Royal daVinci

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by Julie

February 18, 1999

Program Requirements:
Desktop:
Windows 95 or NT

I've heard the saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that's the case, then Royal must really have a thing for the PalmPilot. Royal who has been selling low cost organizers and calculators for years has recently introduced a PDA called the daVinci. This unit is very similar to the PalmPilot. In fact, it actually uses the same processor (Motorola Dragonball). What's the biggest difference between the two? The price. But, some might say that you get what you pay for... Let's look closer.

Hardware Specs
Processor: 
68000-descendant processor running at 16mhz

Operating System:
dV-OS

User Storage Memory:
256k

Display:
160 x 160 pixels
Backlit, (Royalglo) Touch sensitive

Power:
2 x AAA size alkaline batteries
Standard 3v Lithium backup cell protects RAM while changing batteries (CR2032)

Size:
4.75" x 3.25" x 0.5"

The Royal daVinci has a black plastic body with a magnetic flip over screen cover. I showed it to two of my friends. One has the Casio E-10, and the other one owns a PalmPilot Pro. The first comment from each of them was that it felt cheap. Holding the daVinci in one hand and a Palm III in the other, I can tell that the Palm III is heavier and feels smaller (although they are very similar in size). To me, the daVinci feels solidly made and not creaky. But, there is something about it that just says "I'm an imitation of the real thing...." 

I do like the flip over screen cover. It is held closed with a magnet. There is a hinge at the top of the cover that allows you to fold it completely under the unit and lie flat against the back. The underside of this cover also has quick reference guide to the daVinci Script (graffiti clone) which is a very nice touch.

The front of the unit has for small navigation buttons on left side. These buttons allow you to move around in screens. Unfortunately, there is no way to assign different tasks to these buttons. Pressing the buttons while the unit is off does not power it up either. To the right of these buttons are two other buttons. One launches the FIND feature and the other displays the TIME. I'm not sure why these two features really warranted their own dedicated buttons. I would much rather be able to redefine them to my own liking. The other button is the Power button. This button also doubles as the backlight button and will activate after holding it down for 2 secs.

The display is remarkably like the PalmPilot's. It has the separate pen input area at the bottom which is separated into two halves. One side for letters and the other for numbers. There are also two silk-screened buttons (just like the PalmPilot) on either side of this input area. On the left side is the Cancel and Tools (Menu) buttons and on the right side is the Ok and Pg Up/Pg Dn buttons. At the top of the display is a silk-screened menu bar that will let you launch the built-in applications.

The actual visibility of the screen is a little worse than a PalmPilot due to screen glare problems. I noticed that if I hold my Palm III in front of me and then the daVinci (both at the same exact angle), I have more trouble reading the daVinci due to the reflectivity of the screen.

The sensitivity of the digitizer also leaves alot to be desired. The instructions even say that you are supposed to recalibrate every week. Using daVinci Script (Royal's answer to Graffiti), I found that its accuracy was horrible compared to my Palm III. I am very good at graffiti and since the daVinci Script for the most part isn't that much different, I know it wasn't just me having learning problems. When I would write a letter, it would sometimes pick a letter that was no where near what it should have been. I also didn't like that you had to write the backspace character in the number side of the script area. Here's what the daVinci script is like compared to Graffiti:

daVinci Script	Palm Graffiti

The daVinci's display does excel in one area over the the PalmPilot though and that is the backlighting which is probably 10-15% brighter.

The left side of the daVinci has a recessed contrast wheel. The right side has the stylus silo. The stylus is a very short (shorter than the PalmPilot's) plastic stick that reminds me of a little spoon. Royal was kind enough to include two additional spare styli with the package. And they are even different colors :-) I don't really care for the stylus because when you write with it, it feels like it skips across the surface of the display.

On the backside of the unit is the battery slots. The main slot houses two AAA batteries. One nice touch is a battery door lock so that you can't accidentally open it. There's also a door for the backup coin cell battery. A screw must first be removed in order to gain access to the battery. The reset switch is on the back as well and can be activated with the stylus.  At the bottom of the unit is a slide off cover for the sync port. Royal must be anticipating people loosing this cover as they include a spare.

The speaker is about the same as the PalmPilot. Your only option though is to turn the system sounds (screen taps) on or off. There are no volume settings. Event alarms all use the same sound and you can not modify them.

The daVinci comes with a cradle for syncing information to your PC. The cradle is plastic and has a 9pin serial connector at one end. On the back of the cradle is a removable cover that reveals a connector for the optional keyboard.

Software Specs

The daVinci has several built-in applications. I'll discuss each one briefly.

Phone is the contacts application where you keep phone numbers and addresses. You have the following fields that you can enter information into:
Last name (31 chars max)
First name (31 chars max)
Company (48 chars max)
Title (48 chars max)
Home phone (48 chars max)
Work phone (48 chars max)
Fax (48 chars max)
Mobile phone (48 chars max)
Pager (48 chars max)
Email address (63 chars max)
Address (127 chars max)
City (30 chars max)
State (3 chars max)
Zip (12 chars max)
Country (30 chars max)
Four custom fields (127 chars max each)
Note field (1023 chars max)

Each entry can be assigned to a category (you can have up to 15 different categories).

