First things first: I was lucky enough to receive the IIIc nearly a year ago as a gift from a friend who himself won it in a contest... Now that you hate me, keep on reading the review to know everything about it ;-)
== Meeting with PalmOS ==
The IIIc is my first Palm ever. I love the simplicity of the OS, as well as the fact that numerous fans have written great applications for it over the years (from ActionNames and AvantGo to StockManager and TealPaint). So let's be clear about that: even though I wouldn't recommend spending the money on a IIIc, I'd recommend (and have recommended, in fact! a Palm m100 or IIIxe, which are the best deals right now, to any friends.
== Numerous defects ==
Before receiving my IIIc, I read extensively about it on Epinions and in newsgroups. I learned that many of the shipping units were experiencing one (or many) of these defects:
- Digitizer recognition Bug: Writing on the digitizer portion of the screen wouldn't give good results.
- Dim screen: Users have reported that their units showed a lack of brightness.
- Cracked casing: Some users reported hairline cracks, mainly located on the back of the unit, from day 1 or developing over time.
- Non-responsive scroll-down button: Lots of units have a scroll-down button that needs to be pressed very hard to respond (compared to any other button on the unit.
I have personally only experienced the last problem (which I decided to live with), but know people who had to go through many exchanges before holding a fully working units in their palms...
Considering that the IIIc is one of the most expensive machine in the Palm line, these numerous hardware problems show a lack of testing and care from this company. In fact, in my consumer's point of view, even if the product costed 5$, that kind of rushed shipping of problematic units would still be unacceptable :)
== Weight and height ==
Other things to know about the hardware: the technology behind the color screen makes this Palm heavier and bigger than its non-color counterparts (such as the other machines from the III series). Having hold both units at the same time, I wouldn't say it is very noticeable. But if you already own III cases that you hoped your IIIc would fit in, you'll have to forget about it.
== Finally not BYOB (bring your own batteries) ==
The IIIc is the first of the III series to have a built-in battery, which recharges on the cradle. The good thing is that you don't have to buy numerous batteries, nor to carry around a second set in case this one discharges. The bad thing is that the color screen drains the battery pretty fast, so if you hoped to have it with you to play DopeWars while spending 30 days alone in the desert, you're out of luck. In my case, I prefer a built-in battery to external ones.
== The color screen ==
Yes, you know it, this Palm has a color screen. This is really nice, especially for applications such as TealPaint, Planetarium, AlbumToGo, etc.
But let's be frank: if you use your PDA to schedule meetings, rapidly grab a phone number and to read AvantGo during long bus runs (which are mainly the activities that I do with mine), you don't really need color. None of the wireless apps (I personally connect my IIIc to a Nokia phone using the Global Pulse cable) use colors. You may like color, but do you need to spend that much for something that adds so little functionality to your Palm? I consider not.
Also, the color screen is very "pixiliated" compared to that of a non-color unit. Your eyes will get used to it, but let's just hope that future technologies will improve the color screen's resolution.
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