Rating: 
Summary: HotSync failed first time, waiting 24-48 hrs for a call back
Review: Excited to open my new machine, first one since the screen on my old Palm Pro failed a year or so back. Palm V looked cool, nice Li-ion batteries etc. etc. Set it up, installed the software and pushed the Hot Sync button. PC icon fired up and then they both sat there until the V timed out. Customer support indicated that this was a known problem (the user field was blank) but that they couldn't help me with it and took a number for a developer to call back - they indicated a 24 to 48 hour time frame for this to happen. I don't recall them saying "sorry". I assume that I will be happy in the end, but so far, I am more than a little disappointed. Oh, did I mention that the hard case doesn't fit properly and doesn't click shut - I expected it to be all metal, but it is plastic with a brushed metal panel on the front and back. The hinge is plastic and the Palm V has to be taken out to charge anyway so I expect it to break in the near future. Might well return it and go find a leather one. Not a good start.
Rating: 
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: January 15, 2000 3Com's Palm PDA's are definitely the best PDA's on the market. You can read the other reviews to hear how this device will help you organize your life and how wonderful it is. As a Palm collector (I have all Palm and Pilot models), I will rather compare the Palm V to the Palm Vx. The only difference between the two is that the V has 2MB of RAM, while the Vx has 8. I have thousands of addresses, thousands of appointments, and many more to-do items, documents, etc. in my Palm. I also have fax, e-mail, and internet software installed, among many other programs. I only use about 1.5 MB. Therefore, although I have the Vx, I don't use any of the additional memory. Technically, because of the additional memory, the Vx is faster. Nonetheless, because Palm applications are so small, this difference is truly negligible. Therefore, before you spend $100 more on the Vx, make sure you're going to use the additional memory. It's the only difference. Now, remember: the V series is rechargable, while the III series uses AAA batteries. Therefore, travelling with a V palm means you'll have to carry around the cradle. If you'd rather use batteries, maybe the IIIx is better for you. Good luck!
Rating: 
Summary: Tired Attorney
Review: I got a Palm V about 2 years ago. My hope was that I could trash my full-to-bursting filo fax with multiple addresses/business cards for my ever-moving family and friends and also take my work calendar and address book on the road thereby avoid the constant stress of not being able to get hold of my secretary to access diary appointments and contact details when away from my desk-top/lap-top. The touch -screen alignment of the first Palm V I received went out of whack almost immediately making it impossible to "tap" anything in the top half inch of the screen and extremely irritating. I tried a number of times to access the help-desk but who has an hour a day to stay on hold? By the time I finally got through it was about 10 months into my warranty. The chap I spoke to was very pleasant and advised that I return my Palm for a refurbished model. The return policy was easy and I was impressed by the "just put it back in the box it came in, have the courier service pick it up and we'll sort it all out" and hopefull of a successful result. The refurbished model I later got turned out to have exactly the same problem once I hot-synched it with my desk-top application (leading me to think it was the software and not the actual device). It was a few more weeks before I had time to brave the help-desk again. This time my one year warranty was up so I was told I could either pay $100 to get it fixed (and risk getting the same [bad] system back again) or buy a new one. I decided to put up with the one I had. Unfortunately the "refurbished" model turned out to be even [worse] than the first one as not only was the screen out of whack, this one randomly "fainted" when I took it off its cradle even when fully recharged, i.e., sometimes I would switch it on and five minutes later it would totally run out of steam and freeze up, sometimes I could take it away for a week-end and it was ok. As it always seemed to pass-out and leave me stranded on the business trips, I took to taking a hard-copy of my contact database with me as a back-up. I am now at the point where I print out my entire database and calendar when I am out of the office AND take my filofax to keep the business cards in. I am still committed to the idea of the Palm and jealous of my friends' functioning models but am wary of shelling out another [item price] for something ultimately less useful than an etcha-sketch.
Rating:
Summary: Veteran Palm User loves the Palm V
Review: I've had a Palm III for years and finally bought the Palm V when my III's screen began failing. After a couple of months of using the V and comparing it to my wife's III, the screen on the V is sooooo much better. The sleek metal case makes the III feel like a cheap toy.
My advice:
1. Get the Palm V Hard Case - it'll protect it and keep the buttons from accidentally getting pushed. It looks real cool, too, and it adds very little bulk.
2. Not all the hacks and shareware work with the new Palm V OS - so if you've loaded it up with your Palm III apps, it may be causing all kinds of problems. My Palm V is actually MORE STABLE than my III was.
3. I love the built-in battery and recharging cradle. I can leave it on all the time when it's in the cradle and not after worry that the battery is running down in the middle of Hot Syncing. Besides, disposable batteries are bad for the environment.
