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Electronic Organizer Reviews and Recommendations

Looking for a review or recommendation on a basic electronic organizer? It's not hard to find reviews of high-end PDAs and pocket PCs, but there isn't too much product comparison information available on the basic models. Here you can read IMSL Software's views based on many years of using and supporting these devices.

Reviews

Casio

Sharp

Oregon Scientific

Recommendations

(updated November 2000)

Best full-size organizer under $100: Sharp OZ-770

Best buy in a pen-pad PDA: Palm IIIe, about $150

Lowest cost electronic organizer that isn't just a toy: Sharp EL-6790P or EL-6890P: under $30 with PC-Link

When it has to be as small as possible: Oregon Scientific Echo, $70

Best mobile Email solution: Sharp TM-20, under $100

More Details:

Best full-size organizer under $100: Sharp OZ-770

This model has all the usual organizer functions, plus the high-end features which put it a cut above the basic models - primarily more memory (3 Mbytes), a bigger display (8 lines by 40 characters), and a more extensive set of fields and options for the standard data types. The older OZ-700, OZ-730, and OZ-750 models are similar but have less memory.

But the main thing that sets the OZ-770 and the other OZ-7xx models apart is that they are user-programmable, which makes them the lowest cost programmable organizer available. You can download the programming IDE and a variety of free add-on programs from Sharp's MyWizard web site.

The included PC link hardware and software supports true synchronization with a PC database, and they even have a wireless infrared interface to allow them to exchange data directly with other OZ-7xx models. These interfaces are incompatible with any other models outside the OZ-7xx family, so don't expect to be beam infrared data back and forth to Palm PDAs. You can get an add-on terminal emulator program from MyWizard, but there's no TCP/IP support yet for web browsing or email.

The OZ-770 is a bit larger than pocket size in order to accomodate the larger screen and keyboard, and to allow the use of standard AA batteries. However they are slimmer and lighter than most other models in this category, such as the Casio SF-7xxSY models. The standard AA batteries save you money, and there are no additional memory backup batteries required since the organizer uses non-volatile flash memory.

In summary, a very impressive organizer at the price - well worth it if you want a bigger screen and keyboard, or you want to be able to extend your organizer with add-on programs. The add-on programs available so far aren't all that impressive, but there is an active group of developers producing more all the time (see www.ozdev.com).

Should you buy the OZ-770 or spend 50% more for a Palm IIIe? That depends on whether you prefer a pen-pad layout or a regular keyboard, and whether you want to be able to use all those Palm add-on applications and exchange data with other Palm users.

Best buy in a pen-pad PDA: Palm IIIe, about $150

Surveys show that most people use their PDAs as a basic organizer, so what's the attraction of the more expensive Palm models? Among other things:

A well-designed user interface which works smoothly with the pen-pad layout.
Fast and easy synchronization with the Palm PC database software and with a variety of other standard applications software.
An open application development environment which has spawned thousands of 3rd-party applications which run on the Palm PDA
Standard communications interfaces which support Internet connectivity and a host of other devices.

These things have made the Palm PDA the "generic PC" of handheld units. If you want to be able to exchange data easily with other people's PDAs, and if you want to take advantage of the most extensive set of PDA add-on applications available, it has to be Palm.

The Pocket PC units running Windows CE from other manufacturers ostensibly offer more and flashier capabilities, but they are also generally more expensive and not as usable as the Palm units. Casio is also trying to compete with their latest programmable PV-S/X models released in Europe. The Casio units are well designed and have an impressive set of built-in functions, but they are starting from way behind Palm. Casio hasn't even bothered trying to compete with Palm in the U.S. market.

Palm has a variety of models, and there are other manufacturers now offering similar PDAs which use the Palm operating system under license, but a basic inexpensive model like the Palm IIIe is still the best buy for most people. The new low-end Palm m100 units are a little cheaper, but have a small screen which some people might find more difficult to use. The Palm IIIxe offers more memory (8 Mbytes instead of 2 Mbytes for the IIIe), but at a significantly higher price - the 2 Mbyte memory of the Palm IIIe is sufficient for most users.The Palm-compatible Visor models from Handspring offer a USB link for faster synchronization and an accessory hardware slot for which many options are now available, but they are more expensive.

