NEC Mobile Pro 900

I really wanted a more powerful Jornada 720 which is sort of the claim that NEC puts on this product. They keyboard is pretty good and some parts of the design like the placement of the CF slot and the PC Card are perfect. However, this is not exactly a small form factor like the Jornada it is about the size of a Fujitsu P1120 or a Avertec P. Weight wise it is about .5lb from the the P1120 and 2lbs from the Avertec. A good part is that it does have the ability to instantly turn on but the screen is terrible. In fact probably the worst screen of any PDA / Laptop I have seen. It is all washed out. I wanted this so that I could throw it in a Gym bag and if needed instantly turn it on and trade stocks through a TMobile Aircard. I found that the syncing with ActiveSync 3.7 was terrible, sometimes it would work other times it would fail on WinNT2000K and with XP Pro it was a nightmare. Part of the NEC 900 that is rotten is the OS. THe HPC 2000 is just plain buggy. The AirCard software would die while it works on a PDA and over 6 laptops and tablets.

Pros:

+ Turns on fast

+ CPU is definately faster than Jornada like 4 times as fast

+ CF/PCMCIA slot are position nicely and takes both I/II

+ Keyboard excellent

COns:

+ Too big just isn't small enough to be like a Jornada and too small to be like a P1120 or Sony TR1 or JVC Interlink all of which are much more powerful

+ Screen is worst I have ever seen

+ Syncing/OS is out of date and difficult

Bottom line for the price it isn't too bad if you want something light to type on or run excel spreadsheets that will last 8 hours. They keyboard is awesome so if you have large fingers and need an ultra portable this is ok if you can get around the screen.

NEC did a good job with this one! With the improved battery life, the USB slave port, the flash ROM, OS, and the 400mhz processor NEC surely made a seller! Many people do not realize that this unit is not running Windows XP, so this unit can out speed most laptops with its operating system!

People need to actually give HPC devices an honest chance, and with the right expectations. They will not be disappointed!

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with good features for an IT department. Your mileage may vary, but it is not really suitable for consumer use. Yes, the keyboard is surpisingly good, the screen sharp, the time to load screaming fast, and it has a good suite of features. On the other hand, for this very experienced user, it took an inordinate amount of time to get it to synchronize with the desktop or connect to AT&T Worldnet. Once connected, however, I couldn't get the unit to resolve domain names (i.e., I couldn't actually connect to the world wide web). The straw, however, was that two programs would not terminate, and NEC support confirmed that my only alternative was to remove the batteries and do a hard reset. It's a shame, and my experience may not be typical, but you're warned--don't try this at home.

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I bought a used NEC Mobile Pro 900 to use as a digital typewriter to take with me to coffeehouses while I work on my novel with my writing group. While it can access the wifi in the coffeehouse with a gold orinoco card, I find that the wifi is too slow for anything but the most basic use. Finding items that are compatible with the antique software and hardware has been a challenge. It will only accept a CF card up to 8 gigs. I use a transcend 512meg CF I card with it and find that it works the best for transferring my text in and out of the word processor to my desktop. I also have a 1 gig CF card that I use to flash it with software. Mainly, I use the software that came with it, a thesaurus and a word count program that I found for free on the internet.

However, despite the negatives of this old machine, it has proven to be a good writing instrument. It is instant on/off, is smaller than most netbooks on the market and has a rugged construction. While the keyboard is not full sized, it is large enough to type on comfortably. The battery life is much better than modern netbooks, I can get a good eight hours on a fully charged battery. The touch screen and stylus took a little getting used to as compared to a mouse, but I find that after a while it was just as easy to use. I like the infra-red transfer feature. I also own an alphasmart and the infra-red works between the two. I can also hook up the alphasmart via USB connection and the NEC will recognize it as a keyboard.

If you buy a NEC Mobile Pro 900, you need to be aware of the compatibility issues, but otherwise it is a nice little machine and I can recommend it as an inexpensive distraction free writing device.

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This unit runs Windows CE operating system by Microsoft. Great built-in apps (Office, Excel, Access, Power Point, etc.). The keyboard is a bit cramped for speed typing.

This is my least favorite PDA device (I also have the IBM-Z50, HP Jornada 680 and 728 models, Casio E-125). The NEC 900 was built mainly to be used in industrial settings. The screen is dull and somewhat washed-out.

I only take this unit with me to job-sites in high-crime areas, so if I lose it, I won't care that much!

Still ... It's better than a PDA with no keyboard. The screen is OK when indoors. There is a lot of Windows CE software out there (on the Internet) for free. Good for the kiddies doing their homework on the run.

Better units are the Jornada 680,728 series light, small and good screen,

and the IBM Z50 its almost full-size keyboard and great IBM support.