The Velo 500 is a
Beauty in Blue Suede

by David Boles

July 10, 1998

Every product shot of the Velo 500 I've seen belies the true beauty of the unit.  The Velo 500 is smaller than it looks and faster than it seems.  It appears that Philips have fixed early run heat problems with the modem that would darken the screen during long connections.  I surfed the web using the internal modem for 5 straight hours on AC without a break and the Velo 500 didn't get warm anywhere.  The backlight and contrast issues that bother others as reported in the internet newsgroups are not apparent to me.  My challenge here with you is to bring out the outstanding aesthetic and simplicity of design of the 500 in my review.

As you speed through the setup Wizard, you keep telling yourself that this is a killer machine... this Velo 500 is what Windows CE 2.0 was meant to be... fast, light, delightful... but how could perfection happen so soon in a second generation machine?  

I can tell you right now it was by purposeful design and not by accident as you shall soon see.

Color Whore
I've admitted plainly here in Go Inside Magazine that I'm a whore for color.  A color HPC screen brings a bright, informational, face to Windows CE 2.0.  So how can I even begin to love a 16 shade greyscale machine like the Velo 500?  The answer comes in three parts:  Speed, Size & Beauty.  The Velo 500 is the fastest Windows CE machine on the market today.  The Velo 500 is the smallest and lightest (only 15 oz. with the battery) HPC around.  Every millimeter of the Velo 500 is designed with an identifiable and quantifiable aesthetic in mind and that's rare in today's world of bland, basic black, design concepts.   

Clever By Plan
Philips have been cunning in fitting their Velo 500 into the poweruser niche and I admire their guts to bring out a greyscale second generation machine so late in the product cycle.  Philips are convincing in their argument that the Velo 500 is the Windows CE 2.0 watershed HPC that makes the OS a spectacular touchstone experience without compromise.

The Case Against Color
Philips isn't interested in color on an HPC at this time.  People like me who are passionate for color, may initially be disappointed in the decision to go greyscale, but Philips believes that color isn't presently the best choice in the HPC form factor.  Here are their reasons for making the Velo 500 a greyscale machine:

First Impressions
As I said earlier, the Velo 500 screams to be touched in the palm of your hand.  The rubberized paint feels very cool.  In fact, I named my Velo 500 "Blue Suede" because that's its color and its tactile distinction. 

It's the attention to the small things that makes the Velo 500 special.  The stylus is extremely comfortable to use for hours.  The Green, Red and Amber LEDs on the front edge of the machine are easy to see in all lighting conditions and from nearly any angle.  The Touch Screen is very smooth.  The lid latch is nifty and firm.  The record button is designed into the hood of the unit and that touch adds beauty to functionality.  The internal 28.8 v.34 modem's jack is built right into the hood, too!  A small pull on its RJ-11 tab lets you stab a phone line directly into the Velo 500.  Slick!  Even the Philips hood logo shimmers at different angles. 

In the product shot of the Velo 500 hood demonstrated below, you can see these design stylings.  In addition to the cool metal "Velo" logo knife tip (which actually bends over into the side of the hood making it look like the whole piece is a solid piece of metal jammed into the side of the hood), you'll notice the hood of the Velo 500 appears to be two different shades of blue suede.  Philips split the hood into two, curved, surfaces (while remaining a single, united, piece), and the way the light plays upon the downward and upward slopes of that subtle division makes for a color change in the soft touch paint!  There are no less than (including the lid latch on the front edge) NINE different tactile planes on the hood alone!  Here's how they break down:

All these design planes make the Velo 500 a Beauty in Blue Suede!   You never tire of looking at it, tumbling it between your hands, and wondering how all these pieces came together to make such an unforgettable whole.

