Rating: 
Summary: Could not live without it!
Review: I have had a palm pilot in my life for about three years and I just love the improvements that the M505 has to offer over my older Vx. The ability to increase memory and store word and excel docs on a memory card makes managing a full time career and household easy! I have to admit that the screen is a bit dim in certain lighting situations, but at the time of my purchase the M515 was not available (which can adjust the brightness). If brightness is a concern go with the M515, if not save a few bucks and get the M505!
Rating: 
Summary: Great PDA, Bad Color!
Review: The Palm 505 is a great PDA, but the color, the brightness and the contrast needs a lot of work. The 505 is just like any other palm, versatile, useful and all and it really is a good Palm except for the screen which is half the reason why you buy a unit! I can't help but compare the 505 with the 3C... they are worlds apart. Why can't palm put 3C's screen on a 505? THe 515 is better, but not that much better. I suggest you wait until Palm comes out with a better screen.
Rating:
Summary: So far so good
Review: This is my first Palm, so I can't write intelligently about how it stacks up to all the previous models. I can say that I find it easy to use, simple to "sync" with my laptop, and entering data is quick and simple. I typically forget to read the instructions on how to do things, but have been able to figure it out without too much trouble. I won't give it 5 stars because that might indicate that I know what I'm talking about. Also, the color is a bit overrated, but maybe with map software might be more useful than what I currently use my Palm for. All that being said, I'm glad I bought it, and use it daily.
Rating: 
Summary: No regrets. I just LOVE it !!!
Review: I bought this Palm to replace my Palm IIIc which I dropped on the floor.OK, I felt a bit of disappointment at the color display, and was even more enraged when a month later the m515 came out. Man, 16MB for the same price? And a better screen? Why do I give this 5 stars, even though I'm complaining? Because this little thing is my whole life. The screen is always readable wherever I am, no matter what type of light is around. I find it fast and reliable, and since I got my 16MB expansion card, I always have room for more stuff. Also, my USB cradle makes sync'ing fast and swift. I am a heavy user of Palm. I take my meeting notes in it (I am quite a quick Graffiti writer), I have about 6 databases in there, games for every mood on the expansion card. I take it for shopping (HandyShopper is great), I manage my motorcycle club contacts and calendar in it and I even go as far as having my cookbook fully downloaded into it. The screen light may be a drawback, but I also found that my battery stays alive so much longer than with my Palm IIIc that the trade-off is a fair bargain. I love the fact that it's so slim and light. A friend of mine switched her old Palm III for a Compaq iPaq, and after playing with my m505 for some 20 minutes, she's switching back to Palm. Of course, now she's getting a m515, but it was my m505 that convinced her. Regrets? None whatsoever.
Rating:
Summary: Solves the screen problem
Review: With the release of the model 515 Palm solves the problem of the poor brightness of the 505. I compared the two side by side, and the 515 is noticeably brighter than the 505. I also compared it to the Sony Peg615CS, and at maximum brightness they look exactly the same. I also compared both of them to my Palm IIIC, but although the 515 is a big improvement over the 505, and the Sony also is equally good, the IIIC is still the clear winner in the brighness contest. However, the Sony and the Palm have 64K colors, and the IIIC only has 256. However, both the Palm and the Sony have partially back-reflective screens, which allows them to be seen outside, where the IIIC would wash out. This is why the screens have a slightly milky appearance, which, while not annoying, is noticeable. I've also compared the IIIC to the Handspring Prizm, and the Prizm looks to be as bright as the IIIC. I've been using PDAs for several years now, having had a Vx, IIIC, Handspring Visor, and a Compaq iPAQ, so for the rest of my review I thought I'd make a few comments, not necessarily aimed at any particular Palm model (or clone) so much as why you should get one, and why any Palm is better than none at all. Since getting my Palm, I've never been so organized. It's not only the convenience of having everything in one place--that's a great advantage, to be sure, but that's no different from a binder or notebook-type organizer. Where the Palm devices really make a difference is in the search capability. I used to own a big, fat Franklin binder-type organizer, and everything was in there, all right--the problem was finding it. If I'd made a note on a meeting a month ago that I needed to find, well, good luck finding it. But with the Palm, it's a piece of cake. You just do a search on a couple of keywords and you can always pull it up. And there are drop-in search utilities, such as FindHack, which I purchased for a few dollars, that are even more powerful, and add such capabilities as wildcard searches. The extra power and convenience this adds over the traditional organizer can't be overestimated. Also, once I had all the info in my Palm, my brain seemed to rest easier too, since my aging memory didn't have to track all of this stuff anymore. Next to my car, perhaps, my Palm is the most useful device I have ever owned. Try one and you'll see they aren't just toys, they are great timesavers and powerful tools that will make it so much easier to track all those details, big and little, of your personal and work life. Next to the invention of paper and pencil, the Palm platform and it's clones are the most powerful organizational tool probably ever invented.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow video playback, access to SD card and poor screen
Review: I've had my palm M505 for nearly a year now. A few things to keep in mind if you decide to buy one. Video playback from an SD card is slow. It's even slower if you use an MMC card. Second, if you have a few dozen photos on a 16MB SD card and you access the pictures you'll need to wait 15 seconds before it lists all your photo files. The brightness of the screen is a disappointment, too. If I had my time over again I would have bought one of the Pocket PCs. However, there's lots of great software for the palm and this model is so seductively sleek and stylish.
Rating:
Summary: Hardware problems
Review: I have owned by Palm m505 for four months and I have had to send the cradle in twice for replacement. It has become a real problem for me because I use it for everything and I have to send in both my palm and the cradle to the factory and I have to live without it for at least a week. I love my palm, but if I had to do it over again, I would have waited for the 515. The color on the 505 is not all that great and I almost always have to turn the backlight on. The ease of use is great, but the hardware problems are extremely frustrating.
Rating: 
Summary: Palm specialist says stay away
Review: I am the Palm Specialist for a large hospital. When the Palm m505 first came out, one of our MD's bought one. From the get-go it had hardware problems and, in the end, we warranty-replaced it four times for different hardware problems (a bad screen, a bad power button, no hotsyncing through the cradle, etc). Since then, two other MD's got m505's and both of them have had the hardware go bad (hotsync hardware problems both times) and they recently got warranty replacements. Palm Desktop 4.0.1 was used in each case, which had a fix for m505 USB syncing, but that did not help our situation. We now have a policy that Palm m505's and m500's are discouraged. (There is an m500 that has given us glitches with Hotsyncing upon occasion, although it has not completely died yet). I recommend the Sony Clie T615 for the Color Palm OS option.
Rating:
Summary: Ok . . . But
Review: I never thought I'd use the PALM III when I first got it. It wasn't until I began inputting directly from the computer and hot synching that I began to grow in love and then use the darn thing continually. When the 505 first came out, I got it for: the color screen; the option to add more memory (I told you I use it a lot); and, the rechargable battery. The color screen is the opening one. Come on PALM, you couldn't provide us with color on the date book or the calendar? Adding the memory card is almost too easy and it works. Adding an e-book or a memory hog like Vindigo which has to weekly update is now a non-issue. There is plenty of room for add-ons and expansions. But PALM has made no attempt to resolve issues like back lighting and the difficult writing method PALM is suppose to use. So, if you use your PALM for everything and don't mind the limited color programs, this PALM is for you.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite palm!
Review: I use this all the time. I think it is the best Palm you can get, as of April 2002. Just my opinion.
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