BACKGROUND INFO ON ME:
Just to give a little background on how I got my Viewsonic... It was free... Since the company I work for has an MSDN subscription which comes with the Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 .Net software, I qualified to submit for a free Viewsonic PocketPC. After jumping through all their hoops Microsoft said they would send me my Pocket PC in 8-12 weeks... It actually took 25 weeks and I got my pocket pc... I really can't complain considering the best deal I have seen today (10/16/03) is for $329.99 at buy.com and I got this pocket pc for free.
I am not new to the PDA scene, I currently own a Palm VII Wireless Access PDA and a Palm V. I have to say that I love my new PocketPC a little more than my palms. Since I use MS Outlook at home and at work, it makes it really nice that I can sync all my calendar, emails, tasks, and addresses with my PocketPC. I do have to give Palm a thumbs up for making a very sturdy and durable PDA which Viewsonic can learn a little something from since this PocketPC is made of a soft plastic more on that a little later...
'+' Things I like, '-' Things I didn't like
THINGS WORTH MENTIONING:
'-' Memory
The claim that the device has 64MBs of RAM is definitely deceiving since only 36.45MBs is user accessible. What does this mean, well if you want to install some programs, view some pics and listen to MP3s you are definitely going to have to purchase a memory card. Then again this is a negative for just about all PocketPCs. When you compare the user accessible memory to the IPAQ h1935, you get 56MB user accessible memory, which is 19.55MB more memory at your disposal.
'-' Soft Plastic Casing
I was not impressed with the choice of plastic for the case. It is a really soft plastic that is easily scratched. My PocketPC fell off the coffee table at my house and hit the edge of a toy (~1 foot distance from end table to fireplace) with the case on. Thank goodness the leather case was on. The edge near the stylus ended up getting scratched. I have dropped my palm on the concrete before ~3 foot drop and it had a smaller scratch on it then my pocket pc.
'+' The V37 supports the SDIO Now! Technology, which allows both Secure Digital Memory and Secure Digital I/O support into a single subsystem. What does this mean in English? You can use both memory cards and Input/Output devices (Like a wireless card) in a single slot. It would be nice if they had some cards that supported both in one card, but I haven't heard of or seen anything like that.
'+' 2 Ways to Recharge Batteries I think they have this down pretty good. The power adapter plugs into the USB cradle near the USB connector. I would have preferred to have the adapter plug into the cradle directly, but that is not a big deal. The ViewSonic V37 supports a recharge via the cradle or plugging the power adapter straight into the PocketPC, bypassing the need to take your cradle with you everywhere.
'+' Sound
The sound on this little device is very impressive for a small single speaker. When I was showing off my PDA in my office, I was playing an MP3 at a little more than 3/4 full volume. A fellow employee 3 doors down heard some music playing and came over to find out what was going on. He thought I was playing some music on my PC and was impressed himself. The device also has a jack for some headphones. This definitely comes in handy for long trips like mine from New Orleans, LA to Santa Clara, CA. Don't know what I would have done with out my little device. The jack is in a pretty good position as well. I was able to plug in my headphones, slide the PPC back into the case and just slide it into my pocket. As an added little tip, I realized fairly quickly that once you start your music playing, it is a good idea to close the application as to prevent accidentally pausing your music by touching the screen. I also decided to turn off the backlighting to help conserve battery life.
'+' BATTERY LIFE
Since I flew to California and back, I really got to test the lifespan of my pocket pc. The battery with a full charge lasted over 5 hours with my playing MP3s constantly while playing the diamond mine game periodically. So I was really impressed with that.
'+' RECORDING ABILITY
The ability to function as a hand held recorder works a whole lot better than I expected. Here is the short version of what I did. I received an illegal campaign advertisement on my home answering machine during this past election. I thought this was a prime opportunity to test out the recording feature of my pocket pc. I played the message while holding the recorder button to capture all of the recording on my PPC. I then synched my PPC to my machine and emailed it to the fraud department of the election commission for the state of Louisiana. The next day there was a full article in the paper about the whole ordeal. The playback sounded pretty crisp for this type of device and the wave file that it produced was decent quality. I give a thumbs up on this performance.
CONCLUSION
Of course since I got this device for free, it is the best freebie I have ever gotten. I definitely have to give ViewSonic a 4 out of 5 star rating for this device. They did a great job on this device. Would I pay $329 for this device if I was shopping around. If I was looking for a one of the faster pocket PCs out there, $329 for a 400MHz pocket PC is actually a really good deal and I would consider this device. Even though there were a couple of things I didn't like about the v37, it wouldn't affect my buying decision much. One last comment I plan on spending $60-70 for a Sandisk 256MB card and ~$149 for a Socket SDIO 802.11b card (for their low power consumption ability). So this would probably make this the most expensive freebie I have received.
I have also included some specs and accessories below.
SPECS:
- XScale 400MHz processor
- OS=Pocket PC 2002 -> Pocket PC 2003 available at Viewsonic ~mid October
- Comes with Microsoft .NET Compact Framework tools
- lithium-ion battery
- 3.5" full-color transflective display
- 320x240 resolution
- 4 Programmable Buttons on Front Panel
- Included APPS: Pocket Outlook, Pocket Excel, Pocket Word, Pocket Internet Explorer, Pocket Media Player, Microsoft ActiveSync, AvantGo Sync Provider, Voice Recorder, Calculator, Solitaire and Microsoft .NET Compact Framework and Microsoft Reader
A thin, light powerful pocket PC 400MHz Intel Xscale processor Read and respond to e-mail while on the go Includes the Microsoft .NET Compact Framewor...More at Amazon Marketplace
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