4. A fully charged battery lasts about a month - if you can afford to be on the road in a foreign country for a month or more, you can afford the Travel Kit ($40) which comes with a lightweight universal AC adapter, plug adapters, and pouch.
5. I agree the backlighting on the Palm V isn't as nice as the III - it actually reverses the image, so it takes some getting used to.
Rating:
Summary: Shines like a star, acts like a stuntman...
Review: I own a Palm V for more than 6 months and watched my initial expectations gradually fade away. Not that this shiny gadget is a failure, but people (and maybe the marketers [!]) pushed it up to a "carry-your-life-in-your-pocket" position. Despite the -reasonable- limitations of its size, Palm V does more than a good job. Its own Graffiti pen-based input interface is acceptable and fast, the operating sytem easy to use and failure-proof. You can find loads of software, most for free, at your convenience on the web, while the ones that already come with the unit would let you carry out any daily organizing and recording task. With the HotSynch craddle, charging and synchronizing , -even with Microsoft Outlook,- are almost effortless. When charged the unit almost keep working forever (I could not test it to exhaustion yet!). The infrared support adds to all that. Now about my expectations fading away... Play with a color, Windows CE based palmtop, and the idea to carry a heavier and short-breathed box in your pocket would probably seem to be an idea. I carried my Palm V with me during long business trips, playing around on spreadsheets and trying to read books I had downloaded. After at most 20 minutes of staring at that dull green and dark olive screen, I shut it off and never touched it for at least another day. Games? Remember your Nintendo days where they had those Gameboys? Don't expect any better. And sound (not beeps) is yet to come in future episodes! If Palm is intended for packing your organizer data in and taking it out on the road, than it does it. And with the software you would find, it even would act like a remote control or a full-featured scientific calculator. I actually did not ever bother with sending e-mail using it, and would not since I would have to connect it to a wall outlet around which I could have found a connected desktop or a laptop 99% of the times! And, services for Palm VII are not yet available in Istanbul. But having my Palm V charged with a map and a guide at TeleComm '99 in Geneva was quite a good surprise: Having a Palm means to be the part of an evergrowing community, for which services and facilities also grow. And so it goes on... Here is the deal... If you look for a marvel a quarter the size of your laptop to replace it, than wait for another season or you'd better go for a slightly more expensive Windows CE color device like one from the Cassiopea C-100 series. However, in that latter case you'd end up charging your palmtop at every stop you would find and wait for the files to pop-up forever! If you look for a sturdy and stylish organizer with easy loading and interface, a notepad at your fingertips witout the hassle of pen and paper and with thousands of pages of capacity, that Palm V is what you are looking for (if you are willing to pay all that money for only that). Well it can do more than that, but that would be like a 3-year-old boy acting like his dad, even with all that software around...
Rating:
Summary: Palm V
Review: The shipping and receiving of the Palm was adequate. However the back light didn't function. I e mailed the seller about the problem but never received a reply.
Rating:
Summary: The long awaited Palm V
Review: Well, it has taken three weeks and three different online companies to get the Palm V to me. Was it worth the wait? You bet...although it's a bit pricey due to the shortage of flash ram and LCD screens. After filling up my address book, downloading e-mail and news (through AvantGo), as well as various applications and games I still have about 768K left. 2MB may seem like a small amount of storage to some people, but it goes a long way as long as you manage your e-mail, games, and amount of AvantGo channels you read. The HotSync operation only takes a few minutes, and I spent a total of five minutes learning the alphabet and numbering system of the graffiti language. Once fully charged, the battery never seems to diminish no matter how much I use it. Even though the Palm V did not come with a nice checkbook program, I found a free one immediately at download.com. Now that the US version is sold out in most places, I would highly recommend considering the international version as it seems like it is virtually the same as the US version with an international AC adapter.
Rating:
Summary: PalmV Handheld
Review: I've owned one for two years; it made it possible for me not to travel with my notebook. It sync's to ACT!2000 with more than 1200 names in about 90 seconds. Be sure to download the newest software from Palm and from your contact manager for best results.
The slim design allows you to carry this anywhere. It's never given me any problems.
Rating: 
Summary: The worst Ever Experiance with Palm
Review: Having comfortably used Palm3 , I thought i would go for Palm 5.
In the first 90 days , Palm sent three units , which to my utter astonishment have got different kinds of problems . After one year of purchase of this Palm5 , I am using my old Palm3 . If you want to rely on Palm hand held , Don't go for Palm V.
Rating: 
Summary: The classic Palm
Review: This was one of Palm's real groundbreaking handhelds, with it's sleek case and low weight. Still a great handheld but only has 2 MB of memory and lacks the SD slot that the new Palms are being manufactured with. If you just need a calendar and address book, this will do it, but the m100 will do just about the same (...)(with albeit a much smaller screen). The backlight on the Palm V is woeful like the backlights on all Palms, but is not needed too often.
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