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The Gemini PDA's follow-up is a clamshell communicator phone
Planet Computers' Gemini could serve as a phone if you really wanted, but it was ultimately a PDA first and foremost. It's keenly aware of that limitation, however -- the company has launched a crowdfunding project for the Cosmo Communicator, another clamshell QWERTY keyboard device that's intended to serve as a phone, not just a pocketable productivity machine. You'll still find a 6-inch display and camera on the inside, but the outside now includes a 2-inch screen, a 24-megapixel camera and a two-orientation microphone and speaker combo. You can take a call without answering blindly, and snap photos beyond selfies. It's closer to a hybrid phone like Nokia's E90 Communicator than PDAs like Psion's lineup.
Gemini PDA review: We’ve come a long way since keyboards
The sun may have set on the phone-with-a-keyboard phenomenon, but there are still people who pine for physical keys. Armed with a deca-core processor, Android, all the wireless connections you need and slots for SIM and microSD cards, the Gemini ($599, by Planet Computers) is a refreshing proposition to those frustrated with the port-less, key-less mobiles of today. (And yes, it even has a headphone jack.) But I'll warn you now, the touchscreen world has come a long way in recent years -- so much so that you might find a keyboard isn't as helpful as you hoped and can even be a hindrance.
I found a Gemini PDA running Sailfish OS, and it was wild
At CES, a certain portion of Engadget's staff fell in love with the Gemini, a reimagining of the Psion PDA from the late 1990s. If the promise of a dual-booting Android and Linux phone had you drooling at the mouth, strap in, because I've just seen the same hardware running Sailfish OS. That's right, the alternative mobile operating system that Jolla has been working on since 2011. It's one of the strangest and most surprising phone collaborations of 2018, and I can't help but applaud the audacity of it all. The only problem is that the phone isn't very fun to use -- not yet, anyway.
Former Psion designers return with a fresh take on the PDA
Way back when, in the days before smartphones, folks had to use a PDA to get work done when they were out and about on the go. The form factor was typified by Psion, which died off at the turn of the millennium when it was clear other devices would take its place. But now the spirit of Psion lives on in a couple of its former engineers, which have developed the Gemini, a clamshell smartphone with a physical keyboard.
