Just Over the Fence Home Run from Palm
Written: Jun 11 '03 (Updated Jun 11 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Camera, color, size and speed.
Cons: Some rough edges in fit and finish, makes a clicking noise, and Graffiti 2.
The Bottom Line: Great PDA with camera at a reasonable price.
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| mxy15's Full Review: Palm Zire™ 71 Handheld |
The Palm Zire 71 is a very cool gadget. It has a build-in camera that takes digital pictures up to 640x480 resolution, a brilliantly bright 320x320 transflective screen, and a SD memory slot for MP3 playback. And to make it an even better value, the whole package costs just $250 online if you take a moment to surf for deals.
OS and Graffiti 2
The Palm OS is legendary in term of its stability. After hours and hours of fidgeting around with the Zire 71 and loading all kinds of software onto it, the devise has not crashed on me once yet. That’s pretty unusual for people who are more familiar with Microsoft products.
The Zire 71 has Palm’s latest OS, 5.2.1. Generally speaking the new OS looks and feels pretty much the same as the old OS but this one uses Graffiti 2 for data entry. For someone who’s already familiar with the old Graffiti this is a major pain. Most of the characters are the same as before but letters like “i” and “t” are giving me major problems because I am not use to writing these letters in two pen strokes. Also commas and entering signs now doesn’t require you to tap the screen, which should make things easier, but I just can’t stop tapping! If I have a choice of going back to the old Graffiti I would switch in a second. But if you are new to PDAs or dislike Graffiti in the first place, Graffiti 2 is much more closer to the natural writing style.
Screen, Camera and Battery Life
The screen of the Zire 71 is just beautiful. Truly one of the best screens I’ve ever seen. For those people who say, “I don’t need color because…” you’re only saying it because you have not seen this screen. Everything becomes so much clearer and pleasurable to look at when it is in a bright screen like this one.
The camera takes pretty good pictures but since it has no flashlight don’t expect the best quality indoor shots. And holding the Zire 71 steady to take a picture takes a little getting use to too because it doesn’t have a conventional camera shape. With the build-in 16MB memory, at 640x480 resolution, the Zire 71 can store over 200 pictures. You can also choose to store the pictures on the SD memory card. The biggest grip I have with the Palm OS and the expansion slot is that the Palm OS reads the SD card as simply a folder. And in this folder, you cannot subdivide it into other categories for files and applications. So all the files and applications are all lumped together in this one giant folder and things get disorganized pretty quickly. And for a devise that’s designed for organization, it is pretty ironic.
The battery life of the Zire 71 is decent. With a full charge, it can last up to 3 days of normal use. It may not be enough for a long weekend but recharge is pretty fast. Just 2 to 3 hours for a full charge.
Competitors and Other Design Features
The Zire 71 competes directly with the Sony Clie PEG-SJ22 and 33. Both of the Sony does not have a build-in camera like the Zire and they both have older version of the Palm OS. The SJ22 doesn’t come bundled with as much software as the SJ33 but it is $50 cheaper and Sony just lowered the SJ33's price to $250. I believe this is directly in response to the Zire 71 so this is going to make it interesting as Palm and Sony battle it out in the market place.
The Sony has a much better case then Zire 71. The attached see-through plastic covers are cool looking on the Sony. Zire 71 comes with a soft case that has a tendency of pushing down on the 5-way navigation stick when you put it in. Luckily, or good design from Palm's part, the action of pushing down the 5-way navigation stick only turns on the World Clock function for a few seconds so even if you push it accidentally while putting it in the case, the battery won’t get drained.
The fit and finish on the Sony is also better then Zire 71. The casing material used for the Zire 71 is nice but for some reason the edges are not smoothed out fully. This is probably a problem with the molding process and just a minor annoyance. When pushing the camera component open for the Zire it has a tight feel to it so I wouldn’t worry about the unit falling apart.
Problems
For my particular unit, it makes a strange clicking noise when I switch applications and some other times. The clicking sound persists even after I turn all the sound options off. The noise is not so loud as to become distracting but it is just another minor annoyance.
Conclusion
Overall speaking, the Zire 71 is a home run for Palm. It is something that anyone from a busy executive to a college student to a soccer Mom could find useful to help them keep track of their busy days. And the camera is a major bonus for taking those daily snap shots without having to carry a dedicated camera.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 250
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Epinions.com ID:
mxy15
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Location: NJ
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Home Theater and HiFi Hobbyist. Electronics junky.
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