Palm m515 Handheld

Pros: 16 MB RAM, brighter screen, nice form factor, expandible memory
Cons: Not the top of the Palm technology ladder

Overview: The Short Take

In reality, the m515 is a minor update to the m505 with an additional bit of tweaking to what may be considered the high end of Palm hardware. m505 sales were disappointing especially when compared to the prior...

Pros: Can read screen , 16MB memory , better than the m505
Cons: Lo-res screen (160x160), battery life, not compatible with new Palm OS

The Bottom Line at the Top of the Page

Think of the Palm m515 as version 1.1 of the Palm m505. Essentially this means that all the minor irritations of the device were fixed, but none of the major issues were addressed. If you...

Pros: 0.5 inches thick, lower price, rugged metal design
Cons: Screen resolution

If you asked me a year ago whether I thought a PDA was a necessity that justified an asking price ($400 ) I would have given you an emphatic “No!” Only seasoned professionals and gadget nuts carry these things, right? Well, after losing...

Pros: Much improved color screen, 16MB of DRAM, thin, light and expansion flexibility.
Cons: Still standard resolution and screen isn't as bright as the Clie color screens

For those that have been turned down by the Palm m505 because of the poor color screen, your complaints have been addressed with the Palm m515. This new handheld is essentially a much improved direct replacement for the m505 by adding more backlights,...

Pros: Brighter Screen, 16MB built-in memory, Small form factor,vibrating alert
Cons: Not much hardware innovation, some limitations inherent in Palm OS

I've owned many Palm OS PDAs (No PocketPCs yet), including Palm IIIx, Handspring Visors, Visor Platinum, Sony Clies, and the Palm m505. When I initially got the m505, like most people, I liked that the Palm Vx had finally grown into color, but was sorely...

Pros: Offers the trademark simple format, sleek form factor, color, OS 4.1, SD/MMC, & more.
Cons: No capabilities for sound formats, voice recording, video player.

I am into my fourth Palm product to date. It started with the Palm Pilot Professional 1MB, then to the m100 2mb, next the m505 8mb and now the m515 16mb. Before owning a pda, I've always carried a sensible calender/notebook cum clutter. Invariably, I ...

Pros: Thin, Light, Bright Screen, Palm Universal Connector
Cons: Low 160x160 Resolution, 16mb Memory, OS4 instead of OS5, Pricey for today

Ive owned my Palm M515 for about a year now and i've enjoyed our time together but it seems we must part now in early 2004 as it has become outdated. The M515 was never the top of the Palm line and even now, its too much dough to flush out for what its ...

Pros: Ease of use, screen lighting, Plentiful third party hardware & accessories.
Cons: No voice recorder

I'm new to the PDA market, but did weeks of research before deciding on the Palm 515.
Being so use to the tactile "Dayrunner," I wondered if I would find a PDA useful.
Answer; I use my Palm like I use my telephone.

I installed the...

Pros: Clear and sharp display, color, MMC slot
Cons: Low-rez display

I bought my Palm m515 because my previous Palm device (a Palm III) broke after four years of continuous use.

My two key requirements are flash memory (instead of ROM, so the sytem software can be upgraded) and a color display. At the time of...

Pros: 16MB Onboard Memory, TFT color screen, Expansion Slot, Rechargeable Battery
Cons: 160 x 160 Display, Price, Nothing Groundbreaking or Revolutionary

When I found myself faced with needing a new Palm, the first thing I realized was that the world had moved on since I got my Palm III 3 years ago. Much like it’s older brother the computer, PDAs continue to advance in leaps and bounds, often becoming...

Pros: expandable memory,form factor,color,resolution,OS efficiency
Cons: screen brightness,unavailability of peripheral ports

After getting a color-screen PDA, one usually remains with the color-screen domain. Moving up from the Palm IIIc, the Palm m515 seemed the way to go.

Picking out the little wonder from its box, the first thing that got me thinking was...

Pros: Size, durability, better than average stylus recognition, SD Slot.
Cons: Screen, USB issues, memory.

I should start off by giving you my background and experience with PDAs. I'm a busy (home) business person and use my PDA mainly for scheduling, keeping contacts, to do lists, etc. Basically, I use all of the funtions that come with the unit. I...

Pros: Durability, reliability, usability, excellent software compatibility, fast and easy synchronization with Macs and PCs
Cons: Maybe the higher-than-average purchase price I paid? But you get what you pay for!

I can tell you from extensive experience using my m515 that it has definitely turned out to be one of the better purchases I've ever made. I bought it approximately two years ago, as I had some friends and co-workers who were always touting their PDAs ...

Pros: Well built, solid, easy to read screen in all light situations
Cons: leather cover can accidently turn on the unit.

