PalmOne Zire 71 Handheld by Palm
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Our Price: $359.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $35.00 (click here) Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of PalmOne Zire 71 Handheld
Digital camera Review: An amazing handheld at a great price
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using handhelds/PDAs for many years, and I've been a Palm OS user for the last 3 years. When my aging Handspring Visor recently started giving me troubles, I began to casually look around for a decent upgrade. A review of the Zire 71 in MacAddict caught my eye, and a couple of days later I went and bought one. To say the least, I am very satisfied with this purchase.The Zire 71 has a beautiful display, which is very crisp and vibrant indoors. The color is a bit washed out when outdoors in bright sunlight, but it is still quite usable. Multimedia playback works nicely on the Zire, although movies don't play quite as smoothly as I would like. The need to purchase a memory card just to store MP3s is also a bit of a bummer. But then again, the device only comes with 16MB of RAM as it is, so you'd probably end up buying a memory card at some point anyway.
The Zire 71's camera takes good pictures, and is very handy for those moments when you don't have a regular camera with you. Granted, the photos are 640x480, there's no flash, no zoom, etc. This is obviously not going to replace a dedicated digital or film camera for serious picture taking. But sometimes you spontaneously need to take a picture or two, and if you carry your handheld with you everywhere (as I do), the Zire's built in camera will no doubt prove useful.
My only real complaint about the Zire is the little navigational stick. I like the stick itself, but the fact that pressing it turns on the handheld (to display the time) is troublesome. The included case is a tight fit, and it would always press the nav stick when I was putting the Zire inside. The last thing I need to worry about is bumping the stick while the handheld is in my pocket, and thus wasting battery power. Fortunately, there is a solution: a program called "Disable Buttons" that lets you disable the physical buttons when the handheld is off. You can disable the various buttons (date book, contacts, etc) or just the navigation stick if you want. Search for it on Google or PalmGear.com (it's freeware).
To sum up: The Zire 71 is a very capable little machine. It's certainly enough to organize the contacts and data in your life, and the multimedia capabilities are a nice touch. Definitely a worthy successor to my ol' Visor. Highly recommended.
Digital camera Review: An excellent upgrade!
Summary: 5 Stars
My girlfriend gave me a Zire 71 as an anniversary present (she had bought hers and mine toghether, but gave me mine 3 weeks after she started using hers!) and I haven't put it down since!.The sleek look of its case is a welcome change after my graphite colored Handspring Visor the blue-and-silver finish is very nice looking, however, it IS rather slippery so you have to be careful while handling it. I actually take this as a plus, because so far I've broken 3 Palm screens (once on my Visor, and Twice on an older Palm III) and this one is forcing me to treat it more carefully.
The added camera is a nice little gadget, but is no competition to a DEDICATED digital camera. It is quite good for the occasional snapshot or semi-candid pictures (the shutter is a bit slow)
Besides that, it is an excellent gadget, the screen is bright, colorful and beautiful. All the built-in functions work just fine, upgrade wasn't a hassle (provided you follow the recomendations on Palm's website) and the extra software is nice.
Having a copy of Documents to go would be nice, but the whole package is nice as-is.
I also bought a Simpletech 128 MB SD Card for my Zire and cannot imagine uing my palm without it! I would really recommend getting some type of expansion card with yours. MP3s , movies, and being able to cvarry massive amounts of information (e-books, videos, music, even more programs, etc.)
Another down side is something I found out later with the card, Zire 71s have a problem with certain types of SD Cards, but thankfully Palm came up with a patch available on their support site which solved my problem.
Digital camera Review: Bad Luck To Some!
Summary: 5 Stars
I think that for the features you get with the Zire 71 it is an excellent product. Camera, PDA, MP-3, audio books, games, books etc.(...) The Zire 71 is light-years ahead of my old 130.
The only drawback are problems with RealPlayer Plus and downloading music. Their security codes tend to make the system crash alot.
As far as the negative comments- I have no problem with XP, syncing or any other problems associated with the negative reviews.
If you are looking for a PDA with more bang for your buck you can't beat the Zire 71.
Digital camera Review: Battery is replaceable
Summary: 4 Stars
The battery of Zire 71 is actually replaceable. The replacement batteries can be purchased from third party on-line stores, not from Palm.Digital camera Review: Best PDA ever for the price...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best PDA in the market -- quality/price wise that is. It has a digital camera that works excellently -- well, of course, you should not expect cyrstal-clear 1200X1200 resolution pictures from it! It is a PDA, not a digital camera! Also, if you purchase a SD Memory Card along with your Zire71 you will not only be to store more pictures, data, etc. in for your Zire but also listen to music: MP3s to be more precise! Frankly, if you are a first-time PDA user, Zire71 has everything for you -- even more than you are probably expecting...I say go ahead and buy it!