Excellent Value
Written: Jul 15 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap, reliable, tons of applications
Cons: Backlighting, case
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| mikej165's Full Review: Handspring Visor Deluxe Handheld |
I've always considered myself to be an Early Adopter type of gadget freak. As such, I've owned several PDAs over the last few years. Among them are the Apple Newton, Palm Pilot 1000, Palm Professional, Palm IIIc, HP Jornada 545 and, now, the Handspring Visor. I tend to switch every few months. I suppose that makes me a fickle user, but it also gives me a good perspective on what is out there.
To my mind there are three key features to consider when choosing a PDA: size, ease of use, and suitability to the task at hand. These three factors are interrelated, which makes the choice of PDA so personal. For example, while a PDA may be small enough to carry everywhere and though it may do everything you need it to do, it may still be too difficult to use. Conversely, it might be easy to use, do everything you need it to do, and still be too large to carry with you in situation where it would be most convenient to have it.
That's the conundrum I most often find myself pondering and I've yet to find a PDA that offers the perfect balance of those three factors. Palm OS-based handhelds have been, and continue to be, my leading candidate for everyday PDA. They're generally light, reasonably inexpensive, easy to use, support hundreds of 3rd-party applications and have an excellent battery life which is measured in weeks, not days or hours.
Most recently, I've been using the Handspring Visor Deluxe. This unit is, by and large, the equivalent of a Palm IIIx and generally shares the same feature set, with a few technical advantages, some disadvantages and the aesthetically pleasing choice of colors.
With 8 meg of RAM, this unit is more than up to the task of storing just about anything you can put on it. Palm applications are generally small (though they're getting larger lately) and storage space is allocated quite efficiently. Most applications store only text-based information, which consumes very little space. So, while 8 megabytes may seem small compared to a desktop computer, you WILL have a hard time filling your PDA with that much information and software.
Display quality is generally quite acceptable and compares favorably to all the Palm units I've used. Most Palm-based devices use LCD displays which rely on ambiant room lighting to be visible. This works great when you're outside or under office lighting conditions but can be a real pain when you're home and have softer, incandescent lights. In that case you might be tempted to use the backlighting feature. Unfortunately, the backlight is unusable in all but the darkest room conditions. In average situations it actually WORSENS the display's contrast. Thus, you might want to consider lighting conditions when considering a PDA. Palms all look great in the store under bright flourescent lighting. But how will it look when you get home and use it near a 75 watt bulb?
A really nice feature of the Visors is their ability to accept expansion modules. This gives the unit an upgrade path that isn't available to Palm users. At this writing there aren't a great many of these devices available on the market. However, those that have been announced for future availability include an MP3 Player, GPS Receiver, Wireless LAN, Bluetooth communication and so forth. The coming months will see the emergence of these cards and I believe they'll be extremely popular, especially those that allow the user to access The Internet wirelessly.
One of the more annoying features of the Handspring Visor is the snap-on cover. I have to say I really like the flip-up cover provided on the Palm IIIx and other models. The Visor, on the other hand has a design problem (or 'feature', if you will) that prevents this type of flip-up cover from being used. Because Handspring choose to place the expansion module bay that the top of the unit, any use of a flip-up cover would potentially interfere with such modules. That makes those types of covers a dicey proposition. Instead, Handspring has provided a cover that snaps over the front of the unit. Unfortunately, this isn't nearly as easy to use as a cover that simply flips up and down.
Another side-effect of the expansion module location is that there is no room at the top of the unit for an infrared port like there is on Palms. The Visor's infrared port is located on top left side. This can make exchanging information with Palm users a little awkward. If, however, you make little use of this feature it is probably of no importance.
An area in which the Visor shines is USB synchronization. Unlike Palms, which rely on a serial-to-USB adapter, the Visor contains a true USB interface. This means that, if you have USB on your computer, your synchronizations will be dramatically faster. You will especially notice the difference if, like me, you rely on two popular, free services, Vindigo and Avantgo. (See vindigo.com and avantgo.com for more information)
The Visor isn't the smallest Palm-based unit on the market. That honor goes to the Palm V and Vx models. Even still, it is smaller and lighter than most of the newer Pocket PCs. That means you'll probably carry it more often and actually use it, verses simply fawning over the feature set of the unit and leaving it at home because of bulk.
Usability is a significant factor for PDAs. Palm-based devices, to my mind, are significantly easier to use than Windows CE devices, or even the newer Pocket PCs. On a personal level, I just find them quicker for the basic tasks I need to perform. While they don't play MP3s (yet) or make particularly good electronic bookreading devices, everyday tasks like looking up a phone number or entering a To Do item just seem quicker.
All-in-all, I use and carry my Visor with me frequently. While it isn't perfect, it does what it needs to do and it does that very well indeed. One day soon we'll all have Palm V-sized devices that have high-resolution color displays, 1 week of battery life, play MP3s, have voice recognition and function as primary Internet access. Until then, I think my Visor suits my life just fine.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 249
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Epinions.com ID:
mikej165
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Member: Michael Johnston
Location: Long Island, New York
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 8 members
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