Flip It
The bottom of the Velo 500 is purely utilitarian.  The Blue Suede rubber paint covers everything, though, so the tactile aesthetic is still in tact.  In the product shot below, the DRAM upgrade slot is on the bottom left.  In the middle is the V-Dock expansion port, above it is the backup battery, above that is the re-chargeable NiMH battery compartment (that will also take AA lithiums and AA alkalines if you so choose).  On the far right is the Flash/ROM upgrade slot and the system speaker resides directly above that slot.  Only the Flash/ROM and main battery bay have latches.  The DRAM and the backup battery are sealed with end user-unscrewable screws.  The optional V-Dock port simply flips back unto itself and remains retracted in its upper half while docked.

Watch This
The greyscale screen on the Velo 500 isn't bad!  I was surprised at how good greyscale can work when done right.  Casio, with their dog-out-of-the-box A-20 blew the screen, because the A-20 screen is hard to read, non-contrasty and the backlight is very weak.  The Velo 500, on the other hand, makes for a wonderful viewing experience.  

Write Here
The touch screen is excellent.  The surface is smoother than that found on the HP 600 series and I found dragging and dropping cards during long Solitaire games much easier to do on the Velo 500 than on any other HPC simply because the stylus doesn't skip across the screen or create undue friction that makes for a tired hand fighting the screen.

Touch This
I like the keyboard!  The key travel is quite tall and that's great because you FEEL when the key is being actioned.  Key feedback is generally ignored in HPCs and I appreciate being able to actually type on the Velo 500 without having to put up with that mushy feeling of not really knowing if a key has been acknowledged by the system or not.

Brains
The 3.3v 32-bit, MIPS-based Philips PR3177000 RISC chip burns at 75MHz, making your Velo 500 the fastest processor around -- and you certainly can taste that smokin' speed!  The true 32-bit architecture of the entire unit is why the Velo 500 is the speediest Windows CE 2.0 machine around.

Communications
The internal modem is only 28.8 bps and it's, frankly, a bit slow.  Don't surf the Web and expect to create a lot of voice memos while web graphics are downloading!  I tried that and my Velo 500 locked up with a high-pitched squeal from the speaker.  A soft Reset returned the system to normal. 

I've been told lowering the screen depth to 4 shades of grey from 16 shades of grey will make a difference in web page load speed, but I didn't notice any benefit when I tried that scheme.  Background images don't always load, so beware of sites like http://boles.com where a dark background wallpaper with a white lettered, transparent, logo GIF will not appear happily together.  My transparent GIF with white lettering is barely visible against the dark background that never loads on the Velo 500.

The IrDA eye means you can print and play games with other IrDA compatible devices.   IrDA games are lots of fun, especially the Battleship clone found on the Windows CE Microsoft Entertainment Pack. 

Look at Me!
I mentioned earlier... the neat Green, Red and Amber LEDs peek out from the lower lip of the Velo 500 in order to better catch your attention.   The Green LED is your battery charge indicator.  If you see green, your battery isn't finished charging.  The Red LED is super because it flashes when you have an active connection to your desktop!  Never again will you have to wonder if your HPC is communicating with your desktop because that red LED will flash and blip as it sends and receives data.  The Amber LED is your visual alarm flasher and while it isn't terribly bright, it is still a nice, visual, addition to the audible alarm.  The Amber LED will flash and flash and flash until you acknowledge the alarm, so even with the Velo 500 closed in slumber, you'll know you have an alert waiting to be cleared.

Hear This!
The speaker on the Velo 500 is rich and even bassy sounding.  The omnidirectional microphone works from any angle and you need not have the mic positioned two inches from your mouth (unlike the HP 600 series) in order to get your voice recorded properly.

Desktop Connection
The Velo dock is terrific.  Small.  Solid.  Heavy metal bottom.   The dock doesn't skid around and the Velo 500 snugly slides in for comfortable typing while docked.  There's a removable false bottom in the dock -- you remove that piece in order to dock and recharge your Velo 500 while the optional V-Module is attached.  Lovely design implementation!

