A great organizer and arcade in one sleek and slim package!
Written: Nov 05 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Ultra slim design, 8mb's of ram, good size display, Lithium Ion battery
Cons: no expansion ports or slots but the serial adapter, black and green color only.
The Bottom Line: This is an excellent choice for a professional searching for a slim and smart way to organize their work.
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| bobmp3_99's Full Review: Palm Vx Handheld |
Does anyone like my title? LOL, I was kidding.
Lets think of the uses of a Palm Vx, from a student's point of view.
About 2 weeks ago I was just using my computer with no thoughts about Palm pilots, Pocket PCs or any sort of PDA. I really didn't think they were cool until one day my mom's boyfriend came in my room and asked me if I wanted his Palm Pilot because he thought that I would make better use out of it. Within an instant I said yes, yes, give it to me or else you will die in one week from African killer bee's stinging you to death. I accepted his offer and within 30 minutes I was playing asteroids on it and comparing it to other models that ran Palm OS. When I first had it in my hands, it looked impressive. It looked expensive and it looked like it meant power. I felt even more special too once I knew that it was worth about $260 and that it was better than a lot of them.
But it only took a matter of time to understand the full capabilities of a Palm Vx. I learned that I could use it in school for organizing my assignments with a free program called Yesterday. This program let me input and sort my grades, projects, and things that were imported to do. Also I learned that I could do other things such as turn on and off any TV that I wanted, thanks to the infrared beaming thing that all palm pilots offer. It is a big time blast turning the TV on and off in English class whenever the teacher starts to get an attitude. I like to change the channel to PBS or something. Sometimes Red Dwarf http://www.reddwarf.co.uk is on the tube and the students all laugh, nobody knows that it's me. Too bad it only beams within a range of 7 feet. I have managed to turn the TV on at 9 feet though.
Lets start from the core of this lovely PDA
The Palm Vx has a 20mhz processor, which makes navigating around Palm OS close to snappy depending on how large your directories are. 20mhz provides more than enough processing for regular uses such as using it as an organizer and well using it for viewing your spreadsheets or word documents (through the use of 3rd party software). It also performs really well at playing games designed for Palm OS. Some of the good performers are Asteroids, Gobble (like Pac man), Tank Pilot, and Sim City Classic for palm runs pretty well too. I am overall impressed with the performance of this baby computer.
There are also some other people like me who try to perform the limits of electronics (I think I try to). Anyhow, I installed a program called Liberty that allows me to emulate Game Boy ROMs on my Palm Vx. Now when you are emulating something you have to think that it takes three times as much processing power for it to run as it was in it's original state. I believe that Game Boy has an 8mhz processor. The games that I tested were Wario, Donkey Kong, and Some racing game. Wario had minimal problems and only lagged for half a second every 20 seconds or when I was playing w/ some intense action, ha ha. The other games however were playable but it was too irritating trying to play at poor speeds. Like say playing Quake 3 on a Pentium 75 or something. But this really isn't a major issue.
I've also downloaded MGI Photosuite mobile and I was able to convert mov and wmv movie files to play on it. Too bad the Vx doesn't have support for any sound but the little chirps and stuff but I was impressed with the fact that I could play a 30 second video clip at a rate of 25 frames per second. Even my friends were impressed. I began to feel proud and I felt like I had begun a revolution at school. Now two of my friends are going to get a Palm Pilot and one other one is getting a Pocket PC. Anyhow, carrying a Palm Vx can convince a lot of people to do a lot of things.
We all need a little room to grow
The Palm Vx is configured with 8mb’s or RAM compared to only 2mb’s in the Palm V. This was also the first Palm Pilot to ever feature 8mb’s of RAM when it came out sometime like around the beginning of the year 2000. That was a lot of RAM for a PDA back then, at least I think so. This helps the Vx stay successful even today. It is definitely handy to have a lot of RAM. I don’t want to have to be worried about being low on space and having to delete old files, games, and programs that I enjoy. That is why having extra memory is important.
I would also like to mention that the operating system on the Vx is on a separate 2mb ROM. That means that your OS will not take your very valuable 8mb’s of space that is being planned for many uses. There are also utilities that let you use excess ROM that isn’t used for your storage needs.
Excellent design
The Palm Vx probably wouldn’t be what it is today if they didn’t have people focusing on the design of it. The Vx has a professional appearance with its sleek aluminum casing and slim design. This model can easily slip into a shirt pocket or in the bum sector of your underwear. It’s so slim that it wont be noticeable. This Pilot has a design that becomes part of the user itself instead of fighting with the user. If I had a different model such as an IIIx, then I would have to fight with it more if I wanted to put it in my pocket. I would probably have a broken Palm Pilot if it weren’t for that fact that it’s aluminum casing is strong and durable. I just can’t explain it to you folks. I guess you will have to try it out to understand. LOL.
This design also allows for a larger screen area than others such as the M125, M100, and III models because the metal doesn’t need to be reinforced like the plastic to be strong enough to survive daily abuse.
But there are also some problems with the sleek and durable design. There are no expansion memory slots or a spare port for expandability such as Handspring Visor models and more recent versions of Palm Pilots. You might not have as many options for hardware and expandability as others. Most likely it will come at a higher price if the user is seeking something such as an mp3 player, wireless modem adapter or modem, and other modules such as voice recorders.
Palm OS and Software is easy to use
Ok some people who don’t have much experience with a computer might tell themselves that they aren’t capable to operate a Palm Pilot. It couldn’t be easier to transfer files and run applications than ever before. The Vx comes with a serial port docking cradle, Palm Desktop software, and a couple of programs for the new user to use. All that you have to do is install everything, double click a Palm application to add it to your transfer list, Press the hot sync button on the cradle, and you’ve successfully sent a program to your Vx. Anyone can do it, even old people like my grandma who own a Palm III.
The Palm OS is very simple too. It kind of has a desktop interface with icons but you can basically make multiple desktops by creating different categories to place your programs in. You can also view your programs in a list format if the icons aren’t your bag. Just click the program’s icon once and you are automatically running it. No extra installation process is necessary.
There are thousands of titles for the Palm OS for a variety of users. If you can think up a program that can be useful to yourself, just search for it and I’m sure at least 1 result will be relevant to your thoughts. As mentioned in my somewhat introduction thingy, I use a program called Yesterday to organized my assignments for school. This is an excellent program to put on a Palm Pilot destined for a son or daughter.
Final Rating
If I had more options I would rate this Palm Vx 4 and a quarter stars out of 5 stars for all the features it has to offer with such a slim design. The only cutbacks that I found were expensive expandability and no slot for a smart media card that would be great for extra storage. One more thing is the price. If I hadn’t received this for free and I was looking for a low price PDA, I would consider a Visor Deluxe. But get one of these if you have the cash and want something that isn’t bulky and professional.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300
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Epinions.com ID:
bobmp3_99
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Member: Robert Erickson
Location: Tampa Fl, USA
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 27 members
About Me:
It is summer vacation and I'm somewhat bored.
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