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: A major disappointment, even though it was a gift!
Summary: 2 Stars
I received my m505 as a birthday gift, replacing my broken but beloved Palm IIIx, so I hate to criticize something that was free. However, I am mad that a loved one paid more ... for this gift. I realized what a disappointment the device was before I even did my first HotSync. The cheap stylus, which is hard to remove from the handheld and has no weight for writing, was the first tip-off.
It seems like a small thing, but the stylus is the primary tool for using the handheld, so it really makes a difference. I hurt my fingers trying to get it out of the side slot and it hasn't gotten any easier to remove with time. Also, my old styluses, which are much nicer, don't fit into the side slot so I can't use them unless I carry them around somewhere else.
And what use will I ever have for an expansion slot? The cards seem like a useless gimmick to me, with the possible exception of using a card to back up files when away from your desktop. For me, that's hardly ever.
I also don't need more space. Even as a busy journalist with lots of notes and records, I haven't used half of what is available. Moreover: Don't need more games. Very few U.S. cities are available on the travel card.
In a way, I wish Palm or some other company would give us something worthwhile in the way of card programs. But isn't the idea of carrying a Palm to streamline and get away from carrying extra things, like expansion cards?
Unlike some other reviewers, I am fairly pleased with the monitor, which is a major improvement from my prior Palm. I also like the quickness of the computer. I like the notepad program, too, but I noticed it doesn't work with as much accuracy as it could.
However, none of these positives outweighs the negatives and the high prices of these new Palms. I'm sure a lot of people will soon agree and make plans to jump to a better product.
Customer Review: Big disappointment
Summary: 2 Stars
This is the fifth palm I've owned in about as many years - I'm an early adopter and want the newest of everything as soon as it comes out. I'm contemplating some Windows CE device now. I like to show my new toys off, I'll keep this one hidden.Complaints: 1. Screen is too dark for color to be of much use. You need to use the backlight, can't adjust the contrast. Without backlight, screen brightness is about the same as my old Palm Vx, UNDER DARKEST CONTRAST.
2. The left side slot running down the entire handheld is a different shape/smaller than the Palm III and Vx. That means, if you are upgrading, that none of your Palm Vx covers/cases will work with the m500 series - even though they are the same size. To me, this seems an intentional move by Palm to make me purchase an entire set of new accessories.
3. The Power Charger/Hot Sync cable interfaces at the bottom of the device are completely different also. If you have a Travel Charger and/or HotSync Cable for the Vx, it too is not compatible with the m500 series. Once again, Palm is just forcing you to purchase an entire new set of accessories.
I am very disappointed and feel like Palm is taking advantage of me as a loyal customer of each product they have launched so far. The screen is a disappointment, but more disappointing is the fact that they have designed the m500 series to force me to purchase a new case, a new travel kit (which apparently won't even ship for another month), and heaven forbid I should try and hook up something like an OmniSky modem made for the Vx series.
I'm the COO of a technology company and can see no technical reason why Palm couldn't have made this backward compatable with Palm Vx accessories. The left side cover/case attachment slot is only a matter of shaping the plastic for compatability for goodness sake. Shame on you Palm.
Customer Review: Power in a tiny package
Summary: 4 Stars
The m505 is probably the convergence point for Palm OS systems -- less powerful than the biggest Visors, but sporting an excellent colour display, certainly enough oomph to get the job done, and the new features of Palm OS 4. While still dreadfully anaemic when held against the comparatively gargantuan CPUs and screens of the Pocket PCs, you still get one of the fastest Palms available, a pocket handheld that really can fit in a pocket (try that with an iPaq), the elegance of the Palm OS (versus how difficult Windows CE can be to figure out and operate), excellent colour with a well-designed backlight, and USB connectivity for under $500. Works great with Windows and Macintosh alike.The only major sour notes here are battery life and the Secure Digital card slot. Battery life, while acceptable for day to day use, demands that it charge just about every couple of days or you'll be looking at a low battery indicator faster than you think. This is somewhat inconvenient at best for road trips, and of course the worst culprit for battery drain is that unfortunately beautiful backlight. Second, the Secure Digital card is a good idea crippled by poor execution. Many applications don't know how to access their databases on the card, and some applications when transferred to the card will run dramatically slower. As a memory expansion option, it's mediocre at best: if memory is a big deal to you, look for a Palm that can utilise Compact Flash memory cards (this one carries 8 megabytes -- good but many reference works loaded on your m505 will eat this up). Fortunately, this setup does work well for ROM cards, and so the expansion slot isn't really wasted.
These complaints aside, this is an excellent value and well-worth your consideration. If you're looking for the sweet spot in handhelds between price and features, look no further.
Customer Review: m505 color issues
Summary: 2 Stars
There's so much ado about the colors on m505's screen that it's hard to not get confused. The commonest complaint is about the colors being dull. However, those who complain do omit an important detail: The screen is obviously designed for improved visibility, not for bright colors per se. Unlit, screen does have a metallic sheen which makes its white to be silvery-gray - no problem perceiving it as white after ten minutes spent getting used to it. Lit, it is comparable to other TFT screens. But the point is, it does not *require* a backlight to be seen as the bright and vivid alternatives. Under poor lighting, it is still readable without a backlight, only dulling the colors somewhat. In bright sun - where no backlight would save a standard TFT screen - it is readable. Note also that people complain that backlight is battery gulper... but most other TFT screens can't be viewed without a backlight at all! Now for another matter altogether. The pixels of m505's screen are rather big, and the screen background is black. This means that there's a discernible dark grid on screen, which may interfere with reading in some people (including myself). I traced the effect down to a point, and I believe it occurs if you are very nearsighted and have to wear glasses even while reading, especially when your glasses have different compensation on the right and left eye. The effect manifestates as an unpleasant "moire"illusion. This is something to be aware of, and I advise to take a look at a "live" m505 first if you are in doubt. You might want to stick to the grayscale m500 instead, which is more suited for reading texts off screen than the color unit. Otherwise, the PDA is an exemplary piece of design, introducing no bells and whistles but bringing the standard to top quality execution.Customer Review: Great Product If It Lasted More Than 6 Months
Summary: 2 Stars
A copy of this letter was sent to Palm Inc.I have owned 2 Palm handheld units in the past 3 years. The first was a IIIxe and it performed great until I dropped it 2 years later. The second unit, a M505 that I purchased May of 2001, is as of December 2001 dead. I find this to be completely unacceptable. I paid... for a second PDA instead of buying a Handspring, which was cheaper, because I trusted the Palm name and because of the positive experience I had with my first unit.
My current palm died on me after 6 months and it took an entire month to get someone to successfully assist me with the problem. The problem was that the unit just stopped hot syncing one day. There was no damage to the unit it just wouldn't sync. I tried everything and it still wouldn't work. I was not informed until today that the entire line of M505's were defective - usually there is a recall on defective products to maintain company dignity. Of course as it appears Palm has no dignity because as I have been told this has happened to numerous consumers and all of them were given refurbished rather than new replacements. As a consumer I am truly disappointed in the customer service I have received from Palm Inc. The chat support is ineffective, the email support is better but response time is ridiculously long and still does not resolve anything.
I am not happy to complain about a product that I have been unable to live without for the last 3 years, but now being forced to replace my Palm with a refurbished one, it has hit me that a PDA is only as good as the service guarantee behind it. Going forward I will not recommend Palm products to family and friends as I have been doing up until now. I do not wish this type of disservice on anyone and I definitely don't want to personally deal with it again.