Finally, a product to compete with the Sony Clié
Written: May 20 '03 (Updated May 21 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Built in camera, 320x320 High-res screen, OS5, Graffiti2, MP3 Player, Snappy performance, SD slot
Cons: No 'charging' light, Reset hole set too far in
The Bottom Line: I would recommend the Zire 71 for anyone who is looking for a "high-end"-like PDA, but don't want to pay the "high-end" price tag.
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| arnons_1's Full Review: Palm Zireâ„¢ 71 Handheld |
This is my third Palm powered device. I previously owned a Palm Vx and a Palm m515. Both were Palm's flagship products at the time.
Sony started introducing high-quality and well priced Clié handhelds which have certainly outdone Palm's devices. Finally, Palm has taken notice and put a well priced device, stuffed with features, and finally, a high-resolution screen.
I bought my device for $299 at Best Buy, after much consultation with myself, whether to buy this, or
make a switch to the iPaq. The Palm device offers much more features for the same price, so
therefore I decided to take this one home.
Specifications
Processor: Texas Instruments 144Mhz OMAP310 (ARM) processor
Operating System: Palm OS software v5.2.1
Memory: 16MB RAM (13MB actual storage capacity)
Display: 16-Bit Transflective TFT color LCD 65,000 colors, 320x320 Pixel
Interface: HotSync USB cradle, Infrared
Expansion: SD / MMC card slot, Universal connector
Built in camera: 640 x 480 Resolution
Audio: 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, mono speaker
Power: AC Adapter 120VAC, 60Hz
Battery: Rechargeable lithium polymer 900mAh battery
Dimensions and Weight: 4.5 x 2.9 x 0.67 in. / 5.3 oz.
What's Included?
- Palm Zire 71
- USB Hotsync Cradle
- Carrying Case
- Palm Desktop CD with Pocket Mirror for Outlook
- Essential CD
- Kinoma Player
- Palm Reader
- RealOne Arcade
- RealOne Player
- Solitare
- Acrobat Reader
- powerOne Calculator
- Phone Link (for mobile phones)
- VersaMail2.5
- Audible Player
First Impression
The first thing that strikes you is the 320x320 high-resolution 65,536 colour screen, which is a change from the 160x160 which were placed in older units. The display is crystal clear, even in sunlight! The second thing is the blue colour of the device itself. It resembles Sony's Clié in many ways because of this.
Design
http://private.maccabimreut.co.il/arnon/zire-71-1.jpg - The front
http://private.maccabimreut.co.il/arnon/zire-71-2.jpg - The back
The back of the device is a chrome coloured plastic, which leaves smudgy fingerprints. On the back, you'll find the little speaker grille and the stylus. The stylus is a plastic one, and it feels a little light. I hope Palm will do the wise thing and put out a metal stylus soon. The sides of the unit are completely smooth, no buttons, dials, jacks, nothing. The bottom features the universal connector which was missing from the original Zire. The top of the unit features the stylus silo, the power button, a 3.5"
audio jack, an SD card slot, and the IR port.
The 3.5" audio jack means you can use your favourite headphones to listen to music through the device.
http://private.maccabimreut.co.il/arnon/zire-71-3.jpg - The top of the device
Overall, the device sports very clean and sleek design.
Palm have decided to go with a 5-direction joystick style button instead of the directional pad or the normal up-down buttons found in other devices. The joystick can be moved right, left, up, down and pushed in. A long push will return you to the application screen while a short push will bring up the clock if the device is off. The joystick is a nice addition, as it allows easy gameplay.
PalmOS 5.2
The Zire 71 comes with PalmOS 5.2. PalmOS 5.2 features the Graffiti2 data entry system. It allows easier data entry. I find Graffiti2 much more natural than original Graffiti, as it allows multi stroke characters, but at the same time allows you to adjust the usage of letters such as "t", "$", "y", "p" to suit your liking.
PalmOS 5 takes better advantage of the Zire 71's TI OMAP 144Mhz ARM processor. The device is fairly snappy and gives good performance, even when watching movies with the enclosed Kinoma Player, listening to music with RealOne player, or playing games, such as Bejeweled or even Sega Shining Force.
PalmOS 5 also includes various colour schemes to make your device more interesting, aswell as Full Screen Graffiti, which allows you to use the Graffiti anywhere on the screen, and even leave a small trail so you can see what you just wrote. It also includes a new Preferences screen, instead of the drop-down box offered in previous versions. I will not go into any more differences between OS 5.2 and OS 4, I hope you'll forgive me :)
Camera
http://private.maccabimreut.co.il/arnon/zire-71-4.jpg - The front of the unit when opened
http://private.maccabimreut.co.il/arnon/zire-71-5.jpg - The back of the unit when opened
The main feature of the Palm Zire 71 is the 640x480 digital colour camera that is installed in the unit. The camera will not yield professional results like a real digital camera, but it's good enough for quick photos which you can later upload to the internet. The camera does well in well-lighted areas such as the outdoors or even under fluorescent lighting, but in dim areas, the picture will get quite fuzzy.
To use the camera, you just push the front panel up, thus revealing the camera lens from the behind, while exposing the shutter button in front. You just aim and click, that's all there is to it.
http://private.maccabimreut.co.il/arnon/zire-71-6.jpg - The family dog in a photo taken recently>
MP3 Playback
To play MP3s properly (or at all) you'll need an SD card. I opted for a Sandisk 256mb card. I quickly transferred 42 songs (90mb total) with the supplied RealOne player, and I got off to playing music. The sound emitting from the back of the device was not bad, but it was not very good either. Plug in any standard headphones, and the music is like on any MP3 or CD player.
Battery Life
And while you may think all these features have affected battery life severely, Palm says the unit will hold up 10 days when used half an hour each day. I've managed to listen to ~9 hours of MP3's on a single charge, when the screen was off. I have yet to test the 10 day estimate given by Palm.
Set backs
Although I can find no reason not to actually purchase this item, it seems there are a few setbacks:
* There is no charging light, so you'll have to start up the application screen to know if the device is actually charging.
* The reset hole is set very deep inside the unit (This doesn't stop you from recovering from a crash though. The unit will reset itself after 5 seconds)
* The plastic stylus is very... Plastic..
These aren't very serious, just a place for me to vent out my dislikes :)
Conclusion
The Palm Zire 71 offers a terrific bang for your buck. You get a whole bunch of features, plus, you also get upgradability to PalmOS 6 which is expected late 2003, something that PalmOS 4 can't offer at all.
A word of recommendation though, do get an SD memory card. You will not be able to store MP3s at all on the device without it.
Also, The new high-resolution games are usually over ~700 kb., and you won't be able to store many games and photos on 16mb alone..
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 299
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Epinions.com ID:
arnons_1
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Member: Arnon Shimoni
Location: Maccabim, Israel
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Born in Israel in 1986, Former manager of Tech-Support for major website.
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