Palm Zire : A Palm marketing success for a below average unit.
Written: Oct 11 '02 (Updated Jun 25 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Palm brand name... ummm... sticker price... urrr... ummm... I give up
Cons: Everything
The Bottom Line: If you're a seasoned PalmOS user, this unit offers no value for the money. But novices will like the chance to try the PalmOS without breaking their wallets.
|
|
|
| yusakugo's Full Review: Palm Zire Handheld |
The Palm Zire is the most innovative piece of equipment ever to be introduced by Palm. The Zire is wonderful, fantastic, a credit to all mankind. It is an engineering milestone! It is... ack.. cough... spit... vomit...
Now that I've upchucked all Palm's advertising BS... what we have it the Palm Zire... the biggest backwards step that Palm has taken with any of its handhelds to date!
The Zire is a true sub-$100 model Palm... what I mean by that is the Zire is supposed to sell under $100 and still turn Palm a healthy profit on each unit. You can get other Palm units for under $100 like the m105 but Palm won't make much of a profit from this unit... they might even take a loss from it! So the market for the Zire is the newly initiated PDA unit, especially a buyer who wants to try a PDA without spending big bucks. The other market is for current users who use the Zire for basic PDA functions and need a cheap functional unit.
UPDATED
Now as a credit to Palm... Palm has made this unit the fastest selling PDA to be created to date. As of Spring 2003, the basic Zire had sold well over 1 million units since it was introduced and is likely to sell a total of 2 million units by the start of next year. Palm has turned up a very tidy profit from selling the Zire... and it is one of the reasons why Palm's fortunes are turning for the better. My original review was very harsh since it was biased with my views of having seen many Palm OS handhelds over the years and familiarity with the pricing structure of older similar Palm OS handhelds... unfortunately, finding those older handhelds that sell at similar prices to the Zire is becoming increasingly difficult. That being said, the Zire is likely the cheapest way to enter the Palm OS PDA market.
The Short Take
The Palm Zire has been a very successful design for Palm but the true bang for the buck is actually very small when compared to prior Palm and Sony handheld that eventually fell to the $90-$125 range. This unit takes a complete backwards step in Palm OS handheld design. While the actual stylings of the Zire seems Apple Computer inspired... it may be the only highlight coupled with the $99 MSRP. The Zire fails on many fronts but seems to have been redeemed by its low MRSP... which translates into even lower prices if you know where to shop or have an eye out for deals!
The unit contains 2MB of RAM, a 16MHz processor, no memory expansion slot, a mini-USB connector instead of a regular hotsync connector, 2 application buttons and the 2 scroll buttons. There is no backlight for an otherwise decent monochrone screen.
I had marked this unit as must avoid under penalty of death... it just isn't worth it when you look at the competition from Sony, HandSpring, and even within Palm itself. However, since Palm and Sony have pulled/discontinued their other low end models (Palm no longer offers the m100, m105, or m125 models anymore unless you buy in ridiculous 10+ unit bulk and Sony has left refurbished versions of the SJ-20 as their only cheap option at $129) the Zire has become the cheapest way to try the PDA market. That fact has helped Palm immensely.
Pros:
1) initial sticker price
2) weight
3) style?
4) runs Palm OS 4.1
5) lithium ion battery
6) Easy to learn and use
7) Battery life!
Cons:
1) Size
2) 2 MB of internal memory
3) Non-upgradable ROM
4) No memory card expansion
5) Not compatible with any of the accessories for other Palms
6) slow 16MHz processor that seems even slower than other models with 16MHz processors
7) No screen backlight
8) No cradle
9) Loss of two application buttons
10) Slow screen response
11) Offers little in way of expansion of unit
The minor details
The Palm Zire has average dimensions of 4.4 x 2.9 x 0.6 inches with a light weight of 3.8 oz. This comes extremely close to Sony's SJ series of Palm OS handhelds. You get only 2 MB of RAM that is actually 1.9MB because of system programs. There is no flash ROM to upgrade the handheld. You have a monochrome screen that is rated at 2.75 inches but without a backlight. As I said, the unit has a very Apple/isomething design. The unit is basically white in color with a gray bumper around the unit... the design will be very hit or miss with buyers. The "Protective" cover is laughable and seemed worse than the protective covers used for the Handspring units.
