Rating: 
Summary: Amazing PDA worth a lot more than $300
Review: I bought this just over a month ago, skeptical of the features because of the low price for what this PDA says it offers. Nonetheless, I was still excited when it arrived in the mail. It was amazing. Only a few minor issues but not anything significant that would make me lower the rating.Camera:
The camera takes good quality pictures but a zoom feature would have been nice. Also, The shutter speed is noticably slower then a normal digital camera and it takes a few seconds to focus. This would be a big camera issue but it takes great pictures and the only other PDA with cameras on the market cost somewhere in the range of $600. Mp3 Player:
Although Palm advertises this feature heavily, you never know that you need to buy an expansion card to listen to Mp3's until you open up the box. The Mp3 player works well once you buy the expansion card. I would have dropped my rating except for the fact that the Mp3 player works very well once you buy the expansion card (Which costs an extra $30-$70). Mp3's don't work because there isn't enough room to store them on your Zire 71's built-in memory. Company Helpfullness:
Although I didn't make it affect my rating this aggravated me beyond belief. The instruction manual basically tells you how to plug the USB Cradle in and then transforms into a self-advertisement. Their troubleshooting website is useless, and there tech support number isn't even toll free. It's like they're trying bother me. Storage Capacity:
The Zire 71 only has 13.6 Megabytes of usable space. Palm really should have included more. Luckily, you can get a 64 Megabyte expansion card for $30. You don't really need to buy it unless you plan on taking 200+ photos, listening to Mp3's, or loading your PDA with games and software. Overall Value:
An High-level PDA at Mid-Level Price, you should defitely consider purchasing this. This would have been a 5-star rating if not for the fact that the Zire 71 doesn't work with alot of old software, which makes upgrading from an old palm and trying to keep the software you bought or dowloaded impossible in many cases. This PDA has amazing graphics, the most advanced Palm OS made to this date(OS 5.21), a digital camera, an improved version of graffiti, and a convincing price. I cannot see any reason not to get this wonderful device.
Rating:
Summary: what a screen!
Review: The screen alone is keeping me from being able to even look at my old Palm Vx again. So bright and easy to read. This unit does everything that my old unit did and more (pictures and music). Palm hit a home run. PRO'S:
Beautiful screen
Fast processor
Tidy package (works in front pants pocket)
Camera especially great for email and photo album of my daughter
I like the ability to enable writing on the screen CON'S:
Graffiti 2 a pain (even after a month)
Joystick should have been similar to Tungsten 2 layout (I'm finally used to it)
Rating: 
Summary: GET THIS PDA!...
Review: I have had my Palm Zire 71 for a month already. And, for the price, I think its worth every penny. The Palm is suppose to keep you organized and it does keep you organized with the date book program, todo list, expense program, and much more. But the zire 71 keeps you organized and entertained on a beautiful color screen. The palm has a 65,000 color tft screen which makes videos and pictures very realistic like your viewing it on your home computer. Like all colored screens (Cell phones, laptops, PDA's), viewing the screen directly in the sun is not so rich with color, but its usuable. The zire 71 has a great mp3 program. Palm has a RealPlayer program which plays the songs you install in your pda and the speaker is so so, but plug in head phones, and WOW.....
They put a good head phone system in the zire 71. It also has a camera function that is very good to take everyday pictures and email them. I would not print them out and send them, but, it comes in handy when you want to take quick pictures. You can store up to 290 photos (normally with out adding more memory). You can also store jpeg photos on your zire 71 and view them in the photo program. But, whats really tops the Zire 71 off is the Kinoma player. You can download mpegs and movies and convert them to play on your zire 71. It comes in handy when your board and want to watch a mpeg video. With the SD slot, you can buy as much memory a you want.
SO, get the Zire, organize your day, take pictures and email them to freinds and family, view photos, watch movies, and listen to music. All that for 299 dollars. In the Pocket PC, thats a good deal.
Rating:
Summary: Great PDA for organizing anything!
Review: The Zire 71 is a great PDA. I would be clueless in school without it. The Date Book stores my schedule for the week. The Calculator helps with math. The Address program is great for storing important numbers or other information. I use the To Do List for writing down assignments. The Note Pad is great for jotting down things when you don't want to use Graffiti 2. The World Clock is helpful because my school's clocks are messed up. Here is a good trick. If on the home screen Preferences it says remember Last Category, pressing the scroll button will give you the current time. Finally, the camera is great for capturing a funny moment. I am getting Documents to Go so I can start my homework in class and finish at home by HotSyncing. The Zire 71 gets four stars for not putting that program in. Also, the case is very bad. Every time I put it in my backpack, it turns on. I fixed that by putting it into a spare book cover. This is a great organizer. I recommend it to anyone who needs to keep track of their life.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising Product with a Big Hole
Review: This is my third Palm handheld, and it's easily the best of the lot. One of the most important features--the screen--is absolutely gorgeous. It's easily readable in light and dark conditions. I use my Palm primarily for carrying critical information with me; managing e-mail from it is just too clumsy for my taste. Messing around with wireless on a small screen isn't my idea of efficiency, either. So, as far as covering the basics, the Zire 71 gives you what you primarily buy a handheld for, and at a reasonable price. The camera is a nice bonus; the pics aren't top quality, but they are fine for e-mailing. I have my Palm with me almost all the time, and I carry a digital camera with me almost never. So, for those special situations in which you wish you had a camera, the Zire 71 does the trick.
