The Palm m130 blows away its competition!
Written: Feb 06 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: color screen, rechargeable battery, 8 MB of memory, small, affordable, attractive
Cons: I wish it had 16 MB.
The Bottom Line: The Palm m130 is an excellent PDA, and it functions just as well as any laptop. It is the best thing for a student on a budget!
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| vadimio's Full Review: Palm m130 Personal Organizer |
Laptops are too expensive. I don't like to write by hand, I prefer to type. What is the only electronic portable device other than a laptop that you can type with? A PDA, which is short for Personal Data (or Digital) Assistant. There are two main types of PDA's: Pocket PC's and Palms (made by Palm Inc., Sony and Handspring). The main difference between them is that Palms run on Palm OS, while Pocket PC's run on Windows. Only in this case, Palms dominate the market, not Microsoft. If you connect the PDA to a keyboard (sold separately), you've got yourself a mini-laptop! My problem has been solved.
I began doing some research to find a PDA that fits my needs. First of all, I had a limited budget. I found out that Pocket PC's have more memory, bigger screens, but harder to use. The only problem is they are too expensive ($400-$750). The only cheaper ones are either monochrome, old models, or the Dell Axim, which is not compatible with my Windows 95 computer. So, I started looking at Palms, and decided I wanted a color PDA. Handspring only has refurbished or very expensive ($300+) models, so I said no. I looked at the cheapest color Sony Clie, the SJ30, which had a decent price tag of $250 but it was not compatible with my PC. So, I decided to get a Palm. After doing lots of research, I found that the Palm m130 would be just what I need!
What does it look like?
Here are the dimensions of the m130: 4.8 x 3.1 x .9 inches. This is really small, and it easily fits in any pocket. It is also very slim, which is also an advantage. The weight is 5.4 oz, which is very light, so when you place it in a coat pocket or in a pocket in your pants, you barely feel it. Some on the Pocket PC's that I have handled weigh a lot more, making it uncomfortable to hold in the hand and add lots of weight to your pocket.
The shape is very unique. It is basically like a rectangle with rounded corners, but the bottom of the m130 is completely rounded, making a half-circle. This makes the design very attractive, unlike the Clies, which are dull rectangles. The first thing you see is the flip cover, which is black and has a Palm logo on it. There is a cutout for the up button and a small cutout with a transparent material inside for the screen. If you press the up button when the Palm is off, you see the time and the date for a few seconds.
If you pull the cover back, you see the front of the Palm. On the top, you see a blue Palm logo, the on/off button and the m130 label. Below this is the screen, followed by the graffiti area, where you input characters with the stylus. To the sides of the graffiti area, there are four icons, the Home, Menu, Calculator and Find icons. The corners of the graffiti area also have icons, but they are tiny. These icons are for Contrast, Clock and the on-screen keyboards. Below the graffiti areas are the six solid buttons. The ones of the left are for Date Book and Address Book. The ones in the middle are the up and down buttons, used primarily to scroll. The buttons on the right are for the To-do list and the Note Pad.
The frame of the Palm is metallic silver, with metallic blue on the sides.
On the right side of the Palm there is nothing, but one the left side is a small hole, where you can insert expansion cards and such. The bottom of the Palm has a Universal Connector, which is where you attach it to a keyboard or the HotSync cradle. The top of the Palm has an IR port (to beam applications to other devices) and a place to insert and store a stylus. The back has a reset button, the place where the battery is stored and a Palm Powered logo.
What makes this Palm so great?
The Palm 130 runs on the Palm OS 4.1, which is the newest and best operating system, other than the newly developed Palm OS 5, only available on the Tungsten. Since the operating system is good, the PDA is fast and has no slowdown.
Another advantage is the battery, a rechargeable lithium-ion. This battery is found in high-end laptops, cell phones and PDA's. Some Palm models run on AAA batteries, but rechargeable batteries are much better. I am not sure about the battery life, but it is still going after using Microsoft World for 3 hours, with the backlight, sound and beam receive on. To recharge, just place it in a cradle, and about 20 minutes later, the battery is completely recharged. This is marvelous.
The Palm m130 has 8 megabytes of internal memory. This is pretty good, considering some have only 2MB, while 16MB PDA's are very expensive. Eight megabytes should be more than enough for all of the basic applications, a bunch of pictures and some games. But you can expand your memory if you buy expansion cards, which come in 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 and even 512 megabytes. The most common are the 64, which cost about $40. If you are planning to have more than 20 games, more than 30 pictures or more than three e-books, you should buy an expansion card. Currently, I have 1.5 MB remaining, only because I have more than a dozen games, some taking up over 400K.
The last great thing is that the Palm m130 is color, not black and white or monochrome. Therefore, it is much more appealing to the eye, the backlight is better, the pictures are more colorful and the games are better. According to the box, the Palm m130 has a range of over 58,000 colors, but I read an article that Palm Inc. apologized to their customers and said that their PDA has a smaller range of colors.
Finally, the last great thing is the ability to HotSync. Insert the m130 into the cradle, press the button, and all of your information is transferred and backed up to your PC, or vice versa.
What can it do?
The Palm 130 is not only an organizer. It has all of the basic features, and many more. Here is what it can do:
1) There are four 3 ways to input data. First of all, you can use graffiti, which is using a stylus in the special graffiti area to input characters. This is difficult at first, but you can get used to it. A second way is the on-screen keyboard. If you select the icon in the bottom left side of the graffiti area, you select the on-screen keyboard. This means that a virtual keyboard appears and you press on the characters to type. This is very slow and not a great way to do your work. The third option is to buy a keyboard. This is what I have and it is great.
2) You can view, create and edit PowerPoint, Excel and Word files. This feature feels exactly like a PC, even though it is a little simple, it is great! I love it!
3) You have a standard Clock, Calculator, Memo Pad, Note Pad, Address Book, Appointment List and To-Do List to keep you organized.
4) You can read e-books via the Palm E-Reader. Just download a book off the Internet, sync it and you have got a novel on your Palm.
5) You can choose from thousands of awesome games to play. There are many excellent freeware and shareware titles to choose from.
6) You can browse the Internet via a cell phone or a wireless Internet card. If you don’t have these, you can utilize AvantGo, which is a web clipping service. Choose from hundreds of channels (USAToday, Sporting News, Yahoo, Wall Street Journal), sync and browse the web!
7) Since you have a color screen, you can view pictures, photos and movies. They look great.
8) If you sync with your computer, you can transfer documents from your PC to your Palm, or vice versa to back-up your documents on your PC.
As you can see, this is a revolutionary tool. If you can’t afford a laptop, prefer to type than hand-write or wish to get organized, a PDA is the tool for you. I have just stated the advantages of the Palm m130 and I hope I have convinced you that you should get yourself one of these.
Thanks for reading,
Vadimio
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
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