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Handspring Visor Deluxe owners? What leather case do you recommend? Neoprene cases any good?

RossMAN

Grand Nagus
Handspring Visor Deluxe owners please share your rants and raves in this thread. I might be buying two of these for $159 each (after rebate) tonight and want to be prepared. Thank you!

My sister wants to buy a Palm OS PDA and has asked for my suggestions on which model/price to go for.

I have always loved the Palm Vx but that's out of her $150 price range and doesn't offer as much as the Handspring Visor Deluxe.

Is there any reason why she should NOT buy the Handspring Visor Deluxe? She does not need nor want a color PDA.

My two concerns about the Handspring Visor Deluxe are:
1) Does it come with rechargeable batteries or take alkalines? How often do alkalines last?
2) I have heard about the OS not being flash upgradable or something like that?

After price match, coupon and rebate you could buy the Handspring Visor Deluxe for $135, not a bad deal. I decided against price matching for now and will just buy from Staples for $249 - $40 off $200 coupon - $50 rebate - free shipping = $159.

3/8 Update: Is this Slim Leather Case compatible with the Handspring Visor Deluxe Ice?. Staples.com has this for $25 and Best Buy stores sell this for $30.

Also what do you guys know about those colorful neoprene cases? How durable are they?
 
The deluxe is not flash upgradeable(no Handsprings are), nor does it have a built in battery. The only grayscale with that is a Palm V series PDA; everything else is color.
 
Thanks ViRGE, I have always loved the Palm Vx. Since her budget is around $150 you cannot beat what you get with the Handspring Visor Deluxe.
 
Just be sure to overclock the little ah heck(defaults to 16mhz).🙂
 
Just get good nihm rechargables for the thing.. don't get energizer, those have the lowest power ratings😛 panasonic/sanyo are ok
 
Ehh, PalmOS PDAs have been known to act oddly with rechargables not bult in.:Q
 
Just get good nihm rechargables for the thing.. don't get energizer, those have the lowest power ratings panasonic/sanyo are ok

Then what brand do you recommend?

How long do 2 AA alkalines last with moderate 30-60 minutes per day use?
 
well i said sanyo and panasonic,.. just read the power ratings on the side.. i'm sure someone else will come up with another brand. just stay away from energizer. as for life.. don't worry about it.. its enuph for sure. just buy 2, keep 2 on charge at all times
 
I have a Visor Deluxe and I have no complaints. I think you'll be very happy with it. The only benefit it really has over the Palm is the expansion slot on the back although I have never really seen anything worth spending my money on yet.
 
What about the backlight? I've heard that the Handspring backlight's really suck compared to Palm's backlight. I bought a Visor for my mom, and I can definitely attest to that. You can barely tell the backlight is on, it would only help in utter darkness. My old Palm III backlight was a ton better.

--Ben
 
The new Handsprings charges the batteries while its in the cradle. Might want to check that out. I have the Deluxe and love it.
 
Nicad rechargeable batteries run at 1.25V and not 1.5V like alkaline. If you are going to get rechargeables for your palm, recommend the Royovac rechargeable alkalines, or any alkaline rechargeable for that matter.
 
I've had my Visor Deluxe for about a month now. I use it daily, and I'm still on the original batteries. They are about half used up.

Oh, btw... I love my PDA.
 
I bought my Visor Dlx the first day they were ever available.. DIdn't get it till 2 months later, but that's an old legend now 🙂

So I've had it well over a year and love it. Sure I've done a good job wiping it out by using nimh batteries and NOT replacing them when they were dead (since nimh lose their charge more rapidly than alkalines, when they die, they pretty much DIE).

Other than that, it's great.
 
I use Rayovac Renewal Rechargeable's since I got mine, and I've never had a problem... battery life is about 1-2 months with these, depending on the usage. I wouldn't recommend anything else. As for flash ugradability, no Visors are cabable of it. However, you supposedly can just grab OS patches and install, but it you ever hard reset, you'd have to reinstall the patches.

Russell "Mr.Bios" Sampson
 
I was using Renewals with my Palm IIIxe and they would only last a week at best. I do use the PDA a lot, about 1 1/2 hours a day of AvantGo/gaming on the train in the morning.

I switched to regular Duracel alkalines two weeks ago and my battery gauge is still 90% full after two weeks of use! Considering I got a 16 pack of Duracels at Home Depot for like $8, it's well worth it. At this rate the pack will last me until the end of the year.
 
Is this Slim Leather Case compatible with the Handspring Visor Deluxe Ice?

Staples.com has this for $25 and Best Buy stores sell this for $30.

Also what do you guys know about those colorful neoprene cases? How durable are they?
 
your best bet is to first get a new stylus from PDA Panache, Handsprings have rather delicate screens esp when compaired to Palm V and Vx, the new stylus is only like $14, I got one and I love it, I still however have not gotten a case but if I were to now the only one that I would get is from a company called Vaja you can see alot of cases at

direct case

another good visor site is

visor central


a note about the visor

had mine for about a year and I love it, I support palm units all day long at work and the only palm that I like compaired to the visor is the Vx, I work with IIIx's, IIIc's XE's, V's, Vx's, and VII's and none of them have the same appeal to me as the visor, but the Vx is small, more durable and cool looking.

I am thinking of getting one assigned to me as my beater🙂

good luck in your choice
 
bozack - Thanks for the great post, and suggestions. I used to own a Palm Vx but sold it because I barely used it after the first month novelty wore off. My sister's jaw dropped when she saw a Palm Vx at Best Buy but then she saw the $399 price tag. It's worth every penny but you simply cannot beat the price/performance for a $135 Handspring Visor Deluxe.

Do you know where they might sell PDA Panache stylus's online for a decent price?

Also do you think this Slim Leather Case will fit the Handspring Visor Deluxe?

Thanks again.
 
Rossman - I've had my VDX for about a week now and was on a case hunt also, I decided to go with the Handspring Neoprene Case mainly since I'm a student and need the protection. The leather case that you linked will protect the screen but leave the sides open to damage. If you drop your VDX in that case it WILL break. As for the Panache stylus - I ordered mine from Amazon (they have Crome or standard black) Every thread I've read on styluses has recommended this one.

Good luck

Spoon
 
That picture of the case, has a Visor Deluxe in it. And since it's a "Handspring Slim Leather Case", I would say that the Deluxe should fit just fine.

I purchased a DayPlanner, that has a pocket for a PDA in it. I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but it really serves it's purpose for me. And since it costs around $30 also, you may want to look into one. Or maybe not. 😉
 
Ross, Visorcentral has a link to who sells the PDA panache stylus, I think when I bought it I got it directly from visorcentral and like I said it was 14 shipped.

Yes that slim leather case will fit the VDX but be forewarned those cases are known to crack the backs of the Visors, this is because of the way the Visor mounts in the case, you can read all about it at visorcentral.

good luck
 
Hmmn so far it sounds like the Neoprene case is the better buy, I wonder where I can get it for cheaper than Best Buy's $25?

Does anyone here own the Slim Leather Case and actually like it?
 
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