UPDATE MAY, 2006 - Well, unfortunately, my 515 died in April 2006. For some unknown reason, it just stopped synching. I could enter data into the Palm, and it worked fine on it's own, but it would not communicate with anything else. Didn't matter which ...

Pros: bright color screen; rugged, small case; simple syncs
Cons: battery life; pricey software

The Palm m515 is the third Palm I've owned in the last five years. As expected, this one's the most impressive of the three (the others were a Palm III and a Palm Vx) with a bright and easy-to-read color screen, a rugged and small case, and a much...

Pros: Small yet fast powerful computer with everything needed to work
Cons: Can't play counterstrike but then again, that's not a working application

I've never liked handhelds devices. First, you need magnifing glasses, then they only work like agendas and at last but not least it's very difficult to write on those small things. Those were my thoughts, something left in the past.

The Palm...

Pros: lightweight, colour, lots of memory, expnasion capable, durable, flexible, fast (33 mhz), small, THIN
Cons: expensive, voice recorder, not pocket pc

The Palm 515 was origanally designed to replace the 505 (also and outstanding machine) with a little bit more power. Most important of which the 515 enjoys 16 megs of storage instead of 8. Although this may not sound like much compared to the pocket pc,...

Pros: Compact organizer I can easily carry just about anywhere
Cons: Price, susceptibility to electrostatics, battery life

I asked for $150 to $200 PDA from my secretary and this $400 Palm m515 is what I received. (I think the secretary likes me.) I couldn’t complain. I use it for organization, mainly. Rather than carrying around a thick notebook, I envisioned this ...

Pros: * Color *Easy to navigate *Easy to connect to computer *Easily downloads pictures *Compact size
Cons: *Batteries drain quickly *Inconvenient to write on

I recently received the Palm515 as a gift. I am not too good with computers and I have found the Pa ...

Pros: Nice machine when it was working. Originally fond of it. Then it broke.
Cons: Cannot take outside the house in temps under 40 degrees or hardare malfunctions.

Only six weeks old and four times already the unit has malfunctioned when exposed for periods of less than one hour to temperatures in the 30 to 40 degree range -- carried in a briefcase or in a car. The unit turns itself on, Palm logo is flashing, the...

Pros: Slim, lightweight, color, expandable, good memory, good battery life.
Cons: Not hi-res screen, screen hard to see clearly outdoors.

I have used a number of different handheld devices, and I must say, that the Palm m515 is my favorite of all of them. I recently returned my Tungsten T for the m515 because I really did not need the Bluetooth, and the hi-res screen is not really worth...

Pros: Great software options, easy sync, easy to learn.
Cons: Graffiti not always easy to use. Data entry harder than paper.

I love my PDA. I was a serious paper user, and resisted changing over for a long time, but I have no regrets.

I am a Franklin Covey (www.franklincovey.com) user, and have been for years. By the holiday season last year, my organizer had grown...

Pros: Brighter screen, bigger memory, best Palm yet
Cons: Is that all?

Introduction

This article largely compares the Palm m515 with its now-discontinued predecessor, the Palm m505. For more on the m505, please refer to my review at

Pros: Great Palm OS software, the fixed version of the Palm M505.
Cons: Small Screen still, not a Pocket PC and no voice recorder.

This PDA is a outstandingly useful. The outside aluminum case is great looking, it shows a fashion statement. I wrote down all of my addresses and phone numbers in the phone book, have my day planned out with the schedule book and am able to play...

Pros: Bright Color screen, 16mb of memory, and easy to use OS.
Cons: Older palm technology

I purchased my palm m515 three years ago, since then I have not had any problems with it. The color screen is bright enough to be easily seen in any light. The built in rechargeable battery provides enough power for up to two days of regular use. Its ...

Pros: Now in Color
Cons: Battery life now limited

I bought the Palm M515 online cheaper than $300 bucks. That was an added bonus. The color screen simply beats the old monochrome Palm V that I used to have. I like the additional programs that come with the 515. You can hotsync files like Excel,...

Pros: Compact, powerful
Cons: Palm no longer carries, Avantgo issues

I've had the Palm 515 PDA since 2002 and five years later, this thing still works. I am impressed that it's lasted so long in this age of throwaway electronics. I bought it to stay organized and found it has many useful features. The calandar syncs ...

Pros: battery life, small, light
Cons: too small for some, screen hard to see in sunlight

I'm probably a little biased as I upgraded from the now-archaic Palm m100 to this one. Going from a small gray-scale screen to a slightly larger color screen was an amazing change. The Palm 515 isn't as crisp as some of the other handhelds, but that's...

Pros: Functionality, wide range of software available
Cons: quality, "graffiti" alphabet

I have to say that my Palm m515 has been a joy to use. I use it to organize all of my appointme ...

Pros: light and small
Cons: A gigantic hassle to install; never was successful; USB issues

I have previously used a Palm V, and wanted a color Palm so I bought the 515. Although the old Palm V syncs fine on my computer, and never had a problem with installing or reinstalling, there were seemingly endless problems installing the Palm 515,...

