Rating: 
Summary: Right in the palm of your hand...
Review: Palm has always made great PDAs and this is no exception. Its small size and great price makes it affordable. Simple USB connection to your computer to synchronize data and no batteries required are a plus! If a backlight were added, it would drain the built-in rechargeable battery too quickly. The 2MB capacity is enough for most users (except power users that require lots of applications, etc.) The included rubber flip-top cover protects the writing surface. For its price and the intended market (students, everyday users, and those that want to stay organized), the Zire is a great Palm.
Rating: 
Summary: What was Palm thinking?
Review: I realize Palm is desperate to stop losing marketshare to Micrsoft, but putting several year old technology into a new shiny box isn't fooling anyone. I'll give you the two reaons why you shouldn't by this. 1) No backlight makes this Palm worthless on Planes, dark places, or in bed. I can't tell you how many times I've reached for my Palm after I've gone to bed to check my schedule or add some note or idea I've just thought of. Unless you like waking your significant other by turning on all the lights, you need a backlight PERIOD. 2) 2mb is a joke. It's 2002 and I can't believe Palm would actually put out a PDA with only 2MB.This limitation really makes this PDA not worthy of consideration. Even though Palm coders do great work minimizing app size, just a few modern Palm apps will eat up all your memory. No expansion mean when you run out of storage space after adding a few cool apps means its time to buy a new PDA. Guess what Palm wants you to do then?
My 2cents as a longtime Palm user
Rating: 
Summary: Totally Impressed
Review: Last year I asked my wife for a PDA for Christmas which I received. She bought a good brand, a top seller, but I was totally frustrated with learning how it works. It shouldn't be that complicated. Maybe the Yippees and the Yuppies are smarter than I am or just determined to overcome any tough challenge. Not me! I bought a Palm Zire and fell in love. It has everything and does everything I need and I learned it in three minutes. The front cover is a soft, plastic flap which seems to be a pain to some but is easy to cope with and who needs backlighting? The battery is rechargable so I don't replace batteries. My calendar stretches on for years, my address book has about 250 entries and I've only just begun, my to do list is brilliantly simply, my note pad goes on forever with ideas, reminders, shopping list, etc. and I can switch from one category to the next with a simple touch of the handy stylus and back again. It is a delight to work with and anyone who slams it is an idiot! You want a stylish Cadillac with a phone and color TV screen, fine, go buy one, but for the price and simplicity you just can't beat it! In the world of sophisticated electronics, this little, light-weight, shirtpocket pal goes the distance for me . . . and probably for you. Simplify your life, get it all done and relax. Anything you need is right there in the Palm of your hand. Zire!
Rating:
Summary: pda newbie
Review: I bought this product for my hubby but decided I had to open it to find out how it worked. For a pda starter it worked great, the instructions were clear and with illustrations too. It was easy to get started. If you are looking for something that's just to be used for notes, address book, and to do list, this is great. It also has a game that helps you to learn the graffiti used by the palm. That helped a lot and was fun too. After I started getting to know it and learning online what pdas can do and all the programs available for it, the memory size (2 mb) was way too small. The plastic "cover" that comes with it is more of a burden than useable. The rechargeable battery and clear on screen battery meter makes it easy to use as soon as you charge it up. For the really novice and non techie, it's a great product for a great price. But the more you use it and find out the other programs available for it like Bible Reader, ebooks, pda cookbook, you definitely want an expandable pda.
Rating: 
Summary: NO BACKLIGHT!!!!
Review: Until you use it, you won't understand how incredibly annoying not having a backlit display is, especially with the text being so small on it. Not worth it, I returned mine after a few days.
