I could have written your comment! Though I sold mine.
I followed pocket reform closely but the thickness of it, combined with the price, put me off. It’s not the same class of device as Psion, Gemini, or the UMPCs.
I have a Gemini. I love it and still use it. The keyboard remains world-class, best of breed in any pocket-sized device. The OS is dated but still works fine and connectivity to Dropbox, gDrive, OneDrive etc. is very handy and mostly missing from desktop Linux.
As a pocketable laptop replacement it is unequalled, for this writer.
Don’t get me wrong I’m very glad they built it, happy to share some risk to get a niche product to market, and used it as a daily driver for some time.
Curious though, did the whole unit bounce, with the screen wobbling back and forward, when you typed?
Nope, it's pretty firm. The design isn't as good as the Psion 5, but it's OK. I mainly place it on my lap on something like a book, or preferably, on a desk or tabletop. Then I can type on it at about 60 WPM, which is about 3/4 of my speed on a full-sized keyboard such as my preferred IBM Model M.
I occasionally can't remember where a character is, but I tell myself it's where it would be on a Psion and 20th century muscle memory kicks in and I just hit that combo.
Interesting. No, I haven't noticed that. Maybe if one particular unit's keyboard works well, you don't have to hit the keys so hard, so it doesn't push down on the hinge mechanism.
Psion's own hinge mech was far better, but PlanComp only licensed the keyboard, not the case. I proposed a fatter "pro" model with a bigger battery that was the same size, shape and form factor as the original, so it'd fit in original cases. I still have several.
I was shouted down by Americans whose internal airlines apparently have or had some stupid limit on the size of battery you can carry on board. In Europe any battery over a certain limit has to be carried in the cabin, so if it fails the crew can extinguish it.
I followed pocket reform closely but the thickness of it, combined with the price, put me off. It’s not the same class of device as Psion, Gemini, or the UMPCs.