Rating: 
Summary: Quality Control Issues
Review: I bought a Palm 3 for my wife, and she loved it. She used it constantly for 45 days, and loaded it up with everything she could think of. Then... it died - touch screen wouldn't accept input. She called Palm (take note of the other reviews here with the long calls, and no 800 number). They told her they could ship her a "refurbished" unit to replace it, but she wanted a brand new one (after all, it was only 45 days old and she treated it like gold - no scratches or any other abuse). They couldn't do it, so she opted for the refund. To make a long story short, about 20 phone calls, people promising to call back, couldn't find the paperwork from the "other" Palm service center, etc... it took 3.5 months to get the refund. Since then, I've asked around at work and found about 60% of the Palm 3 owners that recently bought their units have had their units die inside the warranty period (one just yesterday, was 8 months old). No similar problems with the Palm 5 or Palm 7, only the Palm 3's (E, X, and XE). Apparently, when demand got tight, Palm QC went out the window on the 3 line. No similar problems with 2 year old + Palm 3's either. My wife loved (and still does) the OS, and the unit itself, but she will not buy Palm again, after the runaround she (and apparently others here) received. She will be buying a Handspring or PocketPC - we're not sure yet - but NOT another Palm. Ask around, you may be surprised at what people are thinking before you buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow, AMAZING
Review: Having been a Palm user since '98, I recently bought a handspring visor deluxe, only because of the 56k Modem. I must say at first I was quite impressed at the Visor's speed but soon came to realize it's high battery consumption. Maybe its because I ran it in debugger mode to get a rom from it or something, but after 4 days of use, its original panasonic batteries were reduced to almost half. I can't resist but to say that a WinCE device i used, had a much higher battery consumption, dying by the middle of the day after a whole night of charging etc. I must say as a power-user and a programmer that the iPaq/Casio/insert-wince-device-here feel like ugly hack jobs. Then i bought the Palm IIIxe last week. Somehow after atleast 3 hours of daily use, the thing still has 100% battery. The software bundled are amazing, its got palmos 3.5 (the deluxe has 3.1) and its smaller than the deluxe. (the deluxe is cooler looking tho). The PalmIIIxe also has a better case than the annoying one the Visor comes with. I must admit something though ... sometimes the PalmIIIxe feels a *little* slower than the Visor Deluxe. I guess thats what I pay for its amazingly low power consumption. Another thing I love about the palmIIIxe is the clarity of the its screen, at day AND night. Overall, if you are buying a computer (handheld) for its main PIM features, compatibility with gigs and gigs of high-quality freeware/shareware/opensource/commercial applications, lots of ram, clear display and a long batter life, buy a PalmIIIxe. I even got a 50$ rebate cause "I am Canadian"! If expandability is an issue, buy a Visor. If you like to have clunky, ugly big things that dont have much software and low batter life, buy a "Pocket PC".
Rating:
Summary: Palm is the way to go
Review: If you're looking for a PDA, then I'd definitely recommend getting a Palm Pilot. You can get those cheap ones, but you end up losing much more than you think. You don't then have the option of expansion like you do with the Palms. There's hundreds upon hundreds of additional software available for the Palm Pilots that won't run under those different Operating Systems like what the Casseopia or DaVinci use. The additional software greatly expands the capabilites of the Palm. Programs like Word and Excel for the Palm, games, advanced datebooks, and many many other programs. And many of them are free, there's websites dedicated to freeware and shareware PalmOS software. Palms also can be expandable by extra devices, such as the Kodak PalmPix Digital Camera, GPS's, SmartPad, wireless modems, and many other devices. The possibilites are endless. The Palm IIIxe I believe is the way to go. It contains 8mb of memory like the more expensive Palms, but it costs much less. If you want the sharper color display, then the IIIc is good too. Otherwise my recommendation falls on the IIIxe.
Rating: 
Summary: update on unfortunate circumstance
Review: Got my Palm IIIxe back and discovered that they hadn't bothered to repair it. They just put in a new set of batteries. Had to go through the same routine of calling them on my dime and 20 minutes later I'm right back where I started. The unit has to be shipped back to Palm for repair and I'm out of a PDA for the next couple of weeks. These guys are the worst.
Rating:
Summary: Palm is an amazing organizational tool!
Review: The Palm IIIxe is a very useful item for me. I have quite an extensive listing of phone numbers which have proven to be very handy for me. When I'm away from home, my "phone book" is always with me. I love using the Memo Pad to take notes at meetings, jot down ideas to present at meetings, sermon notes, grocery lists, etc. I also love the date book as well. Again, I don't have to worry about leaving my calendar wherever I'm not. The Palm is amazing. I'm considering purchasing the keyboard just to make it easier to enter lots of text.
Rating: 
Summary: great model, but not expandable
Review: I purchased the Palm IIIxe in the fall of 2000, and it has been a great addition to my professional life. It has helped keep my schedule organized to a much greater degree than any paper organizer I've used, and the ability to sync with Outlook is a major plus. I have even dropped it onto a hardwood floor a few times (d'oh!) and it has fortunately survived. My only complaint is the lack of expandability. PDAs are great for healthcare professionals because they allow us to lighten our coat pockets of notecards, reference books, and paper. However, the ever-increasing availability of medical references for PDAs forces us to pick-and-choose which references to include. 8mb initially seemed like a lot, but LexiDrugs alone eats up 2.7mb. The Visor models from Handspring seem to lack this problem and would probably have greater utility to me. The only reason I did not buy one is the complaints I've heard about the durability of the Visor and lack of customer service. In retrospect, I am still very glad I purchased a PDA but I do feel contrained by its memory restriction.
Rating:
Summary: Great product for $199
Review: I picked up my Palm IIIxe as a gift to myself for Christmas. I love it! I found Graffiti just a bit limiting, but I eventually downloaded Jot and the handwriting recognition is blazingly fast and super accurate. There are so many third-party software programs, you can spend hours browsing and downloading great add-ons. I have tossed my old 5-pound Franklin-Covey planner in the trash and now I use my IIIxe for everything. It's a great companion at meetings for note taking, schedule and contact info swapping, and even playing chess during those boring ones! I haven't had the quality problems some of the other reviewers report, but maybe I'm just lucky.
Rating:
Summary: Best 199 money can buy!!
Review: This is one amazing little device. Say goodbye to the sticky notes, and little papers with info on it. The Palm IIIxe does it all. PLus you can install games, applications, you name it. the graffitti feature is great and easy to use. In 5 minutes you will up and running. Also the backup to the PC (hotsynch) is great since you can have all your data protected in case you run out of batteries which doesn't happen if you keep an eye on the display. My advice... buy it!!!
Rating:
Summary: The "almost there" Palm
Review: I bought my palm in December, and initially the palm could perform up to my initial expectations, but when I wanted the Palm to do more,it wouldn't. In particular I have had problems finding software that would allow me to view Microsoft spreadsheets or Microsoft Word documents. I still haven't found a good way to view either. It seems that Pocket PC may be the better OS for office productivity.
Rating: 
Summary: Have a problem within 2 weeks
Review: I was very happy at the first time but 2 weeks later the power button didn't work anymore. I had to pay long distance call to call Palm customer service and waited more than 20 minutes but customer service cannot help me at all. They said I need to send to palm to repair which will take more than 2 weeks. I decided to return it back.
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