Customer Reviews

Royal Excelsior 384kb memory touch sreeen organizer, 6-line backlit display, PC sync software

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I didn't have very high expectations when I bought this organizer. After all, you get what you pay for and I was only looking for something very basic. However, at the very least, I expected it to be usable. It wasn't, for two reasons: 1) A poor quality display, and 2) Bad and amateurish software both in the organizer itself, and in the the PC program which accompanies it.

The photos of the organizer don't show the actual display. What you are see is the pull-off plastic sheet over the display. I spent a long time messing around with the contrast control to try to find a usable setting, but I wasn't able to. The back-lighting is almost useless. The display is just not easily visible in normal lighting, either in the day or at night. (And by the way, I have no difficulty reading the LCD displays of even small, cheap calculators, in any light.)

Navigation and data entry is idiosyncratic and difficult. I was always wondering whether to press 'up', 'down', 'left', 'right', 'Prog', 'Edit', or 'Ok'. It seems to vary from one function to another, pretty much at random.

And speaking as a professional software developer for many years, I must say that the Organizer Link program that comes with it looks as though it was written by the CEO's kid nephew. After trying unsuccessfully for a while to get the organizer to link to the PC, I consulted the troubleshooting guide. It says (and this is a direct quote), "Running MS Office Taskbar, the Lotus Taskbar, the Corel WordPerfect Taskbar, PC Tools CrashGuard, Nuts & Bolts or any anti-virus TSR will cause unusual problems with Organizer Link."

From their notes, I realized that probably the only way I would be able to get it to work would be to disable my modem, reboot, sychronize the data, enable the modem, and reboot again. I would have to repeat this process each time I wanted to transfer data. The troubleshooting document consists of 900 lines of detailed instructions, and its suggestions are often drastic, like changing system settings which would affect other applications, creating new hardware profiles, and disabling your mouse. (I'm not joking! I only wish I was...)

At this point I gave up, uninstalled the software, put the organizer in the trash can, and went back to carrying a notebook and pen in my pocket. That works just fine.

Just to make it clear for everyone, despite what the enclosure looks like, this thing is -nothing- like a palm, and doesn't even really fit in the same category.
For anyone who has seen those little cheap data organizers with the "chicklet" keypads and the 4-6 line text displays, that's what this is, repackaged into a prettier case and given a semi-touch screen rather than the keypad.
Immediately after taking it out of the package I had doubts - the screen (which is hidden behind a "demo sticker" before purchase) has visible lines running through it, the "wiring" for the touch screen. Bothered me at first, but I didn't notice it much after a little bit of use.
The touch-pad also took some getting used to - so they could save money on the display they have letters and numbers side-by-side under the same touch-sensitive area rather than pixelizing them and having them occupy the same space - as a result, you can hit numbers straight-on with your stylus and they work, but letters you have to hit just to the right of the letter. Much frustration ensued before I figured this out and I kept wondering why I kept getting I's when I was pressing O, etc.
It claims to be able to syncronize with Outlook 2000 but I have been unable to do so correctly - after several tries and experimentations I have so far only been able to sync my to-do list and memos - it won't sync calendar events or phone numbers at all. There don't appear to be any options in the sync software as far as what gets synced, and there was absolutely no documentation at all included with the software other than the "help" screens within the program.
I haven't tested functionality with the included PIM software - I suspect it would work better with it, but that's not what I bought it for. Without Outlook sync functionality it's basically useless to me.
Although I was pretty much expecting it with a digital organizer in this price category, the user interface I should mention is pretty non-intuitive as well. On calendar views, each date can have up to three dots next to it - one dot means a to-do item, another dot means an anniversary item, and yet another dot means a schedule item. You have to remember which dot means which. No matter what section you are in, you can only view one item at a time - you don't get a "list" of to-do items, for example, you have to go through them one at a time.
This thing might be OK for someone who doesn't use Outlook and doesn't have much data to go through every day or doesn't need any "at-a-glance" views, and you can get used to the quirky data entry system (I almost think sticking with the chicklet keys would work a lot better) - but pretty much anyone else needs to pass this one by and save up a little more cash towards a "real" PDA.

