Personal digital assistants like the iconic Palm Pilot were one of the many devices we thought became extinct with the advent of the smartphone. But just as Canon resurrected a nearly decade-old digital camera to appeal to point-and-shoot fans, Talisman Design is crowdfunding a foldable PDA called PocketMage that combines a touch keyboard with e-paper and OLED displays in a pocket-sized device.
There are two different pre-order options for PocketMage at Crowd Supply, Additionally, you can choose between parchment (gray) or royal purple accent colors. The $235 version comes fully assembled, while the cheaper $185 version requires you to build it yourself. However, the DIY PocketMage only requires a screwdriver to assemble. No soldering skills are needed, but patience is required. Orders placed now are not expected to ship until March 2027 at the earliest.
Powered by an ESP32-S3 microcontroller with just 2MB of RAM and 16MB of storage (expandable with a microSD card), the PocketMage is geared toward simple productivity tasks, but it’s a bit more capable than early foldable PDAs from companies like Casio. The open source device comes with apps including a calendar, diary, dictionary, and Markdown text editor for writing or taking notes. Additional applications such as a calculator, e-book reader, and web browser are included. now available.
The PocketMage’s main display is a 3.1-inch, 320×240 e-paper display that forgoes touchscreen functionality for a capacitive touch bar on the side that can be used for scrolling. Above the PDA’s small QWERTY keyboard is a smaller 1.8-inch, 256×32-pixel OLED display used for functions such as menus that require a higher refresh rate than e-paper offers. There’s also a basic piezo speaker, a 1,200mAh battery that lasts about a week between charges, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a USB-C port that supports peripherals like a larger keyboard. For hobbyists and developers, PocketMage even includes a motorized expansion port to expand its capabilities with custom hardware.
