Vx- The Ferrari of Palms (and why it is better than Visor)
Written: Mar 23 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: size, appearence, speed, battery, flash memory, 8 MB total, glare free screen
Cons: ?
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| drdavec1's Full Review: Palm Vx Handheld |
I must come out of the closet..I am a former Visor Deluxe owner. I sold it on Ebay and purchased a Vx... I can say that the Vx is the best PDA on the market without question! Hands down the Vx destroys all competition. My review here will highlight the advantages of Palm Vx and why it DESTROYS Visor.
Style- The Vx is a tiny device, much smaller than the IIIx, IIIx, VII, or Visor. You hardly notice the weight with it in your shirt pocket, pants pocket, etc. Plus, it has a sharp metalic finish that will definitely make all your friends ooh and aah. The buttons depress easily. I lie many Palm owners do not like the On/Off button on top...it is more conveniently located on the Visor, but oh well....
Structure- Hands down the Vx is king. It is made of aluminum on all surfaces (except the screen and buttons). It is extremely sturdy and durable. I contrast it to the Visor I once owned. The Visor was made of a cheap plastic that cracked easily. (many owners of visor have had problems with this.)
Memory- 8 MB. The Vx has 8 MB which is becoming essential in today's PDA world. Unless you use it solely for names and addresses, you may someday need 8 MB. I know for a fact in medicine it is impossible to funciton without this much memory. I have my Palm loaded with programs and still have 1 MB left or so.
Flash Memory- the Palm Vx comes with its OS on internal flash memory. this is advantageous for 2 reasons. First, you can upgrade the OS easily, whenever Palm releases OS updates. Second, if you get a program like JackFlash or FlashPro, you can save your programs on the Palm Flash memory, and get an extra 600 MB of memory. This means the Vx has 8.6 MB of memory versus 8 MB on the Visor. Not to mention that the Visor's lack of Flash means that their operating system cannot be upgraded. When Palm releases 3.5 on their website, with the Vx you can add it (NOTE- new Palm Vx are being shipped with OS 3.5 on board)
Battery-The Palm Vx has a Lithium battery. You can recharge the Palm on the cradle. You never ever need to purchase a battery for Palm. If you add battery costs in for the Visor it becomes significantly more expensive. With the Palm, it is beautiful waking up every morning with a 100% charged unit. Charging is actually very fast!
Screen- The Palm Vx has a sharp crystal clear screen, viewable from all angles. The Visor's screen gets a lot of glare...to see it you have to hold it! Not to mention the Visor's screen scratches (I don't know if the stylus or screen is at fault)
Speed- The Palm Vx has a faster processor (20 Mhz) vs the Visor (16 Mhz)
Misc. The Palm has some other nice features. You can store the stylus on the rigt side or left side. For lefties, apparently, this is a big deal, The stylus that comes with the Vx is actually good. The back unscrews to serve as a reset pin. The stylus has not scratched my screen. I contrast this to the stylus that ships with the Visor. This scratched my screen (and the screen of many other Visor owners) and Visor would take no responsibilty for it. Talk about standing behind your product. A final point is that the Visor comes only with a USB port. having a retarded PC, I needed a serial cradle and had to shell out $25 extra bucks!
Lack of "Springboards"- People who buy the Visor do so because they can oneday buy a springboard. I believe that by the time a springboard comes out and is affordable, you will want a new PDA anyhow. I actually used the Visor with the Flash module. It was very heavy! Currently, you can get a modem for the Vx and the collapsable "Stowaway" keyboard. What else would you want?
Accessories- hands down Palm is better.
The Verdict- BUY THE VX. It will make you a very very happy person. The Vx is the perfect machine. The only reason not to buy the Vx is price, but I firmly believe it is worth the extra $120. When you buy a car, do you pay more for a Ferrari than you would for a Toyota? You bet, but then again, isn't a Ferrari worth it :)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID: drdavec1
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Member: dave
Location: New Jersey
Reviews written: 44
Trusted by: 96 members
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