Pros: Elegant, slim design. Expandable, fast, bright,sharp color screen
Cons: Huge problem with static discharge. Mine died after 4 days of use.

The Palm m515 is an elegant little PDA. Slim and sleek like its m505 predecessor but with a sharper screen and fast operation. I loved it right out of the box.

It has the trusty Palm OS I've come to use daily for the past 3 years starting out...

Pros: Color; fast; lots of storage; card slot
Cons: little heavy; no music; can only be used as a pda;

The Palm M515 is a very nice pda with many options. For example there is a slot where you can put m ...

Pros: Color, Documents to Go software
Cons: Palm service is poor at best, Hot Sync driver

I have been a dedicated Palm user for almost 4 years. The Palm m515 I think has made me reconsider my thinking for the future. I have owned my Palm m515 for a little over 6 months and was truly happy with it until recently. The pre-installed...

Pros: Color display and ability to add memory or program cards.
Cons: Not able to add many outside programs. (Non Palm)

I moved up to the M515 from a Palm V. This was easy to do.. . more memory and color!

It has proven to be a very robust data organizer. I have carried it all over the USA and have only experienced one problem with Synchronization as a result of static electricity. The web pages from the manufacturer helped me to resolve the issue.

I carry over 8,000 contacts and maintain the calendar for scheduling purposes. I really do not use many other features.

The option to display photos and videos is nice, but you need to buy more memory. This gets expensive.

When trying to display spreadsheets or word documents, they fall off of the screen and are difficult to work with. I find it to be useless.

At any rate, I only got it for the contact management and the calendar...so I don't really care about these short-comings.

The USB sychronization seems to work great. I have sychronized to both Outlook and to Lotus-Notes. No complaints in either case.

Overall I feel it is a great gadget. I haven't seen a viable replacement yet!

I like the palm family I have had the palm III and VII and was very happy with them. I like the functionality of the palm 515, but the hot sync is unreliable, there is a problem with ESD and their USB port. The palm will not sync, and it has to be taken out of commision overnight to implement the fix I got from palm. If I knew about this issue ahead of time I would not have bought the 515. Customer support was not much help at all in dealing with this issue.

battery life seems to be ok for me, only recharge every other day. i'm on it for couple hours solid a day no problems so far. battery has been looowwww but never did go out good apps tons of applications available tons of memory available will download cool personal program WTLIB2002 with room to spare. upgraded from a antique PalmV and only way to improve is to get the tungsten at the same price

softwares etc works very well, overall it does good job. except when hot sinc fails to work. lucky dep store replaced for new one. two months latter the same problem again. hot sinc function is vital for pda to be what it is. palm will give you customer support. so what do you whant? pperfect product or ability to call and get customer support and frustration when hot sinc gets baked.

I've used this PDA for about 2 months and I finally have thrown out my old day timer. It's easy to use and reliable. I absolutely love how you can transfer data from your PC with a touch of a button. Even though you can use the Documents to Go software to transfer word processing data to the hand held, I've found it frustrating to edit due to the small screen size. You have to constantly use the up/down, left/right scrool bars to read the document, but I will never go back to paper & pencil calendars again.

It a great Palm overall, the sleek design made it very appealing. Easy to use, definitely recommend getting a expansion memory card, if you want to add extra programs. But the 16MB that comes with the Palm is enough for everyday use.

Six weeks old and four times already the unit has malfunctioned when exposed for periods of less than one hour to temperatures in the 30 to 40 degree range. The unit turns itself on, Palm logo is flashing and, if I hit any button, the unit asks me if I want to do a hard reset. The only cure is to do a hard reset. This erases all your data and you have to reboot the entire system. Tech support diagnosed a hardware issue. They refused to honor the "advance exchange" warranty option posted on the web page. Cost me $23 to ship it back. Call to corporate to complain about their customer serice reps not honoring the posted warranty and got a snitty woman who basically told me to get lost, they'd do nothing for me. Lousy company, lousy product, lousy service and deceptive advertising on web page. Stay away! I'll never by Palm again.

This is my first handheld and I would say that this really works for me. From waking up in the morning, during my leisure time and until going back to bed, my Palm 515 never turns me down. It's just simply the best. If the battery life is too short, it's not a big deal. This is precisely the reason why Palm has provided a cradle for charging and a car charger. So what can you ask for? Palm is really great.

I've had my palm since X-mas. I've stored over a 100 addresses in it and I love the ease in which I can pull up numbers. I used pen and paper for the last few years, to cheep to purchase an electronic organizer since my last one crashed. I have grown dependent on my Palm. I have recommended the Palm to all my associates. Needs more medical downloads and free games.

