Promising Palm-Based Laptop Replacement
Written: Jul 16 '03 (Updated Jul 16 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Light, tough, excellent keyboard, good screen, decent software package.
Cons: Fails to synch with my computer.
The Bottom Line: Promising product but poor synchronization. Form factor, keyboard, weight, screen all satisfactory. But due to synch difficulty, mine's collecting dust.
|
|
|
| Andyman's Full Review: Dana by AlphaSmart |
I write, and I've been looking for a looong time for a light, mobile writing device. Something lighter than a laptop. Something with more screen than a Handspring w/ Stowaway keyboard. No proprietary OS. No mini-Windows-clamshell. No modem-based email device. I've been waiting, in short, for this very device, literally, for 5 years. PalmOS. Excellent battery life. Full-size keyboard. USB synch to Macs and PCs. And more than a wristwatch-sized screen.
This is it. Isn't it?
bdwelle has written a definitive review of this product, which I can only try here to complement. It was his review which led me to buy a Dana. I am a little disappointed after a couple months of usage, although the product is definitely impressive.
Here are my impressions.
Size: A-
The device is nice and small. Definitely small enough to throw into a backpack or large purse. Might fit into the glove compartment of an SUV or truck. In a pinch, you could probably shove it down your pants and smuggle it somewhere.
Form Factor: B
The design is sound, basically, with a slightly angled-up screen above the keyboard. This makes the screen easier to read, but keeps the device mostly flat. However, the angle isn't quite steep enough for me, and the device could be flatter. I'd much prefer an adjustable flip-up screen that locks flat for travel.
The device is thicker at the rear (behind the screen) than it is in the front (where the space bar is). Sort of like an axe-blade shape. This curved wedge, with nicely rounded corners, is really easy to stick into a backpack without snagging or catching. There's a small frame of hard plastic around the edges of the keyboard. Enough to make it comfortable and pleasing to hold without accidentally gripping the keys themselves.
One obvious flaw is that there's nothing to protect the keyboard except the natural curve of the device (which cradles the keyboard in its hollow). In a backpack, the keys are likely to get pressed by any other objects next to it. You may take your Dana out of your backpack to find that you've inserted 6000 rows of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" into the middle of a document, or worse, devoured it with the backspace key. Some kind of sleeve or cover would be good. Or at least a power-off lock.
lap-stability
If you expect to primarily use it directly on your lap, you may find it a little small. But probably not. I write on it in bed, on the couch, etc. A table or desk is more comfortable, but the full-size keyboard gives it enough width to be stable on your lap. There are small rubber shoes at the corners that keep it from sliding around on a table, but they aren't big enough to help when it's on your lap. Bigger rubber shoes or even slid lines of rubber along the bottom would be a good improvement in this area, as the plastic casing is quite smooth and slick.
weight
It's quite light at 2 lbs. You could hold it up at arms length for a few minutes without getting tired. It adds so little heft to my daypack that I always have to double-check that it's actually in there before I leave the house. I would definitely bring it along if I went backpacking in the woods or through Europe. Weight is key at those times, but I often want to write when I'm out doing stimulating things. The Dana provides the portability I need for this kind of spontanaeity. If Alpahsmart can shave even more weight off this device, great! But I'm fairly happy as-is.
keyboard comfort
The keyboard is excellent. The keys themselves are not as tall as they are wide, but the depth of their range of motion is satisfying to the fingers, as is the resistance and rebound. The keyboard is also quiet. Quieter than my desktop, and quieter than my PowerBook.
keyboard layout
If you use a full desktop keyboard all the time, you might miss a thing or two. There is no actual forward-delete key. By holding down a modifier key and pressing backspace, you can delete in the forward direction, but this can feel unnatural. Similarly, the device's ctrl key (and a couple of other necessary command keys) are laid out in a less-than intuitive fashion, and mapped to software functions in a less-then-intuitive way.
Software: B
The Dana comes loaded with plenty of software. In addition to the standard Palm apps, you get a couple that take full advantage of the Dana's wide screen.
You have your choice of two word processing programs: QuickOffice or AlphaWord. QuickOffice is impressive, includes a spreadsheet as well, and promises compatibility with Excel and Word docs (I haven't tested this). AlphaWord is a little easier to use, IMO. It makes better use of the screen real estate, and has more intuitive key-shortcuts for my tastes. It's got a spell-checker, is Word compatible, and comes with its own Synch software (see below).
One thing to remember is that the standard Palm apps don't take advantage of the wide screen. The Dana's screen is roughly the same as 3 Palm III screens set up side-by-side. When running traditional apps that haven't been re-tooled for the Dana's screen, all they use is the middle section, effecting the same working area as any handheld Palm. Don't expect to run Memo Pad or Datebook in widescreen mode.
Synchronization: D
I hate to give the Dana such poor marks in this regard, but I've got to. I am really disappointed with the process of synching my word processing documents to my PC. 90% of the time, the synchronization fails for one reason or another. "Connection lost," or "port already busy." It's a simple USB connection straight to a brand-new Win2000 PC. It really ought to work. But I usually have to reboot the Dana a few times, unplug, replug, pray, try again... I have no reasonable hope of ever getting this done in a pinch, and have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I won't be swapping the same document back and forth, writing both on my Dell and my Dana. It's too bad. I'd really hoped for better, but Palm synch seems not to have gotten any better in the past 5 years.
Even when the connection finally succeeds, the setup is abysmal. Each application performs it's own set of synchronization tasks with the PC. There is no all-in-one backup. I've been using AlphaWord, which uses it's own PC application to determine which documents to synchronize. I haven't had a heck of a lot of luck with this setup. Sometimes, individual documents will fail, and I have no idea why. I have to re-save them as text, then re-save them as Word docs. Jump through hoops until it works, basically.
In short, it takes me about an hour to backup and synch all my writing, and it's a crappy hour. I have only bothered a few times. If quick-in/quick-out synchronization is key for your work habits, then I'd double-check the store return policy before buying. These issues depend a lot on the specific computer you're using, so your mileage may vary. But I have to say, after all the promise of the Dana concept and design, to screw up the synch is a miserable waste.
Conclusion:
Although I give the Dana high marks in the end, I can't recommend it to a friend. I wanted a sattelie writing machine, and I didn't get one. Even though it's a software synch issue, not exactly a hardware complaint, the result is the same: it doesn't work for me.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 379
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Andyman
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Andy Hilal
Location: Oakland, CA
Reviews written: 131
Trusted by: 177 members
About Me:
Epinions Alum!!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.