Rating: 
Summary: Sleek, Bare Bones-Just What a Palm Pilot Was Meant to Be
Review: Our 4 year old dropped a hammer on my Palm V, so I had to get a replacement. Although other models have many more features, I bought the Zire. Why? It's a bare-bones organizer with a rechargable battery. It's exactly what a Palm was meant to be, and why Palm was so successful in the first place several years ago. I now have the latest Palm software in a clean rechargable package for a dirt cheap price. If you want gazillions of contacts, buy something else. I've never used more than 500. If you want wireless, or color, or music, or video, buy something else. But if you want what the Palm originally set out to be, an intuitive shirt-pocket organizer, with a rechargable battery to boot, get a Zire.
Rating: 
Summary: How much would you pay for ALL THIS?
Review: I've owned three different palms over the years: a PalmPilot Professional in 1997, a Palm III in 1998, and a Palm Vx in 2000. I'm totally sold on these devices and simply couldn't function without one as my "backup brain."A few months back, I figured I would try to turn my 60-something parents on to a Palm device for storing phone numbers, appointments, etc. and for the occasional game of solitaire in the car. In a departure from my normal process of excruciatingly reviewing all options before making a purchase, I made an impulse buy at the local Circuit City and brought home a Palm Zire. I got it home and fired it up to check it out. Below I've attempted to approximate my reaction in a stream-of-consciousness format. "Looks cute enough, although I really wish they'd left all the buttons on this thing. USB connection is good. Hmmm, this display is kind of small. Let me turn on the backlight to see if they still use that cool Indiglo color. DOH! No backlight. Well, let me try to Sync it up and see how it runs some of my apps. Noooooo! Not enough memory. What marketing genius designed this thing? My Palm III is going on 5 YEARS OLD and it had as much memory as this thing PLUS it had a backlit display. Bad Palm. BAD Palm..." The final verdict? It went right back to the store. Even at the $... price point, there is simply no excuse for a product this devolutionary. Technological advances, competition from other PalmOS device makers, and years of experience manufacturing these things should have produced a much better product than this. How Palm can keep a straight face while attempting to foist this featureless product on the public is beyond me, particularly when one considers that an extra $... will get you a Sony CLIE PEG-SL10 (also a PalmOS device) with 4 times as much memory, a backlit screen with higher resolution, and Memory Stick expansion.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy with care and after much thought
Review: This product is ideal for a person who plans to:
a) maintain only contacts, calendar and to-do list
b) plan to read small books which use small memory, one at a time
c) buy a laptop/tablet PC to organize mail, office etc.
d) use laptop/cd-player to listen to music
e) use laptop for internet, maps, reading books etc.
f) buy a mobile phone I was one such person and this product suited my purposes very nicely. I dont plan to drag along my laptop everywhere (for eg. when i am on vacation). So, I need something small like a Palm Zire to store my contacts information and calendar. If you plan to do any of the above (c-e) and would like to still buy a palm device, then, you might consider looking for a HP-Jordana or Compaq-iPAQ. For # f above, try looking at Handspring. This product is only suitable for #a and #b. For #b, I download books one at a time and delete them after I finish reading.
Rating:
Summary: Great for those who don't want bells and whistles
Review: Ignore the power users who complain about no buttons for games or no backlight. The Palm Zire does what I want it to do: it has an addressbook and calendar that are easy to use and work well. The absence of the backlight and other stuff means it's very light and easily fits in my pocket, and the trickle charging battery means no problems with charging up. And 2 megs is more than enough for someone with modest needs. One tip: you can buy another mini-USB cable for ten bucks and use it for your work or home computer, so you can easily hotsync to both.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't be fooled...
Review: The new Zire Palm is essentially an updated version of the Palm m100, with the following changes:
* An even !Smaller! screen.
* A new, stylish form factor.
* A rechargeable battery.
* A funky new name. All of the other limitations of the m100 still exist. The memory is not upgradeable, and 2MB is pathetically small, allowing for only the most basic address and scheduling functions. The three PALM programs that I consider essential would overwhelm this puppy. They are: Mapopolis (a mapping program from Mapopopolis.com with keyword-searchable street maps), Avantgo (an online news service that downloads articles to your palm) and Vindigo (a restaurant, movie and city guide). The lack of memory is riduculous, especially considering that the m105 model that this also replaces has 8 MB and a slightly larger screen!