It's one failing--and a big one it is--is in handling multimedia files. Palm makes a big deal out of how the Zire 71 plays MP3 files. What they don't tell you is how lousy a job the device does with the tools Palm gives you. First off, transferring MP3 files through Palm's hilariously misnamed "QuickInstall" utility is so slow that it's useless for the task. The Palm web site suggests using RealOne Player to do it, but this process is much more complicated than it should be. The other problem revolves around playback---RealOne Player on the Palm does not have a volume boost, and the default volume for MP3 playback is much too low. There's no way to adjust it that I can find, and the suggestion from Palm tech support to set the system volume to high was useless. It wasn't until I hit some of the support sites---www.palminfocenter.com being the best---that I discovered a fix. The fix is to download, purchase, and use PocketTunes (www.pocket-tunes.com) as the MP3 player rather than RealOne. PocketTunes has a volume boost that at least lets you recover some of the functionality you thought you had bought. Palm knows it has a problem with audio playback in its latest generation of handhelds---it recently released an audio patch for the Tungsten T. They need to figure out what's going on with the Zire 71 as well.
On the whole, I'd consider rating the Zire 71 as a four or five in spite of its MP3 problems because it performs its main functions so well. But since Palm is touting it so heavily as an MP3 Player, I'll rate it 3 stars with a big cautionary note for those who are attracted to it for its multimedia features.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT UPGRADE FROM PALM Vx
Review: I've had it for three weeeks and love it!!
Colors are sharp,fast processor, handy camera
but beware pics are for email purposes(56K average)
This is not a HIGH resolution camera!! but download in the Hot Sync is s SNAP!!
Very easy to use and i was able to transfer
all personnal info in a heartbeat!!
paid [money] for it Brand new factory sealed!! so I do not complain
about price either...but even for [money] it's a sharp PDA!!
THUMBS UP FOR A PALM!!
I think I will buy it for my wife!!
Rating:
Summary: Zire 71 - 1 month and no complaints
Review: For those of you that depend on these reviews (as I did), here's some advice: Zire 71 is a great palm, especially if you're accustomed to the palm format. Complaints have generally been about the case, the stylus, lack of RAM or memory card incompatibility. The case isn't great by any means, but you have to understand that Palm needed to cut some corners to keep the price low. Check out the brighthand forum at Palm's website for case recommendations. I have the Bellagio case and it works brilliantly. The stylus is cheapy, but easily replaced (try a pen/stylus to prevent hand cramping). The Ram is totally sufficient for most, but for those with large memory demands I suggest a program like Powerrun (found on palmgear) that successfully runs stuff from the memory card - this is really inexpensive and powerful software. I chose a sandisk 256mb expansion card and have no compatibility problems. If you're into MP3's you might also invest in an aeroplayer (palmgear again). The packaged player is too memory/cpu hungry. Finally, don't worry about the thing turning itself on - software is easily downloaded that can deactivate the "power on" function of the joystick. Don't hesitate! This is a great product and Amazon has a great price.
Rating:
Summary: Great little device
Review: I've had Palms for 4.5 years. I'm delighted with the Zire 71.
It has a great screen, crystal clear. It's compact: it's slightly smaller in every dimension than the Palm III series. The camera *is* low resolution, but it is awfully handy to have a camera with me at all times. The camera is, however, a bit of a gimmick; if they had the same device a little smaller for a lower price without it I would have bought that one. Graffitti 2 is a bit annoying for someone fully fluent in the old Graffitti -- I wish they had put in the option to use either.
Rating:
Summary: It has potential
Review: On paper this device is almost as good as the Sony Clie PEG-NX70V. The camera is a nice feature (though it is a low resolution), as well as having MP3 playback. There are some problems with transferring and playing back MP3 files (more than I discovered after visiting a chat room). Some people (myself included) seem to need to download an extention patch to read any files on the SD card. In my case it didn't help, and before I could even use my handheld, I had to send it in for repairs. At least customer service was good. However you have to pay the postage to return any device for repair, which I find poor. Transferring music from your files to the device is tiresome. There are a lot of steps involved, and it's time consuming. Overall, I think it's a great handheld for the money. If you're willing and able to pay more, go for the above Sony Clie. They are not as problematic. Perhaps Palm will iron out any problems they have with this PDA by next year.
Rating:
Summary: Will Palm stay ahead?
Review: My previous Palm served me faithfully for 6 years, so I upgraded to the Zire 71 as the best value Palm PDA. The design is superb, the display brilliant, it has/can add everything you want save perhaps a microphone. However, the PalmOS is not as reliable or sensible as before. Several times in the last month it has reset, removing all data and applications, resetting the clock, etc., ie, when plugging in an SDIO card or removing a PalmOS5-incompatible application. Grafitti2 makes some excellent usability changes, but loses some sensible things unnecessarily (eg, U-backwards is no longer V---why?!?) and cannot allow "old-style" T, even though third-party add-ons can... how superficial is that? It also has silly bugs (capital letters in password lock desktop!) and the support people (phone AND email) appear helpful but are woefully ignorant. I despise Microsoft, but I will look carefully at a Pocket-PC PDA next time, Palm may have dropped the ball with OS5.
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