Windows CE—Microsoft's scaled-down version of Win¬dows for hand-held PCs—is single-handedly responsible for making these tiny computers a viable platform after years of disappointed expectations. Now, Hewlett-Packard, the company that led the first move toward desktop standards with its Lotus 1-2-3-equipped LX line, is finally offering its first Windows CE units, the 300LX and 320LX.

The 300LX series' breakthrough fea¬ture is an 80-column, 640- by 240-pixel screen, a first for Windows CE hand-held PCs. Even without the optional backlight, the screen is eminently readable once you angle it to avoid glare. With the bluish light on, the display is crisp—in fact, it's good enough to play solitaire in bed with the lights off.

I tested a 320LX prototype ($699) that lacked several features found in the final units that HP expected to ship by mid-spring—a CompactFlash backup card, a docking cradle, and a fax modem. The 300LX, which costs $499, has 2 MB of RAM instead of 4 MB and lacks the screen back¬lighting, fax modem, and CompactFlash.

Both units' connectivity options include any network or modem device that will fit in its Type II PC Card slot, a 115-Kbps IRDA-compliant (Infrared Device Association) port, and an RS-232 interface that requires an optional adapter. Bundled connectiv¬ity software includes a terminal emula¬tor, remote networking, an e-mail inbox, and the Pocket Internet Explorer that come with Windows CE, and Microsoft's H/PC explorer for transferring files to and from your PC. Also included is bsquare development's bFax Pro. HP throws in a CD-ROM offering additional communi¬cations software.

Though it comes with downsized ver¬sions of Microsoft Word and Excel, the 320LX—like its competitors—is still a glo¬rified Day-Timer in many ways. Thus, it comes with tools for synchronizing con¬tacts, schedules, and notes between hand¬held and desktop machines. Special soft¬ware lets you synchronize with the desktop version of Microsoft Schedule 7.0a. You can also synchronize to the Outlook per¬sonal information manager (PIM) in Microsoft Office 97 and print directly to a printer.

The keyboard is as cramped and stiff as that of any competing hand-held PC, though the unit is roughly a half-inch wider, at 7.2 inches. Windows CE hard¬ware vendors have avoided using hand¬writing recognition for input, what with that technology's well-known failures.

The alternative—using the stylus to activate the mostly standard Windows mouse events, supplemented with min¬imal keyboard entry—is workable. This is especially true of Pocket Excel, which requires less user input than Pocket Word. Also, with faxes and e-mail now downloadable in essentially desktop for¬mat, and with extensive data sharing between the desktop and hand-held PCs, the 320LX won't lack for useful input and output.

HP still has a way to go to top the classy Philips Velo 1 (see "This Hand-Held Stands Out," April BYTE), which has a built-in CPU-based modem and voice input. Still, the 320LX has one big, wide feature that no other hand-held PC can beat—for now.