get a pristine one for $140. While eBay can be cheaper, you get a guarantee as to the quality from retailers. Check out the newbie section of the site in my sig. I've links to a few places that sell Newts. The NewtonTalk List (http://www.newtontalk.net) is a great place for info and you may find someone who'll sell you one there. You only downside is that it's so active it may swamp your inbox.