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CES 2019 Takes You Back 2 Decades to PDA Era with Cosmo Communicator

By Laura Tucker
CES 2019 Takes You Back 2 Decades to PDA Era with Cosmo Communicator Featured Image

Feeling nostalgic? Do you wish you could just slow technology down? Planet Computers brings you back two decades to the era of PDAs with Gemini, and now at CES 2019 they introduced a prototype of the Cosmo Communicator, a more modern PDA with today’s technology.

Planet Computers Cosmo Communicator

Truthfully, PDAs never really caught on, but they more or less seemed to desire to do what our smartphones and tablets do today. They were small handheld devices that you could keep with you that worked as digital organizers.

While Planet Computers Gemini takes you back to that time of the PDA, their Cosmo Communicator keeps that idea of the PDA but brings it forward a few decades to 2019 with modern features.

The Communicator features a two-inch external screen as well as a six-inch internal screen that is accessed when you open the clamshell. Many functions work with the external touchscreen, such as replying to messages, answering calls, and flipping through your notifications, so that you don’t always have to open it up.

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While that part seems sleek, the Cosmo communicator is still a clunky device. It’s longer than an iPhone XS Max, has twice the thickness, and weighs 0.66 pounds. While you can carry it in your pocket, it’s certainly much heavier and more difficult to pocket than your smartphone.

The keyboard inside is backlit, and there will be tiny feet added to it that allow it to have more stability on a desktop. It also employs a 24-megapixel camera and 5-megapixel selfie camera, things that were missing from the Gemini unless you added a special module.

It includes a MediaTek new-generation processor that has abilities associated with higher-end smartphones and tablets. It has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage and includes a USB Type-C charging port and a USB Type-C connector, and a MicroSD card slot. The Cosmo Communicator operates on Android 9 and Linux can be added to it as well.

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If you get nostalgic for PDAs, this may be a device you want to check out. But if you enjoy all the technological advancements we’ve made in the past couple decades, and not just some of them, you may want to just skip over it.

Are you nostalgic for devices you’ve had in the past? Does this Cosmo Communicator interest you? Let us know in the comments what you think of this product that was shown at CES 2019.

Image Credit: Digital Trends

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Laura Tucker Avatar
Laura Tucker
Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.

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