DRAM
Philips' preferred implementation of additional memory via DRAM miniature cards is puzzling to me, especially since the Velo 500 doesn't have a CompactFlash slot.  If you have a Palm-size PC or another HPC, swapping out your vital documents and data from machine to machine via a CompactFlash card is a delight. 

With the Velo 500, though, you're out of luck. 

Toss your Compact Flash Card because while the extra V-Module will give you a single Type I or Type II PC Card expansion slot, it too, doesn't have a true CompactFlash slot.   While you can use a CompactFlash adapter, that's only a kludgy workaround that adds size and weight to the small idea and implementation of CompactFlash technology.   Adapter cards are backward-compatible technology and the Velo 500 should be leading the forward thinking edge of what's new technologically since Philips are already bleeding on that cutting edge from the design side.  

I find it telling that the Philips Nino Palm-size PC *does* have a CompactFlash slot!  Perhaps the next incarnation of the Velo will have dumped DRAM in favor of CompactFlash?  We can always hope!

Another great thing about a CompactFlash card is its non-volatility.  You can pull out a CompactFlash card from an HPC and not lose data.  You can't do that with a Philips DRAM memory card -- when it's removed from the Velo 500, you lose your data. 

If you install a DRAM memory card after your machine is already set up, you must first do full backup and a hard reset of your Velo 500 before the DRAM card will be properly recognized for use by your machine. 

Then? 

You do a Restore from your desktop to bring back your latest backup to your machine.  That's a tough way to add memory, making DRAM miniature card upgrades volatile in more ways than one.  Philips also says the DRAM Miniature cards are an "industry standard" but page 40 of the Velo 500 User's Manual states a highlighted, bold, and blunt "WARNING:  Only Philips Miniature Cards are guaranteed to work properly with the Velo 500."  I guess the "industry standard" only works one way when it comes to the Velo 500.

Portability
The Velo 500 is light and small, making it a cinch to slide into a pocket on your way out the door.  I've never held anything so light and small with this much power, and having my life at my stylus tip truly makes the Velo 500 a professional companion I will call upon all day every day for the information I need to negotiate my life.

Battery Life
The bundled, rechargeable, NiMH battery works well considering I must have the backlight on constantly.  Philips must know there are other HPC users like me because in their Control Panel display applet (Advanced Properties) you can make the Velo 500's backlight turn on with any key click or screen touch while on battery, AC or both.  While continuous use of the backlight places a big drain on the battery, I'm comfortable knowing I can always toss in a couple of AA alkalines or AA lithiums if my rechargeable dies in the field.

On a single charge of the bundled NiMH battery pack, I was able to use the Velo 500 with the backlight on, doing Contacts updates, setting alarms, playing several games of Solitaire, recognizing CalliGrapher 5.1 ink and doing CalliGrapher 5.1 handwriting conversion in a Word document for a grand total of 5 hours and 43 minutes. 

The Velo 500 was in suspend during this single charge test for a grand total of 9 hours and 40 minutes.  

I got my first "low battery" warning after only using the unit for 30 minutes!  Nuts!  I then got the familiar -- and godforsaken -- Windows CE System-coded "Main Batteries Very Low" nag window after only 3 hours and 45 minutes of use.

Philips claims 12-15 hours of continued use while on batteries, but that number must be without constantly having the backlight in use.  My evaluation with the backlight always on while using the Velo 500 on a single battery charge was around 4 hours since I can't stand that low battery nag window popping up every five minutes.  I could squeeze another 2 hours of use out of the battery if I had the gumption to continually dismiss the "Main Batteries Very Low" alert, but I don't.

The bundled battery recharged in 2 hours and 32 minutes.

I can use the modem on a full battery charge for 1 hour and 43 minutes before having to log off or slide into the docking cradle for a re-charge.

Bundled Velo Applications
The Velo 500 comes with the standard Windows CE 2.0 bundle of programs.  I won't review them for you here since that information is readily available lots of other places in more detail.  I will instead concentrate on the unique programs Philips have included with the Velo 500 that you won't find on many other HPCs.

