POS Custom Skins

In which inertia shows his true colours with some Skin for his Series5.

If your interest in Psion computers runs as deep as mine, I need do no more than mention POS Colour Cases to have you drooling at the prospect of smooth shiny paint where once there was a peeling ‘something’ that gave paint a bad name. For the rest of you, the slightly less geeky of us, you clearly don’t spend enough time with your precious Psion.

The concept of replacement Psion cases was born back in the days of the SIBO, when, for a mere £50, you could buy a denim-patterned case to solve that age old Psion/Jeans fashion problem. Nowadays, it seems, jeans are out and combat trousers (or as some people like to call them - Cargo Pants) are in, but the principle and price remains… introducing the POS Coloured Case. The Series 5 was a revolutionary machine in many ways, what with the introduction of EPOC, a touch sensitive screen and a stylish touch type keyboard. (keyboard and stylish are never two words I’d put together - delusional) Unfortunately however, the ‘rubberised’ paint used for the case did not fall into the same forward thinking category and, chances are, that a large proportion of the people reading this article know all too well the sight of peeling paint.

The POS Coloured Case is, surprisingly, produced by POS (or Pinnock Organiser Services) and offers an alternative to the common scratch-the-paint-off-with-fingernail fix for a peeling Series 5. I guess I should also mention at this point, that the Coloured Cases also fit Series 5mxs. However I find it hard to imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to change the lovely silver case of a Series 5mx unless of course, that is they need a palmtop that will match their purple corduroy flares! (OK, I promise, no more mention of clothing… hmmmm)

BUT I HAVE TARTAN FLARES?!

…alright, I know I promised, but one of the things I think is worth a mention is that the colour shown in the review images is not the only one available. A quick glance at POS’ website (www.posltd.com) reveals a wide range of colours and, when speaking to Kenton Douglas of POS, he informed me that aside from these standard colours, they are able to provide customized coloured and patterned cases. He did mention however, that these would take longer as they need to be produced separately and, as a result, they were likely to be more expensive than the standard cases. Despite this, I think it is fair to say that if the quality of these cases is that of their standard ones, they are worth the wait…

INSTALLATION

On the website, POS advertise the skins with fitting included. This of course means that you need to send your Psion off to their offices in London, which can be a bit of a downer for all of us who rely on our Psions as a day-to-day necessity. POS, however, assure me that normally a case can be fitted within two to three working days, or within an hour if you are in London and have a ‘while you wait’ fitting. As mentioned above, the POS Skins come at the same price of the original Series 3x replacement cases, but offer much more when you consider that they fit the cases for you…

When I first spoke to POS about reviewing one of their Coloured Cases, I also expressed an interest in writing a tutorial on how to fit the case. This was greeted warily, as they explained how they refrain from providing instructions with their cases, in order to avoid the inevitable “but you said I should unscrew the…and its all gone wrong,” scenario. Undeterred, I tried again and, finally managed to convince them to let me have a go. Where am I going with all this? Well, if the truth be known, the installation of the Replacement Case is probably the only bad point of the POS Coloured Cases. I considered myself quite good at electronics and the dismantling and the putting-back-together (well…hmm) of electronic equipment, having built a number of PCs. OK, so not everything I dismembered worked in quite the same way when I put it back together, but on the whole my attempts to repair such things have gone smoothly. That was of course, until I attempted to fit a replacement case to my Psion. Don’t get me wrong, my Psion still works, and after a couple of nail-biting days, I had managed to fit a new case and I’ve even managed to provide fitting instructions for all of you mad people who fancy fitting a case yourself. It’s just that next time: I’ll let POS fit my case for me!

THE VERDICT

It’s now about two or three months since I fitted the POS case and actually managed to persuade myself to write this article, but the extra review time has given me the chance to fully test its durability. I have to be honest and admit that I expected the case to look wonderful for the first couple of weeks and then to suffer a similar fate to the original one. I’ve been pleasantly surprised. On the whole the case is a well-made product and, with the actual case itself coming from Psion and only being sprayed by POS, there’s no worry at all about it not fitting flush with the original mouldings. I’d like to say that in the name of science and thorough reviews, I threw everything I could at my new case to see what it would hold up to. Unfortunately, I tested the case slightly less willingly, as I somehow managed to throw my Psion at virtually everything available, including the Sphinx. (Seriously!) It has been dropped, scraped against surfaces (all in the name of science… of course… hmmm), yet still the paint remains firmly on the case. These cases certainly offer a high standard of product and are well worth the money… the only shame is that they’re not as interchangeable as mobile phone covers.

If you were reading this section looking for my opinion as to whether you should buy it or not, I’m afraid I can’t give you a straight answer. If I were to take a cynic’s view, I’d suggest that unless your original Psion case is physically damaged in some way, a POS Coloured Case is not a practical solution. Of course, if your Psion is actually physically damaged, personally, I’d suggest that one of these is the only sensible option, especially considering that POS offer a reduced price of £35 if your Psion is already in for ‘surgery’. But then who weighs up such a gorgeous case against practicality?

Since having a POS Coloured Case installed, the geeky status attached to my Psion has been upgraded slightly, with the odd (and I mean odd!) person suggesting that it might actually look slightly cool..?! The simple fact is, that, with their Coloured Cases POS have created high quality fashion accessories, accessories that should be on any Psion fanatic’s Christmas wish list.