Comdex Fall: HP has coolest colour CE 2.0 palmtop

Although several vendors showed devices based on Windows CE 2.0 at the show, HP scored bonus points with the unit's beautiful 256-colour backlit TFT screen. The firm matched the display with a powerful specification of 16Mb RAM, Plug -and-Play VGA connection and integral financial management, audio, fax and scheduling software applications. The well-spaced keyboard also seems preferable to most of the other CE products shown at Comdex. One PC Card slot and one CompactFlash slot are free for expansion

Although the unit is among the larger CE-based units, HP sees competition coming as much from mini-notebook products like Toshiba's Libretto, as other CE-based handheld devices. If the firm is right, the estimated £700 price tag when the product ships early next year might not be too off-putting for serious road warriors.