Deciding tween a MP790 and J720

Any advice here would be greatly apreciated. I'm trying to decide between the Mobilepro and the Jornada.

My needs arn't that extensive reasonably easy to type on and able to run pocketdos at a useable speed. I know the Mips units are supposed to be kind of slow in this regard but I'm not talking game performance in pocketdos I would like to use Q&A and Lotus 123.

As far as surfing wirelessly that is less of a concern. I know how good the keyboards on the MP's are awhile back I had an MP800, but the battery life wasn't that good and the machine was just too big. And unfortunatly I never ran pocketdos on it or so I can't remember the speed issue either.

My major wants are hopefully touch type (I have small hands so...) battery life and of course pocketdos speed. I suppose if I have to I'll end up using textmaker and planmaker. Its just I'd prefer to use the old dos stuff.

Thanks for any advice and GO SEAHAWKS!

i didnt try pocketdos on my mobilepro's, but i tried it on an aero 8000 and screen refresh was slow even when just using the dir command.. ok that hpc had generally slow screen refresh. if i consider only that aspect, i'd say the mobilepro's would be OK.
but raw cpu power for lotus is different, so i have no idea how well they'd perform (either the jornada or the mobilepro). but the arm cpu in the jornada is noticeably faster with normal tasks (outside pocketdos) than the nec 780/790's cpu. (900 is another thing it is as fast as the jornada 72x or faster)

i can "touch" type on the j728 just as well as on my pc. i can't do real touch typing, but i'm very fast with my own method. didnt need much time at all to get used to the jornada keyboard... but it means a little (not much) compromise for me. (and i don1t think i have larger hands than you ) the mobilepro keyboards are NO compromise at all. best keyboard i have ever seen either on a hpc or on a psion or on a PC.

battery life: jornada wins.. hands down

thats all i can think of now.

Funny you ask this. I've been tweaking my 790 for the last couple of hours. For my use, I seem to keep going back to the MobilePro. I have been using a 780 with a 790 Rom until a couple of days ago. I got a great deal on a 790. I love it! It is easier to "work", for me that is.

I will see if I can find Pocket DOS and try it out. I find pocket word adequate for what I'm doing.

If you ask me, for the typing side, it'll have to be the MobilePro, because of its rather large keyboard and the screen is larger. The other plus point is the flash memory available on a 790 (Not an "chaved-up" MP780! - No pum needed, with appologies to 785 owners! ). The older programs tend to support the processor too. The size is its main disadvantage, but the built in external VGA support is a real god-send if you have loads of presentations to show.

OTOH, I find the Jornada much more SNAPPY! than the MP, due to the ARM processors. I find the MP finds it extremely difficault to "prioritise" programs, for example, the MP would be far more sluggish at multi-tasking. Playing Media files is an excellent example.
Audio buttons are another plus point, so is a standard jack, external keyboard (if you find one) and the size.



For travelling, I still recommend the MP, for one simple reason.
I use loads of buses and trains on my daily commute to college and back. I am lucky to find a train with a table at the seating bays, even if I do, they are either hogged or are small. The answer is to use the computer in my lap. The MP would allow this, but the Jornada worries me, because it has to be ballanced rather well, or it goes between your legs, becomes uneven, or unconfortable to use.
Oh, and the Jornada feels a lot hevier too, but you could hold it in one hand and type in the other, thats possible.

Take your pic! (An owner of a 718 and a MP780 and knows how difficault the choice is.)

I installed pocketdos and aVDE editor on my MP790. It works great!
Right now I'm watching a blinking cursor(IN DOS!!!!) as I AM INSTALLING ARACHNE WEB browser!!!

MP790

oh well, you've just offended me. i performed the 790 upgrade on my 780 just a few hours ago btw, it is a 789, not a 785!
(don't take it seriously, just jk. )



umm i can use the jornada in my lap but i know what you mean. the MP is just the perfect size if you want to be comfortable (either your lap or elsewhere). if you want to be portable (erm, your hpc), the jornada is much much better though.

Edited by cmonex 2006-02-05 8:00 PM

btw all in all if the smaller keyboard is ok the jornada 72x is closer to satisfying the requirements .. (battery life and speed - the latter is subjective though)

all IM(H)O

Edited by cmonex 2006-02-05 8:19 PM

Thanks for the replys so far. I'm still somewhat torn. I had a Sharp PC-3000 in the early 90's and I was more or less able to touch type on it, but it was a little larger than the Jornada.

As to the speed I'm a little torn who can't use more speed. But if the MP can run DOS at a reasonable speed it would probably be more practical for typing. Is it realistic to expect say 4 hours on its battery?

As far as use goes it would mostly be while sitting at a table or some such, so I don't see that as a problem.

I have to admit to being seduced by the size advantage (for portability and weight) of the Jornada.

I gotta go with cmonex on this. I love my MP790, and I agree with all the good points others have brought up here, but it seems to me that the Jornada suits your particular needs better. (I have rather large fingers, but even I can type reasonably well on the Jornada keyboard.)

4 hrs, yes that can be achieved with a MP battery that is still in good condition. on the other hand the jornada can easily last twice this. (8-9 hours is not uncommon)



then why are you hesitating!?

I tried the PocketDos on my 720,790 and my 820 last night. With the text editor I installed(VDE) it ran well on all 3 units. I then installed OPENGEM5, a GUI shell with over 20 utilities, programs and games. It is very cool and has a lot of potential. This is where it gets wierd, the 790 ran it pretty well, the 820 was kinda' slow and the 720 was too slow to be useful at all. I bet that PocketDos would fly on a MP900!

I will try to find somemore DOS programs and compare them on the 720 and 790.

I am really excited about the PocketDos idea. I have been researching a portable system for my vehicles and the DOS with GEM5 GUI makes more sense than Linux. The Gem5 release is only 5 months old and has a pretty complete resource base. I cant wait to try it on my H/PC 2000 Fujitsu Pencentra that should arrive this week.

BTW, the Arachne web browser worked in DOS, with some issues. I had to use an older version and so I need to incorporate the newer version's security certs.

is this opengem5 free? can you send it to me, or a link to it? i can try it on a 900 and am curious

I found somenthing here: http://zefredz.frimouvy.org/dotclear/index.php?2005/12/13/84-opengem-sous-dosbox

thanks... i'll test it out on my j728's

Edited by cmonex 2006-02-06 3:06 PM