Rating:
Summary: Good enough for a door stop
Review: So I am out looking for a PDA for our budding high schooler. Lo and Behold, here is one that {appears} to worth our effort and money. Palm's PDA latest has the lowest price for new PDAs on the market. We grabbed one and (after we paid for it of course) took it home for intense trials. The Zire has a white plastic design frame which I find unappealing. Thinking of all of the Coke spillage or ketchup stains that a typical teenage has on a daily basis. The protective cover is aggravating to say the least. Poorly made, attached and designed. It flips around or slides off to the side and accidentally activates the Zire while in storage. With semi standard dimensions (4.4 by 2.9 by 0.6 inches and 3.8 ounces), the Zire is no smaller than other Palms. But it does have a lighter weight, since they managed to leave out all of the good stuff. Lets talk Big Brother - Little Brother manufacturing. Today's market and research communities are striving for smaller, lighter, faster, flashier and less power hungry products. The differences between the Zire and its Palm siblings are atrocious at best. The To Do, Calculator and Note keys have been removed while the Contacts and Calendar buttons have been slid flush against the scroll controls. This appears to offer an easier operation, especially if trying to operate the Zire one handed. There is a customizable Favorites button that can be reassigned (as can all controls) through the Preferences menu to allow one to restore a missing button.
Since the Zire is equipped with a 16MHz processor and only 2MB of RAM, do not anticipate any blinding speed for performance. Trying to run any applications or even play a game bogs the Zire down. I have seen snails run faster (you know, like a Commodore VIC20). As compared to some of its competitors, the Zire is half as fast as other Palms, and one sixth the speed of Sony's Clie line up. The touch screen is easy enough to use, but so is my VCR. With the lack in performance one would think other features would rise and out shine the failure. But nooooooooo!! The 2.75 inch screen is monochrome without back lighting. The screen operates nearly as slow as the processor. Visible streaking and blurring as objects move across the display are for kids toys, not PDAs. At least it is as sharp as those of other monochrome Palm models and the resolution has not dropped below 160x160 pixels. Palm has all ways used a high level of contrast with their screens. This makes the screen easy to read, even in dim light. But you still need light (more than four candles). There is a good aspect of the lack luster screen. Since there are no backlight or colors to display (or drain the battery), the battery lasts much longer. The battery lasted over 24 hours before we put in on charge. The Zire comes with Palm OS 4.1and the software CD includes the latest versions of Palm Desktop for the PC and the Mac. Windows users also get Chapura Pocket Mirror for interfacing with Outlook. But do not look for the Documents To Go feature. This has been eliminated, so you can no longer view and edit Word and Excel documents (much less exchange them between PDA and your PC). There are four games included, but don't expect to get addicted to them, lame was the term my daughter used. The one positive push Palm has with the Zire is getting rid of a proprietary data connector. The Zire uses the increasingly popular USB cable and eliminates the need of a cradle. No more cradle or wires to haul around (or loose). The USB connection recharges the Zire's batteries. An AC adapter is included for those moments one is not near a computer.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth it.
Review: The lasting value of this is not worth your money. At 2MB, you can't store much of anything on it. At 8MB, agreed its a bit low in today's tech standards, but it functions perfectly for me and my desired apps. If you waste your money on this, you'll soon find that its a very pretty, but completely useless organizer. Shop around and you'll see that ... you can get either a better looking, more memory PDA, or a more memory PDA for cheap organnizing. Very poor product in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Practical
Review: I live hooked to a computer all day, all week, year round. All my addresses and appointments are stored in the computer. To look somebody up I need my computer...not anymore. Address book and schedule Plus notes and alarm! No extra memory and features that I don't need. If it breaks (and they do, my boss drops his about every 1.5 years) I didn't waste hundreds of dollars. I have computers for everything else.
Rating: 
Summary: Why don't you buy an M105. There the same thing
Review: From all of the reviews I've heard, you will be wasting your time buying a Palm Zire. I would buy a M105. They use the same system, the only thing different is the design. It is white and the buttons look different. If anyone have bought or is thinking of buying it you better make a better choice. Buy something else for more money. Here is what you might be looking for in the ... range. -Dell Axim ...
-HP Ipaq ... These must be better. If you want something good for a good price choose from these. They are in color and they are worth it for the price. The Zire is cheap and a waste of time. I would rather write then learn Graffiti. It is hard, trust me. I own a Palm and it is not worth it.
Rating:
Summary: NO BACKLIGHT!!!!
Review: Need I say more? And the screen is quite tiny, other than that, it's not a bad product if you don't mind it being overpriced. I returned mine a few days after buying it.
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