I was unsure if I'd use it.. I'm addicted!
Written: Sep 03 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Affordable, color screen, EFFICIENT OS, amazingly useful
Cons: (nothing bad) Simple beep speaker, sort of small memory [8mb]
The Bottom Line: AMAZING PDA! Perfect for beginners, don't worry about wasting your money on it, YOU WILL USE IT and LOVE IT!!
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| popkorn1's Full Review: Palm m130 Personal Organizer |
A while ago, a coworker of mine bought himself a Pocket PC - which technically is a much more powerful PDA. He used it for about a week.. and then kind of forgot about it. Eventually, he ended up selling it on eBay.
When I became interested in getting a PDA, that "buy it, forget it" situation above made me hesitant at first... but I decided I'd got with an affordable PDA without all of the huge extras that a high end Pocket PC has.
I was hesitant only until the moment I first used it. This thing is amazingly wonderful. I was afraid I'd end up forgetting about it and not using it much, but it has become a necessity at all times.
WHY A PALM OS RATHER THAN POCKET PC
Let me exlain why I'm so happy with the Palm m130 more than my coworker was with his PocketPC. I read a study that was done which found that PocketPC users aren't usually satisfied with the technical specs on their PDAs. They tend to always want more memory, always want a faster processor..etc. Those things run like mini-laptops, so you always wish you could just upgrade it. With the Palm OS, it all fits together so nicely.. the wonderful Palm OS runs perfectly on the hardware that comes with the m130 - You don't crave more memory or a faster processor, you're plenty happy with what you get. The software is genius, and it gets the job done without any fancy stuff that honestly isn't even needed. So, instead of getting turned off by always wanting to upgrade but never wanting to spend the money, you're HAPPY with you PDA and use it very, very frequently.
PALM OS
Let me just say I LOVE the Palm OS. Obviously it has been around for a long time, and I can see why. These people are experts in making extremely efficient software. The user interface is very straightforward and simple to use. You'll feel like an expert after an hour or so of using it. The menus and functions are all so easy to access, there's little confusing about it. Plus, there are THOUSANDS of programs out there for the Palm OS, including a ton of freeware. (I recommend freewarepalm.com) The OS tends to slow down a bit if you fill up the memory, but it's not bad at all. The speed of the processor very good.
MEMORY
The m130 comes with 8MB of memory. This may not sound like much compared to the, what.. 64MB of a Pocket PC? BUT, thats the genius of the Palm OS. Everything on it is so streamlined, even the 8MB of space isn't an issue. It's actually plenty of space. Either way, upgrade memory cards are available for the m130 at a pretty affordable cost.
INPUT
This was my first PDA, and my first time writing with the "Graffiti" feature. When I first heard about it, I thought I'd never use it - it'd be too hard. After trying it, I would hate to be without it. I got accustomed to it in minutes, and definitely prefer it over the built in keyboard. (Although I did just purchase a foldout keyboard for the palm so I can take notes in the office/class quickly) The stylus is cheap plastic, but it gets the job done, and there are upgrades available.
SCREEN
The screen is full color and looks awesome! It is full and vibrant, I couldn't ask for more. It is backlit with 2 settings, low and high. You can't turn it off, but I don't see why you'd want to. The only downside to the screen is that it has a "Ghost" effect, where if things are moving too fast on the screen, it leaves a sort of trail behind it. This affects some games, but they're still completely playable. It also makes the included eBook reader software hard to read ONLY if you make it auto scroll too fast. Otherwise, its perfect!
QUALITY
The quality of the software, like I said, is top notch. No complaints about it. As for the casing.. its actually just as good. It's very durable, and extremely sleek. It comes with an attatched clover that flips over the screen, and flushes flat against the back when you open it. That is one of its best features, it's GREAT screen protection. On this cover, there's a window showing the screen, so you can still see what pops up under it with the cover closed. Also, when you push the "UP" button, it shows the time and date in this window, so you can use it like a pocketwatch!
CONS
I would have liked a better speaker on it, all it can handle is little system beeps and alarms, but honestly.. that's all I need so I am happy with it. The speaker can get very loud, and you can easily use it as an alarm clock to wake up to - so it gets the job done by far! Honestly, thats all I can think about when it comes to cons. Maybe a faster screen update without so much ghosting would be good, too.
CONCLUSION
This is the PERFECT entry level PDA, and probably even good for PDA upgrades too. The cons are trivial, everything abou it is great. If you are hesitating if you'd use this thing, I wouldn't worry about it - there's so much you can do with it, I'm sure it will quickly become a necessity for you too!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 140
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Epinions.com ID:
popkorn1
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Location: Schaumburg, IL
Reviews written: 44
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me:
Maintains technical-computer related position (Systems Analyst) Controls network of 25+ computer systems.
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