A Spiritual Psion - The Oregon Scientific Osaris

After posting the piece about the Psion Series 3, I intended to get my hands on a Psion Series 5 for comparison. After all, it was the follow up device in the Psion range. However, actually buying one is a smidge expensive. E-bay prices for good condition models are exorbitant and I could only find one retailer offering reconditioned units whose prices are not bad at all, especially compared to auction sellers but still high enough to put off a casual purchase. It was a bit like a replay of the 1990's, wanting one but never being able to fully justify the price and buying one. All was not lost, though. Just as in the '90's, there was a cheaper alternative that does almost exactly the same thing as the Series 5: The Oregon Scientific Osaris.

It looks decent...

Oregon Scientific started out life in Portland, Oregon (I see what they did there!) producing electronic weather stations, digital clocks, electronic learning devices and the like. From a UK perspective, the clogged up the Argos catalogue with tat but at the back end of the 1990's. They licensed the EPOC operating system from Psion and released this relatively cheap PDA.

With the usual software...

I say relatively cheap, at £219.99 to £279.99, it was cheaper than a Series 5 proper but also didn't offer everything that the Series 5 did. The main differences were the screen and operating system. The Osaris packed an 18MHz Arm 710 chip with 4 or 8Mb or RAM depending upon the model. The screen is a backlit and touch capable, with a resolution of 320x200 pixels (The Series 5 offered a 640x240 screen). Unlike the Psion, the Osaris used a forked version of the EPOC operating system, release 4. With the technical gubbins out of the way, what about the device itself?

... but even here you can see issues with the screen

It's fairly light and quite compact. Built from plastic, it doesn't feel overly robust and I wouldn't want to drop test of these machines. The hinge is quite easy to operate and upon opening, there is a plasticky rattle that gives pause for thought. Closing it gives a sharp snap that is more reassuring. The display is bordered by two touch-sensitive menus, leading to the smaller (although cheaper) display. These function as you'd expect and to be honest, the smaller display size is something you tend to forget about in day to day use. It helps that the side menus have a similar background to the display. One issue with the display is the fixed angle of the hinge, meaning if you're not in the right position, you'll have to contort yourself to see the screen clearly. Some might also find the screen a bit too murky and in less than decent ambient light, the backlight is a must.

The main draw is the keyboard and, whilst not up to the standard of Psion's Series 5, is more than good enough for note taking. The keys are relatively big and quite easy to tap away at. Initially, I found them a tad stiff with little feedback but with some perseverance, I grew to accept the feel. It's not a keyboard you could bash out a lot of words on but it does the job.

The built in software is the Psion standard package, so Word, Sheet, Data, Agenda etc. Nothing much to be added about those.

Connectivity is as per late 1990's standard PDA tradition - a compact flash slot that permits file transfers even today using a USB to CF adapter, RS-232 for a serial PC link and an IR port for beaming contacts and phone connections. Power is supplied by two AA batteries and they are easily replaceable.

Power, IR, RS-232 and slot for stylus

CF slot cover

Is this a device that could be used today? Well, maybe. Certainly you can use it for typing on the go, but the rather firm keyboard and the fixed angle screen hinge are two of the main ergonomic reasons against the Osaris. File transfers are still possible using a CF card and I don't have a serial cable or software to try a PC link. In one sense, I am glad I didn't get my hands on one of these back in the day. Yes, it looks a bit like a Psion, and it acts like a Psion, but it's not a Psion. With too many corners cut to hit a budget, it just can't compare with it's more expensive cousin.

A Psion of the Times

If you are of a certain age and have an interest in tech, the name Psion may mean something to you. Coming to prominence during the 1980's home computer boom as both a hardware and software supplier, Psion rode the wave and successfully launched a range of electronic organisers, helpfully called the Psion Organiser, that whilst clunky and very 80's looking, their job well enough to gain a dedicated following. This allowed them to progress from the calculator-like Organiser II with a pocket computer that defined the company into the 90's and still, to this day, gives certain individuals a sense of glowing nostalgia when seen in public.

Closed from the top

The underside and the speaker

Underside with the "gull-wing" card slot covers open

The Series 3 was their first clamshell design, one which nailed the brief spectacularly. What you get is a pocket-friendly device with a hunt and peck keyboard that, by good design, is pretty much capable of decent typing speeds with a bit of use. This is down to the well-spaced layout and the slightly concave keys that help guide the fingers accurately. True, like all Psion clamshell designs, there were issues - namely a slightly fragile hinge and a ribbon connecting the gubbins in the bottom half to the screen that could fray and cause display problems, but that does not take away what they got so right with the Series 3.

