PalmOne Zire 71 Handheld by Palm
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Digital camera reviews of PalmOne Zire 71 Handheld
Digital camera Review: A great PDA with lots of features!
Summary: 5 Stars
I got the Palm Zire 71 after my almost 3 year old Handspring Visor stopped hotsyncing. I had bought the 3 year extended warranty from Best Buy. After putting it off for a few months i went in with 14 days till my warranty expired. They just let me pick out any unit... Needless to say the Zire has a lot more features. The display is the best on the market. It looks much sharper than the clie models at Best Buy. I also got a 128mb card at compusa... so the 16mb was not a big deal. I have found the camera to be a fun little extra. Sure you are not going to use it as your primary camera but it is a nice extra that i feel take pretty good pictures. The graffiti 2 does take a little while getting used to. I also agree with the other reviewers on the stainless steel case. It is very hard to hold onto. I am going to order the leather flap case on the palm website asap. Positive: Great display
Fast processor
Fun camera
MP3 player
Joy stick controller
Long battery life
Great value - compare features/specs to other models
Negatives: Case is very hard to hold onto but looks good
Original graffiti users have to learn graffiti 2
Have to buy external memory do download MP3s, (i do
know if this is b/c of the Zire of realplayer)
Overall this is a great unit. Previous PDA owners will love this as an upgrade and new PDA buyers I feel will find it exceeds all their expectations.
Digital camera Review: AWESOME!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the best products Palm has ever put out there. There are only a couple of drawbacks; it has no bluetooth or
wi-fi(there are cards you can buy for that purpose, but then that means that the programs that you wan to use with it have to be on your palm's internal memory), no video camera, and if you need to use the screen at full brightness it won't last very long. Other then those few things it is awesome! you can play music, take quick snapshots, play games(there are a lot of good freebies), etc....
Digital camera Review: After 6 years I finally traded up.
Summary: 5 Stars
That's right. I've had my trusty Palm Pro for over 6 years now and I've been looking for a new one recently. This PDA is simplicity redefined. The Zire 71 is fairly lightweight -would prefer PDA without camera to save wieght- has a compact design and is very intuitive. Thankfully, it doesn't have bluetooth since it would only add cost and add minimal functionality. The display is the first and only color screen that I actually love (past ones were unclear gimicks at best). It feels solid in your hand, exceptionally clear and is very stable in practice - never crashed. I chose this over the Clie PEG TG50 and happy for it. Palm's are meant to be functinally sound, cleanly designed and rock solid. Hopefully, next time Palm will make a better fit from PDA to the cradle. Would also love to have smaller, lighter zire 71 by nixing the camera.Digital camera Review: All hail King Zire!
Summary: 5 Stars
There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe how good this Palm Zire 71 really is. It has a gorgeous, bright, crisp screen. It's fast. It has a built in camera. It's fast. It's running Palm 5 software. It's fast. It has a 144 MHz ARM processor. Have I mentioned it's fast?I cannot believe the difference in speed between the Palm M515 and the Zire 71. It's like hopping out of a Pinto and into a Corvette. The performance is really that different. It's the difference between "Oh, yes!" and "OH, HELL YES!"
Pictures cannot do the display justice, but the display does do the pictures you take with it justice. Don't let anyone kid you, this will not take the place of your digital camera - what? Are you kidding me? It's 640 X 480 for crying out loud! But it is perfect for those "need-a-quick-and-dirty-snapshot" situations. And if you do as I did and slap a 256MB SD card in the expansion slot, you will have room for about 4,000 pictures!
In short, this is one incredible long, hard, going-way-back home run for Palm. Now if only ALL the Palms could be this good. I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to buy this Zire 71, but with two caveats :
1. Don't even think about buying it WITHOUT ADDING MEMORY! Get at least a 64 MB card, and if you drop a 256 MB card in like I did, you will be in heaven.
2. DO NOT buy the Palm essentials kit for the Zire/Zire 71. The case that comes with the Zire is better than the one in the essentials kit. Also, you get three not-for-the-Zire 71 stylii, and three FOR the Zire 71 in the package. What's up with that? They do the same thing with the screen protectors - 2 for the M100, 2 for the Zire 71. What the hell were they thinking? Why not just give me 4 screen protectors for the Zire 71, and 6 stylii for the Zire 71? It's a no brainer - just separtate the products into separate packaging! DUH!!
Recap - Buy the Zire 71. Buy extra SD card memory. DO NOT BUY the Essentials kit.
'Nuff said.
Digital camera Review: Amazing PDA worth a lot more than $300
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this just over a month ago, skeptical of the features because of the low price for what this PDA says it offers. Nonetheless, I was still excited when it arrived in the mail. It was amazing. Only a few minor issues but not anything significant that would make me lower the rating.Camera:
The camera takes good quality pictures but a zoom feature would have been nice. Also, The shutter speed is noticably slower then a normal digital camera and it takes a few seconds to focus. This would be a big camera issue but it takes great pictures and the only other PDA with cameras on the market cost somewhere in the range of $600.
Mp3 Player:
Although Palm advertises this feature heavily, you never know that you need to buy an expansion card to listen to Mp3's until you open up the box. The Mp3 player works well once you buy the expansion card. I would have dropped my rating except for the fact that the Mp3 player works very well once you buy the expansion card (Which costs an extra $30-$70). Mp3's don't work because there isn't enough room to store them on your Zire 71's built-in memory.
Company Helpfullness:
Although I didn't make it affect my rating this aggravated me beyond belief. The instruction manual basically tells you how to plug the USB Cradle in and then transforms into a self-advertisement. Their troubleshooting website is useless, and there tech support number isn't even toll free. It's like they're trying bother me.
Storage Capacity:
The Zire 71 only has 13.6 Megabytes of usable space. Palm really should have included more. Luckily, you can get a 64 Megabyte expansion card for $30. You don't really need to buy it unless you plan on taking 200+ photos, listening to Mp3's, or loading your PDA with games and software.
Overall Value:
An High-level PDA at Mid-Level Price, you should defitely consider purchasing this. This would have been a 5-star rating if not for the fact that the Zire 71 doesn't work with alot of old software, which makes upgrading from an old palm and trying to keep the software you bought or dowloaded impossible in many cases. This PDA has amazing graphics, the most advanced Palm OS made to this date(OS 5.21), a digital camera, an improved version of graffiti, and a convincing price. I cannot see any reason not to get this wonderful device.