Rating: 
Summary: Poor Customer Service - 3rd Palm I had that Went bad
Review: The Palm 515 was the 3rd Palm in the 500 series I've owned that have been had within the 90-day warranty period.The first 2 were 505s that were bad and Palm did work on getting them replaced. Finally, I obtained a 515 - hoping to avoid the sync problems the 505s had - and the added memory was a plus. Within 60 days - the new 515 wouldn't sync either. Palm customer service advised that for only $...they could do an advance exchange and that was the best way to expedite the repair. They said the charge was required, even though the Palm was still under warranty. I paid the $... thinking I would receive my replacement within a couple of days. Wrong - I then waited two weeks before they even mailed the replacement (refurbished) unit out. Being without the PDA for two weeks was not an option - so in the interim period while waiting for the replacement Palm to be shipped, I've bought a Sony Clie. I love the Sony - I am getting rid of the replacement Palm - and will never buy another Palm again - not for me, or for any one else in my department.
Rating:
Summary: Hot Sync Problems on 2 Units
Review: I loved my Palm m505 but it started failing to hot sync after less than a year. The Tech Support people were very polite and responsive but none of their suggestions helped. My husband's m515 failed to hot sync after only 6 months. (We use different desktops so it's not a problem with one individual computer.) For us, [$$$] or so is a lot of money to pay for an electronic device that works for less than a year. I will never buy another Palm product. Which is too bad, because I love the way their products work, when they work.
Rating:
Summary: Lousy Product Lousy Comany Lousy Service
Review: Unit is 6 weeks old and hardware malfunctions if it gets below 40 degrees, say, waiting for a bus! Has done this 4 times. Erases all data. Have to reformat entire unit! Palm customer service refused to give me the "advance replacement" warranty option advertised on website (you pay [$$$] and get a replacement immediately instead of waiting for repair). Said no units were available, even though their online store said if I was buying new I'd get one in 2 days. Of course, they have my money, what do they care? Dishonest advertising! This warranty feature was one of the reasons I went with Palm. Corporate office "customer elevation" personnel rude and admitted warranty data on web is out of date and said they "couldn't be expected" to keep it current. Honest, that is what she said! Will never buy from Palm again. Neither should you. Bought from Amazon, though, and Amazon was great., shipped fast!
Rating: 
Summary: good OS, bad product
Review: Palm OS is great, I used to have a sony palm, great product. This one I ordered doesn't have the same quality. If you tap on the screen, the accuracy is not there at all. My mistake is that I cut the UPC code too early and can't return this item any more.
Rating: 
Summary: Palm m515 the Sweetest
Review: I bought my Palm m515 around the holidays, and am absolutely satisfied with my purchase. I love the the 16mb RAM, expanded memory capability, color screen, the feel of it's shape (form factor) in my hand. However, drawbacks are the small screen and resolution. I have had a Handera 330, and tho it is not color and only 8mb RAM, the better resolution makes it a little nicer on the eye. Now I chose Amazon as the retailer because I was offered a great deal at the time, which included a [$$] dollar rebate. Not much, but put it under others in price, and to buy from a name I trusted was a plus. However, I took the offer to pick up at a local retailer ... for convienence...
Rating:
Summary: I Love My Palm
Review: I always thought that PDAs were for businessmen with lots of money. Not so!
I am a college undergraduate with a double major, a full social life, and lots of appointments to keep. Before, my assignment book was a scrawl of 8 different colors of pen margin to margin just to keep everything straight. Now, I have everything in the palm of my hand.
I researched PDAs before I got one. This one is the best of all worlds.
