The Helio is a good deal for the money but if prices are equal I would not buy it. I paid $49 for it. The lowest price PDAs that are palm compatible is $149 and thats for a large PDA with 2meg and the lowest price PDAs that are palm compatible with 8meg which is what the Helio has are $199. Windows CE compatible PDAs are even more expensive.

The Helio seems to come equiped with all of the features of any entry level palm or handspring PDA except compatibility with it.

The Helio includes 8meg of memory and has a scheduler, to do list, memo, expense manager, phone book, sketch pad, handwriting recognition, calculator etc.

The Helio has some features that are better than the entry level palms. The Helio has a voice recorder which I understand is not included in the entry level palms. The Helio's handwriting recognition is much better than the palm though neither are perfect or compete with the compaq's IPAQ or HP's jornada. The Helio is also lighter weight than the Palm III, the Palm VII, the Handsprings, Compaq's IPAQ, HP's jornada. The Helio weighs more than the Palm Vx and Sony's PDA.

The Helio uses regular batteries which have to be replaced. This adds to the cost of the Helio. The PDAs which have rechargeable batteries are better but also tend to be more expensive to buy. Most of the more expensive PDAs come with rechargeable batteries, the less expensive palms come with regular batteries like the Helio.

The Helio does come with some games (contrary to what another writer stated), synch software, software to use with Outlook, a soft cover case (A case itself can cost $25), and the first set of batteries.

The Helio comes with a serial port synch so you can back things up to your computer (if it has a serial port). There were a lot of problems getting the synch thing to work but now it does seem to be working now. Some of this may have had to do with my computer and getting an open serial port. There were a lot of problems getting the desktop software to work also but that also seems to be working now.

The VTech support is in a word awful. They advertise free support but do not provide it. I called them at least 3 times and no person ever answered. I waited on hold for an hour and no one ever answered. I emailed them and got one response telling me to look at their FAQs my other emails went unanswered.

The Helio comes in several colors as well as a metalic grey that looks like the Palm VII or 111.

The Helio has its own proprietary os. That means that there is very little software available for it other than what comes with it and very little hardware add ones. Right now there is no portable hardware keyboard or modem for it though I have heard that they may be coming out with one. Data can be input via a computer keyboard or the soft keyboard on the PDA itself

For $49 the 8meg Helio is worth it as long as it works, for those people who are paying $179 for it it would not seem to me to be worth it since a Palm with 8meg can be had for $199 and a Palm with 2meg can be had for $149.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 49