PalmOne m505 Color Handheld
by Palm
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Our Price: $444.57 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $29.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of PalmOne m505 Color Handheld
Customer Review: The best Color Palm PDA out in the Market!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
The best Palm PDA out in the market!! I been using this palm m505 for a month now and its great, I use it to organize my busy life. Good battery life and color is great outdoors!First of all, This is a palm organizer its not a Pocket PC, The main propose is to help organize yourself not to browse internet- if I wanted to browse the internet, I would do it on a desktop [....] Also since Pocket PC uses Windows the Crash rate is much higher than the Palm OS.
Secondly, people are complaining about the USB having problems, I did experience this problem at first but I was able to figure out what the problem was. The problem was 1) This depends on your Motherboard USB- Generic board usually have problems transmitting information (if you have problems you can always go to serial connection) 2) The Version of OS -I'm using Windows 2000 and it's working great!!!
Lastly, People are complaining about the Screen being dark compared to other PDA's. Palm M505 used front lighting technology where else other PDA use backlighting technology. It has the ability to view the screen in a wider variety of lighting conditions (indoors as well as in bright sunlight). Other Color PDA such as Sony and handspring uses backlight technology where the light shines from back of the screen, so it acts like a flashlight. The advantage for this technology is it looks good indoors but once you go out in the bright sun- Ouch!! Can't see anything-turns pitch black. Whereas, the Palm M505 uses the front light technology so you can see the color magnificently in the bright sun.
Palm used this technology because it offers the broadest range of readability and brightness in addition to maximizing battery life. (Since it's uses the Sunlight to display color it doesn't need internal light source thus it prolongs battery life)
Also to mention, the battery life on M505 is really great, it last on the average of 3 weeks to 4 weeks. Try this on the Sony Clie 760-with MP3 it only last an hour SAD!!! Pocket PC also don't last that long also. Its kind of hassle to charge your PDA every night like a Cell phone, if you're always on the run.
Customer Review: I've Seen The Light - It's the Palm m505! Read On
Summary: 5 Stars
A few have complained that the color on this model Palm is dim. I can tell you that mine is not dim at all. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at how bright it is both with the backlight off and with it on! Mine was made in the USA, and I understand that some may be made in another country. Perhaps the ones not made in the USA are dimmer? Or perhaps only the first run older ones had that problem and it has since been fixed. These are just guesses since mine is absolutely not dim at all! I have owned several Palms previously; III, IIIx, IIIxe, and V. The m505 is by far my favorite Palm so far!
The color screen is wonderful. It makes the unit much more user friendly and easier to read overall. It's quite easy to read with the backlight off under normal lighting conditions such as under a desk lamp or in a meeting room, etc. When the need arises, you can turn on the backlight (such as in a very dark room like in bed at night or when you just want the screen to look really bright). Under both circumstances, the screen looks wonderful and is quite readable. The color makes it more fun to use and I've downloaded some shareware games to play for the true arcade experience, in a palm size!
The m505 is blazing fast! It's noticeably faster than any of my previous Palms! It also comes with the latest Palm OS 4.0 verison. It's also very quiet. I was expecting the color screen to buzz but I can hardly hear anything at all with the backlight on and off!
I would recommend this model because it's one of the smallest Palms available (which means you will conveniently carry it with you everywhere) and it's got color, which is a great asset since most software applications nowadays are optimized for color. I do not miss my greyscale non color Palms at all!
If you are concerned that the screen might be a bit dim like other reviewers have reported, I suggest either buying locally so you can see the actual unit you are getting, or purchasing from a vendor that will let you return it.
All I need now is a wireless modem setup and I'll be doing full color web-browsing and emailing from my Palm! You gotta love it!
Customer Review: One Awesome Piece of Technology
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this Palm. Its sleek, fast, beautiful, feels solid and is simple to use.This is my third PDA and my second Palm. I had a Palm Pilot Professional then switched to a Compaq Aero Windows CE Palm PC with a beautiful color screen. But the batteries only lasted between 2 and 3 hours on a charge. Setup, synchronization and installing software was much more complicated than with the Palm. And it was bulky. So I decided to switch back to Palm and got the m505.
After a week of use, I'm extremely happy with my Palm. I think the screen is fantastic. I can use my Palm under any lighting conditions, which is a real plus. Of course you should be able to use a PDA anywhere, but that's not always the case. It is with my m505. I downloaded "glowhack" so that the backlight is on by default (an option the Palm folks should provide--and make the default for shipped units), and I only turn it off if I'm outside in bright light.
