Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 1

I am aching to buy a PDA, but am agonizing over which one to buy. I have some technical comments and questions on the three listed above. Can anyone help me out?

What I Want- Email Access (option to use wireless preferably), Enough memory to use almost whatever non-game program I would like (databases, text input/editing, standard everyday type stuff), Expandability.

Visor- $250, 8 meg RAM, Great Company (I'm not concerned about the shipping problem since many of the comments on these boards suggest the QAQC on the product itself is very good), Great Expansion Options (Springboard).
Question- Is it worth it or necessary to have the option to upgrade the OS in Flash ROM? I've read it can be upgraded in RAM, and I really don't understand how this works. Also, can you run programs out of Flash RAM on a Springboard? What is the case like- is it a flip case like the PalmIIIx?
General Impression- The product seems awesome overall, I'm sure many 3rd parties will jump on the Springboard Development bandwagon, I'm just concerned that if new versions of Palm OS come out, that I won't be able to use them.

TRGPro-$329, 8 meg RAM, Great Company with proven track record in Palm hardware, Supposed Great Expansion, Can Use all of Palm 3rd Party Accesories.
Question- Will the CF expansion port be as useful as the Spring Board?
General Impression- Looks like a potential combination of the good features of the Palm IIIx (Flash ROM) and the Visor (External Expansion Slot). Is it worth $80 more than the Visor, though?

PalmIIIX-$209, 4 meg RAM, Great Company, Average Expansion Possibilities, Great Current 3rd Party Accesories
Question- Does it give enough bang for the buck?
Overall Impression- My current favorite, since it is the cheapest and I'm new to PDA's.

Any advice/ direction would be appreciated!

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Lincoln, NE
Posts: 56

My Advice,

If you are willing to wait 3-4 months and have some cash to spend I would wait for color palm devices to come out. They should be comming out sometime in first half of next year for sure, and I would bet we will see them sooner. However, I would expect to spend AT LEAST $400 for any of these devices. They will be not much more functionally useful than current models except for the color. If you need a PDA soon next 1-2 months, I would go with a visor. The Visor Dlx and Palm Vx will be the major players for the next 3-4 months until color arrives. With the Vx being ~$200 more than Visor, the visor definately wins. The TRGPro looks promising, but it is aimed at volume sales to corporations, so you may not expect to see it available to consumer for quite some time. This combined with the fact that unless they are on top of things they will almost definately have the same problems that Handspring is currently fixing. (The reason I say this, is b/c up until recently Palm has had similar problems also. It has only really been in the last year that palm has gotten their CS and Tech support issues ironed out-they weren't quite as severe as HS's but they were there). I personally am using my Visor Dlx to tie me over until color units come down to a reasonable price which I do not expect to happen for at least 1-1.5 years! The Palm IIIx will not doubtly be discontinued soon and replaced with a model with a CF or a Springboard slot once IIIx inventory is reduced.

Just my opinion so I hope it helps

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Urbana, Ohio U.S.
Posts: 33

Agree with the aforementioned other than the fact that Palm Vx's are now available for about $120 more than a Visor Deluxe. This price difference will only continue to drop. If HS doesn't hurry up with my order I will cancel and buy a Vx.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: College Station, TX
Posts: 143

One should compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges...i.e. if you are considering ordering now, compare what is available now to what is available now from TRG (nada) and Palm (some nice, if pricy b&w units). On these counts, I'd go with HS if you can tolerate the shipping delays (I think these are getting fixed, but it certainly is not as fast as going to a store and walking out with a Palm) or with a Palm.

If you can wait 3-4 months, then don't worry about it now at all, and reevaluate the rumors then. If the color units are out, then we'll know more then about price, battery life etc. If not, then you have to think about how long you're willing to wait for color.

My $.02: when my upgraded Palm Pro died, I was willing to wait 4-6 weeks for a Visor. During those 4-6 weeks, I had a lot of second thoughts and came close to buying a Palm. My visor came this week and I'm very happy with it. I don't expect it will be my PDA for life; I am guessing that I will make do with B&W until the Visor dies - by that time I expect that color and built-in wireless internet connection of some kind will probably be the industry standard. I'll wait until then to see how the CF vs springboard battle turns out. In the meantime, the Visor provides the functionality I need better than the Palm (but I don't use it for email)

If email is the deciding factor, then maybe Palm is better, since the modems are available NOW. The HS modem springboard is listed as 4-6 weeks on their web site, but I haven't seen reviews or anything about the real availability. The 3rd party modems still seem to be vaporware as far as I can tell.