The contacts are displayed in a list view with lettered tabs at the bottom of the display like a rolodex. The last name and work phone are the default values that are displayed in this view. You can specify which phone number (home, work, fax, mobile) that you want to be displayed for each entry. You can page through all your contacts by tapping on these tabs or by using the hardware up/down buttons.You can also filter the list by using the category pulldown menu to just show entries in a specified category. By pressing the Tools silkscreen button, you have options to create, delete, move, copy or edit entries. Tapping on a entry will bring up all the info on that entry.

The Phone application is quite similar to the Address app on the PalmPilot. Both apps are equal in their features with neither being the best.

ToDo is the task manager application. You can enter a task and assign it a 1-5 level priority. You can also assign it a date to be due. Each entry can also have a note field attached to it and a category (you can have up to 15 different categories). Tabs at the bottom of the screen allow you to switch between All, Done or To Be Done pages. You can also sort by date by tapping on the date column.   Unfortunately, when a task is overdue, it isn't marked in such a way as to get your attention.

This application is also pretty much the same as that on the PalmPilot. I sort of like the different views (tabbed screens) on the daVinci more though.

Planner is the datebook application. This is where you add your meetings and events that you need to be reminded of. Alarms can be set for each event. The Planner application has four different views. A daily view will list your events for a specific day. It also has a time bar at the top of the display that is broken up into squares that are equal to 30min intervals. If an appointment is entered, the blocks are shaded during the scheduled hours.

A weekly view shows 7 of these time bars on the screen. Each one stands for one day of the week. A monthly view shows a regular calendar grid for the month with little clock icons in the days that have appointments entered. The yearly view shows 4 months at a time with little dots next to days that have an appointment on them.

The Planner app is ok but it is missing one very important feature: Repeating events. There is no way to add an event that happens every week or once a month. You have to manually insert every event that you want to keep track of.  There also isn't an easy way to get to back to TODAY if you are wandering around in the datebook.

Notes is the drawing program. This app will let you draw on the screen with basic built in tools. These tools include freehand, line, circle, box, eraser, and reverse image.  You can choose from a couple different fill patterns for the box and circle tools. The freehand tool has the ability to change to different line widths that can have patterns.

This is a nice basic little application and is something that the PalmPilot or Palm III for that matter has never had as a built in app.

Calc is a basic 10 function calculator. It doesn't have any special functions except square root and percent.

Memo is the memopad application. With this app, you can create small text files with information in them. These files can then be assigned to a category.  There are two things wrong with this application. The first thing is that you can only create memos that are a maximum of 1k in size. This is worse than the 4k limit that PalmPilot users have been complaining about for years. The other problem is that there are no COPY, CUT or PASTE features that you can use to edit your memos.

Clock is the time application. You use this to set your current city and time. You can also set a world city for keeping track of time in other areas. This might be good for someone that travels and wants to know what time it is back home. You can easily see what time it is by pressing the TIME hardware button on the front of the daVinci. Each press will toggle through home time and world time. 

The only bad thing about this little app is that you can't customize it to show your actual city. You have to just pick the city nearest where you live.

Find will allow you to search data through key words or the date range of the Planner and ToDo data.

SmartSync is the desktop syncing software that comes on 5 floppy disks. This software syncs with the Royal PIM. This PIM just gives you the basics. You can't import or export your data and you also can't sync with third party PIM's. If you want this feature, you'll have to buy another software package.  I did figure out that the PIM saves its data as MS Access format databases so I was able to export my data from my Palm III desktop into a comma separated file and then import it into MS Access into the format that the Royal PIM liked. It worked, but it wasn't the quickest or easiest method.

I had some trouble with SmartSync. My main gripe is that every time I sync the daVinci with my desktop PC, I get another copy of my data on the daVinci. So, at this point I have 7 of every one of my contacts in the phone app and 7 of each of my todo's in the todo app etc. I'm not sure what is causing this as I did not messed with the default settings in SmartSync. My other gripe is that there isn't a button on the cradle that will let you initiate a sync. You have to turn on the daVinci and navigate to the Sync application and then tap Ok. This is a pain.

So, what's the bottom line? Should you buy the daVinci? At $100 it is tempting. The hardware is ok, the built in apps are also ok. But, if you think you'll want to be a power user and learn the daVinci Script and install all kinds of neat little 3rd party apps, you'll be disappointed. Although you can install applications, there aren't any available yet. Well, there is a sliding puzzle game...wow. If you're not a power user, and the features of the built in apps sound ok to you, then I think you'd be better off buying a cheapo Casio or Royal organizer. Most of them have the same functionality but for even lower $$'s. If the daVinci looks good to you, I think you'd be better off finding a used PalmPilot Personal. At least you'd have a ton of third party software available to you, tons of accessories, 2x the memory, and the ability to upgrade to more memory and the functionality of a Palm III.

 

Price: $99.99

Pros:
Low price.
Bright backlighting.

Cons:
Doesn't come with any third party PIM syncing software.
Can't add reoccurring events in the Planner application.
Digitizer doesn't recognize daVinci Script well. Needs calibrating too often.
No button on cradle for syncing.