I am not blue, but it IS !
Written: Feb 28 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Sleek Design, Navigation stick, Camera
Cons: Original packaging,included memory
The Bottom Line: After moving up from a Palm M100, this is a perfect and powerful aid.
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| readhttp's Full Review: Palm Zire™ 71 Handheld |
I had relied on little yellow sticky notes, torn off pieces of paper, or my memory to keep my professional and personal life in balance for many years. Then a few years ago, I allowed the technology of the Palm M100 to aid me in my quest for perfection and balance. While I enjoyed my new friend, and we shared thousands of dates together, I found a new companion, my Palm Zire 71.
After spending quality time reviewing epinions of all our members and researching a myriad of Palm, Sony, and Dell handhelds I quickly came back to what I knew best, and that was the Palm products. I am quite positive that the others have many wonderful qualities, but I decided to stay with a product line that proved to be a winner. My decision was now a balance of options between the Tungsten line or the Zire line, and I finalized on the Tungsten T2 with its wi-fi connectivity. But then it hit me, my laptop is wi-fi capable, my cellular phone receives e-mails, but I don’t have a portable camera…yes, I purchased the Zire 71, which has one. The trade off was I lost the wi-fi capability, lost 16mb of memory, but added a camera, and saved nearly seventy dollars.
Let me introduce the Zire 71
The Zire 71’s front is a eye catching sky blue and the back a metallic silver and a unique navigator stick to improve one handed movement. There are four one touch buttons to quickly direct your needs to the date book, address book, note pad, and photos. The screen is a bright 320x320 color display and the standard Palm writing area. Located at the top of this unit is the expansion slot, infrared port, and headphone jack. The rear contains the stylus slot and a tiny speaker and the bottom contains the universal connector. Bonus…sliding the base of the unit reveals a hidden camera for those special moments and always keeps the lens protected and safe. Need some specifications of this unit, below are the basics:
Size and Weight 4.5 inches x 2.9 inches – 5.3 oz
Memory 16MB (13mb available)
Operating System Palm OS 5.2.1
Screen 320x320 Transflective color display
Camera 640x480 max resolution
Expansion Supports SD and Multimedia cards
Power/Battery Rechargeable with Hot Sync cradle
Audio Mono speaker–stereo via headphone jack
What’s in the box…
Purchasing this unit is the easy part, opening it is a challenge. Palm has packaged this unit in a very compact and tough plastic case, which I must admit took me at least ten minutes and was rewarded with a three inch long cut on MY palm from the plastic. Once the band aid is applied, you will find the actual unit, a protective carrying case, a HotSync desktop cradle, power supply, stylus, desktop software, and a bonus Essentials CD, as well as the required manuals. The bonus CD allows you to load various items such as; Real One Mobile player, Kinoma Video player, Adobe Acrobat reader for Palm, Solitare, Telephony/SMS, VersaMail.
Daily it is a dream date…
The desktop software allows for expedient and efficient entry for all addresses, dates/appointments, notes, to-do’s and memo’s. The ease of setting alarms, and ability to repeat due dates/times remains to be perfect by means of the Palm software. The handheld also offers the use of Graffiti2 and/or the usage of typing by means of the stylus and tapping. The HotSync process is extremely quick and loads all applications, new data as well as a clean-up process for the handheld. The included calculator is perfect for all those “needed” moments and again, is easily utilized via the stylus and tapping the keys. The “quickfind” feature is one I use the most, simply be tapping in a keyword brings up all matches. The one touch clock fills the entire screen giving me the current time, and during some of those long meetings…the solitaire game can help move the time along. Lastly, the infrared port allows for me to beam messages, notes, and appointments to the other members of our team without interruption of a session. Lastly, I loaded “Documents to Go” an off the shelf software program that allows my Zire to load and edit Microsoft Word and Excel documents. In conclusion, this unit takes care of everyone of my daily needs perfectly and without fail.
Bonus tracks….
Yes, lets not forget that this little unit contains a camera and an MP3 player. The camera is quite simple to use and performs as expected. It should be noted that this is NOT a camera for your once in a life time events, but for all those once in a moment times, it is perfect. As part of my job, I do several audits a year and I utilize the camera for capturing images of what I have found and/or documents. Once captured, I can up-load the photos to my desktop and then from there publish as needed. You should also note that this unit does not contain any type of flash, but is effective in low light. Also, I have loaded 18 of my favorite songs on a 64mb expansion card, and along with the headphones, I now have a respectable portable mp3 player. As noted earlier, this unit came out of the box with 16mb of memory, with all that I have loaded, four months of use, my unit still has slightly over 10mb of available memory. To improve the operation and use of my unit, I purchased a hard protective case and a portable USB Hotsync/charger cable. These additions allow for my unit to be connected to my lap top while traveling and protect it on a daily basis from those falls from the desk.
Overall….
Overall, I am extremely pleased with all the functions and speed of this unit. It should be noted that the first Zire 71 I purchased was in operation for a day before it froze beyond repair. That unit was quickly replaced and I have never looked back beyond the memories of opening the original package. Anyone who is looking for a powerful handheld with a myriad of bonus features, well this little blue beauty is an option you should look at.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 221.00
Recommended for: Business Executives - Powerful and Professional
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Epinions.com ID:
readhttp
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Member: Sal
Location: CHICAGO, Illinois (Northwest Burbs)
Reviews written: 95
Trusted by: 232 members
About Me:
Chicago native, married with three daughters,Siberian Husky & a stang in the garage.
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