Handheld PC in the context of Palmtop PC

A smartphone is a mobile device that combines the functionality of a traditional mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multimedia playback and streaming. Smartphones have built-in cameras, GPS navigation, and support for various communication methods, including voice calls, text messaging, and internet-based messaging apps. Smartphones are distinguished from older-design feature phones by their more advanced hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, access to the internet, business applications, mobile payments, and multimedia functionality, including music, video, gaming, radio, and television.

Smartphones typically feature metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chips, various sensors, and support for multiple wireless communication protocols. Examples of smartphone sensors include accelerometers, barometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers; they can be used by both pre-installed and third-party software to enhance functionality. Wireless communication standards supported by smartphones include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Hotspots and satellite navigation. By the mid-2020s, manufacturers began integrating satellite messaging and emergency services, expanding their utility in remote areas without reliable cellular coverage. Smartphones have largely replaced personal digital assistant (PDA) devices, handheld/palm-sized PCs, portable media players (PMP), point-and-shoot cameras, camcorders, and, to a lesser extent, handheld video game consoles, e-reader devices, pocket calculators, and GPS tracking units.

The Jornada was a line of personal digital assistants or PDAs manufactured by Hewlett-Packard. The Jornada was a broad product line that included Palm-Size PCs, Handheld PCs, and Pocket PCs. The first model was the 820, released in 1998, and the last was the 928 model in 2002 when Compaq and HP merged. The Jornada line was then succeeded by the more popular iPAQ model PDAs. All Jornada models ran Microsoft Operating Systems that were based on Windows CE.

A smartphone is a mobile device that combines the functionality of a traditional mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multimedia playback and streaming. Smartphones have built-in cameras, GPS navigation, and support for various communication methods, including voice calls, text messaging, and internet-based messaging apps. Smartphones are distinguished from older-design feature phones by their more advanced hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, access to the internet, business applications, mobile payments, and multimedia functionality, including music, video, gaming, radio, and television.

Smartphones typically feature metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chips, various sensors, and support for multiple wireless communication protocols. Examples of smartphone sensors include accelerometers, barometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers; they can be used by both pre-installed and third-party software to enhance functionality. Wireless communication standards supported by smartphones include LTE, 5G NR, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and satellite navigation. By the mid-2020s, manufacturers began integrating satellite messaging and emergency services, expanding their utility in remote areas without reliable cellular coverage. Smartphones have largely replaced personal digital assistant (PDA) devices, handheld/palm-sized PCs, portable media players (PMP), point-and-shoot cameras, camcorders, and, to a lesser extent, handheld video game consoles, e-reader devices, pocket calculators, and GPS tracking units.

Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging mobile/portable area, the operating system is built on top of Windows CE (later known as Windows Embedded Compact) and was originally released as Pocket PC 2000.

Microsoft introduced the Pocket PC keyboard-less PDAs in 2000, with Pocket PC 2000 being the software. It was based on version 3.0 of Windows CE, the operating system originally developed for the Handheld PC in 1996. The next versions were Pocket PC 2002 and Smartphone 2002, the latter of which would power a new category of keypad-based cell phone devices named Smartphone. With the release of Windows Mobile 2003, the software was rebranded to a single "Windows Mobile" for both Pocket PCs and Smartphones, and to connect the brand with its desktop counterpart. Support for SH-3 and MIPS processor architectures were dropped, focusing only on ARM. In the next major release, Windows Mobile 5.0 in 2005, Microsoft unified the separate developments of Pocket PC and Smartphone software into a single Windows Mobile codebase. Data could be synchronized with desktops using ActiveSync software, and later using Windows Mobile Device Center.

Windows CE, later known as Windows Embedded CE and Windows Embedded Compact, is a discontinued operating system developed by Microsoft for mobile and embedded devices. It was part of the Windows Embedded family and served as the software foundation of several products including the Handheld PC, Pocket PC, Auto PC, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7 and others.

Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, Windows For Embedded Systems, Windows Embedded Industry and Windows IoT, which are based on Windows NT, Windows CE uses a different kernel. Microsoft licensed it to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), who could modify and create their own user interfaces and experiences, with Windows Embedded Compact providing the technical foundation to do so.

A gaming computer, also known as a gaming PC, is a specialized personal computer designed for playing PC games at high standards. They typically differ from mainstream personal computers by using high-performance graphics cards, a high core-count CPU with higher raw performance and higher-performance RAM. Gaming PCs are also used for other demanding tasks such as video editing. While often in desktop form, gaming PCs may also be laptops or handhelds.

A portable computer is a computer designed to be easily moved from one place to another, as opposed to those designed to remain stationary at a single location such as desktops and workstations. These computers usually include a display and keyboard that are directly connected to the main case, all sharing a single power plug together, much like later desktop computers called all-in-ones (AIO) that integrate the system's internal components into the same case as the display. In modern usage, a portable computer usually refers to a very light and compact personal computer such as a laptop, subnotebook or handheld PC, while touchscreen-based handheld ("palmtop") devices such as tablets, phablets and smartphones are called mobile devices instead.

The first commercially sold portable computer might be the 20-pound (9.1 kg) MCM/70, released 1974. The next major portables were the 50-pound (23 kg) IBM 5100 (1975), Osborne's 24-pound (11 kg) CP/M-based Osborne 1 (1981) and Compaq's 28-pound (13 kg), advertised as 100% IBM PC compatible Compaq Portable (1983). These luggable computers still required a continuous connection to an external power source; this limitation was later overcome by the laptop computers. Laptops were followed by lighter models such as netbooks, so that in the 2000s mobile devices and by 2007 smartphones made the term "portable" rather meaningless. The 2010s introduced wearable computers such as smartwatches.

Microsoft Word is a word processing program developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the original name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS (1983), Apple Macintosh running the Classic Mac OS (1985), AT&T UNIX PC (1985), Atari ST (1988), OS/2 (1989), Microsoft Windows (1989), SCO Unix (1990), Handheld PC (1996), Pocket PC (2000), macOS (2001), Web browsers (2010), iOS (2014), and Android (2015).

Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard word processing software since the 1990s when it eclipsed WordPerfect. Commercial versions of Word are licensed as a standalone product or as a component of Microsoft Office, which can be purchased with a perpetual license, as part of the Microsoft 365 suite as a subscription, or as a one-time purchase with Office 2024.