Palm Zire 71 Handheld

PDAs are really useful items, and each year they become better and better. A lot of my friends and I have become hooked on this marvelous technology, and I have had a chance to use many models. One particular Palm that I liked after using it was the Palm Zire 71. I own a Palm m130 , and I thought that it was the best bang for the buck. Suffice to say, after viewing the Zire 71, I could not believe how this thing could have so many great features for only $299.

The Zire 71 is a work of art. The front is a sky light-blue color, and this color is extremely attractive. The back is a nice metallic grey, thus making the Zire 71 one of the sleekest gadgets on the market. Its exact dimensions are 2.8 by 4.5 by 0.7 inches, which is on par with the other PDAs. The weight is 5.3 ounces, so you can feel it in your pocket, but it isn't too heavy.

The top of the front has the Zire 71 and Palm logos. The bottom of the front has five buttons. Four of the buttons are the Date Book, Address Book, Photos and Note Pad buttons, allowing you to access these applications quickly. The Zire 71 has a five way directional pad, instead of two buttons used for scrolling on most other models. You can scroll up, down, right and left with this button, making it feel like a joystick. If the Palm device is off, by pressing on this pad the clock will be shown. This directional pad is much more useful and easier to get used to than the two buttons found on the Palm m130. The top of the Palm has the power button, the infrared port, a headphone jack and an expansion card slot. Most of the other Palm devices have the slot on the side, so Palm Inc. decided to create a new button lay-out for the Zire 71. The back of this Palm has small speakers, which is something that the Palm m130 lacked severely. The bottom of the Zire 71 has the universal connector slot, which is used for connecting the PDA to another devices, such as a charging cradle or an external keyboard. There is a stylus hole on the top, and the stylus is taken out from the back.

The Palm Zire 71 runs on a Texas Instruments OMAP310 144 MHz processor. My m130 runs on a 33 MHz processor, and let me tell you, the difference is day and night. Every application is opened up much quicker than it does on my Palm, every task is done quicker. The speed difference is clearly noticeable. The Zire 71 comes with 16 megabytes of RAM, and 4 megabytes of ROM. The actual amount of RAM that you can use is 13 megabytes, so I recommend buying an expansion card. Thirteen megabytes is better than eight, but you will probably need much more memory. The operating system is Palm OS 5.2.1. This OS supports more programs than the Palm OS 4.1 that is found on most other Palms. With Palm OS 5.2.1, all of the programs seem to be better. The Zire 71 is the cheapest Palm with an operating system of OS 5.2.1. The screen is a TFT active matrix, and the resolution is 320 x 320. It is a 16-bit system, and supports 64,000 colors. All of the pictures are very sharp and clear, and everything just looks better on this screen. Another noticeable difference is that this screen does not look worse when you are outside. With the m130, the screen would get much darker and it was hard to see. Overall, this screen is very nice and a major improvement.

The Palm Zire 71 features a built-in digital camera. The camera slides out, by pulling up from the bottom. Out comes a lens and shutter on the top. To take a picture, just aim, and you will see the image on the screen. If you like what you see, press the black button that slides out, and voila, it is saved. It is really easy and user friendly. This camera is perfect for quick pictures, although it is nowhere near a decent digital camera. I'd say that the pictures are decent, but they can get pixilated and a tad blurry. If you enlarge them, they look like a mess. But then again, I didn't expect great pictures from a PDA, it is just an extra feature.

The other great feature is the MP3 support. My Palm m130 doesn't have an actual speaker, and can only play horrible digitized cell-phone sounds and tunes. With the Zire 71, you can actually upload real MP3 and listen to your favorite songs. However, to listen to MP3s, it is necessary to have an expansion card. First of all, MP3 files are large (around three megabytes), so the larger the memory card, the better. I say that you should go for 128 or 256 megabytes. Another thing is, although the songs sound okay with the speakers, if you get some headphones, the quality of the sound will actually be near a CD player. The MP3 playback feature is great, but don't expect to carry more than a couple of dozen songs with you, as an MP3, MiniDisk or CD player will be a better option.

The battery is a rechargeable lithium polymer battery. The battery is charged with a provided power cable that can be connected to a cradle. The battery recharges very quickly, but the battery life is still similar to most other Palms. You get about five hours of battery life with everything on and vigorous typing or gameplay. If you are listening to music, you can turn the screen off, and get nearly ten hours of continuos music.

The Zire 71 also comes with a few other accessories. You get one stylus along with a nice case. The case is small and protects the Palm, but won't fit in your pocket. If you use the belt-clip, it looks and feels a bit peculiar. You also get a lot of software. There are a lot of nice programs thrown in, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader (for viewing PDF files), PowerOne Calculator (an advanced calculator), Solitaire, Expense, Palm Reader (for ebooks) and Palm Photos (instead of Photosuite). The other classic programs such as Note Pad, To Do List, Address Book, World Clock, Date Book and others are all here too. Audible Player, for listening to audio books is a new program. You even get RealOne Player for listening to music and Kinoma Player for viewing videos, and this software is excellent. Movies look nice on the Zire 71, and with the provided stereo audio, viewing small files is just like watching television. I am not sure, but if you purchase a memory card with more than 512 megs, you might even be able to view entire show episodes or even movies.

I'd like to note that the Graffiti function, which is used to input text has been updated for this Palm, and now most letters are created with not one, but two strokes. This is very user friendly and much easier to use. I believe that it is called Graffiti 2, and is much easier to use. Letters are still written on the left side of the graffiti pad and numbers on the right. The home, special, search and menu icons are located on both sides of the graffiti pad. The m130 has a calculator icon instead of the special icon, which has a star on it.

Overall, the Palm Zire 71 is an awesome PDA. For the mere price of $299, you get a device packed with awesome features. Having a digital camera, MP3 player, great screen and a rechargeable battery is what a high-end PDA is all about, and I think that this is the best deal out there. I would pick this over any other PDA, and highly recommend it.