The Poor Man's Palm
Written: May 05 '00 (Updated Dec 11 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Low Price, Quick, Convenient
Cons: Bad Case Design, Annoying Cover, Bad placement of IR Port
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| akuhn's Full Review: Handspring Visor Edge Handheld |
I've owned my Visor for about 9 months now, and have found it to be quite a nice little gadget. It's my first PDA. I mostly bought it for the sheer "cool" factor of a little computer in my pocket, but scary enough, I've actually found myself using it for its intended purposes. Although I still slip a game of Blackjack in every now and then, I find myself using it for the intended purposes of calendar and address book features a lot.
Other PDAs I have used include a Palm V, Palm IIIxe, IBM Workpad, and Compaq iPaq Pocket PC. I can draw some conclusions off these that Handspring should have made note of.
First - things in the design of the Visor that annoy me:
1) The Cover!
Who's idea was this? No really, who are you? Explain this awful thing. The cover removes from the front of the Visor as one plastic piece, and you can snap it onto a back. Yeah, easy you say right? It's a pain to attach it the back when you want to look something up real quick. The Palm IIIxe with it's flip up cover is the best I've seen, the Palm V with its sleek little leather flip-over case is even cooler. The Workpad and iPaq even pull off the covers well. What prompted Handspring to make this bad choice? Hopefully this is remedied in any new product lines. When you market a $150 PDA, I guess you sacrifice a little in the R&D department.
2) The IR Port placement!
Typical situation - I go to beam something. Hey, wait a second, why is my IR port on the side of my visor? The Visor's IR port is located on the top left of the unit. This, well, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. When everyone else I know with Palm units is comfortably standing facing each other beaming stuff, I'm busy shuffling myself into the awkward sideway position to beam. You're beaming between two Visors? Forget about it. You may as well learn the tango, as you both turn in opposite directions. I understand the fact the Springboard module is at the top of the Visor but I am sure they could have the IR port somewhere a little less inconvenient.
3) The Visor's case!
The case itself feels well kind of, how do I put it nicely - cheap. I fear my battery covers going to come flying off any day now because I think it's barely attached. The clip on the battery door seems to have come loose very quickly. The Springboard module cover seems to want to come off in my pocket every time I reach for the Visor. Once again, this shows the Visor as what I think it was sort of intended for - the cheap alternative to a real Palm. It lacks the solidly constructed feel of Palm units I've used.
4) OS in ROM!
I sure hope PalmOS doesn't get any really cool enhancements, or I'm going to be annoyed because the OS is in ROM not RAM. For those of you non-computer people, this means you can't really do any major upgrades the OS. Recent Handspring patches have addresses minor revisions in the OS, but I would say don't look for PalmOS 3.5 anytime soon. I don't think it's even technicaly feasible to patch this into the RAM because it would take up too much space. This is also result of the low cost of the Visor. The OS in RAM would have required more RAM. 2MB minus space for the OS equals less space for your data, meaning the entire unit would have needed more ram and cost more.
Now that I'm done with my complaining about the Visor, let me actually list the many good things I do like about it.
1) The price!
I mean come on, when it comes down to it; you've got one nice PDA for $150! The amount of technology and expandability in the Visor for this price is amazing. I would recommend however, if you have more than $150 to spend, treat yourself to the 8MB Visor Deluxe. And if you really have the cash to burn, go for the Prism or Platinum. You'll get more bang for your buck with a higher priced unit. As of late, the Palm M100 has been released. I haven't had the chance to use a Palm M100, but I've read it has a smaller screen then the Visor. For the same price why go for a smaller screen and no expandibility via a Springboard slot?
2) The features!
It runs PalmOS, that's really all you need to know. PalmOS is a very good basic, minimalist interface. I know people who have never seen PalmOS before who pick it up and start playing with it in seconds.
You've got your choice of thousands of applications that run on PalmOS. You name it; it's out there pretty much. Your application doesn't exist you say? Well, go write it yourself. While talking to a software engineer, I learned that the development requirements for PalmOS are very modest. Windows CE/Pocket PC on the other hand, I'm told you need Windows NT and Visual Studio to do any decent development with.
The Visor syncs nicely in the USB cradle, very easy and quick. The Palm Software on the desktop is a nice simple clean interface to get to the stuff you need. Installing applications onto the Visor is also simple.
3) Size!
I was initially worried the Visor would be really big. I was spoiled by the Palm V I had seen. The Visor fits comfortably in most of my jean pockets, although in some of the smaller ones it kind of squeezes itself against my leg. Most of the time though, I can sit down and the Visor doesn't bother me. I was very pleased with the compact size overall.
Conclusion:
If you're looking for a great PDA at a great price, buy a Visor. If you have a lot of money you feel like burning, go buy something else I guess. Unless you want your PDA to tap-dance, I can't see why you would go with anything more expensive. The Springboard module offers expandability only limited by the imagination of developers. Already available are MP3 players, cameras, universal remote controls, even GPS Navigation systems for your Visor. If Handspring continues to support the Visor product line, it's a sure winner.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
akuhn
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Location: Hatboro, PA
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 9 members
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