I bought my PalmIIIc at Best Buy after owning a Palm Professional 100. After selling my Palm 100 I realized that I kind of miss using it. So I went out pricing new palms once again. The 3c was at one time very high in cost, around $499 I do believe. But now it's down to $329, and maybe even lower now, so I went with this one. I looked at the Handsprings, but the screen seemed kind of cheap, and the OS is not upgradable, not to mention programs are modules purchased. A palm is just one of those things you don't realize you need until you own one and use it. Then after that, your lost without it, I've had mine for around six months now.
OUT OF THE BOX:
The Palm out of the box doesn't come with much except the Palm, a lithium battery inside, a power craddle, and a hard plastic screen cover. I had to purchase a carrying case for it that was $30 which seemed to be the standard.
INSTALLATION:
To connect this to your computer is pretty much a no brainer if your familiar with computers, and have an open serial port. That is one of the down falls, it's a serial port rather than a USB connection, but that's okay, I had plenty free. Connected to the serial cord is also a power cord which is what recharges the Palm's lithium battery. The software installs easily, and the only problem here maybe that it always has your hotlink loaded in the windows tray. So not to use up needless memory on your PC, you may want to turn it off until needed.
USABILITY:
At work holding a friends Palm 3 grayscale to mine was night and day. The screen is just so much easier to read than those gray scale screens. However, it is not readable in the daylight at all, I'm mean even on a gloomy low light day. The newer M505's work well for outdoors, but they aren't as bright at the 3c's in a dark room. Much of the usablity will be in the software you purchase for your PalmIIIc, and I try to get color with is easily found now. Myself, I like Action Names that's a combo scheduler and address book. I've purchased most my software from Handango.com, it's much cheaper than buying it retail in a box. But the 3c is very usable over any gray scale palmtop. It does lack modem support for the internet though. I'm really not into Palmtop games, but they sure are more fun to play in color. And your icons are much easier to view. I wouldn't really recommend using it as an Ebook yet, it's still somewhat uncomfortable on the eyes if your reading it for long periods. However, my eyes are adjusting to it and I like to read Advantgo on it at night while in bed. Also, it's fun to beam things to other palmtops. With it's beam, you can transfer files or entire programs easily to another palmtop that supports beam. It has a hardy 8 megs of memory, so you have lots of room for programs. My pictures take up the most room it seems.
CONCLUSION:
You may think you don't need a Palmtop Computer. But not unlike the computer your reading this review on right now, after using it, you wonder how you got through life without it. The Palm IIIc does everything it's advertised to do, and does it well. If your looking to break into the world of color, but don't want to break your account, get the Palm IIIc. I give it 5 out of 5 stars because I really enjoy this colorful little Palmtop!
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