PROS:
The color display is great for games and date book icons alike. You can use the high setting on the backlight to find your keys between cars in a dark parking lot (I have!). It also reduces eye strain. (The high setting is not necessary during the day and turning it off greatly increases battery life) 16 MB of memory is more than I'll ever need. I loaded this thing with software the day I got it and it still has half the memory left. One day of normal on and off use (condensed: 2-4 hours constant use with contrast on high setting) only kills 1/4 of the battery. The screen is large enough that I can type in information using an attached keyboard and not have to hunch over just to see what I'm doing. It is so light that, even with the hard aluminum case (which is a MUST), I barely notice that I'm carrying it. The list of software just goes on and on, from economics lexicons to palm reading. (palmgear.com) It comes with great professional software in the box. The desktop software is about as user friendly and self-explanatory as it gets. CONS:
It sometimes doesn't recognize the graffiti characters (especially 4 and Q). It's hard to know if you've deleted all of the files for a program, since there is no optimizer or folder system. The operating system is a little cumbersome. Being used to easily navigating windows 98, I found that deleting and categorizing files was a bit of a pain. Thankfully, it's not something you have to do very often. All in all, this palm has made my life so easy. I never forget appointments or assignments anymore just because I can't read them or they're off the side of the page. This handheld is well worth the money.
And, as an added bonus, think about how much paper you'll save.
Rating:
Summary: Not a computer
Review: I wanted this Palm to be so much more. I guess I was expecting it to be a handheld computer and unfortunately it's not much more that a color personal organizer.
My only other complaint is that there is no control over the display (brightness, contrast) that was there is earlier models.
Rating: 
Summary: Want to hear about the Palm software?
Review: I always thought I was a paper-planner person, until the New Years day came, and I hadn't bought my refills and they were backordered on the web at Franklin Covey. I don't know why I freaked out about it because I was never good at writing things down. Interestingly enough, I work in IT, but didn't think I'd want to organize my life electronically. Anyway, I started using the Task and Calendar feature in Outlook religiously. For a week I was more organized than I'd ever been at work. My personal life was still a mess. Gee, wouldn't it be nice if I could take my Outlook home with me every night. Hence, I decided I needed a Palm. I ordered the 515 because it had a decent sized memory, and was upgradable. It had a color screen. It was small and light. Most importantly, I read a review that said it would easily export/import to Microsoft Outlook. It met all my HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because of the SOFTWARE. Mainly, it annoyed me that the Palm software either is entirely synced with Outlook, forcing you to use Outlook's task and calendar OR you can use Palm's planning software but your contacts are not automatically synced. I love the simplicity of Palm planning software but wanted it to have an email function. But hey, I'm still pretty happy and VERY PRODUCTIVE. The Palm views are simple, customizable to a reasonable degree, and easy to navigate for pretty much anyone. Another thing I've REALLY enjoyed is the Document-to-Go software that came with my Palm. For example, say you're reading a document or a webpage that explains something step by step. Simply save it as a word doc., add it to the document-to-go window (very easy, self-explanatory), Hot-sync, and you can read that document from your Palm and follow along with the directions as you're doing it. I maintain a list of usernames, passwords, account numbers on my Palm in the event that (knock on wood) our server dies one night and we lose a bunch of data. That same incredibly valuable list is backed up everytime I hotsync at home and work (in a password protected folder of course). Honestly, I sleep better! Hope you've enjoyed my review of Palm's software. Few people ever review it, so I hope I was of some help.
Rating:
Summary: It would be great if it continued to work
Review: I had a Palm IIIx for at least 5 years. I sell real estate and really rely on the Palm to keep track of contacts and appointments. After I broke the IIIx, I bought the m515. I was very impressed with the product and some of the improvements in the features, notepad and "masked" records, for example.
Before I bought it, I read about some problems with hot synching, but thought that was a relatively uncommon issue, until mine failed to hot synch. I had only had it three weeks. I plan to exchange it for a new one, but wonder if I would be better off with a different model, such as the M130, which is less expensive and seems to have fewer issues.
I have to say that I did not have a problem with tech support. The technician, Mark, was very polite and walked me through some diagnosis. When it failed to fix the problem, he suggested that I exchange the unit.
I think the display and the ease of use is great. The expansion card is a good means of backing up data, but, of course, hotsynch is preferable. I'm sorry I had the problem, because I really wanted to like this product. I only hope that my new one works and continues to work.
I wonder how many of the people who say they love the 515 have had it for a long period of time.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful PDA
Review: I bought this one as an upgrade to my very basic Casio Pocket Viewer PV-S400. The Palm is everything I need, there is even Adobe Acrobat available which allows me to keep manuals and documents close at hand for my job servicing many different systems. The SD card slot is great and with the amount of memory you can get on one of those cards, I dont think I will need a new PDA for a long time.
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