At last, Palm gets it right -- A high quality, low price PDA with all the features you need, and none you don't. This is quite simply, a beautiful piece of engineering, and whether you are new to PDAs or upgrading, you will not be disappointed...
For a bargain price of 200 smackers, Palm provides the following key features:
1) A top-notch, large, hi-res screen (check it out in a store first). Many previous Palms have skimped on the screen -- a big no-no in my book. I'd much rather have a slower processor than an unreadable (m505) or too-small screen (Zire, m100). Pointing and clicking on a Palm is hard enough without having a small, dark screen to boot.
2) Generous 32 MB Ram. Finally, Palm stops skimping on this important area! It's not enough to make you ditch your iPod, but you can play a few tunes, look at a few pictures, transfer some files. This is a big improvement from the bad-old 8 MB days, which is Okay for contacts but worthless for anything else.
3) Rechargeable lithium polymer. Top notch. No skimping, no muss, no fuss.
4) Great design. Clean, simple, portable, shirt-pocketable. No keyboard, but I've never been a thumbpad fan.
5) MS Office functions included -- Word, Outlook, Powerpoint. Why you would use them, however, is a bit bizarre to me. Who wants to spend the time coding in a Powerpoint presentation with a stylus? Yet, if this is important to you, it's here. And having your email with you can be a plus...As for what you won't get: There is no phone, no camera, no thumbpad, no Bluetooth, no WiFi. This is close to a pure PDA, though it can display pictures and double as a poor-man's MP3 player. That's what I was looking for. Here's a basic product guide:
New Palm Zire -- Bargain basement model with 7.2 MB of Ram, upgraded from hobbled 2 MB original model. About 100 smackers. Often offered free as bundle deals with new computers. Good starter model for the price. Includes rechargeable battery. Memory can not be upgraded. Horribly skimpy black-on-grey screen.
Tungsten T2, etc.: Deluxe models that feature, in some cases, larger screens/Bluetooth wireless connectivity/thumbpads with dropdown graffiti screens. All unnecessary features in my book, especially given their much higher prices.
Clie models (SJ30, etc.) recently have owned the mid-range of the Palm product line, providing color screens, style and multimedia features for less than Palm. But no longer. The Clie models simply can not compete with this new Palm -- they feel and look clunky in comparison and generally feature smaller, dimmer screens. And the upper-echelon Clie models get very expensive.
Sony models also have a reputation for less-stellar customer service. (I've had excellent service from Palm.)
The Treo models from Handspring/Palm should be considered if you are a thumbpad fan, or if you want your PDA to also be your phone. But let's face it, how many people can afford spending four hundred smackers on a PDA?
BTW, when comparing, I've found you can generally ignore the speed of the processor. For most Palm functions, the reaction time is near instantaneous, or at most a second or two lag.
As for PocketPCs, some of them are now very attractively priced and are worth checking out. I've yet to use one extensively, so I'll stick to what I know -- Palms are simple, easy to use and almost guaranteed to improve your productivity. It's like having a backup for your brain. And who doesn't need that?
Enjoy! |
Thanks Palm!
