I have just spoken to Philips rep. He told me not to expect the color pronto until at least 2002. He also told me it was only in thought but not production. Another thing he told me was that the 2meg is not being released until at least next year. Could al this be true?

Colour Pronto - NO completely wrong. It IS being released mid 01 (in the UK)

2mb Pronto - correct, at least here in the UK. Released Jan/Mar 01

Mike

I received the following from Philips here in the UK

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your enquiry.

The 2MB Pronto is not yet released in the UK or in the US. We expect it
to be released in december this year.

As with the Pronto now on sale, there are no differences between the US
and the European/UK Pronto.

Kind regards,
Vincent Pfeil

Philips Pronto/URC helpdesk

mike, on what grounds can you say it is being released mid01? has it been advertised by philips or another source? I know the 2meg will be released because a local store has had it advertised since september but with no date of release. As for the color, the onlt info I got is from here on remotecentral. To me that's not concrete enough. I don't know now if it's worth the wait. If the info is not from philips, I don't think it is good enough to take serious.

The info is good. The Silver 2meg is being released in December and the color is still slated for end of 1st quarter 2001.

AGM: that is Mike from letsautomate, he is a dealer. Letsautomate is also the official European supplier of Prontos. I am sure he must have the best contacts at Philips.

Mike: if the prontos get released first in the UK, could we in the US purchase them from overseas? Or would they all be released at the same time? Does anyone know if the UK models will vary in color for the lcd as the 1meg does?

The color Pronto is still on schedule... folks saw it physically in September; I have a photo of it as well (can't publish it though).

AGM, if what Mike is saying is correct, you will be able to buy it in the US (end of 1st quarter '01)before you can buy it overseas.

Thanks Daniel for responding. Is there any possibility you can sort of describe the shape. Is it very different then the regular pronto? If it is not, will the the charger for the reg. pronto work on the color one? How about the LCD? Overall I like the feel of the reg. pronto. It felt good even to control it with one hand. All of these things are what will make my decision to buy either the 2meg or the color one. It is not the price at all.

thanks,
AGM

It does look a bit different. The unit shown was a beige color if memory serves me. Same size screen, just color. Hard buttons were small metal-look buttons @ the bottom of the screen. It had a softer feel to it for better grip I assume somewhat like the Denon Atkis. They also went to a thicker screen to combat the cracking screen problem.

Thanks b, I appreciate your info. I really would love to wait for the color pronto. I don't need all the extra memory. My first pronto had 66% memory free, but I would love to see all my bitmaps in color. I hope it comes out faster than expected so don't buy the 2meg first.

The new color Pronto is larger (footprint wise), but more stylish looking, while still retaining some of the same basic Pronto styling concepts. Silver/gray in color (though not like the Silver Pronto). Standard volume/channel buttons along the right edge, but four along the bottom.

Pardon the dumbness here but, is the new Pronto "color" refering to the case or screen images? I am hoping for a color screen soon. Thanks. Ron

Colour SCREEN