Lowest cost electronic organizer that isn't just a toy: Sharp EL-6790P or EL-6890P: under $30 with PC-Link

This Sharp model sets a new low price point for a usable electronic organizer. If what you want is an inexpensive pocket-size organizer to store telephone lists and reminders, manage your schedule, and double as a calculator and alarm clock, this will do it.

The screen is a bit small at 4 lines by 14 characters, but otherwise this model is similar to the more expensive YO/ZQ-180 model line. The EL-6890 even has the same amount of memory as the more expensive models, 256 Kbytes (128 Kbytes for the older EL-6790, which is still perfectly adequate).

The one feature that sets a usable organizer apart from a toy is the communications port that allows you to backup and restore the contents. The inexpensive PC-Link cable used by these models allows Sharp to include the cable for a very small price premium in the "P" kit. The "B" kit does not include the cable, but it's a simple cable which is easy to build and cheap to buy as an accessory. The backup software included with the PC-Link cable is rudimentary, but an inexpensive shareware upgrade is available to allow you to edit and manage data on a PC. However these models do not support true automatic synchronization with a PC database.

If you ever lose or break the EL-6890, you can buy the organizer alone as a replacement for less than $20, restore your last backup, and you're in business again. Compare that to losing a $500 PDA or Pocket PC that you areusing as a basic organizer!

You can spend $20 more for the YO/ZQ-180/190 if you want a bigger display (5 lines by 19 characters) and the addition of the less-used ToDo and Expense data types.

Casio has similar models, but they use a more expensive PC link cable which is not included.

The only real flaws in these Sharp models are that the password protection of secret data is not as secure as it should be, and the small batteries are relatively expensive to replace.

When it has to be as small as possible: Oregon Scientific Echo, about $70

If you are looking for a very compact pocket electronic organizer, you can't beat the size of the Echo. As you can see from the photo, this is a credit-card size organizer (not that you would ever put it in a wallet - it's too thick, and it would break if you tried to flex it). It fits conveniently in a pocket or purse, and yet it has all the functionality and memory capacity of larger electronic organizers. The pen data input and editing is no less convenient than any of the other pen-based units in spite of the compact size.

The package includes a PC Docking station and Companionlink Software(TM) synchronization software for Microsoft Outlook(TM), Act!(TM), Goldmine(TM), Lotus Organizer(TM), Schedule +(TM).

If you are familiar with the Rex PDA, the Echo is similar in form to the Rexx unit, but with the following differences:

It has a touch screen and comes with a stylus to allow data entry and editing on the unit, unlike the Rexx which relies on the PC for data entry and editing
It plugs into its own compact docking station with a serial interface to the PC - it is not designed to slide into a PCMCIA slot like the Rex.

The only real drawback to this unit is the relatively poor screen contrast and lack of a backlight, which can make it difficult to read in low-light conditions.

The Echo isn't widely available in stores, but you can buy it through PDABuzz.

Best mobile EMail: Sharp TM-20, under $100

The Sharp TM-20 TeleMail is a unique combination of an electronic organizer with mobile email capability. It has a built-in acoustic modem (on the back) which allows you to send and receive your email using any telephone - no special connections or additional gear required. It's meant to be used with the PocketMail service (www.pocketmail.com), which for $9.95/month provides a special email server with toll-free access numbers to be used with this type of modem. All you do is dial the toll-free number, hold the TM-20 up to the phone, and press the Synch button to exchange messages.

The TM-20 will send and receive messages up to 4000 characters (text only). PocketMail provides you with a dedicated pocketmail.com email account, and the PocketMail server will consolidate messages from up to 3 other existing email accounts, automatically stripping off attachments and truncating the messages to 4000 characters when it sends them to the TM-20. The PocketMail server also provides standard POP/SMTP access to your email account over the Internet from your home computer.

On the TM-20 you can read messages, reply to or forward messages, compose new messages and edit existing messages. The screen and keyboard of the TM-20 are pretty good, on par with Sharp's high-end Wizard organizers. It's certainly a lot more convenient and usable than a Palm PDA or a cell phone for email. There's no "web surfing" capability, but you can make use of various free online services which allow you to retrieve web pages and other information like news/sports/weather via email.

