The Geofox One - First Impressions


Thanks to the folk at Geofox in Cambridge (just down the road from Acorn) I've got a Geofox One on loan for a while. The main purpose was to review it in Archive Magazine, but here's some initial thoughts:

The Geofox is aimed at a different bit of the market to the Series 5, being billed as a laptop alternative for business travellers. The large screen and use of the "mouse pad" instead of pen are understandable choices for folk who are moving from a laptop to a PDA. The PCMCIA slot means you can use a modem card (a Psion Dacom one is supplied with some models) or a CompactFlash with a suitable adaptor. The modem will drain the batteries in less than 30 minutes, so normally it is disabled unless on mains (but you can over-ride that). As the mains adaptor comes with the modem models, and is a multi-voltage one with different "heads" for UK, US and mainland Europe, that isn't too much of a restriction. You can also use a battery-powered modem connected to the other serial port, as with the S5 (the GF's serial port connector is different, but a lead is supplied).
Geofox give a three year hardware guarantee, lifetime technical help, and supply the machine with batteries and pre-loaded with the Message Suite (also on CD) and software to re-programme the modem to settings appropriate to the country it's being used in.
It's an interesting machine, and worth considering in its own right. If the modem card, wonderful screen, and excellent support attract you, and you wouldn't miss sacrificing the touch screen of the S5 for the greater clarity, it's worth a look at. On the other hand, the larger size, shorter battery life, lack of touch screen and rubbery keys might put you off.
At the moment, I think I'd still just choose the S5 (for its size, keyboard and touch screen), but that Geofox screen is wonderfully tempting, and I'm really starting to wonder whether the Geofox isn't a better all-round machine.
If you want to buy one, Geofox sell direct via mail order, and CJE Micro's have recently become Geofox dealers. IMS are also selling them and including a free copy of PsiRisc to connect it to Acorn RISC OS machines. Arclink5 will also work with the Geofox One.
I've written an in-depth review to complement these initial thoughts.

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