Pros: 16MB, infinite expandability, affordable and rechargeable.
Cons: Old School design, still not a color PDA.
The Bottom Line: If you’re considering to replace your traditional ways of organizing data, especially contacts and still have plenty of room left over, the Visor Pro will do the trick.
lavoisier's Full Review: Handspring Visor Pro Handheld
For those who have addresses, appointments, contacts, to do lists, memos and many more to organize your priorities, it’s ideal for them to invest on a PDA. For professionals who are always on the run, have appointments and the organization of the agenda is mandatory, they will need a PDA that can hold their agenda. But for many, they’re concerned about expandability and internal memory. With the Handspring Visor Pro, it is no problem at all. With 16MB of internal memory along with Handspring’s proprietary Springboard slot, it provides infinite storage space and the springboard also provides hardware expansion, it allows room to fit a module to turn your PDA into whatever the module is suppose to do.
What can I say here…
At $299 this is really just a Visor Prism, except that the color was traded for an extra 8MB of memory here. This would be a great alternative for those who are interested in investing a Palm m500, because of the 8MB of extra memory that is provided by the Visor Pro. For the Palm m500, the only expansion that is possible is the Secure Digital (SD) media slot, which is generally only for content storage and back up for the m500. In addition, some of the expansion options for the m500 require a connection to the USB leads on the bottom of the PDA and they have to be attached outside of the PDA, which can really add up the bulk of the unit. Whereas with the Visor Pro, with its unique Springboard expansion slot, the module that you need to use just fits into the slot and you can do whatever the module can do.
The Visor Pro also features a built in microphone, for those Springboard modules that will require a microphone, such as voice recording and the Visor Phone. With the infrared port that is featured in all Palm based PDAs, it allows data transfer to/from another Palm based PDA. With 16MB of internal memory, the Visor Pro provides plenty of room to store all your appointments, contacts, and agenda and still have lots room left over. With the rechargeable Li-ion battery, the Visor Pro can run for 4 weeks on a single charge with normal use.
For the software bundle, it includes the driver for the Visor Pro, which is really just the Palm OS 3.5.2.H3, Date Book, Address Book, To do list, Memo Pad, Fast Look Up, Advanced Calculator, Silent Alarm, City Time World Clock, Graffiti Handwriting Software, Mail (Only supports certain e-mail providers such as Hotmail) and Expense (Mac only). The desktop/laptop synchronization software includes Palm Desktop, Hot Sync Manager and the link to Microsoft Outlook. With the Memo Pad, you can write the things you would like to remember and the silent alarm allows you to use the PDA in meetings and the address book allows users to keep their colleagues’ contacts into the PDA without using your paper index or even the rolodex. Even the City Time World Clock is handy for those who often travel abroad.
What synchronization does for the PDA is really the data transfer between laptop or desktop computer and the PDA. The cradle that is included with the PDA has a USB interface that allows a faster data transfer than their serial cousins. Supposedly if you had some unread e-mail in your e-mail account or have appointments kept in your computer, you can transfer the data into the PDA. However as for any Palm based PDAs, if you’re unfamiliar with the graffiti pad, chances are that it may take some time to master it with the stylus that is supplied by the unit. You can even use the virtual keyboard that is in the PDA or with the optional hardware keyboard, it allows easy typing in the PDA.
The large screen is also very easy to read, despite the lack of color. It’s easy enough to read in bright sunlight. However, I don’t recommend reading the data in bright sunlight for prolonged periods of time, as it may damage the PDA screen. Even in low light areas, it provides a backlight feature to again make it easy to read the PDA in poorly lit areas. But the feature does eat up battery life though.
Currently, the Internet services are available to the PDA, but it requires a special module, in which it includes a modem and a service provider that supports wireless Internet services.
With the plastic cover for the PDA, it ensures that the controls are untouched and the screen remains undamaged. The cover snaps in easily to close the PDA without fuss.
For the expansion options, the Springboard slot allows users to turn their Visor Pro into an MP3 player with the MP3 module, a storage cartridge that can use their existing Compact Flash cards for even more expansion room, even the back up module that is offered by Handspring is still compatible. However for the backup modules or storage modules, it must have a capacity of 16MB.
To charge your Visor Pro, when you’re near your computer, you can plug the cradle into a USB or Serial port and the charging cradle also includes an extra wire to plug into an AC outlet. If you don’t happen to be near a computer at all, Handspring also provides an AC adapter charging wire to charge your Visor Pro.
Final Word
With the infinite expandability of its Springboard slot and 16MB of internal memory, I would recommend the Visor Pro to Professionals, corporate officers and executives. However for $299, it still lacks color, which is present in the Visor Prism and the design was based on the original Visor, which is rather old school. Other than that, I would really recommend it to anyone who is willing to give up their papers, business cards, palm writings and even paper napkins for memory purposes and even to recall contacts.
System Requirements
USB port (Not valid with Windows 95/NT 4.0 and Mac OS 8.5 or below)
Serial Port (Serial Cradle sold separately) (Not valid for Windows below NT 4.0/95 and below Mac 7.5.3)
CD ROM drive.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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