Handspring or Palm, which should I get???

[tinneric]

Work is buying me a new PDA, budget allows for a Handspring Deluxe or a Palm. Which should I get?

Budget is in the $250 range.

If Palm, which model??

 

[DefRef]

If your budgeted at ~$250, go with the Handspring. It comes with a speedy USB cradle, spiffy colors and the Springboard feature is cool if you want to get add-ons, like a GPS. (Wish I had that on my trip a couple of months ago.)

 

[Czar]

if you want looks go with palm v.. if anything else then handspring

 

Get a Palm IIIxe. Visor is ok but the OS is not upgradable, the case is made of cheap plastic and IMHO the SpringBoard feature is useless.

 

[DABANSHEE]

Psion's are the go, especially if you touch type

 

[bcterps]

Well for the price the Palm IIIxe is a pretty good value. I really like the Handspring Visors except for one major flaw. The BACKLIGHT on them totally sucks! Palm's is infinitely better. If you are gonna use the backlight a lot, dont even bother with the Visor, stick with Palm.

--Ben

 

[NFS4]

Handspring Platinum would be my choice.

 

benchiu: Really? I have never seen the Visor backlight but I cannot think of anything worse than the Palm's backlight. I think it's totally useless, unless you set it on "inverse mode." Even then it sucks hardcore.

 

[DonaldDuck82]

handspring

 

My God, did NFS4 just recommend that someone buy a PDA that is not an iPaq? Who hacked his account?

 

[blurredvision]

I have no experience with Handsprings, and only have the Palm VII. I know this is more than likely out of the price range, but with the issue of the backlight, it's pretty sweet. The backlight is very good quality.

 

[bcterps]

Yeah I just bought my mom a Visor, and the backlight totally sucks. When you turn it on, you can barely even tell its working! You have to go into a totally dark room just to see if it is on. My old Palm III backlight was amazing compared to the Visor's backlight. I know a lot of people have complained about it, a few Visor owners say that their backlight works well, but it is a pretty common thing to have a sucky backlight.

--Ben

 

[BoberFett]

I have a Visor platinum, and it's working pretty well for me. Yes, the backlight is worthless, but I haven't found that a problem since I don't use it anyway. Using the backlight on a PDA will suck the battery dry before you know it, so I avoid it. I get the feeling they might have designed the Visor backlight to use less power, but in the process made it uselss. Oh well.

As for good things, the USB cradle is nice instead of the serial Palm cradle. I also like the Springboard option. I may never use it, but it's nice to have the capability. A GPS module is pretty tempting.

After looking at both, I'd say there's very little difference between Palm and Visor, give or take a couple points on each side. The USB cradle and Springboard are what tilted it to the Visor for me.

 

[Napalm381]

The backlight on my dad's Palm V and my mom's Palm IIIxe are nothing to brag about either. Anyways it's a moot point for me, I don't use the backlight at all, sucks the battery like crazy as BoberFett said.

The USB cradle kicks ass, if you sync a lot of info frequently (AvantGo in my case), the higher speed is definitely worth it.

 

[Xzaver]

What about a soney clie?

~X~

BTW: I have an Ipaq I like my Palm Much better

 

[NFS4]

<< My God, did NFS4 just recommend that someone buy a PDA that is not an iPaq? Who hacked his account? >>


He asked for a Palm or Handspring so I gave my opinion. If he had mentioned PocketPC I would have recommened the iPAQ.

Unlike some other people that like to crash PocketPC threads with their Palm lovin' I at least try to &quot;keep it real&quot;

 

[tinneric]

Thanks for the advice, it seams that there are as many Handspring people here as Palm. The IPAQ and Sony's are nice, but well out of my the budget I am given. How about reliability, any thoughts here?

 

[Wingznut]

Besides, the iPAQ is double the &quot;budget&quot;.

Can you swing the extra $50 for the Visor Platinum?

Btw, Staples has the Visor Deluxe for $249 and the Platinum for $299 (same as everyone else)... But they do have a $40 coupon code floating around. Contact me, if interested in it.

 

[tinneric]

My boss made the decision for me, he went out and bought us all Palm IIIxe.