The 20-year old Psion 5MX has many pros and cons even in today’s view:

Pros:

• beautiful and solid clamshell design
• compact but standard keyboard
• AA-battery powered and long battery life
• clear but tough touch screen
• standard document, spreadsheet, and database programmes

Cons:

• easy-breaking ribbon cable
• no bluetooth, no wifi
• word format not compatible with others, and difficult to convert

Many people are still attracted by the design and keyboard, so the price on eBay are still around 80 Euros. In my eyes they are still very usable, especially as a quick-note taking device, thanks to the easiness of combine text and hand-drawing capbility in EPOC Word. Besides, it can also be used for:

• language learning: with dictionaries (eg. K2, LittleSense, Berlitz) and memorizing applications (eg. Trainer, TestMe, FlashWords)
• To-Do list (eg, Quicklist)
• scientific calculations (eg, Q-Calc, Yacas)
• eBook Reader (eg, MobiPocket Reader, EBook)
• little games (eg, Pocket Chess, Empire)

The device uses CF card for external storage but I often ran into “Overflow” errors.

It’s partically good if one wants to record data in the field where a laptop might not be easy to move and a mobile phone not good for typing.