Control Panel
Let's start with the Control Panel.  You can see three interesting Velo 500-specific components:  Audio Recording, Gray Scale and Quick Start.

I've never heard anyone complain about the recording quality of the Velo 500 and with good reason -- it is superb!  The speaker, microphone and recording system make taking quick, on the spot, voice notes a reality!  Unlike other HPCs, the Velo 500 responds instantly to a record request, so you can very quickly make a mental note out loud without losing that thought.  I love the record button placement on the Velo 500 hood and I enjoy the speed and quality of the memos I leave behind.

Gray Scale
The Gray Scale Properties applet is simple.  You can choose between 16 grays and 4 grays.  4 grays is supposed to give you a faster web experience, but I didn't find that to be certainly so.  So?  Leave it at 16 and be happy.

Quick Start
The Velo 500 comes with pre-assigned, chorded, action keys.  Some folks complain there isn't a one-touch button action for program firing.   I don't find hitting the ALT key plus another key to start a program a big deal.  I also like the default setup, so I'm not changing mine (especially since the default programs are printed in paint on the keyboard face!) but if you're so inclined, you can modify all the Quick Start keys yourself.

Special Applications
Philips have included some interesting software for you in the VELO APPLICATION program folder.  Be sure to install the extra software from the bundled CD so you'll get the Start Up Accelerator program and the neat Alarm program.  I won't demonstrate bView or bFAX Pro for you since those programs are bundled with lots of HPCs and detailed in depth elsewhere.

Characters
Getting special characters to fire can be problematic.  While some may see the world as English-centric, the rest of the Universe does not, and this neat applet lets you find the proper character to better help you communicate with the world at large.

Database
The Velo 500 comes with AllPen Mobile Forms Database.  You can fiddle with it to track stuff and record information.  I didn't set anything up here as a demonstration but I wanted to show you the initial setup window when you start your own database so you could get a feel for how it works.

FindIt
Since you put vital information into your HPC, it's important to be able to find what you store!  The Velo 500 accomplishes that task for you with its bundled FindIt application.  I did a search on "Boles" and FindIt returned this Internet Favorite result hit.  FindIt will search for a file by file name or you can concentrate your search to look in a certain folder.  FindIt will also locate files by size, date or type and it will search for files with a certain text string.

Easy Reset
As any HPC user knows, resetting your machine can be almost a daily event in order to clean up memory heaps and to get rid of a wacky program stalling your machine.   Philips makes it safe and easy to Reset your Velo 500 by providing a simple program called Reset Velo 500 in your Velo programs folder.   You can also use your stylus to reset your Velo 500 by depressing the reset button near the backspace key, but Philips warns on page 39 of their User's Manual if you push that button too many times, you will do a hard reset and lose all of your data as if you'd taken out the main batteries and the lithium backup battery.  So, keep your data ultimately safe:   Use the Reset program Philips wrote for you.

Unit Conversion
Philips also included a Unit Conversion program to convert information between English and metric units for distance, volume, weight and temperature.  You can convert currency betwixt a plethora of international monetary standards.  You can even set your own exchange rate. 

Included Hardware
The following comes bundled with the Velo 500:

• NiMH rechargeable battery pack
• AC Adapter
• Stylus
• Phone cable
• 9-to-25 pin adapter
• Velo Dock

Conclusion
I never thought I'd be tempted to make a greyscale Windows CE machine my main, mobile, box, but the Velo 500 has convinced me that Philips' design philosophy and architecture implementation are not only sound, but stellar. 

The street price of the 16 MB Velo 500 is around $600 while the 24 MB Velo 500 (it's the 16 MB version with the 8 DRAM miniature card installed) will run you around $660.  You can purchase both machines directly from the Philips website.

I give the Philips Velo 500 five out of five Go Inside Review Lights.

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