There is a screen in there somewhere...

It's alive!!!

The screen, however, is a compromise, fair enough really given the year of release. As you can see, the screen on the original Series 3 is a bit lost in the lid and has a relatively poor resolution of 240x80, and that is one area they improved upon with the following Series 3a, where the display was not only physically bigger but offered a resolution of 480x160. The main processor is an NEC V30 running at 4.7MHz (a reverse-engineered copy of the Intel 8088 that powered the original IBM PC), coupled with 256Kb of RAM and 1MB of ROM that held the EPOC 16 operating system. Not exactly heady stuff at the time but then it did run north of 20 hours on two AA batteries.

A bit of Word.

A World Clock, circa 1991

The aforementioned Series 3a offered the bigger screen, a faster (7.68MHz) processor and double the RAM (and later 1 and 2MB models). The 3c (one of which I carried at university and sorely wish I had never sold on afterwards) bumped the RAM up to 2Mb and had a matte exterior (whilst some US models added a back-light to the display).Finally, the 3mx all offered a back-light and faster NEC V30MX processor running at 27.648 MHz. At that point, the Series 3 was retired for the Series 5.

Now I mentioned the batteries and their expected lifetime. Time was that the AA battery was ubiquitous and if you need to, replacing them was just a shop visit away. These days, with densely packed lithium battery tech, all I can say is good luck with that. True, high resolution colour displays and multi-gigahertz-clocked processors require that kind of power supply, but sometimes it would just be handy to be able to swap out old for new (or rechargeable) ones.

Anyhoo, back to the Series 3. The batteries are kept in the hinge and are easily accessible. The hinge itself is still pretty firm and doesn't feel in anyway compromised by the years of use - not bad for something made in 1991! That same hinge, on the interior, gives access to eight soft-keys - shortcuts for the built-in applications: System, Data, Word, Agenda, Time, World, Calc and Program. Pretty self-explanatory but as memory serves, both the Agenda, Data and Word applications were bloody good for their time and proved more than useful twenty years ago! In fact, I don't think I have used a better calendar application ever. The Program soft-key is of particular note, as having a programming language baked in meant that those who wished could program their own applications for the device.

Check out those short-cut keys.

Connectivity was well catered for too, with two expansion slots for Solid State Disk memory cards and software packs, and a proprietary connection for a serial cable. Later models also offered an infra-red connection.

Using the device today, the screen is pretty easy to read in decent light and the lack of a back-light isn't an issue. The small amount of RAM isn't too much of a hurdle either given what the device was used for and if you wanted to do any serious typing, a memory card was easy (if not overly cheap) to add. The example I have was purchased off E-bay and though the battery contacts need a good clean, it's in pretty good nick. There are always quite a few Series 3 models available but be warned, the more recent 3c and 3mx models go for near £100 or more, proof that they are still in demand today. A quick Google located a UK based company advertising new and second-hand Psion devices so, without doing any advertising, if you do want a Psion of your own, you know what to do.

The biggest hurdle for anyone under the age of 30 using anything like the Psion is the lack of a touchscreen. You see, back when the Series 3 was released, touchscreens were a rarity on portable devices so navigation is purely via the keyboard. There is a menu button and the on-screen menus are very well laid out so with a bit of practice, you'll be zipping about in and between applications with ease. For pretty much any option, there is a suitable key-based shortcut. True, it is not as intuitive as a mouse pointer or a touchscreen but for the time of release, this was pretty good. Indeed, anyone with a passing knowledge of DOS would feel pretty much at home here. How many there are of you in this day and age is up for debate! But in any case, the Series 3 is very usable and with only a small amount of practice too.

Is this a serious tool for 2018? Well, depends on what you want to use it for. As an organiser, the software is brilliant but there is the issue of connectivity and syncing software for the modern day PC. You can get serial to USB cables and a quick search online brought up a handful of useful articles so yeah, certainly with a later model with the higher-res screen, they are certainly usable today. Would you want to pay for one, well that is another matter...

On that note, I'll leave the blog for now, what with Salute at the weekend and then another appearance on Attention Please on Monday evening with Eddie Carter. If you fancy a listen, we're on 102.5FM in the local area or you can click on the Listen section here on the NE1FM website.