Bells, whistles and beams
The Palm III has a 160 x 160 black and white LCD backlit pressure-sensitive display, which is fine for text but terrible for viewing graphics on web pages. On the other hand, the Philips Nino has a 320 x 240 4 gray scale pressure-sensitive LCD, which can display rendered fonts and web graphics with relative ease. The Palm III has a simple piezoelectric speaker which produces simple beeps, buzzes, and digitized sounds with low sampling rates. The Nino boasts impressive 16-bit sound processing, with a loud integrated speaker that allows the playing of 22KHz sampled .WAV files, and has the ability to record voice memos through an integrated microphone using a built-in voice recorder application. For sound, the Palm III device is no match for the Nino.

The Palm III organizer has its own proprietary infared port, which allows other Palm III devices and upgraded PalmPilot organizers to exchange data and applications, but cannot print to IRDN equipped printers or communicate with other IRDA standard devices. The Nino has a standard Windows CE IR port, which can communicate with any Windows CE device. Nino owners can also print documents to printers equipped with IRDN ports, like the HP Laserjet 5.

StyliÉno contest
The Palm III device comes standard with a combination metal and plastic stylus that feels well-balanced and decently constructed. It was so good that third party stylus vendors felt shut out when the Palm III was released. On the other hand, the Nino comes with a simple all-plastic stylus, reminiscent of the original PalmPilot's. We wonder what Philips was thinking to design such a sophisticated PDA with such a mediocre writing implement.

Syncing up
The Palm III's docking cradle connects to a PC's or a Mac's serial port; when used in the cradle, the Palm III uses up its internal batteries. The Palm III synchronizes with a Mac or PC by manually pressing on the HotSync button. Add-on software is loaded onto the Palm III using 3Com's Software Installer application, but users cannot manipulate the internal file system -- applications and data use default directories.

The Nino's docking cradle connects to a PC serial port only, Macintosh lovers need not apply. When used in the cradle, the Nino is able to charge its NiMH battery pack provided the cradle is connected to the included AC power adapter. The Nino uses Microsoft's ActiveSync technology, which means that the unit automatically updates when data is changed on the PC, or vice versa. Software is loaded by specialized installer applications bundled with applications, like on the PC. The Windows CE file system on the Nino is manipulated exactly like Windows 95's, through an extension to the Windows 95 Explorer shell.

And the winner isÉ
From a pure technology perspective, the Nino blows the Palm III away. But at what cost? Both the Nino and the Palm III cost about $400.00 retail, so dollars aren't an issue. While the Phillips PR31700 is a performance demon compared to the Motorola Dragonball, its requires a NiMH battery that must be recharged every single day if you are a heavy user otherwise, it will eat the power of twin AA s like a elephant drinking water. To put this in perspective, Palm III users can go for weeks upon weeks of heavy usage without changing batteries. End-users need to understand that Windows CE 2.1 is a much more complicated OS than Palm OS 3, and requires heavy-duty processing power to get acceptable performance with it.