Got a Sharp 4100 and a 2nd Casio A-20 as a backup

I had been wanting a Sharp Mobilon 4100 for a while, I did get one a while ago but the touch sensitivity of the screen didn't work. I finally won a 2nd one for $12.50 on eBay and it works perfectly.

I've also been wanting a 2nd Casio A-20 as a backup for a while because it's by far my favorite HPC but it had been either unavailable or too expensive on eBay, but one was listed as an auction recently which I won for $31!

The Casio A-20 is my favorite for these reasons:
-2 card readers (PC and CF)
-Metal construction make it more rugged
-Nice keyword
-Top facing speaker
-Bright EL backlight

I'd like to get a color Sharp Mobilon with the camera card some day, I remember seeing them on demo on a trip to Singapore a long time ago.

Both are great vintage machines...

I just went on eBay with it's built in modem and it took me to the eBay mobile website. I was able to search and view products.

As I said in another thread I now use the Compaq C120+ to calculate my soap ingredients but will switch to either the Sharp 4100 or Casio A-20 because the higher screen resolution and fact the backlight doesn't go off every 15 **** seconds will be a huge upgrade.

By the way, the 4100 and A-20 respond so much faster than the C120+ at 40 Mhz, just scrolling the Excel sheet is much slower.

Edited by aab 2013-08-24 11:35 AM

I saw that one. The A-20 is nice. But so are the HP 360LX and Sharp Mobilon HC-4100. (And they have better keyboards. I also like the feature on the 360LX that allows you to charge rechargeable AA batteries in-device.)

I actually prefer the A-20's keyboard over both of those because it has a standard power button (I don't like the separate on/off of the Sharp and the extremely weird way you turn the HP 360LX on and off, I keep trying to turn it on and off with backspace) and the number keys aren't smaller on the A-20 like they are on the Sharp. I actually like the square keys of the A-20. I love how the HP 360LX's screen looks with the white backlight, but it drains batteries about 600% faster than the regular green EL backlights and it's simply not worth sacrificing so much battery life just for a different background color, the HP 360LX has as short or shorter battery life than color HPCs despite being grayscale because of that fancy white backlight.

The main drawback for the Sharp 4100 for me is that it only has one card slot so I'll need to use a CF to PC adapter if I want to use CF cards in it.

I also only have a backup program for the A-20 (would the Casio program work on the HP since it's also SH3 or did they make it compatible with Casio computers only?) so that's another major advantage for it. Is there a backup program that works on the Sharp that's still available?

Thanks