Flaws in the Palm m100 versus Handspring visor
Written: Nov 18 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Palm OS, cheap, get 4 colors to match your dresses
Cons: cheap and limited possibilities
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| ptiemann's Full Review: Palm m100 Personal Organizer |
I have long resisted for long time to buy another PDA (I own a two-way pager with full mini keyboard), partly because those Palms are so expensive. I had seen the Handspring Visor for $150 but some epinions here warned me from it.
Then I saw the m100. It is made to compete with the Visor:
- Same price
- The Visor comes in colors, for the m100 you can buy face plates matching your dress for the fashion-conscious
- Made of Plastic
Well, Palm had to keep the cost down, and so they dropped some features or used cheaper material:
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The BAD
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- Smaller display, but ok reading quality
- Smaller input field ("Writing Tablet") at the bottom as well... this is a product for people with small hands
- Plastic (looks cheap and not sturdy at all, but makes the m100 lighter)
- Comes with a serial cable to connect to the PC, while other Palms come with the HotSync cradle. You can buy a cradle for $30.
- Only 2MB of memory (just like the Visor, I believe), which is sufficient for the beginning until you use the software heavily. Especially the included AvantGo software that downloads news/ texts from channels when connected to your PC is a memory hog. Downloading email with the available modem would be another way to use up your RAM.
While the Visor can be upgraded, you cannot buy memory for the m100.
- Operating system (OS) is not upgradeable either. It does run PalmOS 3.51, which lets you use software from a very big pool. You can download applications from the web such as a new datebook or games. This by the way was the #1 reason why I bought a palm instead of something different.
- Unpractical design - if the flip cover is closed, it rests on the keys at the bottom. If you press it lightly, you will turn on the m100 involuntarily. The cover has a window though... so you can read the clock through it :-) nice in those boring meetings when I am too polite to stare obviously to a clock or watch.
- Different interface for extensions - if you have additional stuff from an old Palm Pilot or want to share something from your buddy in the office - it probably will not fit.
- Slower processor - it runs at "only" 16MHz like the Visors, the more expensive Palms run at 20 or 25MHz. Well, computing speed is not really an issue with PDAs, but Palm supporters criticize the Visor for running at 16MHz, so I will list it here. To put things in perspective: I believe that my pager runs at 4MHz, and it is ok as well.
For fairness, here a list of the good features.
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The GOOD
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- As cheap and colorful as the Visor ($150)
- Smaller (but thicker) than other palm pilots, lower weight
- Backlit display can be adjusted so you can read the m100 under different light conditions
- Comes with decent software (as the Visor and other Palm Pilots)
- A modem is available but how much email do you want to download before your 2MB of memory are full?
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Summary
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It does have its advantages to follow a standard and the standard is PalmOS. The main advantage is the availability of software. I hear that there are people porting Linux to new PDAs including non-Palms. That may be a step in the right direction.
As you can see, I am not really happy with the m100. I bought it at office depot and the store has a good return policy. I've had it for 20 days now and I think I will return it. It also turns out that I do not really need it, particularly since I have the pager already.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
ptiemann
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Member: Peter Tiemann
Location: Capitola, CA
Reviews written: 260
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