PenPad

The Amstrad PenPad was an early portable personal digital assistant with handwriting pen input, and a competitor to the Apple Newton.

[1] Positioned as a replacement for a traditional pocket organiser, reviewers remarked on its small size - around 6.3 by 4.5 by 1 inches - and weight of 14 ounces,[2] noting that it was "as close to being comfortably portable as any available computer".

[1] The PenPad had a reflective LCD screen with dimensions of 2.88 by 3.62 inches and a resolution of 240 x 320, protected by a hinged cover folding open to the left.

[1] Around the edges of the screen, a border was "printed to resemble the section dividers and binder rings of a Filofax", providing an example of skeuomorphism but also emphasising the specialised, appliance-like nature of the product.

Its five main applications, featured on the tabs or "section dividers" were a phone/address book, diary, to-do list, notepad, and a measurement conversion tool.

The Amstrad PenPad, like the Apple Newton, struggled in a time where these early PDAs were expensive to produce and did not manage to capture enough interest and eventually production was discontinued.