Powerful but big!
Written: Dec 03 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Common form factor, good screen, fast processor
Cons: Large form factor, application incompatibilities, battery eater
The Bottom Line: If you don't "need" the small form-factor of a V/Vx/505, then definitely look into this all-in-one unit! It'll be worth your while.
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| glowworm's Full Review: HandEra 330 |
I'll start this review by saying that I had a TRGpro for many years, and it finally gave up the ghost earlier this year. Fortunately for me, just about the time that my TRG died, TRG (now Handera) came out with this--the HandEra 330!
Needless to say, I coerced my wife into ordering me one for my birthday... :)
I can't say enough about this. I love it, especially with QuickOffice to synchronize my Word and Excel files across (I work from time to time as an independent consultant, and I use Excel for my timesheets/timecards and Word for most of my deliverables, so being able to work on these documents while I'm actually on site doing the work without firing up a laptop is a real boon!), and Chapura's PocketMirror to synchronize completely with MS Outlook (it works well with OutlookXP as well :) )
The screen is wonderful, although some older applications don't work quite right with it. However, HandEra has been thoughtful enough to provide two additional modes for applications to be run in--a screen centered mode and an upper-left-corner mode, that most applications seem to work well with. I don't think I've found any applications that absolutely don't work with this machine other than SimCity.
The backlight is back to the old style, where the screen lights up instead of the letters (boy, do I like this better). The high-definition screen also makes text look clearer and sharper, and the new fonds are also nice. I don't mind that the screen is black and white instead of color, because most of the stuff that I do with it isn't in color anyway :)
The CF card slot (which is what I use, because I had the TRG) works well, especially with the Microdrive that I use. I haven't used the SD/MMC slot yet, but I'm planning to soon, because I want to see about one of the CF Wireless cards that are coming out. (We use 802.11b at work, and that would be really nice as well.)
I've also found myself using the VoicePad quite a lot as well. It's nice to be able to just talk into it and worry about transcribing it later. And, with the new conduit that's on the website, you can easily access the sound files on your desktop and play them back there.
There are really only two things that I can say that I don't appreciate about the HandEra... First, that it still uses the Palm III form factor instead of going smaller (like the Palm V/505 form factory). Second, it eats batteries. It now uses 4xAAA instead of 2xAAA, and it still goes through a set of 4 in about 3-4 weeks (granted, it gets fairly heavy use, but....). I haven't tried rechargeables yet, but I will be soon.
All in all, I love my HandEra, and I'll keep using it until either it dies, or HandEra comes out with something newer that makes my life even easier.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 329.00
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Epinions.com ID:
glowworm
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Member: Drew Tipton
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 0 members
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