I charged up the other WorkaboutPro Wednesday night, and fired it up Thursday. Unlike the other unit, this WorkaboutPro had a color screen. It also has a different keypad. The original unit had a monochrome screen and a full alpha-numeric keypad. The version with the color screen has only a numeric keypad.

However, unlike the monochrome version, Psion sent along a bar code reader as part of this WorkaboutPro. The barcode scanner protrudes from the bottom of the unit, and if you press a button on the side, you can get it to scan. The demo application that is installed on the WorkaboutPro only translates the barcode and briefly displays the result. You'll need to add your own application for this feature to be useful.

Like the previous unit, the color version of the WorkaboutPro runs Windows CE 4.2. According to the spec sheet that AT&T provided, it will also run Windows Pocket PC 2003 and Windows Mobile 5, but conversations with Psion indicate that these versions may not actually be available yet. It's not that the company doesn't make and sell those versions, it's just that AT&T has to certify each different version for use on its HSDPA network, and that seems to take a while.

One of the strange differences I noticed between the two units -- meaning the version with the alpha numeric keypad and the version with just the numeric keypad, is that the two devices must use different docking stations. Visually, these two docking stations appear identical. It's only when you try to use them that you find out one or the other won't fit. This is bound to cause management headaches, at the very least, if you have more than one kind of WorkaboutPro. Psion, acknowledging this problem, is now offering a docking station that will work with all WorkaboutPro devices, including the new Generation 2 devices that AT&T isn't offering yet.

The testing continues. Today I'm going outside and dropping these on the street a few times. Maybe I'll do it in the rain. At this point I don't expect to see any ill effects, but you never know. Look for the full review at www.eweek.com in a few days.