HP Jornada 420 Color-Screen Palm-size PC

 Jornada_Pilot.JPG (10267 bytes)

By Rich Hall

This is the quickest "quick look" I've ever done. HP sent me a pre-production version of their new color-screen Palm-size PC the day before we went to the printer. I had about three hours to play with it, take a few screen shots, and write up a "quick look" review. Below you'll find my impressions of the HP Jornada 420.

Good screen and other hardware

The Jornada 420 is about the size and weight of the other Palm-size PCs we've looked at—perhaps a little thicker and heavier. It comes with a handy clear plastic flip-cover that protects the screen while letting you view it. You cannot use the touchscreen with cover in place, but it folds back easily.

All of the hardware navigation buttons are on the left side of the HP 420. It's relatively easy to hold it in your left hand and navigate with your left thumb. The HP has an extra button that pops up the Start menu. The four Application Launch buttons are icons on the bottom of the touchscreen. Like other Palm-size PCs, they are programmed to launch Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks. The fourth button launches OmniSolve, a multi-function calculator unique to the Jornada. As with any Palm-size PC, you can re-program these four buttons to launch any application you desire.

In addition to OmniSolve, the HP Jornada 420 comes with EzExplorer, a built-in file explorer. You can view the file structure on your HP 420, move and delete files, or tap on an application to launch it. The HP 420 also comes with the bTask utility that lets you switch to open applications, and close them, from a taskbar icon. All of these are nice additions to the standard Palm-size PC applications.

Finally, the HP Jornada 420 comes with a custom "HP Settings" application that lets you customize screen brightness to four different levels (Indoors, Outdoors, Low power, and Special). You can also use HP Settings to set a password and review the status of your internal memory.

I loved the color display, especially after I found the HP Settings application and customized the brightness and contrast to my own tastes. The 420 has a decent speaker that played back the voice memos I made loud and clear. Everything else seemed to work fine, and that's saying something with a pre-production unit.

The HP Jornada 420 will be priced at $519. For more information, visit HP's Jornada Web site: www.hp.com/jornada/.

 

OmniSolve is built into the HP Jornada 420, adding a multi-function business calculator. 

The HP settings utility lets you customize screen brightness to four different levels (Indoors, Outdoors, Low power, and Special). You can also view memory information, set a password, and check battery level (blue bar at the bottom of the screen). 

The Calendar application lets you view your appointments in daily, weekly (shown here), and monthly views. 

The Jornada's EzExplorer lets you view the file structure on your 420, move and delete files, or tap on an application to launch it. 

Note Taker lets you enter handwritten or text notes, sketch maps or charts, and more. You can now select different colors for the notes and sketches. 

The HP Jornada 420's main Start menu lets you locate and launch applications and utilities built into, or installed on the Palm-size PC. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rich has been writing and editing articles about portable computers for over 10 years. He's been the managing editor of five different portable and palmtop computing magazines and has been Editor of Handheld PC Magazine since its first issue in 1997. He and his wife Lucinda have been married 22 years. They have two children: Robert (12) and Ella (9), who occasionally help Rich review products. Rich's email address is: rich@thaddeus.com.