A PDA With Training Wheels!
Written: Nov 09 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Built In Digital Camera, Inexpensive, Kid Friendly
Cons: Like All PDAs, This Is Somewhat Fragile. Fragility + Kids = Ouch!
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| RichBoston's Full Review: Vtech Phusion |
Are you a geeky PDA type? Do you have kids? Now you can buy them a PDA with training wheels! The Phusion is not a toy but is aimed at the teen (and maybe under) crowd.
While listed at $179.99 I bought one online for only $96 as the store I deal with doesn’t carry them. This will hopefully lead my 12 year old daughter down a future path toward full fledged geekdom!
The biggest selling feature is the built in digital camera with which you can download pictures and make slide shows and photo albums. Be forewarned – this is meant for kids and the picture quality is not great. But you know what? The pictures aren’t THAT much worse than those taken with one of the Palm or Visor camera attachments which cost more than the Phusion lists for, let alone sells for. The Phusion allows for a generous storage capacity of 25 photos.
The screen is the viewfinder and you can instantly see your stored photos. Frankly, while this will never be confused with a Nikon, I wouldn’t mind having this as standard on my Palm IIIxe or SONY Clie. There are times I’d love to have the ability to record an image of something quickly. Kids will have a ball with this feature.
Vtech is famous for their educational toys that look like small computers – in fact they are, just with very limited capabilities. The Phusion takes an “adult” PDA and tries to look at it from a kids perspective.
The Phusion comes with 2MB of memory which is about the industry minimum standard memory found in such PDAs as the Palm IIIe, Palm m100, Visor and even the PalmV. This is more than sufficient for the needs of the Phusion. An “infusion” (Get it? I crack myself up!) of 8MB would have been wasted and kept this from the realm of affordability.
The Phusion operates on 2 AAA batteries, has a reasonably sharp monochrome screen and has a generous amount of software built in. This includes an address book, to do list, memo pad, alarm clock, calendar, class scheduler, calculator, various games, spell checker, trivia, money manager, conversion table and even a foreign language (English – Spanish – French) translator. There is an interchangeable faceplate ala the Palm m100.
Like the “big boys” the Phusion comes with a docking cradle to back up and synch to your desktop using the serial port. (Shouldn’t a USB connection be standard now?) I found the synching time to be no different than any other PDA. For a kid the synching should be part of the fun.
Data input is via the QWERTY style touchpad and included stylus. There is no handwriting recognition software included. I found that the touchpad worked quite well with just the right about of pressure needed to produce characters on the screen.
Right out of the package this was a pretty impressive item for the money. While it may be “kid friendly” this is not a toy but a very useful tool. BUT…..big warning here. I would guess that a sizable percentage of responsible adult types (including yours truly) have dropped their PDAs and broken the screen and/or the case. The screen is particularly vulnerable and one slip from your hands…..ouch! I would make sure that you limited this to kids mature enough to understand its fragility. It’s too expensive to toss away in a couple of weeks.
I recommend the Phusion if you can get it for well under the list price (don’t pay more than $120) and if the recipient is mature enough to recognize the value of this and its inherent fragility. It is otherwise a well built, practical and fun item. I think most kids would love to receive this as a gift.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 96
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Epinions.com ID:
RichBoston
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Member: Rich
Location: Boston, MA
Reviews written: 92
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I live for the latest gizmos and doo-dads!
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