Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Palm with small complains
Review: This palm is feature packed! Much faster than older Palm Vx I used to have. Real colorful screen. The camera is cool! It can even play MP3 files. Though playing it without headphone is kinda weak.However, Graffiti 2 is not so good. It makes me relearn some strokes. I see nothing wrong with Graffiti 1. I have Chess Genius that needs "/ T" for takeback, now I cannot use this short cut because it will think you use "/ I" before you can finish a "/ T". Wish Palm will make an option to use Graffiti 1. The 5 way "joystick" is a bit difficult on the thumb while playing games, why can't it be a pad like other Palm models? I liked my old Palm Vx's metal stylus and the protection flap. Wish the Palm Zire 71 has it. How come there is no light in the charger/base when it has power?
Rating:
Summary: Close, but could be better
Review: It's refreshing to see Palm come out with a competing product to the Sony Clie's. Lots of cool stuff for the price point. My review is more critical of the flaws of the device. It's still a good PDA, but there are some quirks. The Zire 71 is meant to compete against the Sony Clies. In the effort to get a product quickly to market, there are some rough edges. PRO: Lots of cool toys - MP3 player, web camera, SD slot, and a great color screen. There are plenty of positive reviews, so see them for more positives. NEG: BATTERY LIFE: Color screen, digital camera, and MP3's eats up battery life like crazy. This becomes a problem if the battery dies before you can hotsyc. MP3 FUNCTIONALITY: You'll need 1) a separate SD card - from $60 to $100 AND 2) a SD card reader for transfering files to and from the SD card. I found that a 5 meg song took about 20 minutes using the serial interface. RealPlayer, which comes with the Palm, works ok, but it's a pretty lousy player/burner. Another irritation is that you can't "lock" the PDA when playing MP3 files. DESIGN: Seems that the engineers and the designers didn't talk with each other. It's too easy to accidently turn on the Palm. The Palm cases available can catch the "joystick" or allow the hot keys to be depressed. In addition, you can accidently turn on or off the PDA when you remove or replace the stylus. Overall, if you can live with the shortcomings, then the Zire 71 is a buy.
Rating: 
Summary: good PDA
Review: I bought 2 palm zire 71 for me and my boyfriend, we think that they have everything that we need. While the camera is not perfect, it's good enough for quick snapshots...If you want a good camera...buy a digital one.
The only drawback is that the material is very slick and i am worried of accidentally dropping it....but it's a wonderful device, well worth what I paid for it. I am writing this review again after I had to repair my PDA...the problem was that I had to send the palm 3 times because the palm support gave me a damage palm for 3 times... the 4th one is fine.
Rating:
Summary: How did I get along without this?
Review: The Palm Zire 71 is an outstanding product. The script recognition kicks butt over previous Palm products. The camera feature is the crown jewel, however. Awesome! I was pleasantly surprised to find out it can hold about 200+ quality shots. Granted, it's very sensitive to motion, but all in all it is a tremendous asset. The MP3 player is great too, and I like the fact that I never have to buy batteries for it since the cradle doubles as a charger. I could go on, but I'll stop by saying the Palm Zire 71 is AWESOME!!!
Rating: 
Summary: My First Palm
Review: This handheld is my first ever. I knew precious little about the Palm Operating System - and had previously decided on the more familiar Pocket PC. Well, with the letters "PC" there, it couldn't be that much different my desktop, now could it? For some reason - I chose the Palm Zire 71 instead. And, as simple minded as this sounds, it was the digital camera that really clinched the deal. As things turned out - despite my initial trouble with the OS (it's like learning to drive in America after you've lived your whole life in the U.K.) I eventually got the hang of it -and, amazingly enough, am now typing this review out with my stylus. (I don't think I'll ever really learn to write in Graffiti 2!) If you are as new to Palm software as I am - it might be a good idea to get a feel of operating it before you purchase one. I got very little sleep the first week after purchase trying to find the "uninstall" tab to get rid of some quirky programs I downloaded off the Net. (There isn't one - you just DELETE it! Deleting programs are a definite no, no in Windows!) Apart from the unfamiliar OS - everything else worked spiffily. And the digital camera has been every bit of fun it promised to be. The Zire 71 is the best in its class, feature wise. A great buy, if you don't mind lifting anchor and venturing beyond the safe shores of the Continent of Microsoft.
