Psion Series 3a

If ever there was a past-it portable that deserved to thrive in the modern world, the Psion Series 3a is - or was - it. And in a way, it still does. Models still regularly change hands on eBay and there are plenty of companies still offering services, software and repairs for it. 

For accuracy's sake, we should point out that no one, apart from Psion, ever called  it the Series 3a and to its legion loyal users, it was just the good old 'Psion'. Of course, the alphanumeric epithet does suggest some predecessors - and there were several.

In 1984, Psion made a move that's almost unimaginable in today's world of outsourced, Far Eastern manufacturing. With the launch of the Psion Organiser - a cumbersome device that resembled an overpowered pocket calculator - it transformed itself from a small, British software house into a sizable, British hardware manufacturer. Geeks the world over took an instant shine to the Organiser, which spurred little Psion on to bigger and better things. By which we mean smaller and better things, obviously.

So, skipping past the Psion Organiser II (much like the first, but with more memory and storage) brings us to 1993 and the Psion Series 3. It was pure innovation. The sleek clamshell case opened smoothly to reveal a full Qwerty keyboard, and a row of touch-sensitive buttons were ingeniously embedded into a hinge that doubled as a battery compartment (two AA batteries!). It was the very definition of 'personal digital assistant' and its design still seems fresh today. If there was a catch, it was the crisp monochrome LCD screen - its resolution of 240 x 80 just wasn't high enough for some applications.

So, this is where the Series 3a took over in 1995, and Psion users never looked back. With a screen literally twice the size and four times the resolution, it quickly became a viable business tool. Throw in some great built-in applications (like a word processor and spreadsheet), digital voice-recording facilities and two slots for proprietary storage cards, and it's little wonder that the 3a was a huge hit with both boffins and business folk alike.

Shifting many hundreds of thousands of units, the Series 3a was a success story that was to continue long into the late 1990s. Indeed, even in its twilight years, the 3a never really faded away, it just became sidelined by more sophisticated products in the Psion family. But the story of those - not to mention Psion's eventual exit from the handheld market - is for a future issue.

Released: 1993
Price: From £249
Processor: NEC V30H (7.68MHz)

Memory: 256Kb

Screen: monochrome (480 x 160)

Expansion: Two Psion SSD slots

Battery: 2 x AA batteries (for weeks of normal use)
Size: 165 x 85 x 22mm
Weight: 275g