Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 5

Let's say for a second that price is not an issue...which would be better to get: a Visor Deluxe or a Palm Vx?

Is there anything that the Visor has that the Palm doesn't? Is there anything that the Palm has that the Visor doesn't?

Ok, now let's consider price...if I can get the Palm for a discount, it would still be about $100 more than the Visor. Is this worth it for the smaller size? Again, are there any outstanding features that are on the Palm that aren't on the Visor? Would it just be a waste of money to get the Palm?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Norfolk, MA 02056
Posts: 2

there is one small advantage, its called the spring board. If you will never want to expand it, get the Palm Vx, at least there wont be any cracks to worry about.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Cedar Knolls, NJ
Posts: 38

Or , you could deep-six the Palm Vx and the Visor and get a 8mb TRGpro with a compact flash slot for $330.00



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Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 5

I have been contemplating the same problem and have made a list of issues that I want to look at. These might help you in your decisions.

Right off the bat, Visor has the Sprinboard that no other Palm PDA has (although TRG has a CF slot). This is the main reason to get the Visor. Ofcourse if you are not going to upgrade or get the Six-pack or other cool little "mini-gadgets", then the Springboard is pretty useless. Although CF is an industry standard, there seems to be a lot more development being done for the Springboard. The CF has mainly memory modules, you can check their website for a list of compatible CF cards.

Now onto the other specs:

Size and Look: The Vx is small sleek. Both the TRG and Vsior are more like the Palm IIIx. If looks matter then Palm Vx is the best looking.

OS: All of them run on the Palm OS but the Palm Vx is the only one that can be upgraded. The Visor cannot be flash upgraded to a newer Palm OS. TRGPro has flash memory plus a CF expansion slot.

CPU: Palm Vx has a new DragonballEZ Processor at 20 MHz. THis is the fastest one of the three. BOth the Visor and the TRGPro have the same processor running at 16 MHz. I don't know what the speed difference 'really' is.

Screen: All three handhelds have the same (or very similar) screens. Backlit grayscale 160 x 160 pixels.

Battery: Palm Vx has a recahrgeable Lithium Ion battery whereas the other two run on standard AAA batteries. THe advantage of the lithium ion is that you never (theoretically) need to change the battery but if you are on the road a lot, then you might be stuck unless you have a rapid charger of some sort (these are easily avalaible). For the other two, if your batteries are running low, you can stop buy a gas station and buy a couple of batteries.

Price: MSRP for the products is as follows: TRGPro $330, Visor Deluxe $249.99 and Palm Vx 449.99 (although you can find it for about $350)

Memory: Visor = 8MB RAM, Vx = 8MB and Flash, TRGPro = 8MB RAM and 2MB Flash

Weight: Palm Vx = 4 oz. Handspring Visor = 5.4 oz. TRGPro = 6.0 oz.

HotSync cradle: The Visor is the only one with a USB cradle standard (you have to buy a serial one extra is you don't have a USB port or if your OS doesn't support it). The other two come with a serial cradle but you can get a USB connector for the Palm Vx.

These are the main points that I think are important. One other thing that I like about the Palm Vx is the hard case although you can get hard cases from Rhino for all the PDAs.

I hope this helps. I still haven't made up my mind on which one I want but this is a good starting point.

If anyone has any comments, suggestion, corrections, they are very welcome.

Thanks
Shamir

[This message has been edited by Baap (edited 12-15-1999).]

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 40

Baap,
I think you have covered the important points. A few things that I would like to add are:
The Screen of the Visor is a bit rough and the sometimes the screens is a bit tilted. The Vx dosen't have this problem, I don't know about the TRGpro.
The Visor stylus is not upto the standard of the Vx.
Another interesting factor is that, though the Vx has a 20Mz processor, the Visor and the TRGpro perform better than the Vx (check it out at http://www.trgpro.com/product/faq_trgpro.html)

VisorHead

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 434

Eug's assessment. Flame suit on.

Palm Vx - sexiest by far. Enough so that if it were a bit cheaper I might have gone with the Vx over the other two if it were $175 cheaper. The Visor and TRGPro look like outdated crap in comparison. It's like comparing a Buick to a Porsche Boxster. The former is probably more functional, but people still love to buy the latter anyway.

Visor Deluxe - most potential with its springboard. The lack of flash IS a significant drawback though. In truth, springboard modules are still vapourware. The backup module option is very nice though.

TRGPro - good idea but it just seems to have no momentum. People don't get excited about it. Plus the CF slot is not plug and play, and the PDA isn't that cheap. (I'd be happy with one though I'm sure.)

Overall, I think probably the best idea would have been something that accepts CF? However, I ordered a Visor. (Maybe someone will invent a CF slot springboard?)

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 5

I agree with VisorHead that the stylus on the Visor (from what I have read) is not that solid and doesn't even have a reset pin. Although this is pretty easy to fix with lots of third party options for styli.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Baltimore MD, USA
Posts: 717

Baap said:

quote:

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OS: All of them run on the Palm OS but the Palm Vx is the only one that can be upgraded. The Visor cannot be flash upgraded to a newer Palm OS. TRGPro has flash memory plus a CF expansion slot.

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

Baap,

As I recall, when the Visors first started showing up, someone here ran some benchmarks to see how the processor performance compared. HS tweaked the OS (or something) to accelerate the Dragonball by removing wait-states...I'm non-techie enough that I have to admit that this is mostly my recollection of what others said more than an actual understanding of what was done...in any case, I think the Visor clocked faster on some benchmarks than the some Palm model, but I don't recall how it compared with the Vx. Maybe someone else can chime in here.

Also, it's clear that although lots of stuff still works, there are more software compatibility issues with the Visor than the Palm. My sense is that most of the VC crowd, including me, is more likely to punt the offending app than blame HS, but it is still a real difference. I'm assuming that similar issues will arise with the TRG.

Finally, for the novice users, the Visor has a better calendar and calculator out of the box. I realize that the sophisticated user (i.e. just about anyone who has found VC) will just replace things with stuff from palmgear, but a lot of the people I know with Palms have never installed any apps at all.