The Sharp EL-6790 is an easy-to-use, inexpensive electronic organizer with 128KB of memory and better capabilities than most of the other electronic organizers in its price range. It has been sold either by itself or as a more expensive EL-6790P package, which includes the same organizer with a data transfer cable and disk.
SCREEN: The EL-6790’s screen is almost 2 1/2 inches, measured diagonally, and has a backlight feature which can be turned on and off. The backlight is bright enough to make the screen readable in a completely dark room. The EL-6790 can display four full lines of upper- and lowercase text, which is a major advantage over most similar organizer models. Many organizers, such as the Sharp EL-6950, can only display letters on the top line, with the other lines reserved for numbers, and some models can’t display lowercase letters. There is also a column on the left where various symbols and indicators can be displayed. A protective lid folds over the screen and keyboard to protect them when not in use.
KEYBOARD: The EL-6790’s keyboard has its keys placed in a computer-like (QWERTY) arrangement, and it is relatively easy to type on, for an electronic organizer. The spacebar and enter keys are about as large as two of the other keys combined; it would be preferable if they were a bit larger, but this is not a significant problem. The keyboard features a good variety of symbols which can be used in entering data, including &*($/^!@#,.’:.= and the division symbol.
APPLICATIONS: This electronic organizer has a number of useful built-in applications, including a telephone/e-mail/URL directory, an excellent calendar/scheduler, a 27-city world time clock, a high-capacity memo feature, and an anniversary reminder. The EL-6790 will display a 4-line monthly calendar, which you can page through if necessary, and shows dots next to each day when you have an anniversary or schedule item. The clock lets you rename city names to other cities in the same time zone if you like, and displays the full city name rather than a three-letter abbreviation as many organizers do. While other models are often limited to 39, 96, or 128 characters, the EL-6790 allows 512 characters per memo to be entered, and the 4-line upper/lowercase display makes its memo feature much more useful. A return key (different from the enter key) allows a new memo line to be started without filling up the previous line. The EL-6790 does not, however, have any built-in games, a spell checker, or a language translator.
CALCULATOR: The EL-6790 organizer offers a very good built-in calculator feature. The calculator can accept numbers up to twelve digits long, which is better than my Casio scientific calculator. The organizer’s “ON” button has “C-CE” printed above it, meaning that pressing it once clears the current calculator entry, and pressing it again clears the entire calculation. It also has memory, percentage, +/-, and square root functions, which some electronic organizers lack. It can carry out automatic metric and currency conversions as well.
MENU: The Sharp EL-6790 has a fairly sophisticated menu system for accessing various options and utility features. The menu (started by pressing “2nd”, then “Q”, which has the word “Menu” above it) provides access to the daily alarm, reminder, LCD contrast adjustment, time system, memory check, and backlight setup features. It also offers a “Free Up Memory” feature, which increases available capacity by “deleting unnecessary space.” The alarm is fairly loud and sounds for about one minute unless turned off beforehand. The “time system” feature lets you switch between twelve and twenty-four hour time. The memory check feature shows an indicator of how much memory is being occupied by data. The backlight setup allows selection of how long the backlight should remain on after the backlight button is pressed (15, 30, 45, or 60 seconds). The backlight can also be turned off by pressing the button again before the set amount of time has elapsed. Additionally, you can delete all of the data from a particular application, or change the name of a data file, from the menu.
INSTRUCTIONS: The Sharp Operation Manual included with this electronic organizer is about 40 pages long and is the same as the manual the Sharp EL-6750 comes with. It is fairly detailed and provides step-by-step instructions on using each feature. The manual (in PDF format) is available at Sharp’s website, along with a separate manual for the EL-6790 PC interface. There are some quick reference instructions on the inside of the unit’s protective lid as well.
DATA TRANSFER: The EL-6790 has a round “Computer Link” port on the side of it which can be used to connect it to another Sharp EL-6790 or a computer. To connect the organizer to a computer, a serial cable and the 3.5″ data transfer software disk from Sharp is needed. The Sharp software allows a back-up of the organizer’s contents to be saved to or restored from the computer, and enables telephone/address/e-mail/URL records to be sent to the organizer. It does not, however, allow data to be imported to the computer in text format, nor does it allow memos to be sent or received (unless they are inside a back-up file). The system requirements are minimal; according to the package it requires Windows 95/98, a 486 or Pentium processor (33MHz+), 16MB+ RAM/memory, a serial port, and 8MB+ free hard disk space. I tested it on Windows XP and Windows 98, it worked fine on both. A full back-up of data from the organizer to the computer took about three minutes. Both Rupp Technology (rupplynx.com) and IMSL Software (imslsoft.com) offer software programs which allow for more advanced data transfer to/from the EL-6790 (or other compatible organizer) and a computer. Both programs cost approximately $23-35, and are available in free trial versions with limited capabilities. I downloaded the 30-day trial version ($23 to register) of IMSL’s XLink/Win, and successfully transmitted a few memos to the computer.
BATTERIES: Three CR2032 coin-style batteries are required for the EL-6790, one for memory back-up and the other two for operation. A small phillips-head screwdriver is necessary to open the battery compartment. Power consumption indicated on the back of the unit is 0.1 watt.
Overall, the Sharp EL-6790 is a great choice if you need an electronic organizer which enables you to enter long memos, review a monthly calendar, back up data to a computer, or perform calculations of long numbers. However, if you only need a calculator and alarm, or the ability to keep brief notes, a cheaper simple organizer may be preferable, and a more expensive unit might be appropriate if you want to translate languages, keep track of dieting information, or create your own programs.
