The Advantages
The first thing you'll notice about the Mobilon Pro is it's speed. Because of it's 129Mhz Mips CPU it is very comfortable to work on. This feature alone would cause me to purchase this machine. Instead of your Windows CE unit being a slow toy that resembles your desktop computer, the PV-5000 actually responds quite nicely and is very pleasant to work on. This is the first Windows CE unit I've used that is this comfortable. The windows and menus open quickly and the screen refreshes at a comfortable pace. Even while using the internal software modem the unit seems usable. Granted, all internal modems slow their machine down a bit but I wasn't quite as frustrated as I was while trying to use the internal modem on other units.

The screen is very bright in comparison to other units. In comparison to the older Mobilon products the screen is very large. With 4096 colors to work with you'll be pleased with your desktop. I loaded up a couple of jpg files and they looked fine, even at 640x480. The screen has five levels of brightness which can be adjusted using the keyboard. It obviously uses more battery power the brighter you go but I find it very comfortable on some of the lower settings. In fact, when I placed the Mobilon Pro (at the second lowest brightness level) next to my Sharp Tripad, they looked about the same.

The keyboard is very nice. It hardly took any time at all to get proficient at typing on the Mobilon Pro. The keys are raised just the right level for me and they seem almost (not quite, but almost) like a regular laptop. With just a few minutes of typing you'll get very fast. This sure beats the two finger typing that I used to do on my Velo I. I especially like the fact that the Mobilon Pro has a dedicated delete key rather than the shared version that so many other units have. I hate having to press Alt + Backspace to achieve a delete.

Another nice thing about the keyboard is the quick launch keys. They really come in handy especially when you're trying to conserve screen space. I make it a habit to get rid of as many icons as I can on my desktop so the screen refreshes faster. This makes the whole HPC experience seem faster than it is, but on some units this is a problem because they don't have quick launch keys. With the Mobilon Pro you can launch all the major applications with the touch of a button.

Here's another nice thing about the Mobilon Pro...the Reset Key. I love the fact that it's right there in plain view. You don't have to tip the unit over or take off a battery cover to get to it. As many times as I reset the unit this one comes in handy.

Requested Improvements
As much as I like the Mobilon Pro it's not perfect. I'd like to see some things changed in future versions of this unit. First on my list is the battery situation. Sharp says the Mobilon Pro gets 8 hours of battery usage (that's at a low screen brightness without using the internal modem, but that's respectable). What bothers me is that I could not get a battery meter will work on the Mobilon Pro. The unit does not support the use of the battery meters so you have to go into Control Panel --> Power to see how you're doing. With only 3 levels (Good, Low, and Very Low) it's not always easy to see how far you can go on a charge.

Another suggestion for Sharp in regards to the battery situation...make it accessible so we can have a backup battery. There's no easy way to change the battery so you're pretty much going to have to find a power source at some point if you're on the road. This may not be a big deal for most folks but I often find myself on 8 hour flights or longer. Although the Mobilon claims an 8 hour battery life that's not really realistic. You could probably expect 4-5 hours or so of constant use and that would be great if you got that so the need for ability to swap out batteries is definitely there.

The lack of a Flash Card slot is a slight disadvantage. You can of course use the PC Card slot for flash memory but it will use more power than a flash card slot and you can't use a network card or modem while you're using the flash card. I'm not sure why Sharp left this out but I'd suggest putting it back in.

Conclusion
Overall the Sharp Mobilon Pro is a great machine. I've already recommended it to a couple of Network Manager friends of mine who were asking about HPCs. The small size, fast processor and great keyboard make it one to look at. There are a few things left out like VGA output port, and a microphone for voice memos but I don't use either of those. As time goes on these units will get much better but this Sharp Mobilon Pro could replace the traditional laptop for some professionals. I know it's all I need that's for sure. I hate having to lug around a 7 lbs laptop with limited battery life. This thing will go a lot further on a charge and for basic functions it works well. In my case I really just need to get e-mail and maybe do a bit of web browsing on the road. This thing is perfect for me. Check it out for yourself.