Philips Velo

The Philips Velo was a Handheld PC.

Velo 1

The initial Velo 1 was a PDA device released by Philips in August 1997. The device was typical of the HPCs at the time, being powered by two AA batteries or a rechargeable NiMH battery pack. The device had a green back-lit 5.1-inch resistive touchscreen with a resolution of 480×240 pixels at two bits per pixel which allowed for the display of four shades of grey. It originally shipped with Windows CE 1.0, with a ROM upgrade to Windows CE 2.0 that customers could order for $99.99. Expandability was via two internal 'miniature' expansion slots, as well as a PCMCIA slot in the docking station.

The standard model included 4 MB of RAM and 5 MB ROM. An 8 MB model with NiMH battery pack was also available for $839.99 with a free upgrade to Windows CE 2.0 when it was available.

Unlike most other HPCs, the Velo 1 included a built-in low-power software modem, where most other devices required a PCMCIA card modem. PCMCIA cards quickly drain batteries, so the low-power software modem helped eke out battery life. The modem operated at 14.4 kbit/s. Other communication features included an infrared (IrDa) port and serial port, both capable of a maximum transmission rate of 112,500 bit/s.