If you asked me a year ago whether I thought a PDA was a necessity that justified an asking price ($400 ) I would have given you an emphatic “No!” Only seasoned professionals and gadget nuts carry these things, right? Well, after losing one too many Post-It notes, I finally succumbed to the idea that I needed one to keep track of my schedules.
There are a slew of choices out there. The two popular operating systems are the Palm OS and Pocket PC which is supported by Microsoft. While I like the functionality of the Pocket PC system, the PDA’s using it were nearly all too bulky and/or too expensive.
Since I don’t like to flash technology around like jewelry I was looking for something pocketable and unobtrusive. If it wasn’t easy to carry I would likely end up leaving it sitting on my desk which defeated the purpose of having it. And the highest price I was willing to pay was $300.
I quickly honed in on the $99 Palm Zire. But with only 2MB of memory and a tiny monochrome screen it quickly got lost in a sea of Sony CLIEs. The higher end Palm m500 and m515 also had my attention because of their clean design and ultra-slim size. The Sony CLIE PEGSJ30 had a beautiful high resolution color screen that quickly caught my eye. With the price drop, it cost $250. I put it on plastic and took it home.
Shortly thereafter I quickly discovered the shortcoming of the bright backlit high resolution screen. It drained the battery fast. And if the battery died, I lost all of my entries that weren’t backed-up to a PC.
Another annoyance, the CLIE did not come with Notepad. Notepad is a feature that allows a user to write a Post-It style note right on the screen. There exists software called BugMe! that can be downloaded onto the CLIE and mimics Notepad, but it costs $30. Add that Sony also neglected to include a HotSync cradle with the package and the $250 price no longer seemed very inexpensive.
The final straw occurred when I forgot to take a charger on my last out of town trip. I lost my entries after the battery died after about 2 ˝ hours of use.
When I exchanged the CLIE, I decided to again scrutinize the Palms. After seeing a color screen, I couldn’t go back to monochrome. Therefore the Palm m500 was cut. But during the time I was looking I found that the Palm m515 had a $50 rebate running and Circuit City had a $25 dollar rebate on it as well. That brought final price from $325 to $250. This was well within my price range and far lower than the $400 list price posted just a few weeks ago. And Palm includes a high quality combination charging stand/USB HotSync too which saved another $50.
The Palm was thin, measuring in at 0.5 inches. In fact, it is the thinnest color hand held out there. I also liked the durable gray metal exterior too. Add to it a sleek overall shape and the unit feels rugged and would never be left on my desk when I went out.
Beyond the appearance there are really some nice features too. There are two types of alarms. They can be activated together or separately. One is bright flashing green LED that is incorporated into the power button, and the other is quiet vibrating alarm. I use both of them. Sony’s CLIE SJ30 did not feature a vibrating alarm.
Another important feature was that the m515 keeps the data for up to a week after the battery died.
When compared to Sony, the only shortcoming of the m515 was the screen resolution. The Palm’s is 160 x 160 while Sony’s is twice that. But the Palm’s battery lasted considerably longer. And unlike the Sony, the Palm m515 screen could easily be read under normal lighting with the backlighting off. Both had even illumination and good color rendition.
Finally, the stylus on the Palm was better to the touch that was the CLIE’s.
Nearly all of the other specs are the same. Both have a 16 MB memory and expansion slots for memory cards. And both are based on a Palm 4.1 operating system and have processor speed of 33 MHz.
From a purely functional comparison, the Palm was the better choice for me. I travel quite a bit so Palms custom metal case accessory kept the overall package compact enough to fit in my back pocket. If, however, you share pictures and don’t plan to pocket your PDA, you might find the Sony CLIE or a Pocket PC more your flavor.
Palm organization and style at an affordable price Easy to learn and use--even if you've never used a handheld before Mini-USB connector allows easy t...More at Amazon Marketplace
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