[cstross]

The Psion Series 7 was a netbook-sized machine with a VGA screen. Came along just too soon to have wifi and bluetooth built-in, just too late to be competitive with the ever-shrinking notebooks like the Toshiba Libretto range.

The nearest thing to psion devices today are made by [Planet Coputers](https://www.www3.planetcom.co.uk/); their keyboards are designed by Martin Riddiford (the designer of the Psion Series 3 and 5 machines), and with fast charging over USB-C they're as close to what you're asking for as you'll find today.

[criddell]

I think the hardware is great, but I definitely don't want Android or Linux and that screen looks power hungry. A similar form factor running a lighter OS (like EPOC) with an eink or other low power display would be pretty cool but also would likely only have a market of one.

[RajT88]

I have the Gemini PDA.

The screen was a thing of beauty, and the battery life was great. Last I used it, I got through a redeye from SFO to ORD without it dying.

[criddell]

I guess we have different ideas of good battery life. I'd like to see days if not weeks of battery life using AA's or AAA's.

I mostly want an updated Psion 5.

[cstross]

I used a Psion 5 back in the day, and read ebooks on it which gave the battery life a torture test. A pair of Duracell AA cells would last 20 hours without the backlight, and about 7 hours with it.

A Gemini or Cosmo with the wireless hardware turned off and the backlight at about 30% will handily exceed the 7 hours, but not reach 20 hours. Except you can top them up with any USB-C booster battery.

AAs and AAAs are an environmentally wasteful solution: they were great back in the day when laptops sometimes had a mere 60 minute battery life and required a kilogram-sized brick to charge from the mains, but those days are long past.

[criddell]

Your Psion 5 battery numbers sound about right. In comparison, a new Macbook Air can play 18 hours of video on a single charge. Thirty-five years ago, the Radio Shack Model 100 could run for that long on a set of 4 AAs. It should be possible to make an ultra-low power device that can run the Psion 5 apps (ie simple apps) that can go for weeks on a single set of batteries or charge.

I really miss the Psion 5 / Radio Shack Model 100 / eMate class of devices. I think they are still better in some respects than modern Android-phone-with-a-keyboard devices.

[RajT88]

5 hours of constant use on the plane used up maybe 60% of the battery.

I could easily go a few days of casual use. But yes, it's nowhere near what you're talking about.