Compaq Aero 1530

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(10/26/99)
Compaq's first attempt at beguiling Palm OS users to the Windows CE camp was the Aero 2100. Its bulky shape and dim color display didn't impress Palm loyalists, however. The company's latest effort, the Aero 1530, sheds the beefy color screen in favor of a slimmer, thinner design that puts it in nearly the same size and weight class as the lithe, little Palm V. Palm users, take a look.

The Skinny
No question about it, the Aero 1530 is the slenderest, lightest palm-size Windows CE device around. Though it doesn't have color, its grayscale screen does offer 16 shades of black and white. The screen is quite readable in low light, even without its murky green backlight. According to Compaq, the Aero 1530 has a battery with serious stamina: it lasts twice as long as the batteries in most color palm-size CE devices do.

Powered by a 70-MHz processor, the Aero 1530 has 16MB of RAM. Similar to most new CE devices, it includes software for playing MP3 music and a stereo-out jack for listening in. Loading up more than a handful of tunes will prompt most users to pop an optional memory card into its standard CompactFlash slot.

Software Sweets
Compaq has improved on the built-in CE software with the addition of a taskbarlike menu of handy helpers, which allow you to quit or start applications, explore hidden data folders and files, and adjust the volume, contrast, and power settings. An add-on CD includes a Spanish/English dictionary, number-crunching and financial tools, and a program for managing and viewing image files.

Will the Aero 1530 take a bite out of 3Com's executive-suite lunch? Not likely, since the Palm platform itself--which enjoys millions more users than Windows CE--is as much a part of the purchasing decision as the device itself. The Aero 1530 does, however, offer an easier-to-pocket alternative to costlier, bulkier, color palm-size CE devices. At US$299, about half the hit to the wallet, grayscale suddenly doesn't look so bad after all.