PalmOne m505 Color Handheld
by Palm
|
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 |
|---|
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of PalmOne m505 Color Handheld
Customer Review: Vx vs. m505
Summary: 3 Stars
i'm a gadget geek. i'll admit it. so i jumped at the chance to upgrade my Vx to a 505. after three months of use, i'm really wishing i hadn't.1) the color screen. as so many others have noticed, it ain't that great on the m505 if you're not outside in bright light. palm has "fixed" that by offering a backlight utility ..., but the battery drain is a hassle -- especially because...
2) ...-poor planning on the peripherals. you still can't get a travel charger for the m50X series -- according to the website, they won't be shipped until august. not great, since the m50Xs have been on the market since what, may?
3) boneheaded decisions on peripherals. with the Vx, when you order the travel charger, you also get a travel cable for hotsyncing and plug adapters for other countries -- all for $.... with the m50X, the travel charger alone is $...; a cable is an additional $..., and you don't seem to get any plug adapters! also, now that palm has taken over complete marketing of the stowaway keyboard, it's no longer shipped in a neoprene protective case -- you have to buy a case if you want to protect the keyboard. i think palm is playing the game of "shaft the consumer to satisfy the shareholder" or something.
4) poor utilization of the expansion slot. right now, the only available software are a games card (8 games, only one of which is worth the pricetag), city guides, and a dictionary/thesaurus. okay... next?
5) bad product support -- they can't fix it!
i would definitely recommend the Vx over the m505.
Customer Review: Back to the drawing board & NO free repair under warranty
Summary: 1 Stars
As an owner of a Palm IIIx, then a Palm IIIc, I secretly lusted for the compact size of the Palm Vx. I knew one day the color would be combined with the small size of the Palm Vx. I pre-ordered this device months in advance. I was thrilled when it finally arrived! When I turned it on, I was confused. Was it defective? The color screen is bad, grey and faded, hard to read even with the backlight on. I read that this is the way Palm meant it to be -- are they serious? (Reminds me of "Pee Wee's Big Adventure", when he fell off his bike in front of a group of laughing kids, and said "I meant to do that!" Yeah, right!) If you want a color Palm, stick to the IIIc, or better yet check out HandSpring, new color Sony Clie, or Windows CE. At least you won't lose your eyesight trying to read it.
By the way, this week I had an unpleasant experience with Palm, Inc., to repair a defective Palm. As of mid-May 2001, customers have to pay $20 to return the device for repairs on factory defects. If you can't do without a Palm while it is being repaired, (duh!) Palm will send you an "fully factory refurbished" exchange for $25.
That's ONLY for the Palm M series. For the poor Palm III series owner, you can only send it back for repair, pay $20, AND pay for the postage! Then wait until it is fixed and returned. Don't throw out that paper organizer yet!
Changing the warranty after you buy it? Is it legal? I would sue my automobile maker if they tried a stunt like that.
Customer Review: Time Bomb
Summary: 2 Stars
I got this model for myself because at the time, it was the best model available. It worked really well for quite a while, and I even told my dad to get it for my mom for Christmas. So far, she has had no problems (knock on wood). Mine bit the dust earlier this year after over a year of problem-free functioning. It just quit syncing. Nothing changed at all. It just stopped syncing one day. I went through numerous attempts to solve the issue through email technical support with Palm. Nothing worked. I didn't want to call them because I didn't want to spend money on tech support. Turns out they won't charge you because they know there is a problem with the unit! They sent me a reset card which didn't help. I called them again and they were going to make me jump through more hoops. I pulled out the attitude and said NO WAY. They finally agreed to take the unit back for repair. They turned around the unit quickly and it was fine for a couple months, and it just quit on me again. They are obviously having VERY serious issues with this model, and I feel as if I have suggested a time bomb for my mother. It's not worth the hassle to get this Palm. I don't know if all Palms are this problematic, but I would avoid any Palm model that begins with a "5." I'm sure they are all duds, and once you begin to rely on a PDA there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING more bothersome than having to go through these issues. You are left without a PDA for who-knows-how-long and you feel vulnerable. It's just not worth it.Customer Review: Get the Compaq iPAQ
Summary: 2 Stars
I sold my Palm Vx and purchased the Palm 505 instead of the Compaq iPAQ because I loved my Palm Vx. Put simply the Palm 505 is a huge disappointment. Compared to the technology out there, the PDA is very limited. You can only connect to the interent via certain cell phones. You cannot dial up using a normal telephone line. And most importantly you cannot use a T1 line or any ethernet connection to connect to the Interet. You still have to drag around your laptop to connect to the Internet if you want to use a high speed connection. I was very disappointed since the iPAQ offers these options. When I purchased the 505 I thought they would later roll out the modem and ethernet connect. But I was mistaken, Palm technology is not up to par. The improvements Palm made is having a color screen (which is hard to see), an expansion slot (which you probably don't need), the alarm, clock, and note pad (the best feature of the 505). However, this device is not worth the money. And certainly not worth giving up your Vx.
Accessories that were available for the Vx, such as GPS system, is not available for the 505. The technical difficulties I have had with the 505 is ridiculous. I have tried to work with Palm to no avail to hotsync my 505 via infrared. My e-mail still will not sync correctly, and Palm support does not help.
For me the device is actually worse than the Vx because of the technical problems.
Customer Review: Palm m505? Cool...
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently purchased the m505 from Amazon a week ago... along with a SanDisk 32MB SD card. Charged it up for several hours while I went to Best Buy and bought the Kensington PDA Protector.After using it for a week or so, (quickly filling up the 32MB expansion) I have come to the conclusion that it is a nice PDA (not exactly cheap though!)if you have money to spend.
I would for the most part agree with what I've heard and read and that is you must decide what it is exactly what you want to accomplish with it - in my case I needed expanability and it was worth it for me spend a little extra for the color screen which is not awful nor great, but could had been better I think for the money that one is paying.
And it is too bad that Palm DIDN'T include any software to effectively use the memory expansion capabilities. In order for the Palm to be really useful with in this case you will need 3 essential programs to do this:
- McFile or FileZ
- PowerRun or TealMover
- PiDirect or MSMount
The Palm is faster that the Vx I previously owned, but once you start moving things into Expansion RAM, etc. it goes from really fast to just fast (faster that the Vx anyhow).
And the screen appears to attract dust faster than a storm, so you will want to get a protector ASAP. I recommend the Brando protector.
All in all a decent PDA. If Palm were to knock [down] the price, they would have a winner!!