This sleeker, lighter Visor gives the Palm V series some stiff competition. With the same innards and display as the Visor Platinum and support for existing Springboard modules, it's fast and flexible. We only wish it used flash memory for OS upgrades.
The continued success of Apple has demonstrated that in the PC industry form is as important as function. That seems to be the impetus behind the latest addition to Handspring's Visor product line, the Visor Edge. A thinner and lighter PDA in a sleek metallic case, the Visor Edge bears a striking resemblance to the Apple PowerBook G4 Titanium and is designed to compete directly with the popular Palm V series.
Available in three colours (silver, blue, and red), the Visor Edge has a matching metal flip lid. Both the lid's hinge and the metal stylus are mounted on the outside of the case to give it an industrial look and reduce the overall size. The result is a Visor that is about half the thickness and a 14 grams lighter than the original Visor design (shared by the Visor Deluxe and Visor Platinum), although it is still slightly larger and heavier than the Palm Vx.
The key difference between the Visor Edge and the Palm V series is that Handspring has managed to preserve the Visor's Springboard expansion platform, albeit in a slightly different form. In place of the standard Springboard slot, it has an edge connector (called--pun intended, we're sure--the Edge connector) and includes a Springboard adapter. To attach a module, you insert it into the adapter and then slide the whole thing over the back of the device in a manner similar to one of the Expansion Packs for a Compaq iPaq Pocket PC. Although the connector itself is different physically from the original design, it supports all the same features as the Springboard slot. This, combined with the fact that there are already 40 Springboard modules available, gives Handspring an advantage over Palm devices when it comes to expandability.
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