My Life with the Zire
Written: Dec 07 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Size, Battery Life, Affordability, Palm OS
Cons: No Backlight
The Bottom Line: Can't be beat for the price. Buy it, use it, discover all that can be done with it.
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| rambo77's Full Review: Palm Zire Handheld |
I have been using a Zire M150 almost every day for about a year and wanted to offer the view of a "long time" user. I received this as a gift last Christmas and at first wondered if perhaps it was adequate for my intended use.
After eleven months of use the answer is without doubt, yes.
If I had designed the Zire I would have changed very few things-add a backlite, an email program, and maybe a couple of more games. However, I have found that with the exception of a backlite these shortcomings are easily overcome with some free downloads and the 2 meg memory is adequate for the average PDA user.
What did the designers get right? First, the Palm OS is a masterpiece of design. I have never had my Palm crash or lock up. The amount of data that can be stored in the 2 megs of available memory is astonishing. In eleven months with an average of 4 to 8 appts per day my date book has swelled to an amazing...71k. It would hold something like 25 years of appointments at this rate.
But I am stuffing it with contact info to the tune of 7k. Anyway, the point is that I have found that the 2 meg memory is more than adequate for my use. It also holds a few games and my Outlook Inbox, along with 3 or 4 other additional programs and I have 720k free space.
This machine is durable. It has been dropped and drug through mud and and snow. No problems ever. The battery is amazing. I charge it using the included USB Sync cable every couple of months and never have any low power issues. I thought the included rubber flip cover was stupid and ugly when I got the unit and have come to love how it protects the screen while in my pocket yet is so easy to flip out of the way when you want to use it.
My favorite feature is the "Find" function which searches all the databases in the unit and returns any matches. It will find partial words. I now have the ability to tell you the day and date of the last time I met with someone. And that happens in a matter of seconds. Can't do that with a daytimer.
The final measure of this unit is this: I wouldn't want to leave home without it. It is small, light, and irreplaceable to me. On second thought, it is replaceable since the sync feature makes sure that my data is safe even if I lose the PDA. Just one more thing to love about the Zire.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 99.00
Recommended for: Beginners - Simple and Easy to Use
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Epinions.com ID:
rambo77
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Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 2 members
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