Believe me, screen size matters when you are pointing and clicking on a tiny keyboard on your Palm. And this has to be the smallest screen yet. To me, this model is only for those misguided and poor folks who would have bought the now-discontinued m100 model but want a rechargeable battery. There are far better models out there for only a few more bucks. You can still find some of the excellent Handspring Visor leftover models around for about the same price, which feature the large screens and 8 MB. And Sony's CLIE line of Palm OS handhelds basically now own the middle of the PALM product line. Here's a basic PALM product guide: Zire/Palm m100: Bottom of the line. Designed to suck you in but leave you wanting more. Think of this as the Chevy Chevette of Palms. Plagued by small screens.
Palm m105: The 8MB version of the m100. Fine, except needs batteries and plagued by small screen.
Palm 125: Ooh, expansion slot that you will probably never use. Still plagued by small screen.
Palm 130: Adds color, lithium battery to m125. Not bad, but screen still small, low res.
Palm m500: Still the standard for monochrome Palms. Lightweight, with a clear, large screen and a classic form-factor that gave the company its name. 8MB, expandable, lithium-polymer battery. Triple-Aces.
Palm m505: Discontinued color model features horrible washed out color screen. AVOID.
Palm m515: Soon to be discontinued Color PALM. Very good, but no Palm TUNGSTEN T.
Palm TUNGSTEN T: The top of the line. Finally, Palm builds a PALM that can compete with a Pocket PC. Too bad they priced it like one too. Triple Aces design, with fabulous ergonomics, fantastic high-res active screen, battery, bluetooth, and drop-down graffiti pad. For competitors, check out the new Handspring Treo models, which feature thumbpads and a small form factor (some with phones), and the Sony CLIE line. The CLIE models, which start at just over a hundred clams, have a nice form factor, and upper-level models feature the best high-res color screens for generally less than what you'd pay for a similar PALM-branded model. CLIE's feature memory-stick slots and lithium batteries. But I've heard Sony's customer service is weak compared to Palm's easy-as-pie returns. These things do break from time to time, so keep that in mind. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: A great buy
Review: The main criteria I had when buying this product was that I didn't want to spend a lot of money and I wanted something fairly small. The Zire meets both criteria! It is easy to learn, easy to work with, and has everything you need to organize your life: Address book, Date book, Memo pad, Financial pages. I love it! The only downside is the cheap cover included with it. I'm getting used to it, but it can be annoying when you're working with the screen and the cover suddenly flips down, blocking your view. Other than that, it's awesome!
Rating:
Summary: Very Satisfied
Review: Although I rush to buy new tech stuff and have a lot of it, I hadn't really wanted to pay the going rate for a PDA...especially since I'm retired and don't need anything to keep me organized. But when Palm intro'd the Palm Zire for [$], I couldn't resist. The main reason I bought it, besides the price, is that I wanted to be able to carry my address book with me. This works great for that, and it was very easy to transfer my main Windows address book to the Palm. It's also very easy to use. I can stick it in my pocket for notetaking, etc. Consequently, I find I'm using it more and more for errands, memos and 'to do' lists. The only drawback is that the screen is not backlit, and while the contrast is adjustable and the screen easily visible in bright light, it's hard to see under regular lamplight. As I become more dependent on this, I can see I will probably want to upgrade...exactly the marketing strategy Palm had in mind. Oh, and don't waste your money on Palm's PDA carrying case. It's made of a heavy, soft, kind of smelly plastic that takes away all the lightweight advantages of the small Palm Zire. You can find much nicer ones for much less online at places like eBags.com.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe if it was $75
Review: Even [$] is a little much for this little PDA. The screen is small, and there is little space for additional applications with only 2MB RAM. The rechargeable batteries are nice, but spend just a *little* more and get a PDA with a little more oomph. Palm should either beef up the features a little or lower the price a little.
Rating:
Summary: No features. Terrible PDA.
Review: Nothing is good about this PDA except the price. There is not enough memory, not enough speed, it is heavy and thicker than all the rest of the PDA's..... Spend a bit more money and buy another PDA.
Rating:
Summary: Changed my Life
Review: As someone who never used a PDA before, I decided to take the plunge since this is aimed at first-time users. I never expected this little device to be so useful. In just the first week, people are noticing that I am much more productive at work and in my volunteer activities. My job is more enjoyable because I am easily keeping track of all the little projects that come my way and I don't forget things and have to rush at the last minute to meet deadlines any more. My confidence is boosted by not having to rely on others to remind me of things or having to apologize for forgetting about this or that. I am orgainizing my personal life too and actually getting things done that I had been meaning to do for years but somehow never managed to keep focused on long enough to see them through. This device is fun to use and extremely useful. I wish I had bought a PDA years ago.
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