Palm m130: good quality for the dollar
Written: Aug 07 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fresh, stylish look with color screen for good entry level cost.
Cons: thicker than the Palm Vx I had before.
The Bottom Line: I am very pleased with the Palm m130 and think that you cannot get a better deal on a color PDA. The Palm OS gives you limitless downloadable software!
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| ivplay's Full Review: Palm m130 Personal Organizer |
DISCLAIMER
You will find that I am not one of these folks who has each and every PDA on the market.(Do they really personally own 8 or 9 PDA's?) I have had two personally and been exposed to two others, although not nearly enough to write an authoritative review on it. What you will find below is biased towards the Palm OS as it is what I have always run. I will compare the Vx to the m130, as those are the two I have personally extensively used.
I had a palm Vx for the past four years since my company supplied me with it. I have become accustomed to the palm OS and specifically the palm programs. When my company started supplying everyone with HP Jornada's, I asked if I could instead get a palm, as I do not like the OS of the HP's. It was suggested that I buy a palm and reimburse it to my credit card, which I did.
General overview
So far, I have been very pleased with the m130. I was able to transfer all of my existing software off of the Vx and didn't have a hiccup in any of the data on my datebook, etc. The cradles are different, so I did have to buy two of them(one for work and one for home) but other than that there was very little transition.
The screen area on the m130 is much smaller than the Vx and the newer versions of the Vx with expansion slots and color screens, but I could not justify the much higher price. Granted, my company was going to supply it to me, but I did not see the advantage.
Along the lines of the screen, the color screen is great! This was the main reason that I bought this PDA, as I wanted to have the ability load and view photos, etc. I have been very pleased with the ability of the screen to render images, and this may have been much less of an advantage if the screen had been much larger. The processor would have to have been larger or the batteries completely drained after a short duration of usage.
The m130 does not require purchasing and installing of batteries periodically as it has a rechargeable lithium ion battery preinstalled. This was a great advantage over the lower end palms, as I was used to the lithium option with the Palm Vx. It doesn't take long to charge and the batteries have good life. I am very pleased with this and do not think I will ever switch to one that has expendable batteries.
The overall feel of the m130 is better to me than the Vx. It feels more substantial and like there is less of a chance to break it. The flip top cover helps with this impression. The overall look and feel of the m130 is very flashy and fresh.
I personally have not used the expandable memory slot at all, as I have not come anywhere near utilizing all of the memory available to me inherent with the unit. I also do not use this as a mp3 file holder yet, which I will soon in the future.
Software used
The software that I run is 'action names' for the datebook, contacts, and task organizer. It is a fairly cheap program that you can download at any number of places. It is very useful and has better reminder capabilities than the built in date and time program that comes with the Palm.
I also utilize Pocket Quicken 2.0 for checkbook and account information. This allows for one step updating of your quicken account on your computer from data input on the palm, and vice versa. This is very powerful and useful. It has replaced my checkbook register, that is for sure!
I utilize one other pay software, and that is Splash shopper. This is a great program that allows you to build shopping lists, tailoring prices to your particular grocery store. I have several of our favorite recipes shopping lists saved in the program. This has been a lifesaver; If we are out shopping and decide to have Enchilada Casserole for dinner but do not remember what is in it, we simply pull up the recipe and go!
The free software that I use is mainly Avant Go. This is a nice program that allows you to save certain web pages and data to your palm. The interface used to be very slow, but with hi-speed internet it zips right through. I personally have about 10 channels that I update every morning for some stall reading.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 279
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