The AlphaSmart 3000 is a portable word-processing device aimed at the education market. It’s cheap — about $200 — and can potentially go for hundreds of hours on a few AA batteries. I know some people who swear by them as a cheap, truly portable writing device and decided to take the plunge and order one the other day.
The unit arrived via FedEx today and after playing with it for awhile I’m am very impressed with the device — for a change, I think I actually got my money’s worth on such a device.
The AlphaSmart weights practically nothing — the computer keyboard I’m writing this on weighs more than the AlphaSmart. Rather than a big color LCD screen as you would find in a laptop, the AlphaSmart 3000 has a four-line, 40-character monochrome LCD like you might find in a high-end calculator. This was my single biggest concern about the unit, but the screen is more than serviceable for word processing. The only serious problem is that the screen angles slightly and I could easily see it getting scratched or marred while being put into a briefcase or carrying case. Some sort of hinged or sliding cover for the screen would go along way to reducing such problems.
The keyboard is very nice. The keys are bigger than most desktop keyboards, although the keys tend to be a bit too springy for my taste. The AlphaSmart includes a spell checker, which works well, as well as the ability to search for specific words or phrases.
The AlphaSmart connects to a PC or Mac via a USB cable. Transferring files was extremely quick and without any problems.
If you do a lot of writing or note taking away from your desktop computer, the AlphaSmart is an excellent alternative to lugging around a heavy, power hungry laptop.