No matter what manufacturers of Windows CE-based palm-sized PCs do to spruce up their offerings, they cannot seem to hit the vital sweet spot that will see consumers buying the devices in droves.
Philips comes close with the Nino 500, which features a colour screen and a host of bells and whistles, but 3Com's PalmPilot continues to wipe the floor with the competition in this computing category.
The Nino 500 shares the same ergonomic good looks of its monochrome predecessors - a silver body with tapered black plastic sides that give the user a firm grip.
On each side of the Nino are buttons that allow the user to operate the device with one hand.
On the left - up and down scroll buttons for scrolling within menus and Windows CE applications. On the right - buttons to launch applications.
What distinguishes the Nino 500 from its predecessors is its 320 x 240 pixel colour screen which can display up to 256 colours - good enough for viewing photographs and images. The screen is also surprisingly sharp and text is crisp and easy to read.