I had the 3c and the Revo. The Revo was initially a revelation. I paired it with an infrared modem connected to a Nokia that enabled me to surf the internet and get driving directions on the move 7 years before the iPhone. Alas working with the iMac was a pain and the Revo would randomly lose memory due to a power system design flaw. At that stage I ditched Revo and Psion for a HP WinCE device. More of a downgrade. I purchased the Gemini PDA when it came out. It was marvellous but expensive and fragile. I now have a DIamond Mako and a 5mx that I play with occasionally. In hindsight the best Psion was the 3c. It was affordable, robust and just worked. It got stolen on a bus in Chile in '97. Otherwise I bet I would still be using it.
Your experience sounds eerily similar to mine, especially the hacky workarounds to preempt smartphones (I peaked when getting online by Bluetoothing a Clio to a Sony Ericsson). Your comment about the robustness of the 3c reminded me about when mine fell out of a pocket when I was cycling and a car drove over it. It emerged unscathed.
