But What about the Psion Siena...
Well, The Palmpilot has taken it's toll on the Psion Siena. It's still the ideal unit for trying out if you don't want to shell out lots of cash yet. I'll keep the review of what it does and feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions about the unit.

Review
This is Psion’s compromise between those who want a 3c but can't afford it and those who have looked or bought a data bank type hand held. Two models are available, the 512K and the 1 Mb is around £150. The Siena is essentially a stripped down 3c (both in functions and size). The Siena is small; 150x73x19 mm (easily into a shirt pocket), and weighs only 183 grammes, including batteries! There are 7 main programs to the unit with an icon button for each function.

Agenda
The Agenda works really well. Adding an item in the To-do List with a deadline line adds the item to your diary. The diary analogy really holds all the data together. The agenda may be viewed by page a day, week to view or a busy view, which looks like a Gantt chart but vertically drawn. (See Below).

Data
The database function will be used mainly for addresses but other items can be stored here. The gripe with the 3a was the lack of sorting and table view but this has been remedied. Column widths can be defined to suit.

Word
The word processor unit is compatible with MS Word (in a limited way). This can be used for jotting down memos, notes and reports at a push since the screen is only half the size of the 3c. This must be the compromise for the price reduction. Print preview is available with printing done through the serial link and the IR link (see comms section for more info). Styles and formatting are available and a zoom facility can let the user define the seeable area. To enable the  RTF format, obtain the drivers from www.psion.com This format keeps almost all types of formatting from MS Word (and others I'm sure). I've tried this and then printed out documents using an HP Laserjet with the IR and it's perfect!

Spreadsheet
Again, the spreadsheet is compatible with Excel and 1-2-3. It's probably this program which suffers the most with the screen reduction - you can get 6 or 7 columns in but it's hardly legible. Most of the mathematical functions are in the unit though.

Other Functions
There is a clock which has a number of flexible alarm settings, a world function giving times all over the world (with a clever facility which gives international telephone access numbers from your current location)

and a calculator facility for maths, including a till roll simulated screen view. The programming language is now compatible with MS Visual Basic;  the OVAL programming language is available from the Psion web site which runs on MS Windows.

Comms
Potentially the most important addition is that of the IrDA facility. This is an Infra Red link which will let the Siena transfer data to and from other Psion’s and PCs’. If you have an IR enabled PC, you can use the Siena emulator to transfer things between the PC and the Siena E-mail me if you want more on this. A guy called Jim Pollock has created a program which will do this under Windows/DOS. Note that the link takes to his registration page.

Software is available to connect the Siena to Lotus Organiser 2.1 and MS Schedule+. However, there are no slots of any type. If you want to use a Solid State Disk (SSD) there is a SSD drive (which connects through the serial link) and can also facilitate the mains adapter.

The Siena Emulator for the PC is available at www.psion.com.