The batteries seem to last forever compared with my Compaq. My kids will play games on it for hours on end (with the backlight on), and it'll still have half a charge left. And then it charges up very quickly.
The main functions of the Palm, the calendar, address book, to-do list and memo-pad are very simple and quick to use even if you need to do something a little odd like add an appointment for every third Tuesday of the month. That's another reason I came back to Palm.
The extra software included is very useful and cool. You can put Microsoft Office documents, video clips and pictures very easily on your Palm. You can even run a slide-show showing off your pictures. I didn't use to carry pictures of my kids, but now I do.
The only downside is the stylus is a little too hard to get out of its slot. I'm told that it'll "loosen up" over time, so I hope it does. But it seems like a manufacturing flaw to me. I expect later units will be better in this regard.
Overall, I love this Palm. With its combination of size, speed, style, great battery life with quick charge, use-anywhere screen and Palm simplicity, the m505 is a real winner.
Customer Review: Cool, very cool.
Summary: 4 Stars
The new Palm m505 is awesome. What you get is basicly the same Palm Vx with color. THe only difference between them, as far as dimensions, is that the new 505 weights .9 oz. more.The Plus: Color, color, and yes, color. millions of them... The new Palm Os 4.0 has little added to it including a new keyboard layout and support for USB syncs among the more notable. The two included CDs are packed with features, do make sure and explore them! These apps include a very good picture viewer, an SMS sender (check for compatible GMS phones), an e-book reader (go to peanutpress.com for more details) among others. The IR file transfer works like a charm (I am downloading some e-books as I write this.) The shortcut buttons are now recessed, so they won't become damaged like in the V series when pressed with the leather cover. Finally, design is very nice.
The minus: Does not come with a memory card despite its price. The screen is stiffer to write on. You'll use the backlit feature almost 90% of the time, since the normal setting is way to dim. The sync cable is not removable from the craddle, forcing you to buy a separate sync cable, AND POWER CABLE, when on the road. Some stylus will not work with the new m505 and therefore some expasion gadgets... The multimedia card expansion slot does not work with compact flash cards, absurd! They force you buy from them but don't... look for Kingston cards at half the price! And finally, the screen is 160x160 pixels... why they did not go for the 320x320 screen like the new clie from Sony is debatable.
In conclusion: The new Palm is a evolutionay step up from the Palm Vx, and that is perfectly fine by me. I was more interested in the new color Clie from Sony, specially due to the higher screen resolution, but it seems to be bigger than the Palm and it weights 1.5 oz more than the Palm Vx, a turn down for me. The way I look at it, if you want multimedia and sound in your hand, get a watchman or an MP3 player! Palms are for getting organized, and the m505 solves that just fine.
Customer Review: My Palm m505 expierence
Summary: 5 Stars
Bright I used to have a Windows CE device, the Nokia 9110 palmtop/mobile phone and still have a Palm IIIc. I read a lot of bad things about the M505 color display. After using it very often in the last couple of weeks (car travel, planes, office, etc.) I can't believe that people say the display is a problem. This is far better then my PIIIc. For sure the contrast on the display are less impressive (you getting used to it) but it works in all light conditions. I only use the backlight in about 10% of the time. Sometimes you have to swivel the Palm screen towards a light source to read the display correctly without the backlight (it saves battery).. Outside, this display is incredible clear, with my PIIIc I always had to increase the intensity of the screen to see something.
It is also much faster then the PIIIc, this M505 is really fast. The software included with it is really cool, easy to use Excel and Word document reader. Ebook, Photosuite software to name a few.
Because of the negative commands on this site on the M505 I almost bought a M500. Lucky I didn't do because I heard now that the M500 is slower (It has the same processor but the screen updates slower).
Compared to the PIIIc, I would say the M505 is:
- Smaller with less weight. (it fits in my wallet).
- Faster.
- More software.
- Integrated SD slot is really useful, I never thought it would be (8Mbyte RAM with a few family pictures is could becoming a problem).
- Better display ( better in both very dark and bright light situations). Even in this small size, the battery get me running for longer then 10 hours, thanks to Color LCD technology Palm is using (simular to the PIIIc).
- Now I can write on my palm in complete darkness also because now my Silkscreen lights up.
- This unit is ready for the bluetooth wireless technology, which will be available from Palm at the end of the year.
- Faster USB hotsync transfer. (only important for Aventgo website syncing I found).