How would you feel about a laptop that runs 20Hours or more on a recharge? You'd probably run to the store to get it, wouldn't you? That was just what psion seemed to think when they built the MC series Mobile Computer way back in 1989...

There's 4 versions of the machine:

MC200	The first and least... 640 x 200 Supertwist LCD screen(Blue/White), Touchpad, 256KB Memory, 256KB ROM, 4 SSD slots
MC400	The next model. 640 x 400 Retardation Film LCD (Black/White), otherwise mostly as MC200
WORD	The best model. This has an updated Word program... The MC200/MC400 can be updated with a SSD containing the ROM files ofthe WORD unit.
MC600	This one on the other hand is best forgotten... It's the only one of them that runs DOS... most people calls it an 'horrible cludge'...

A few other points worth noting:

• The standard battery pack uses 8 AA batteries, and is supposed to give approx 60-75hours of use if no SSD's are present... (The 20Hour estimate is for the optional Ni-cad packs)
• The chargeing circuit for the optional Ni-cad batteries are IN the batterypack itself! This means:
  1. The battery could be connected DIRECTLY to the 12V psu and charged while you're out and about using another pack, and
  2. It would be possible to use newer battery technology like Ni-mh or even Li-ion just by swapping the pack. (It would itself arrange the correct charge )
  Just a pity that there never came any newer batteries... (As far as I know, the only batteries that were available were Psion's 600mAh and 1Ah packs)
• The Printer port and Serial port is in a removable module at the back(Left hand side). It is possible to remove it, and then insert it in another slot at the righthand side... It's even possible to add another similar module so as to get two serial ports at the same time. (They use the same connector as the HC series computers)
• The internal architecture is the same as the HC and the later Series 3(and 3a/3c/3mx/Sienna) and the Workabout.
• The built in programming language OPL is the biggest flaw in my opinion... It's a extended version of the OPL language found on the Series II, but with several changes like more than one procedure in every file, long Integer variables and better database handling. Unfortunately, they didn't add a few VERY important commands:
  • GETEVENT (Added on later machines) so as to handle system evnts like 'File close', 'Exit program', touchpad events, and better keyboard handling...
  • Graphic commands! A real bummer! After all, the computer has a GUI...
  • Memory allocation... (ALLOC/DEALLOC) Very useful in many programs.
  I consider that the most important reason for it's failure to sell well. No matter that it was VERY expensive, without those functions and commands, it meant that very few third party developers could create programs for it. (A lot of third party software for the Organiser II and later the S3 and S5 ranges are written in OPL )