Best ever, for me, was / is a Newton 2100 and / or the eMate 300. Fantastic variety of input options, truly powerful PIM software, large screen, and a very good set of other apps to boot. And for me (and for most other long-term users) the printed handwriting recognizer worked fabulously well out of the box, and the cursive (if trained) really well too.

Cheers,
Jon