HP Jornada 420

The future looks bright, not to mention colourful, for palm-size PCs. Not only has market leader 3Com released the Palm IIIx (reviewed p177) and Palm V (reviewed issue 54, p167), but the cream of handheld manufacturers are lining up their Windows CE-based colour screen computers. Hewlett-Packard has won the race to bring a colour model to the shelves, but whether the Jornada 420 has enough class to stay in front is another matter: Casio, Philips, Everex and even Compaq aren't far behind.

The sudden rush away from mono screens is due to Microsoft finally releasing a version of Windows CE that supports colour on palm-size PCs. The Jornada 420 sports a 256-colour CSTN screen measuring 240 x 320 pixels, and it's certainly an improvement over the black-on-green screens familiar to most PDA users - it's also larger, at 36in, than the screen on 3Com's Palms. Lettering is clear and easy to see no matter what the viewing conditions. Admittedly, there are few Windows CE applications making use of full colour at the moment (the Solitaire game being the sole exception on the Jornada 420), but it probably won't be long before more appear on the market.

Unfortunately, the Jornada 420 is also twice the weight and thickness of the Palm V. The 420 still fits easily into a jacket pocket or purse, but it doesn't have the streamlined style you'd hope for in a palm-size PC. There are some useful function buttons on the left-hand side, including instant access to the start button and an action button for scrolling through dropdown lists, but the machine's looks aren't helped by the fact these are made of grey plastic. We were also unimpressed by the matching stylus, which looks cheap and feels light compared to the Palms' metallic equivalent. HP has also spurned the current trend of magnesium alloy casing, preferring a brighter purple tone and adding its own slightly dubious version of modern style by including a transparent cover to protect the screen.

Once a manufacturer has committed itself to Microsoft's pocket-sized operating system there's little it can do, apart from the physical design, to make its machines stand out from the Windows CE crowd. Bundled software is one distinguishing feature, and the Jornada 420 includes the useful bTASK (a task manager utility that sits in the taskbar), a business calculator and HP's own interface for controlling such things as brightness, volume and contrast.

HP does have control over processing power, opting for a 32-bit 100MHz processor. This sounds impressive when compared to the 16MHz of the Palm IIIx, but in practice switching between tasks on the 420 is not so easy. In our experience it can take at least two seconds, compared to less than a second for the Palm. This is partly due to the complexities of adding colour to an operating system, but much more to do with CE's behemoth tendencies.

The powerful processor makes heavy demands on battery life, and a pair of AA or AAA batteries is no longer enough. Instead, a rechargeable lithium ion battery fits in the base of the unit and offers around five hours operating time from a full charge. This isn't particularly impressive, but should be long enough for you to take it out of its cradle for a day without worrying that the power is about to fail. Annoyingly, HP fails to improve significantly on Windows CE's rough guide to battery life, which only gives a vague graphical indication rather than specifying hours and minutes. As HP doesn't supply a spare battery (which costs an extra £22), once the computer shuts down it's out of use until you return to base.