pixelator
Member
Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 46 |
I had to chime in, since I just bought a Prism from CompUSA 4 days ago. I've been to several in the Bay Area and I have to say that most of them do staff people who are less than educated on the items they sell.
One guy I ran into at the Marin outlet was so rabidly CE-oriented that he actually told a guy asking about OmniSky that it wasn't ever coming out (even though it was in beta at the time). He was incredibly rude to the guy, but he was nice to me since I'd recently picked up a Casio and we were discussing PPC's. He was also VERY well informed about CE devices and PDA's in general - he just had too much attitude.
In Emeryville, they're hopeless. They know zilch about their PDA's, never have anything in stock and their demos are thrashed. Don't even think you're going to get any info on these things there. One guy didn't even believe there was such a thing as a IIIc when I asked about them a few months ago.
Anyway, I sold my IIIc and got a Prism. I'm the kind of guy who has to have the shiniest thing and this was definitely shiny. It's by far the most powerful and feature-laden PalmOS device made... But it's also now the most expensive. My own personal feeling is the Prism should've been $400 at release and then dropped to $350 after a few months. Despite the faster CPU, Springboard and 16-bit color, it's still just a souped-up IIIc.
The display is almost identical unless you're looking at 16-bit pictures. The IIIc does have an almost imperceptibly brighter display. The IIIc is also considerably thinner, although it's longer. In a PDA, I think thin is better than short, but it's up to the individual.
Visually, the opaque cobalt case of the Prism is an unfortunate necessity. The light generated by the flourescent backlight would probably shine through the translucent cases of the other Visor models, so Handspring went with a new color - this metallic purply blue "cobalt." It's OK, but I'd have preferred a selection between this, Graphite and the Platinum's silver. The IIIc seems more sleek and cuts a lower profile.
Performance wise, the Prism walks all over the IIIc. It's visibly faster (even though it can't benefit from many 'overclockers' like Afterburner because its native CPU clock speed is faster than their highest setting, so look for software like QuickBits). The pictures look better even when viewing 8-bit (256 color) pictures in Fireviewer beamed directly from my IIIc, probably due to the larger palette of colors available. 8-bit pics only use 256 colors but can maintain palette data of over 150,000. Subsequently, images reduced to 8-bit in a paint program like Photoshop and then converted with Fireconverter look a lot better on the Prism. The USB sync is also much faster than the antiquated serial method the Palm IIIc is limited to.
Specification-wise, the Prism loses a little ground. It still doesn't have FlashRAM so the OS is basically patchable only with RAM software add-ons rather than keeping it all in Flash. Palm users also can access roughly half a meg of their Flash for extra storage. I was also concerned that a patch update was already issued by Handspring to fix Graffiti recognition.
OS upgradeability wouldn't be a concern to me if PalmOS 4.0 wasn't looming later next year. It could bring significant improvements to the system that the Prism and other Visors couldn't take advantage of. I don't feel like robbing my device of another half meg of RAM for a full OS upgrade.
Still, what moved me to buy the Prism is that it provides a Springboard expansion slot and subsequent expandability that is far more difficult to attain (and slower through the serial port) on the Palm. It also introduces the DragonballVZ 33MHz CPU, which Palm originally promised would go into the IIIc (and should have).
Since I can't go back to B&W after having color and I was feeling a little stagnant with the 8MB IIIc and its 8-bit color, the Prism has allowed me to keep a PalmOS device around. I still use my Casio E-100 for higher-end graphics, MPEG/MP3 playback and a few really amazing games, but the larger hardware/software library and support base for Palm compatibles is just too good to ignore.
Overall, the Prism is a great expansion on the concept of the IIIc, but people looking into it should keep in mind that it is only that, not much more. For that, look for the next generation of PalmOS devices with 4.0 and hopefully a little more power and resolution.
b
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bill s.
lead artist, the 3do company
visor prism / casio e-100
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11-18-2000 12:56 AM
. Not a big enough advance in the feature set to pay $300 / $450. I think this round is just a 'Me Too' response from Handspring, instead of a 'I do twice as much as a Palm and still cost less', as it was with the Visor Deluxe.
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