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Is Sharp's SE-500 the Pilot killer?

By Richard Morochove

First published November 13, 1997

When you're number one in any segment of the computer business, you've got a target painted on your back. So it's no surprise that 3Com's Palm Pilot palmtop computer has come in for some healthy competition.

In less than two years, the Palm Pilot turned the palmtop market topsy-turvy with its combination of ease of use, small size and weight. Market researchers say the Pilot has grabbed from 50 to 70 per cent of the palmtop market.

An impressive challenger out of the starting blocks is Sharp's SE-500 Mobile Organizer. Sharp's effort is a little taller than the Pilot, but about the same width and thickness. Yet the increased size seems a more than fair tradeoff for the added hardware features.

Unlike the Pilot, the SE-500 includes a built-in 14.4 Kbps data modem, along with E-mail software. It's the smallest device I've seen that allows you to send and receive E-mail.

Sharp's backlit touch-screen display is almost 50 per cent larger than the Pilot, at 159 pixels wide by 240 pixels high. The larger display has higher contrast for greater legibility. It also has a lightly textured finish I like, which the stylus grips better than the slippery screen on the Pilot.

Sharp includes an infrared port for transferring data to another unit or a PC. I like the flip-around integrated screen cover, which is always attached to the unit, unlike the Palm Pilot's slipcase.

The SE-500, with 1 megabyte of memory, is aggressively priced, listing at just $399. Even after a recent price reduction, that's much less than the $519 price for the comparable Palm Pilot Professional and little more than the $379 tag for the Palm Pilot Personal, which has half the memory.

Yet why do I find myself coming back to the Palm Pilot? For one thing, the Sharp SE-500 operates sluggishly, compared to the Palm Pilot. Switching appointment views from daily to weekly to monthly on the Pilot is almost instantaneous, but is perceptibly slower on the Sharp unit.

I have bigger concerns with the software. At first glance, the SE-500 seems to outdo the Palm Pilot. Both have the usual built-in organizer applications including a calendar, appointment schedule, to-do list, memo pad, address book, expense tracker and calculator. The Sharp unit also includes a more sophisticated time clock, anniversary tracking and a graphical drawing capability.

Yet Sharp's software isn't. For example, if you press any of the application buttons on the Pilot, the unit turns on and opens that application. There are no buttons on the Sharp but touching the equivalent screen areas will switch on the palmtop. However, it will always open the last application used, no matter which screen area you tapped.

Entering data in an application is more time consuming on the SE-500. Using the Pilot, you can start entering an appointment by tapping at the start time on the daily appointment view. Using the Sharp unit, you must say you want a new appointment and then enter the start time in the dialog box.

The biggest drawback to the Sharp SE-500 is the lack of any form of handwriting recognition, similar to the Pilot's Graffiti. Perhaps Sharp is still smarting from the critical drubbing of the flaky handwriting system on Apple's Newton. (Sharp's version of the Newton was almost identical to Apple's, with the addition of a screen cover.)

So you must use the virtual keyboard that pops up on the display to enter information into your SE-500. While this touch screen keyboard is an option on the Pilot, it's faster to use the Graffiti hand printing system, once you've had a little practice. Both palmtops also come with docking cradles and software that allows you to enter data using your PC's keyboard and transfer it to the handheld units.

Another factor behind the Palm Pilot boom is the large number of third party applications you can download free or at little cost from the Internet. These include everything from games to electronic books to specialty programs. The SE-500 is a closed system, so you can use only the software from Sharp.

The bottom line: I like the hardware design of Sharp's SE-500, but the software falls short of that on the Pilot.

This isn't the last of the Palm Pilot challengers. The first wave of the second generation of Windows CE handheld PCs will arrive in stores over the next few weeks. The Windows CE 2 units include a wider selection of software, such as a spreadsheet, and it's all Windows 95 compatible. In 1998 we'll see the first Windows CE units with colour displays. CW

Click here to order Sharp's SE-500!