Cons: Needs An Enhanced, Brighter Color Screen Without Sacrificing Battery Life
The Bottom Line: State of the art. The only "fault" I can really find is the brightness of the screen and I suspect that was a tradeoff for longer battery life.
Through retail sources I’ve had the opportunity to use the new Palm m500 and m505 the past couple of weeks in advance of general distribution. The m505 is scheduled for retail sale starting in May while the Palm m500 is on a slightly earlier schedule on the latest reports.
I saw an interview with the President of Palm on one of the cable networks. The reporter stated that Palm was merely keeping up with Handspring. He suggested that Palm’s new m505 and m500 were simply responding to Handspring’s Springboard expansion capabilities with their new Expansion Card Slot. Palm’s president, without saying so, was a little indignant on two fronts. First, others keep up with Palm, not vice versa. Second, the Palm Expansion card slot is superior in its innovative technology and is better geared for future PDA needs than is Handspring. He was right and I’ll get into more of that shortly.
What the Palm m505 is not. As noted above it is not simply a response to the Handspring expansion capabilities. It is not just a Palm Vx with an Expansion Card Slot and it is not just an excuse or gimmicky reason to add another model to an already crowded field of PDAs of all makes. It IS the new state of the art benchmark. If you can do it with a PDA you’d be hard pressed to find something the Palm m505 can’t do. Additionally the new technology assures that it will remain capable of keeping up with the best for at least several years.
The first and best thing Palm did with the models was to keep the look of their top of the line V and Vx. This is the best looking PDA on the market. Why mess with the success of its world class looks. When I recently reviewed the new Handspring Visor Edge one of the few shortcomings I noted (in my opinion) was that although it was indeed slim, it just didn’t have the looks of the Palm V and Vx.
Not noticeable to the eye but the specs indicate that the Palm m series is a little smaller. Just based on how it looked in my hand, the differences in size and weight as compared to the V and Vx are insignificant.
One of the difficulties of building models with color screens is that color eats battery power at a faster clip than monochrome screens. I’m writing this from the perspective of a hardcore PDA user. I’m not going to quote hundred of specs which can be found on the Palm website in a more convenient format than I can do here. I say this because the 16-bit color screen on the Palm m505 is not nearly as bright as on the Compaq iPaq or the Visor Prism. Palm may brag about 65,000 colors but it’s obvious that they limited power to the screen to save on battery power.
The color is good and certainly satisfactory and maybe if I hadn’t seen every PDA out there I would have been less bothered. If color is important to you I suggest that you see a working display model before purchasing one of these in order to avoid possible disappointment. Don’t get me wrong – the color screen is fine, it’s just not the best. Palm obviously decided to sacrifice a state of the art screen for longer battery life. Not a bad thing – just be aware of it and check it out for yourself before you buy. If you’re fussy about having a knock your socks off bright screen, don’t buy this blind over the Internet. Wait until you can see a working model in a retail location.
Me? I’m not a big color fan so the m505 more than meets my needs. That and the fact that the m505 is priced only $50.00 more than the m500 monochrome model. Color can sometimes be an option costing $200+. The upgrade to color here at only $50 is maybe Palm’s way of silently acknowledging that this is not the best screen out there so they only ask for a small price differential. I’m surmising here but I’ll bet I’m not far from the truth.
The battery life was certainly impressive for a color unit because I couldn’t wear down the rechargeable battery easily between trips to the cradle. The only way I did it was by using a hack called Always On which gives you more options as to how long the unit stays on until it turns off automatically. One option keeps it on continuously. (I highly recommend that you routinely avoid much more than a 10-minute inactivity period before shutdown.)
While I’m wishing, how about allowing the m505 to stand up like am easel so I can view the screen when speaking at a meeting for notes or to use the clock etc.
Improved security options are part of the new package and long overdue. The thought of losing my Palm with basically my life stored inside something smaller than a pack of cigarettes is quite scary.
Palm has belatedly recognized the USB port. Better late than never. Hot Synchs went much faster than with my old Palm IIIxe – no surprise here.
Upgraded Palm 4.0 OS software is utilized. The intent is to allow more efficient navigation. I guess it will but like with any software change I found myself saying, “where is such and such” and “why did they change this and that.” I tried to look at it like a first time user and came to the conclusion that it indeed is cleaner and better. It just takes a little getting used to for users of earlier versions.
New software includes Palm MultiMail which, with the new Mobile Connectivity software allows me access to my Earthlink email . You have to connect via a modem, of course. This I did not have available to me but will be available through Novatel Wireless, Inc. I will update this review after I’ve had an opportunity to test drive the wireless capabilities. There will also be available an attachment to connect to your cell phone. I will try this when it’s available as well.
Also included (finally!) is Documents To Go allowing for viewing and editing of Excel and Word documents. I paid $40 to download this as an option on my Palm IIIxe but it’s included with the Palm m505. While I don’t want to spend a lot of time editing documents on a small screen, the ability to download and view documents from your desktop is invaluable.
My second favorite new software application is Palm Reader. I downloaded books quickly and easily. I tried a number of after market applications on my IIIxe and none worked as well as this.
Another app is AvantGo, a free download anyway but conveniently included here. It’s the best reason to always make sure to but a PDA with 8 MB of memory. I update 18 web sites content daily and it eats up over 1/3 of my memory.
On my desktop I have MGI PhotoSuite and included here is the Mobile Edition. Color definitely shines here. I downloaded more than 20 photos and impressed a number of people with an impromptu slideshow. You can even download short movie clips which makes the most use of the faster processor.
The big news, of course is the Expansion Card slot using new technology. No, it’s not compatible with the Handspring Springboard modules which is the bad news. Might not it have been better for Palm to duplicate or license the technology from Handspring like Handspring did with the Palm OS? Obviously Palm feels their technology is better.
In the short run there will be few software and storage cards to choose from. But you saw how many companies came along to add modules, games, cameras etc. for the Handspring. Palm is still the market leader and I would imagine that as this is written there is a rather phenomenal array of software and hardware being designed for the new Palm Secure Digital (SD) card. One thing I appreciate is being able to backup my data on a storage card. I feel more secure knowing I have a card holding my data which is independent of any computer.
The biggest advantage to the SD is the rapid data transfer rate (very noticeable), security features and reduced size. We’ll have to rely on Palm’s reputation to see what comes down the Pike in available options. I’m not worried.
If you balked at the price of a Palm Vx, you win! Now you get far more and color to boot with the Palm m505. In the world of PDAs, waiting seldom is penalized as enhanced models keep coming down the road faster than ever.
Built-in 8 MB memory stores thousands of contacts, appointments, to-do items, and notes Displays over 65,000 colors--view photos, video clips, and mor...More at Amazon Marketplace
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