Rating: 
Summary: trading it in
Review: I recently received a Palm Zire 71 for Father's Day...I thought it was an unexpected great gift...I am dissatisfied. The software that comes with the Zire seems to work without a hitch...just try to load "compatible" software...nothing but crashes. I estimate that only 25% of the software I have tried to load works....software companies are not yet ready for the Zire...I could wait 6 months for them to work out glitches, but I don't have the time
Rating: 
Summary: Keeps Failing - Returns are painful
Review: So far, my Zire 71 has been nothing but a pain. I ordered the Zire 71 with a 128MB expansion card. All was well until I began loading songs onto the card; then the ZIRE would no longer recognize that there was a card at all. "Palm.com" (from whom I ordered the PDA and card) could not even begin to guess whether the problem was in the card or in the ZIRE; and OBTW they (PALM.com)can not do exchanges, only returns. Not only that, because I live overseas (but still have a US mailing address) they could not help process my return, only try and refund me for postage, etc. after they receive the zire 71 back. I was told that after that, it would be processed as a return and I would be free to just order another from scratch. But did I mention that they were then out of 128 MB expansion cards, so I would have to wait indefinitely to order another one? I finally found another expansion card from another vendor (since it would be easier to try another card first, in case IT was defective), put it in, and it worked!...for about 10 minutes. When I tried to put music on the card again, the ZIRE then refuses to acknowledge that a card is present. Either the ZIRE 71 keeps killing the cards or the REAL ONE software included with the ZIRE 71 keeps killing it. Who knows? Consider getting a different PDA, unless you want a lot of trouble.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent screen and first rate features
Review: I am extremely pleased with this product. It's everything I hoped it would be. I like the feel of the case. I really like the joystick, it's easy to use and has a great feel to it - better than pushing small nav pads. The colors are vivid and the screen brightness is just great. I also like the power on/off button where it is and the ability to add an SD card which I did right away - adding 256MB card for my audio books, music, pictures and Documents to go. I quickly added a portable keyboard and for the first time I feel like I have a useful portable computer that does not take 2 minutes to boot up! The camera is fun and delights everyone who falls for the hidden lens. I did not expect exceptional pictures for the price and after a while you get to understand the limits of the camera and it takes good, easily portable grandchildren-type pictures - great! Of course it comes with all the usual Palm applications as well as some very useful additions and the Palm software inventory is huge! It does not come with earpieces which I am very pleased about. I hate those earbud things, they never stay in my ears, so the freedom to buy whatever suits me is my preference. At a dinner meeting with business people it's a real icebreaker. A Palm representative told me it was a toy but a toy it is not! My Palm III which I am sending back for a rebate has been left in the dust. I bought my wife a Sony Clie SJ33 a few weeks before. I think she wants to swop although I like the cool built in cover that came with the Clie. The Zire has a useless case that comes with it. I threw it away. If Palm introduce Bluetooth on an SD card for this PDA I will be extremely happy! I am also using it to listen to audio books when I exercise on my machine at night - really makes the time fly. My hat goes off to Palm!
Rating:
Summary: Worth upgrading for the screen itself.
Review: I am replacing my Handspring Visor (which I will use for a trade in). I was deciding between the tungsten T and the Zire 71 and the Zire won out. The tungsten is awesome, but the only thing that it added for me was bluetooth (since you have to charge the batteries anyway, the cradle is fine). I also use an ipod, so I don't need an MP3 player. Despite being panned by other reviews (and rightfully so because the picture is [bad]) the camera is well integrated into the system. It is good only for reference pictures much the way polaroids are. They are not good enough for snapshots unless if your standards are low, but it is fun. It is worth upgrading from an older unit for the display and the quick hot syncing. It comes with a quicktime movie converter too. I like to download movie trailers off off Apple's site and play them at work.
Rating:
Summary: Just one thing...
Review: Just one thing...What happens when the battery DIES? You cant replace it, becuase when you put it on the Hot Sync cradle, it charges, so you dont have to buy new batteries, but what happens when the battery just dies? Can you get a new one? Or are you just stuck with a non-working Zire 71 handheld and are forced to get another?? I wanted to know about this before I bought one...
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