Sharp Electronic Organizer YO-290P

The size is great (easily fits in my palm), the case is sturdy, the stylus entry is more reliable than any other unit I've seen, the SEARCH FUNCTION for the phone, memo, schedule, etc. Works just as one would expect it to.

There is one thing that it was reported to do that it simply does not. The functions and prompts are supposed to be able to be displayed in 7 languages but on this model only English is available.

All in all a wonderful organizer though...


A really good deal   December 6, 2002
 21 out of 44 found this review helpful

I'll make this short, sweet, and to the point. If you need a PDA, this is a good first choice unless youre ultra rich. I mean, if you're about 10 to 80 years old, this is a good PDA for you. It has a really good money/performance deal. YOU SHOULD BUY IT!!


It's pretty good but not great   February 11, 2003
 13 out of 14 found this review helpful

I got this pda for 40 bucks when it came out and i thought it was pretty good. It has lots of memory so you can store thousands of names and appointments. One great feature this pda as is that can transfer the information to the computer with the included link! The lithium batteries inside it are great because instead of recharging the batteries with the more expensive pda's The batteries inside this pda lasts very long (over a year with occasional use). But there are drawbacks to this pda. I bought this for college to use as an agenda, but you can't write on this pad reliably or quick enough! So I have to write down the information ahead of time. Another complaint I have for this pda is when you search for someone's name, you have to scroll through the names!! You can't key in the name and have it instantly appear! With all that said, I would recommend this pda.


YO-290P - My first PDA   April 18, 2003
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

I've had my Sharp YO-290P for a couple of days now (April 2003). I'm new to the PDA world so I don't even know if I would find a PDA useful. I'm also one of the most frugal people I know, which brought me to the 290P. I don't need to download email, take pictures, or replace my PC. I just wanted an 'instant on', good extension to my computer, look up contacts, to-do's and take a quick note. I'm a database programmer with my own database of contacts, along with a database of contacts in Outlook. I wrote my own program to consolidate this info and load it into the software provided for upload.

The size is awesome and it is quite sturdy. The display has great contrast even in the sunlight. The cover does a great job of protecting the screen from abrasions. To look at the thing, you would think that it cost [$$$] or even [$$$]. It has 'up, down, left, and right' buttons on the touch screen as well as physical buttons on the unit. Unfortunately, it only has 'Prev' and 'Next' physical buttons on the bottom of the unit and not on the touch screen. If you have the stylus in your hand and you need to do a 'Next', you have to shift your hand around to press the button. Not too big of a deal.

The manual is relatively complete but fails to use the screen symbols for the major tasks which was a bit confusing to get started.

My two major beefs: the software with the product is minimalistic. It can only upload or download one section at a time. Upload contacts, then upload to-dos, then upload memos; each their own sequence of clicking on the PC, and then selecting the PC-Link function on the unit. Tedious. It doesn't merge the data either. When uploading in batch, it overwrites the target. This goes for uploads to the PC and downloads to the 290P. I was hoping for something smarter. That being said, I uploaded around 250 contacts and a couple of 'to-do's' and I'm only using 66% of the memory.

I went searching for better software. I downloaded and attempted the shareware XLink/Win software to no avail. The Sharp evidently has a new communications paradigm that isn't compatible with other models. Alternative communication suggestions? If I could get that to work the software would well be worth the [$$$], [$$$] more than the YO-290P.

The 290P is a great bargain. Not perfect but a bargain.


A Decent Price For a Decent PDA   May 23, 2003
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I've had this Sharp YO-290P organizer for some time now. Among its better qualities, is the expense manager feature which enables you to categorize your expenses and even calculates it up for a given time. In addition, it has two somewhat entertaining games, a Spanish/English converter, a good telephone directory, and a conversion calculator. However, it does have some drawbacks. For instance, its backlighting is very poor. The touch screen is also poor and instead have to constantly switch from using the stylus to the buttons located on the bottom of this PDA in order to save any information. And its scheduler/calendar leaves something to be desired. The free software it comes with (which I myself have not installed but a friend of mine has), which is contained on a floppy disk, has some problems on as well. However, this may not be the case for those with different PC systems, etc. Overall, I find that this PDA is decent enough to use, especially for a first-time PDA user. However, if you want a good PDA with better features for a similar price or somewhat higher, you'll need to look elsewhere, perhaps at a Royal brand organizer.