I waited quite a while to express my epinion here regarding the Handspring Visor Deluxe. I got mine back in February and wanted some real use under my stylus before I beamed in a review.

I'll cut to the chase: I really like it.

All my names/dates/numbers/addresses now travel with me in a very compact form which is much lighter and more functional than my old DayRunner. I can beam things to other PDA owners. Changes I make at home on the PC or on the go are instantly synchronized via the USB cradle. Those things alone would have been worth the purchase price. But, hey, *everyone* buys them for that. The Springboard slot for expandability was the clincher in my purchase decision (although having 8MB of RAM at a price lower than Palm was certainly a plus and probably would have decided it anyway).

For me, though, best of all the things I now do with my Visor, was solving a perennial problem: helping me in not forgetting things I need to have along on off-road trips. You see, I do a fair amount of off-roading and I write about it, so trips have to be planned out pretty well. There's a "pre-flight" on the truck. Spares and vehicle supplies to pack. Personal gear to bring along. Tools of the trade that shouldn't be forgotten. It seems that I was almost always forgetting something though, which is a real problem when you're half a day's HARD driving from the nearest road and 500+ miles from home.

A great little program known as Checklist Light has saved me time and again. You make a Checklist in your spare time, when you have time to think it all through. When you're ready to use it, you check the items off each list and you can have the Visor (or a Palm, for that matter) hide them. I check them off as I assemble the things I need at the house. Then I un-hide the completed lists and un-check the items as they're actually put in the truck out in the driveway. When all the items are un-checked once again, I'm ready to go, and I KNOW I have everything. When I'm packed and ready, so is the list for the next time I need it.


Far simpler and easier than a pencil and paper list. I can annotate the items for when I don't remember why I added them to the list, or to give the list to friends who may not know why I consider any item to be essential. I can add to or modify a list whenever I happen to think of something (which is usually out on the trail when something I never thought I'd have needed turns out to have been sorely missed).

Now, if only any one of the companies that's promised production of a GPS I can use in my Springboard slot would actually get a product out the door, maybe getting home again would be just as easy.




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 249