The acoustic connection is fairly reliable on most phone lines, but it's not as fast as a direct telephone line connection, and it may not work over digital cell phones (analog is ok). It usually takes a couple of minutes to upload and download several messages of medium length each way. You can minimize the time required by retrieving message headers on a first pass, then marking just the messages you want to read for a second pass.

You can only use the built-in email function with PocketMail's service. At the moment PocketMail USA provides toll-free access only in North America, but PocketMail is expanding in Australia and Europe, and now has local access numbers there which may be available to travellers (check with PocketMail for up-to-date information).

The TM-20 also functions as a standard electronic organizer, with sections for Address List, Schedule, and Memos. In spite of the built-in modem it's no larger or heavier than similar Sharp Wizard organizers. It includes a PC link cable and some basic PC backup software. You can upgrade the software to Rupp PocketLynx, or XLink/Win shareware.

PocketMail supports several other models, but the TM-20 is the most popular of the supported models available in North America.

General Recommendations

There are dozens of electronic organizer models currently available from Sharp, Casio, and other manufacturers. Several hundred older models have been sold over the past few years which are no longer in production. Each is slightly different in appearance and features, and obviously which one is best is a matter of individual taste and usage.

This is what people say is most important to them according to the ongoing poll by PDABuzz:

1. Scheduling (33%)
2. Internet Access (20%)
3. Contacts (18%)
4. ToDo/Memos (12%)
5. Email (5%)
6. Games (5%)
7. Other (4%)
8. Audio/Video Playback (2%)

Forget Internet Access, EMail, and Audio/Video in a pocket electronic organizer - no inexpensive organizer model supports those features, and most expensive PDAs don't support them well enough to actually use. On the other hand any inexpensive organizer will support Scheduling, Contacts, and ToDo/Memos. So maybe you should ask, what's the point of buying a $400 PDA to do the job of a $40 electronic organizer? Sooner or later you are going to lose it or break it!

The one feature which you must have in an electronic organizer is PC backup capability. Nobody in their right mind would spend a lot of time entering their valuable data into an electronic organizer and then take the risk that months or even years worth of irreplaceable information could be wiped out in an instant by a trivial accident like battery failure, dropping the organizer and breaking it, or simply having it lost or stolen. Cheap organizers with no backup capability are nothing more than toys.

If the organizer does not come with a backup cable and software included, then make sure that it is easily available and you know how much it will cost. For some models it's an expensive and difficult-to-obtain accessory, although in many cases you have the alternative of building your own cable and downloading shareware software. Don't put it off too long - you'll end up wishing that you had done that backup about 10 seconds after you realize that your data is gone forever!

Memory: If you plan to store just your telephone list and your current schedule, a basic 64 Kbytes of memory is quite adequate. Some models have up to 2 Mbytes of memory. While this could be useful for example for storing thousands of business contacts, or entire text documents, most people don't need it.

Screen size: A bigger screen generally costs more, but it lets you see more information at once and it's easier on the eyes if it uses a bigger font. This is usually a matter of personal preference versus price. Keep in mind that a bigger screen can also make the organizer too big to fit in a pocket.

Portability: The smallest organizers slip easily into a pocket. Larger ones have more features and convenience, but often are too big and heavy to fit practically in a pocket. Features which make an organizer bigger include a bigger screen and keyboard, and the use of standard AA batteries.

Batteries: The smaller electronic organizers use watch/calculator batteries, which generally last for several months (unless you use the display backlight). But they can be expensive to replace. Standard AA batteries are much cheaper, even though they made the organizer bigger than pocket size.

Features and Functions: They all have a telephone list, schedule, memos, alarm clock, calculator. Some models have additional functions for anniversaries, To-Do lists, and expense tracking, but these are generally less important. Other unique features are far less used. Broadly speaking there isn't really much to choose between them when it comes to the basic features most people will actually use.

Usability: Some are easier to use than others, but they all work well enough, so it's a matter of personal preference.

Pen vs. Keyboard: Pen models are more compact, but many people prefer typing on a real keyboard. Pen models usually have a bigger screen for a given organizer size, but the more vertical screen proportions sometimes results in a less usable information layout.

Price: Prices generally run from less than $30 to more than $200 for electronic organizers (not including cheaper toy organizers and more expensive PDAs). The best value for money is under $70 - beyond that you would be paying extra for specific extra features, so make sure you need them. Be sure to include the cost of PC backup if not included in the base price.