Rating: 
Summary: Very Disappointed
Review: What a piece of junk! The Visor Deluxe I purchased stopped syncing with my computer using the USB cradle. When first received, it worked great, but now after only 2 weeks the Visor freezes and I would have to reset and/or pull batteries out to reset. I liked the concept of expansion slot, but the Visor needs to be more reliable. I'm returning the Visor for a refund because I expect more for the money one must shell out for the unit and accessories. I'm very disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Give Palm the finger!
Review: After much research and checking out Palms IIIe, V, and Vx - I went with the Ice Visor Deluxe. This is an excellent product and it absolutely smokes the Palm - about 50% faster and the plug in modules rock. All the app's downloaded for Palm OS work fine and I am extremely happy with it. It syncs easily with Outlook including remote mail which is sent automatically on next dock/sync. You won't be sorry - BUY IT!!! Also, if you do, check out AvantGo.Com That's an execellent detached web service.
Rating:
Summary: Best Value in a PDA
Review: I have looked at every PDA on the market and the Handspring Visor Deluxe is the best value in a PDA out there. While you can get the regular Visor model with only 2 megs of RAM for about $170, the extra 6 megs is well worth the Visor Deluxe's higher purchase price of $250. So reach down deep, scrape up the extra green stuff, and go for the big VD! (Visor Deluxe). You'll be glad you did. I can fit 100 different utilities and programs into that 8 megs of RAM and still have 1.2 megs of space left for data and other stuff. This is a lot of extra real estate and you'll appreciate having it down the road. The other great thing about the Handsprings vis-a-vis the Palms is the Springboard slot. You might not need it now, but the capability to add another 8 megs of RAM is nice. But the coolest thing for me is the 8-meg backup module. This device is non-volatile and can be used to backup your data to the module, almost like a hard disk. That way if you have to do a hard reset sometime, you can get all your programs and data back. (There is a gotcha here--just make sure you remember to copy over the module's backup program to the module itself.) The module comes with software that allows you to manage all your files and programs. You can copy one file or everything at a time. Great for on the road or wherever. A couple of reviewers here have commented that the Visors are 30% to 50% faster based on their benchmarking programs compared to the Palms. I haven't tried running these benchmarks myself, but I would say just looking at the screen refresh rate on a Palm Vx compared to the Visor Deluxe, you can see it is at least 25% faster. Another thing about the screen, although it isn't a big difference, the Visor screens look a little brighter to me than the Palms. Considering that you're looking at blackish-green font characters on a pea-soup colored, greyish-green background on these little devices, every little bit of extra visibility helps. I also like the parallel lines on the side of the case, which make it harder for the unit to slip out of your hand, compared to the Palms. The Visor's ability to hot-sync via USB interface makes this process significantly faster than on the Palm devices. Another plus. My only reservation about the Visors compared to the Palms is that the Palm OS resides in flash ROM, which means you can update it yourself. The Visor's is in ordinary ROM, so you are stuck with the current version. The Palms are shipping with Palm OS 3.5, the Visors with 3.1. Although OS 3.5 represents an advance over 3.1, this shouldn't be a big deal, as the older OS has a reputation for being more stable. Whatever Visor model you decide to buy, you'll be happy you did. These PDA's actually make it fun to get organized. Try one and you'll see how good it feels knowing everything is in one place where you can find it, instead of in three different notebook-style organizers and 40 Sticky Notes on the walls of your office. Also, the ability to search all the internal databases is a very powerful feature. How many times with your regular organizer (or worse, on notes scattered around your office) have you tried to find a particular memo or note but couldn't find it? The search feature eliminates this problem. And there are even more powerful search utilities than the native app that you can add on that will do more, such as accepting wild cards. The value of this feature relative to the normal binder/organizer cannot be overestimated.
Rating:
Summary: Handspring Software conflicts with Mac OS
Review: Ack! No sooner had I slipped my visor into it's cradle and eagerly tried the backup (long overdue since the demise of my Palm 3x), then the visor crashed. Not a little flickering kind of crash but a reset-the-whole-hunk-of-hardware crash. I contacted the handspring help desk via email (and a week later have yet to hear back). I went ahead and downloaded the Mac OS "patch" from the Handspring website (2 hours for us 56K modem-users) which cleared up the earlier incompatibility but created a new error in synching. I'm thinking of returning this in favor of a Palm again. Waaaay too much trouble.
