Slots of fun!
Written: Apr 21 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Features, springboard slot, memory, price, options
Cons: Size, screen, springboard slot, battery life
The Bottom Line: Affordable, easy to use, easy to get, easy to accessorize, the Deluxe is still the benchmark Visor.
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| bobhob's Full Review: Handspring Visor Deluxe Handheld |
The Handspring line of PDA's jumped on the market over a year ago. As a charter bandwagoner, I have a lot of hindsight now, as I look back on my past usage of the Visor Deluxe and the associated Springboard Modules.
The Visor comes in five models, with the opportunity to show the user's style with each but the most basic.
The Visor is the base model at $149. It comes in one color, Palm gray, with 2 MegaBytes of RAM.
The Deluxe is now a lower end model at $199.00. It comes in five colors, with 8MB RAM. At the intro, when I made my leap into the handheld market, the Deluxe was the top of the line.
The Platinum is the middle of the road guy at $299.00. It is 50% faster than the deluxe, and also has 8MB RAM. It comes in one color - platinum.
The Prism is the color model. It costs 449.00. It also has 8MB RAM, and comes in several colors.
Finally, the new kid on the block is the Edge. At 399.00, it is ultra thin (for Handspring), comes in three colors, and is faster than the Deluxe.
All of the above models are set apart from other PDA's by the Springboard expansion slot. Palm has always had the ability to link optional devices to your PDA through the use of the HotSync connection on the bottom of the device. Handspring took it one step further, by building a slot on the back for it's modules. This offered two big leaps over the Palm way of thinking.
One, the software and drivers are all contained on the Springboard module. If you put in the GPS module, you had no additional loading you HAD to do. You could download other maps, but the software is all self contained. Pop in the MP3 player, and all the songs are carried there. No need to take up valuable storage space on your PDA.
Two, the separate slot allows for multiple connections. With a Palm, if you clip on a Magellan GPS receiver, you can only use the GPS. With the separate slot on Visors, you can still attach a keyboard and type while playing some tunes on your MP3 player.
The Visor also operates on the industry standard Palm OS. There are literally thousands of programs available across the web for download for free or a small cost to add to your Visor, turning it into a powerful mortgage calculator or a handy gameboy.
The expansion slot has allowed many different developers to come out with a large variety of modules. You can use the GPS, the MP3, the memory expander, the memory backup, the golf game, the digital camera, and so on. There are currently (4/21) over 40 expansion modules available at www.handspring.com available now, and you can find many used modules and Visors at www.ebay.com.
The bad is really bad though. The expansion slot. WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT?!?! How can the slot be the good and the bad, you say? Like this. There are over 40 available now, but this is many months after 100's were promised at the launch, and in tech time, months can be decades.
Also, the modules themselves are prohibitively expensive. A GPS receiver (I keep coming back to this, because it is what sold me on the Visor in November of 1999) costs a minimum of $149. A Magellan stand alone can be had for only $119. "Well", you may say, "that is only $30.00, don't be such a cheapskate, just fork it over." Principle, my friend, principle. The GPS receiver is just that - a receiver. There are no buttons, there is no screen. Why would I pay nearly half again as much for half the product? I find, in my own little kingdom, that I can't do it. I can't pay that much more for that much less.
At the release of the Visor line, 100's of modules were promised at affordable prices. Now, a phone module is $299, if you activate with Cingular Wireless, $499 if you don't. I paid $199 for an outstandingly reviewed Nokia 8260 (insert shameless review plug here). Again, the VisorPhone needs no buttons, no screen. Why so much more for a phone that can ONLY be used with one provider? Until the availability of modules increases greatly, and the price plummets to a more reasonable level, you can't base your purchase solely on the expansion slot, as I did almost two years ago.
Finally, as a PDA, the Visor is good. It has a slightly sub-par screen that scratches easily, but is crisp and clear. The cases and colors are cool, though the Deluxe is a bit thick. Availability is much better, as the Handspring line is now sold in stores such as Office Max and Comp USA, as opposed to solely online at Handspring.com.
The Visor is very easy to use. My dad just got one for his birthday/father's day/Christmas, and he picked it right up, entering appointments and phone numbers with ease. "Eh", you say, "a Neanderthal can use a Palm". Truth, truth, but my dad still doesn't understand those crazy Neanderthals with their long hair and their fancy tools. Give him a stick any day.
The PDA market is crowded, and getting more so all the time. If your looking, consider the Visor. The modules have to come down in price soon, they are very affordable for the price/memory combination, and once you've gone PDA, you can't go back.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 249.00
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Epinions.com ID:
bobhob
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Member: Bob Hobbemeister
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 2 members
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