The Revo is the newest PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) from Psion Computers, the leading British palmtop computer manufacturer who have also produced the Series 5mx portable computer and the Series 7, a larger colour laptop-like computer. The Series 5mx, whilst being powerful and expandable, wasn't ideal for users who preferred to carry their PDA around in their pocket, as it was slightly too large and heavy.

The only options for highly-mobile PDA users were, until recently, 3Com/Palm Computing's Palm series and a few Windows CE palmtops, although nearly all of these units utilised a stylus-powered stylised character recognition system rather than a keyboard. Recently, Psion released their entry into this market - the touch-sensitive, keyboard powered Revo. I've written this review on the Revo itself.

The Revo comes in a stylish white and yellow box with the caption 'the switched-on organizer' (note that the emphasis is not on the word 'computer' - the Revo is primarily an organizer). The case itself is a very deep blue and silver, and is again very eye-catching and svelte. The Revo comes with a thick, spiral bound handbook, and a fold-out Quick Start guide gets you started quickly.

Firstly, the Revo's dimensions - is it easily pocketable? Size-wise, the Revo measures, when closed, 157x79x18mm, which is not much larger than my old Sharp databank (although, of course, a Revo can do so much more than a databank - more on that later!) It weighs 200g, approximately the same as two music CDs in their jewel cases. Portability isn't a problem.

One of the main advantages of a Revo over most other palmtops is its keyboard, which is fairly well sized and I've found that I can type on it with three fingers fairly rapidly. The position of the comma and full stop are unusual, though, being to the right of the space bar and to the right of the M key respectively. However, I am beginning to get used to it as I type. The keys don't have a lot of travel, but this is not too much of a problem if the keys are configured to 'click' when pressed, via the on-screen Control Panel. When you open the Revo's clamshell case, the keyboard slides out and is positioned at a fairly comfortable angle.

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Revo screenshots