Palm Zire 71
The Zire 71's integrated camera makes it an interesting option.The Zire 71 is Palm's second outing under the Zire branding; the initial Zire PDA was Palm's cheapest, although annoyingly the Australian price wasn't reflective of the US price, and if you could forgo the warranty, savings could be made by simply importing a Zire. The Zire 71 expands on the basic Zire concept and shows the consumer direction that Palm is taking the Zire branding in; conversely the Tungsten brand is moving heavily into the corporate space.
The Zire 71 boasts a Texas Instruments OMAP310 144MHz processor, 16MB of onboard memory and the ability to pump that up via an SD card slot on the top left side of the PDA. 16MB isn't titchy by Palm terms, but for a PDA with multimedia leanings -- including MP3 playback and digital camera functionality -- it feels a little light. Indeed, you can't use the MP3 playback option without an SD card, a failing shared with many of Sony's CLIE handhelds.
Physically the Zire 71 has an acceptable TFT screen with the usual Graffiti area beneath; the unit itself uses the slightly redesigned Graffiti 2 software. It's acceptably small at 114 x 74 x 170 mm and at 150gm leans towards the lighter side of the PDA units in our roundup. It's the only unit in our roundup not to feature a five-way directional pad for navigation; instead the Zire boasts a tiny embedded joystick that takes some getting used to. Anyone planning on using the Zire's multimedia muscle to play games could find it useful, however.
|
PDAs
Introduction 1. Dell Axim X5 2. HP iPAQ h1910 3. HP iPAQ h5450 4. Palm Tungsten C 5. Palm Zire 71 6. Sony CLIE PEG-SJ22 7. Sony CLIE PEG-TG50 8. Toshiba e350 9. Toshiba e750 Editor's choice |
The Zire 71's digital photography muscle isn't that great, however; you're limited to shots of 640x480 (VGA) quality, and without a flash shots can tend towards the murky. The included photo software with the Zire can be used to brighten up shots, but it's a false illumination, and not always applicable to every shot. If you only want photos to display on your Palm and perhaps your website it's an acceptable option.
One thing we're not terribly keen on is the Zire 71's included cradle; for some reason Palm has designed it to sit on a 5mm sliver of plastic that juts out from the base of the cradle itself. This makes the Zire look as though it's teetering on the cradle, rather than slotting into it as is the case with every other PDA in our roundup.
The Zire 71 makes a good case for itself against Sony's comparable CLIE models; it's certainly more compelling than the Sony CLIE PEG-SJ22G from a features standpoint, although it is more expensive. Compared against the current crop of mid-price Pocket PC devices, especially the Axim, it's a tougher recommendation, depending on where you sit on the Palm OS/Pocket PC fence.
Palm Zire 71
Company: Palm Australia
Price: AU$599
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 302 959
3%
2%
I am interested only in limited features in a PDA like the Phonebook, Birthday or Anniversary date storages etc. etc.
So which pDA do you recommend me to have that should have some high Battery backup and long-life warranty?