Rating: 
Summary: Palm Pilot
Review: I received the Zire 21 Handheld as a b-day gift. I am in college and it goes everywhere with me. I take notes, draw diagrams and even work on papers on it. The only drawback I have had is that it will mess up on letters occasionaly while note taking; spacing when i was writing a "n" and other small things. Over all I have been delighted with it.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor customer service
Review: I recently replaced my Palm 105 with the new Palm Zire 21. While the features are more than adequate for organizational, non-web needs, my particular unit has not worked correctly since I bought it a couple of months ago. It wipes out all the data from time to time, making it useless. Palm's service has been deplorable. Even though the unit is clearly defective, and is still under manufacturer's warranty, Palm will not replace it free of charge - and has offered only to repair for a $39 handling fee (this for a unit that cost $99 to purchase!). What a foolish business decision on their part - they have lost my confidence and all future business.
Rating:
Summary: Me Too! (Random Resets)
Review: I sure wish I had read the reviews here before buying this thing. From day 1, my Zire 21 kept resetting itself, losing all data. When I contacted Customer Service, they finally said they would send me a mailing label by email that I could use to return the Zire for a refund. The label never came, so I called back a few days later to enquire. They told me they would send a return label to my mailing address. Again, no label. By the time I contacted them the third time, I was past the 30 day mark, thus not eligible for a refund. They said they would send me instructions for sending it in for in-warranty repair. Again, I have received nothing.If you check the PalmOne web site, you can find a comment about "some" cell phones causing Zire 21s to reset. (Of course, you will not find any comment about this serious defect on the sales pages--They have buried it in the "support" area.) So, what am I supposed to do about it, stop using a cell phone? The reset problem is clearly a defect. Do reputable companies continue to sell products that are clearly defective, and then stall to avoid having to make a refund? I do not think so. I used a Palm III for the four years prior to this purchase, and I would have been happy to use it for another twenty years, but I finally managed to break it. I bought the Zire because it is similar to the Palm III, and I respected the Palm brand. No more! Never again will I buy a Palm product. The company has proven itself dishonest and unresponsive.
Rating:
Summary: Total Piece of Junk !!!
Review: I was prepared to deal with limited memory and the unlit screen. What I wasn't prepared for is the fact that every time I start this thing now it jumps back to Jan. 2003. Every fourth time (or thereabouts) it loses all data and requires a reset (screen centering, date, time, etc.)and then a hot sync to reinstall all of the lost data. Now after six months it when it hot syncs it won't add any new appointments. I bought this because it was inexpensive and I wanted to see if I would get enough use out of a PDA without spending $400 and having it collect dust. I found out three things. 1. I think PDAs are a fine idea and I will use one a great deal.
2. You get what you pay for and the Palm Zire 21 and Palm's quality and customer service are truly unimpressive (90 day warranty then $25 per call for service and no useful information on their web site)
3. I will buy another more sophistcicated PDA from one of their competitors.
Rating:
Summary: Good price but poor choice of parts
Review: I've been a user of Zire 21 for a year and quite<br />
satisfied with it (for a less than $100 PDA!)<br />
until I encountered same thing other users <br />
had encountered: It resets!<br />
Good thing I made sure I do Hot Sync<br />
every other week but still it's kind of<br />
frustrating knowing some data will be lost.<br />
<br />
I noticed that at extreme temperature <br />
(Im barely above freezing point <br />
right now because im on a business trip in Japan),<br />
the Zire21 malfunctions and eventually<br />
caused the reset.<br />
There might be parts (reset IC or the<br />
power supply section) that are not rated<br />
to such extreme temperature.<br />
Other reviews say that reset is triggered<br />
when cellphone rings.<br />
RF (radio frequencies)signals emited by cell sites<br />
or base stations are of microwatt range and if accompanied<br />
by a poor choice of parts, malfunction will surely happen.<br />
I looked at the back of the Zire 21, and I see it was Made in China.<br />
No wonder. <br />
Rating: 
Summary: Great option for the price
Review: I've been wanting to switch over to a PDA for last couple months basically to get rid of the bulk & the hassle of carrying around a paper planner. When this product was released I knew it was exactly what I needed, the original Zire lacked the memory I wanted to be able to install some 3rd party software, such as games. With this new model I have more than enough room for a few games to play in between classes as well as the standard datebook & address software. I basically use my Zire 21 to keep track of appointments, homework, and telephone numbers, but the expense software included seems like a great program if you are interested in keeping track of that information on your Palm. Overall this is perfect for organizing my sometimes hectic college career and I expect once I graduate it will be just as helpful in keeping my organinzed and on time. The only feature I think would be a nice addition would be a backlight. The screen is easy to view in normal and even some low light, but in the dark is useless. A backlight would ensure it would be viewable at all times. I primarily use mine during the day in light conditions though, so this isn't really a problem, but I can see some people using a backlight frequently.
Rating:
Summary: Very Useful But...
Review: I've had my Palm Zire 21 for a year so far and it has come in pretty handy in some sticky situations. I did once try to download the new Kaplan 2005 ACT prep software for Palm OS but it didn't work. I managed to update my Palm Reader application to eReader application successfully and upgrade my powerOne calculator application. It does a lot for small price tag. But if you require more out of an Palm One Device with more memory & features please check out the Palm One Zire 31 instead.
Rating:
Summary: Basic handheld does it's job well
Review: It has almost all the applications and functions that any more expensive handheld has. Surely, lack of backlight is a shortcoming, but as a basic handheld one cannot expect everything I guess. I use it with avantgo.com to regularly download maps,weather,news. One thing I could not make it do is infra-red-ing a 'category' of all addresses together to another device. It does it's job decently otherwise.
Rating: 
Summary: Could have been great
Review: It is the Zire21 that introduced and addicted me to the world of pdas. And I loved the fact that it was simple, monochromatic, and cheap, with great battery... But it has too many manufacture problems to be considered seriously: I suffered from 2 hard resets while trying to download freewares, and 5 months after buying it, some electric component overheated for no appearent reason and now it is dead, with expired warranty (which is only 3 months).
Conclusion: I still want a simple and cheap pda, such as the new Zire31, but am uncertain on its quality. Palm is making a bad decision by keeping the zire21 on the market.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: It will constantly lose data! I still like Palm Zires but get a different model. I love my Zire 71.
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