Rating: 
Summary: What They Don't Advertise!
Review: First of all, the applications available on a palm operating system are great. And the Visor is a good vehicle to access these apps. -- like the Palm. The ONE thing I didn't pick up in my research that MAY be pertinent is that the Visor requires regular battery replacements. The Palm (I think starting with the V) has rechargeable batteries that are juiced by the synch cradle. I change my Visor's batteries every 3 weeks. Maybe no big deal if you have kids at home (and lots of batteries) but I find it a pain. Is it a $150 pain? Probably not. But I wish I had known . . .
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: The Handspring Visor Deluxe gave me a great joy when recieving it....I couln't wait to try it out with all the neat little downloads then I came to a major problem my Visor wouldn't sync with my computer, yet with days of e-mail between me and Handspring it was my computer that was rejecting the HotSync....So when and if you have a problem you need to have patience and ask for help becuase I was ready to ship it off. The only other problem I have found is that the alarm for appointments isn't loud enough to really hear in it case....and the alarm display stays on for a couple min. until it decides that it needs to turn off which I found out, when my battery is ready to go dead...but it is very useful especially for a busy person like me...The only unuseful parts I found is the Giraffe game (DON'T DOWNLOAD IT unless you like to parctice graffiti) and the other is the Expense part becuase I am not old enough to need that and the Mail part cause it downloads all your e-mail and takes up a lot of memory but since they don't take up mb sitting there empty I guess you can live with just ignoring them. So I encoarge you to buy this becuase it is downloadable to many things and a lot of fun just to play games on.
Rating:
Summary: Handspring Visor Delux
Review: Although I said that I was not happy that there is no backlight, I was wrong. One of the Handspring Visor users mentioned to me that if you hold the ON button for 3 seconds, you will get a backlight, and that is correct. Wonderful product, fun and easy to use ~ especially if you need the backlight :-) Thanks Denise for the clarification!
Rating:
Summary: A Stylish product
Review: If there is anything remarkable about the Visor Deluxe then it is the look which draws you to it. In terms of functionality it has a few more features than the Palm IIIxe. Of course the expansion slot makes it an innovative product. These modules don't come cheap. I was upset about the 8MB DRAM issue until i saw the update posted on Handspring's website which corrects the fault. ...
Rating:
Summary: The Visor is Awesome... and it does have a backlight.
Review: I got a Visor when they first came out in retail stores. I love it. It does so much and I like the fact that Handspring is a progressive company, unlike Palm, they are really pushing this device as far as they can! It does have a backlight, I think that I just have to hold in the power button for it to light up, but I'm not positive, but I know I've definately seen it before.
Rating:
Summary: The next generation of PDA's
Review: First off, if your a business professional, as I am in sales, go with the graphite. Targus makes an incredible, easy to use keyboard which is the same color and folds up nearly as small as the Visor itself. Most of the modules also are graphite colored, so unless you are just dying to get away from the professional look, any other color will look like a gameboy. For the price this is the best PDA currently on the market. Why? because it uses the same OS as the whole palm family and was designed by the same person who invented the original palm devices for use with the palm OS. Why its so afforably priced? With 8 megs of RAM, (alot for base PDA memory) a global time progam which is a visual pleasure to use, an advanced version of datebook (Datebook + not offered on regular Palm devices), and an advanced calculator for those who need it, but which is still simple to use. I am assuming the great price is designed to provide quick and deep market penatration, and we get the benefit of it! Regarding the springboard module Game-boy like slot on the back. Take a look at six-pack, which in one module is a hardline modem, and 8MB expansion card, a silent vibration reminder, as well as 3 other function being released summer/early fall of 2000. If your a Doctor they have the PDA 2000, and from its initial game offering, a very well rounded system with the future of upgrades looking very bright. BOTTOM LINE: This PDA has not even begun to realize its potential, like any new system, but judging by the current additions available the Handsping should be doing HANDSTANDS over the competition in this price range and even more expensive units. Buy with confidence, oh and if you enter alot of information, GET THE TARGUS COLAPSING KEYBOARD, took me less than 3 minutes to get it up and running smooth!
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