Finding PDA balance
Written: Aug 07 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Camera, colour screen, headphone jack, notepad, date book addition
Cons: battery life, placement of on button, graffiti2
The Bottom Line: Overall, I like the Zire 71. Shame about the battery life.
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| tracergrrl's Full Review: Palm Zire™ 71 Handheld |
I just upgraded from an IBM workpad to a Zire 71.
First the bad news--
Battery life:
The Zire 71 makes me miss the reliance on old fashioned batteries. The lithium ion battery in the Zire 71 seems to have an incredibly short battery life, even after a full night of charging. This may be due in part to the fact there's more than one way to power up this puppy. This could be a deal breaker. I use my pda a LOT and if this battery life issue isn't resolved, I may take the Zire 71 back and go with another unit.
Placement of on button:
The on button is located at the top of the unit, near the stylus slot. The case that comes with the Zire 71 is a top loader, meaning you have to slide the unit down into the case. I kept accidentally hitting the on switch.
Being careful not to hit the power switch doesn't matter, though, as the unit fits really snuggly inside the case and the pressure of the case wall can trigger the navigation button at the base of the unit, which can turn the power back on. Per the Palm support site, this can cause the unit to remain in a power on status, thus draining the battery.
If you reach the unfortunate point of running out of power before the day is finished, nothing short of plugging the unit into the cradle for a couple of hours will save you. Chances are, you aren't going to be carrying around a cradle and power adapter everywhere you go. Note to Palm developers--either give us old fashioned batteries or make it so the unit has just one 'on' button on the face of the unit (a la the IBM Workpad).
The rest of you, toss out the case that comes with the unit and choose your new case very carefully.
Graffiti2:
Having learned the older graffiti style of writing, having to learn new ways to write the 't', 'i' and 'k' (as well as other characters) means a LOT of backing up and starting over. I understand they are trying to make it more like the way we normally write, but what's next--erasers? I feel that using one stroke to complete a letter (i.e. 'k' in the old graffiti system) is faster than two ('k' in graffiti2). Either you'll love it or hate it but it's not a deal breaker for the Zire 71.
Good news--
Camera:
I'm such a geek, I really love the idea of being able to take pictures with my PDA. The pictures are of fair quality. If you want archive quality photos, you may want to buy a device actually devoted to the purpose of picture taking. But if you like the idea of snapping a picture or two to post on your web site, or to just show to friends from the comfort of your PDA, then the Zire 71 is perfect. I don't use the video camera function, so I can't comment on that.
Colour screen:
Having come from the monochrome world of the IBM workpad, Seeing things in colour is very, very nice. And you can even choose your colour scheme. Now if they will let us customise with background images on the main menu page. Given the photo capability of the Zire 71, I thought this would have been an option. Maybe in the next generation...
Headphone jack:
GREAT idea. This unit is the most affordable one I've seen with this particular option. I am a music student and have a couple of music-related programmes on my PDA that require sound. The headphone jack is the lifesaver here. No inflicting intervals practise on innocent bystanders. As for the MP3 capability, I have an Archos, so I don't use my PDA to listen to MP3's.
Notepad:
You can actually scribble on the screen! Draw anything you like and save it for review later. Very nice.
Date book addition:
They've added a view to the date book. You can select a view that shows your day's events summarised at the top of the screen, with your 'to-do's' listed at the bottom. Excellent idea!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 294.00
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Epinions.com ID:
tracergrrl
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Reviews written: 6
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