When it works, it's great. I thought I'd still use my Franklin, but I abandoned it quickly after I got this set up. I just wish they'd figure out how to keep it syncing. I'm not sure why it keeps dying, but they send out refurbished units, not new ones, and they're always backordered -- waiting for more lousy units to be returned and fixed. They need to stand behind product better. I wish I could get my money back at this point and get something more reliable!

I love it! I can syncronize information from my PC to my PDA with just a push of a button. It fits neatly in my purse. Great Display. Fast internet transfer of up-to-date news, weather, etc. You can purchase many great accessories for it!

I had a Visor PRISM before the m515,and the PRISM was like a brick to carry.The m515 is thin,light & very powerful,I got the 32meg card in it and have over 55 games on it,to keep the basic 16megs for apps/data.I'm a Systems Analyst,and have written many apps for the unit,from SmartList ToGo to Small Basic all work great.I would recommend this unit to anyone,I love it,since my divorce its my new best friend.I also had the Treo 90 which was a huge disappointment,I thought the keyboard would be great,but it sucks,its not even backlight,I like to lay in bed at night and use it,The m515 is great to read my news from Reuters,thru Avantgo,which I update thru Hotsync every day,by the way,have NEVER had a HOTSYNC problem.I'm glad it has the SD card,now that they have an FM radio,digital Camera,Bluetooth card,modem,memory card up to 1gig is coming,and the possibilty of running more than one card at a time thru a dual card adapter.All the people with the memorystick are stuck,next time buy a PALM

Have Hot Sync with same unit to XP, win2000 and Win95 OS with no problems, very fast up and downloads. DataViz supplied suite works great with excel,word and PPoint Overall performance better than expected

m515 has same hot-sync problem as the m505. This is my third, and last Palm. Had the Palm III and the Vx. Both were outstanding units. The 515 has been a disappointment because of the hot-sync issue. My USB hot-sync cradle is now used for nothing other than recharging the unit. Had to by a serial cable to sync. Next PDA will be a Sony Clie.

I owned the 505 before I bought the 515 ,I bought a total of 4 one for my wife and 2 for my teenage kids.There is so many things I have stored and with the expansion cards I see no limits for my use.I have pictures ,spanish/english & regular dictionary,4 bible versions,ect...Its a great value...............

Unreliable hardware coupled with incompetent tech support and poor customer support. Irremedial hotsynch problems. Tech support suggested editing PC registry directory which ultimately deleted all Palm data, address book, calendar, etc. Bought one, ultimately found it to be defective after lengthy tech support conjecture, return policy required that I send it in for refund and buy new one (euphemistically referred to as "Advance Exchange") REturned first one, no credit ever given; inquired over "mixup" still not credit. Paid for second one, similar problems. Can't return it as Customer Service personnel haven't authority to make exchange even though w/i warranty period.

i am 14 and i bought this with my allowance it has benifited me in school, freinds, and at home it works very very very well i am very pleased with it i have reccomended it to all my friends and most of them have bought it i love my pda

Much easier to learn to use than I expected. Hot-sync has failed 3 times however. My concern is the necessity for electrical recharging daily as I travel in developing where that isn't convenient at a time when I desire dependable use of my maps and info on pda.

Design flaw, static electricity causes the hot sync to die. Am now on 3rd unit same problem no real satisfaction from Palm. It's now a paper weight until I go to trial before a judge.

My palm has decided not to sync. I have tried fixing the problem 3 times (it takes approx. 10 hours of time to fix it) and the problem still comes back. Customer service is useless. The feeling I got is that they received my money and now they want nothing to do with me. If I knew about this problem before hand I never would have purchased this item. Horrible customer relations, when I asked to speak with a supervisor I was told he would not talk to me, and then they hung up the phone. I will never buy a Palm product again. I 'm going back to Handspring.

I own the M515, my 4th Palm. Great color and visibility improvement. The 16MB capacity is great too. The Palm is an essential tool for the 21st Century human. With multiple responsiblities and the multitude of related tasks only the Palm makes it possible for me. The mind - remember, forget, remember, forget ... The Palm allows you to focus on today, this week, knowing all is in order. Mental FREEDOM!!

A very nice pda for personal use or as a gift. Great features and color! Good price considering memory and features that come standard with the 515.

As a college student, i purchased planners every year but not 4 over the past year since I have had my palm. The ability 2 download software off line has helped me keep track of all my assignements. Categorizing the 300 phone #s makes it so easy 2 locate them; date book has been a life saver for being able to schedule weeks and months ahead of time as well as being able to repeat events. I don't recall having much problems with the palm until recently where i haven't been able to synchronize. If you are a busy individual and have many contacts this is perfect. Would recommend it to anyone.

The M515 is amazing. There is a lot of memeory to do th ings and the games you can play are cool. They make a special keyboard for it so it is easier for you to take notes. I recommend it.