HP Jornada 720 running Textmaker 2002 today

Before the tablet there was the netbook.  Before the netbook there was the Handheld PC, epitomised as it was by the HP Jornada range.

Beginning life as the HP Jornada 680 in 1998, this clamshell portable computer went through a number of slight modifications before its final incarnation, the 728, in 2002.  The most popular model was most likely the Jornada 720, from 2000.  I obtained mine in 2001, and it still works today (see photo).

It’s not the powerhouse that we’ve come to expect from portable computing, and its specs would make a modern tablet laugh, but it’s still operating some 15 years later.  It came supplied complete with an 8-9hr battery which, combined with its instant-on nature, gave you a whole day of use.  You could also buy additional battery packs, as the battery was user-changeable.  Better still, long before the days of iPads with their 10hr battery-life, you could buy a triple-life battery pack for the HP Jornada 720 which would last for 24 hours of continuous use.  Armed with these, you could work on the device for days without having to plug it in for charging.

The Jornada 720 came with some quite basic office software, including “portable” versions of Word and Excel.  Portable Word was little more than Windows notepad and so wasn’t very good for writing novels or documents that required any kind of formatting.

Fortunately, all that was to change with the advent of Softmaker Office 2002 from the guys at Softmaker.

Textmaker 2002 running on H/PC

This office suite, in particular the fully-featured Textmaker 2002, turned the unassuming little Jornada 720 into a small powerhouse.  It’s no wonder that, in recent times, Softmaker have released their office software on everything from Linux to Windows to Windows Mobile to Android.

The Jornada 720 feels a little cramped today, and its low-resolution low-colour resistive touch screen leaves a little to be desired, but it does still work.  We live in an era of portable devices designed for content consumption rather than content creation.  While it is possible to attach a keyboard to modern tablets, it never really feels like they were designed with keyboard-bashing in mind.  The Jornada 720 was a pocket-size, slightly heavy, portable “best of both worlds” computing device.