The unit now has only 2 application buttons (Contacts/Address Book and Calendar buttons) and two buttons that take the place of the up/down rocker on other Palm units. The four buttons are now placed almost like a 4 way keypad on the unit... on top of that, the buttons are flush against the units casing. The buttons are of a good size and fairly easy to press. The power button is to the left of the 4 buttons and is also flush against the unit's casing. However, there is a depression around the power button making it easier to depress especially when you don't want it to. The screen is a decent size (2.75 inch) and has the familiar Palm look... A quarter of the screen is used for the Graffiti and 4 soft application buttons. These include Home, Find, Favorites, and Menu. They are all user customizable as they are with all Palm units. The screen is a decent size to say the least.
The top of the unit has all of the other "features" for the Zire. The slot for the stylus, the IR port, and the mini-USB port. Oh, the power adapter cable also plugs in through the top of the unit. The Zire does have an internal lithium ion battery... one of the few pluses on the unit.
The internals of the unit is based around a 16MHz processor that seemed slower than my older Palm III unit?! That doesn't seem right... but the Zire seemed to take a bit longer in find functions. I'm not sure why. The unit cannot be flash upgraded if a new version of Palm OS 4.x ever comes out.
The Zire casing seemed easy to scratch as well... sigh.
Another sigh for the blister pack presentation instead of the old PDA box... the blister pack further cheapens the feeling that you bought a Palm Zire PDA.
Screen
The screen actually has good clarity for text and other static displays if you're in a well lit room. Don't forget, you don't have a backlight on this unit! That limits the usefulness of the unit even further.
On programs that need rapid and frequent screen refreshs... forget it! The screen is sorely lacking. The Sony T415 and SL10 had never displayed such severe ghosting and streaking effects! SimCity was difficult to play (and there isn't alot of movement in SimCity!). Sigh... I guess it's only about the profit for Palm now.
So as a basic organizer, the Zire's screen should be fine... games on your Zire are entirely another story.
Battery
On the good side, the battery will keep going and going and going (oh wait that phrase is trademarked...). Regardless, my T615 will run SimCity a total of 3 1/2 to 4 hours with the backlight on (and on the lowest possible setting). The Zire ran SimCity for 8 straight hours without needing a recharge yet.
Note that the units were left on after establishing a city and auto-budget on with the power saver features of the units disabled. The units were left to sit so I could increase the budget of the city.
Accessories
No universal connector... no accessories. Then again, the Zire is so limited, it might not be able to handle any accessories. There is no cradle either for the unit if you're wondering. The mini-USB is a nice touch and follows the Sony SL series using a non-proprietary connector. It's both good and bad... bad for older Palm users with lots of accessories. It is annoying to have two items plugged into the unit (power and mini-SB for HotSync) instead of dropping the unit into the cradle... oh well. However, the Zire was not meant for older users of Palm OS handhelds... but for new adopters of PDAs.
End Game
As time goes on, the options for cheap PDAs have dropped significantly... and by cheap I mean a MRSP of under $150 at most. The only possible competition to this unit is the Sony CLIE PEG SJ-20 unit that far outstrips the Zire unit. The SJ-20 sells for $129.99 but you don't find many deals dropping it under a 100 clams. The Zire can be had as low as $75 and is often packaged with a decent deal... often with a $25 rebate from the store you purchased it at. The fact that the Zire is under $100 and sells usually at a price significantly lower than that have contributed to its huge success. The fact that it is easily found at stores like Target also gave it a big boost. What the Zire represents is an easy and cheap way to experience the benefits of having a PDA... if you don't like the Zire and Palm OS experience, you didn't invest much to try it! It also serves as a launching board for adopters of the Zire who quickly will find its limitations to upgrade and spend ever more cash on a much more expensive unit like the Zire 71 unit... at least that is what Palm hopes that most of the Zire buyers will do.
Check my profile page for my other Palm reviews.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 75
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
yusakugo
|
 - Top 10 |
|
Member: Rich Go
Location: Somewhere in the NorthEast
Reviews written: 399
Trusted by: 497 members
About Me:
Losing Sleep and Lacking Time... sigh...
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.