This is great great for people like me that go to school and can't aford a expensive touch screen organizer.It has enough memory hold all your notes.Plus you can back it up with the PC sync software.I recomend this to every one who is in the market loking for a touch sreeen organizer.

I ended up returning this after it failed to work at all. The software was not very user friendly. I only needed a simple, cheap organizer to keep track of my schedule, phone numbers and a todo list. This one wasn't very easy to use and didn't work like I expected it to. I have nothing to comapre it to and thought that this is what you get for $. Then it stopped working altogether. I tried new batteries, it worked for another day and then failed again. I will try another brand.

I just bought this item, what more can I say other than..."I love this item". I am just a kid, and I filled in my school phone book, now I have everyone at my school at my fingertips! This item has many features such as home clock, world clock, 3 different catorgies to put names under in the phone book and it has an all catagory. this item has the month in calander form, under the schedule thing, and then it has your schedule, and then if you click on it again, it has birthdays. You have a to-do list which you can scroll up, and down to see what your plans are, if you click on it again you have a memo option that you can write your memos in. It also has great features like, a calculator that has a currency converter, a calculator, and a finance option. It aslo has a pc link where you can add and transfer data to, and from you computer using Microsoft Outlook. Overall I love this royal excelsior, and I think it's great!You should buy it because it is really cool! Furthermore it also has a menu option to see how much space you have left. This is a great item and I would reccommend this to everyone who likes, or needs to say organized. "BUY IT"

1) Backlighting never worked.

2) Finicky touch screen -- takes fair amount of practice.

3) After about six months, grew more and more erratic at accepting input -- frequently won't change functions at all, and bottom two rows of "keyboard" have stopped working altogether.

4) The organizer software is OK, but... when trying to print out reports/to-do lists/etc, each entry prints ON A SEPARATE PAGE, even when following the instructions that -say- will generate a regular list.

If it worked reliably for more than a few months, it might be a worthwhile buy for the (discounted) price. But from my own experience, and the other reviews here, I'd have to say this was not a good purchase, and I won't be buying another of this brand.

I found this at Wal-Mart and at a much lower price than most of those advertised on the Internet. This little beauty was ranked by a tech review magazine as one of the best! I have found that it is awesome to be able to open up my address book and send all the info to my Excelsior PDA. It also comes with software to make all kinds of info available to sync between your PC and PDA.

Things I don't like: Sensitive; sometimes duplicates numbers or letters when you are putting them in with the stylus. Easy enough to fix, just learn how much pressure to use when entering things and until you get the hang of it just hit delete to remove the duplicate letter or number.

Also, the glo backlit display could be brighter, and I have found that the screen is not easy to read in dim light or "lightbulb" light. Its best read outside or in flourescent light.

I bought it because it was cheap. I got what I paid for. The touch screen controls are finicky. I've encountered problems with the Sync software and find that not all appointments show up.
The positive thing that I can say is that I see the benefits have agood hand held and I will be ugrading for Christmas.

I received my Excelsior as a Christmas gift. After approximately 2 months it stopped working. I called the customer service number that came the organizer and never got past customer service. I kept getting the runaround I found it again last week on my dresser and was goin to return it to the company, since it is no use to me. Your warranty stinks or the people taking care of the warranties don't know what they are doing. I will know not to buy one of your products again and will let others know also. Also, the sync would not work, both omputers have Microsoft Outlook.

I would never recommend this item to even a child, this is a waste of time and money! DO NOT BUY!
I bought this product expecting to get a half way decent PDA to store some of my info that I use daily, however I was very disappointed with the item because when I got it it had black line that ran the full length of the screen and was very frustrating to maneuver around when hitting desired parts of the screen. Also don't be fooled by the way the picture looks, nothing like that. And linking to outlook.........better forget that too! Overall bad item!