(MONEY Magazine) – IF YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING ABOUT THE debut a few years ago of the personal digital assistant (PDA), it's probably that the models stunk. Designed for traveling execs and salespeople, the hand-held gizmos were supposed to do everything from converting your scrawl into type to sending faxes from the beach. But the most highly touted PDA, Apple Computer's Newton, was laughed off store shelves when the software that was supposed to recognize handwriting proved to be dyslexic.

What a difference a few years makes. Manufacturers have fixed most of the problems that repelled early buyers. "The Newton, in particular, has massively improved," says Tim Bajarin, a high-tech analyst in San Jose. Today's PDAs are the only machines on the market that let you take notes unobtrusively at a meeting, fax or e-mail your reactions wirelessly and then, when you're done, slip the hardware back into your coat pocket. What's more, prices have dropped by half in the past few years, to the $100-to-$1,000 range. PDA sales figure to zoom from $67 million in 1995 to $203 million in 1997, predicts Giga Information Group, an industry researcher in Norwell, Mass.

Today's PDAs weigh a pound or less and measure no more than four by eight inches. They range from basic models--essentially no more than juiced-up electronic day planners--to sophisticated versions that pack about as much computing and faxing power as many desktop computers sold five years ago. At the low end, a great choice is U.S. Robotics' tiny Pilot 5000 ($369 for 512K of memory; Macintosh- and Windows-compatible; 800-881-7256). It comes with an address book and a calendar that lets you record appointments, plus an electronic pen so you can jot down brief notes in a kind of alphabet shorthand (instructions tell you how).

Among high-end models, you can't beat Apple's simple-to-use Newton MessagePad 120 version 2.0 ($699 for 2MB of memory; Macintosh- and Windows-compatible; 800-538-9696), launched last November. The size of a videocassette and weighing about a pound, the updated Newton allows you to launch preloaded software, including Pocket Quicken, a simplified version of the popular personal-finance program, by tapping screen icons with a pen. For a few hundred dollars more, you can add accessories that let you send and receive e-mail and print documents to a printer that you attach to the Newton via a cable. And the Newton's handwriting recognition is a laughingstock no more. In a 10-minute MONEY test, the machine translated even our reporter's erratic scrawl correctly nearly every time.

If you hanker for more power than the Pilot but don't want to spring for a Newton, consider the Psion Series 3a ($595 for 1MB; Macintosh- and Windows-compatible; 800-99-PSION). You control the unit with a built-in mini-keyboard rather than a pen, but the Psion is still half the Newton's size. Nifty features: a world clock that lets you check the time in cities from Baghdad to Zurich, and an alarm that can record your own voice reminding you not to miss your next appointment.

--Leslie M. Marable