More pocket power. Review on Psion Revo Plus

The Revo Plus builds on Psion's successful Revo machine by doublng the memory (from 8MB to 16MB) and by supplying a few extra goodies on the PsiWin CD that accompanies the machine. The software on the machine itself hasn't changed much since the Revo, and as there wasn't much wrong with it, this decsion seems to make sense.

The Revo Plus is a well spec'ed little machine capable of doing far more than just diary and address book stuff, such as word process (with a dictionary and thesaurus), spreadsheet (with graphs), manage your mobile phone SIM card, access POP3 email, send SMS text messages via your mobile, and surf web and Wap sites. As with other Psions, the Revo Plus comes with PC software to allow backups, conversion to PC formats (such as Office) and synchronisation of agenda and contacts information.

One of the two additional goodies found on the CD is a fully working version of the Opera web browser, which scores over the previous web browser in that it supports Javascript and SSL secure sites, so online shopping and access to hotmail is now possible. The other addition is a copy of Psion's new Wap browser, which really improves the whole Wap experience by making use of a screen that's a heck of a lot larger than a mobile phone.

The Revo Plus (and Revo) are small enough to hide inside a jacket pocket. They are powerful little machines, just as capable as their big brother, the Series 5mx, although the keyboard isn't quite as responsive as the excellent one found on the 5 family.

If you're adding extra software, such as the Palmtop Software Route Planner or Street Planner, you'll welcome the extra 8MB of RAM and with a usable web and Wap browser bundled in too (all for the price of the original Revo), then this is a very good buy.

It's also great for writing DooYoo reviews during the early morning commute!