Palm Z22 Handheld
by PALM
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Our Price: $169.99 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $40.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Palm Z22 Handheld
Customer Review: Getting the Right Tool is Half the Battle
Summary: 5 Stars
I have struggled to organize my life for years, and discovered last week that I just didn't have the right tool. I got the Palm Z22 to "try out" a pda without spending too much money. I'm already hooked, and am eager to be able to upgrade to a handheld with more memory and more features.
This handheld is a great starter pda. It has enough memory for basic organizer tasks. I have the calendar, task list, contacts, shopping list, memo and note pad features that came with it. I love being able to sync with my Outlook calendar on my desktop. The alarms on it are pretty hard to hear unless you keep the pda close to you, which I do. However they do continue to go off until you turn them off, so I have found them helpful for remembering tasks and appointments in advance, but not so much for alerting me of impending appointments. I added NIV Bible software to it, but found it sucked up too much memory, so I've removed it for a while. I did add Documents to Go and the Diet and Exercise Assistant which I love, and which don't use so much memory. For what I need right now--just a basic organizer--this one is great.
It doesn't come with an MP3 player, but I already have one of those. The Z22 is limited on the game software it will play, but again, that's not what I got it for, and I've decided that having games my be counter-productive. I don't think I'd load it down with too many photos, but it can handle some current ones that I want to show off. All of the software is easy to manage.
I have had a little trouble syncing it to my computer, but the Palm support site had great troubleshooting steps, and I was able to get it working even more easily than they indicated I would. (Evidently there were some conflicts with the Media Center edition of Windows XP, but I've been able to quickly work around them.) I love the Grafitti feature that lets you write directly to the pda instead of using a keyboard. It was a little hard to get used to the specific ways and locations that letters and characters had to be written at first, but I adjusted my writing pretty quickly.
I would recommend this to someone just starting to use a pda, or someone eager to replace their paper daytimer, or someone like me who loses all those little pieces of paper with notes to self written on them. This is a great alternative!
Customer Review: A very easy to use product which is well worth the price!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using the palm z22 for a week now and it is awesome!If you aren't looking for a cell phone bluetooth enabled mp3 player movie watcher web browser emailer instant messenger thingamajig,just a faithful well made organizer(with awesum bonus features I might add) then this is for you. The first thing I noticed about it is how easy it is to use! You can keep all life's details in this handheld and it STAYS there!Also type in all of your friends phone numbers in contacts and even add their birthday! There are various alarms that you can set for any event to remind you of them and you only have to enter events that repeat once.For example I have a piano lesson every thurday at 4 so I just type it once and hit repeat once a week and it appears every week until the stop date!This is also the perfect device for teachers that have to keep track of their students with homework and everything. And obviously it's great for the student! Easily keep track of ALL your assignments and due dates(in task mode and memos)and you'll be able to get them done on time(I know from experience).It is so small and light that it feels like a wallet in your pocket.Outside it looks like an ipod almost. The screen is the perfect size for all the applications like reading books, news, and scheduling your life.You can easily jot down a quick note with Graffiti 2 handwriting recognition, or use the onscreen keyboard to enter information.The included cd rom includes cool bonus software that really are useful.Such as a shopping list, mobile db which is a database of all kinds of stuff, ebook reader if you want to read books,chess for those boring hours, checksplit, a first aid guide, a calculator, and LOTS of other stuff.Hot syncing it to your computer is so easy! Just plug it in and hit hot sync and all your dates, appointments, memos, notes and whatever are stored on your computer so you don't lose them. The battery lasts surprisingly long. I haven't had to charge it in a week since I got it! It would be nice if it had a custom made aluminum case, but the polycarbonate air case works just great and protects it from scratches and stuff, so make sure you invest in one.Overall this is a very attractive looking and well made handheld. If you are thinking of buying this, then think NO MORE! This is the handheld for you!Customer Review: Nice for the Price
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using the z22 for a few days and have found it to be a great product for anyone not concerned with wireless, a large handheld display screen or extended memory. I've used palms for several years and keep a lot of technical notes in the Palm memo app for use when I'm in remote locations doing system adminstration work. My previous palm was a III xe - it was trailing edge technology but very durable and useful as long as I could find a synching machine that still had a serial connection.
The install for the z22 was easy and worked flawlessly. I tried the install via the usb port on Macintosh System X and Windows XP formats. The installation program pulled all my old palm info into the Z22; memos, contacts, calendar and task functions were all maintained in the upgrade. Some of the older applications were not compatible with the Palm 5 OS on the z22. Most of the problems apps were old games that I was not that concerned about.
For under $100 dollars, I'm very impressed with the following;
1) colors are bright and reading the screen is easy in light or dark settings.
2) I currently have 17.5 mbytes memory left on the z22 after the upgrade. In the PC world, this is very little memory, but for a Palm environment this is a lot of entries. If I was concerned about using mp3's, video, doc, or Excel files on a palm format, I would consider another device.
3) The battery lasts a long time. I once used a Palm M515 color palm and it needed recharged a lot more than the Z22 does. The advertised time of 8 hours between charges is probably accurate.
4) The size and weight of this device is very light - it is not much bigger than my pager and fits very comfortably in a pocket.
The only problem I've had with the Z22 is that when I use it with a Taurus wireless keyboard, the response is somewhat slow and delayed. Also, the 160X160 screen size might be of concern to some people, but I find it to be very readable with bi-focally challenged eyes.
Is there anything really innovative about this device? Not really. But I think Palm did a great job of combining the right features into an entry level color organizer for a double diget price.
Customer Review: Paper manufacturers cry, trees rejoice
Summary: 5 Stars
A lot of things here are probably similar to most PDAs. This review is mostly geared towards the fellow first time buyer. This item caught my eye because of the color screen, small size, cost, and (mostly) excellent reviews here on Amazon--thanks guys. I kept with it because of its ease of use, and just overall usefulness. I've had none of the issues talked about in prior reviews so far.
I've been hesitant to buy a PDA because of the price, and because, well, I don't need a whole bunch of crap like a camera and mp3 player and Bluetooth and internet access and...You get the idea. I'm a big fan of the simple item--one item one purpose. If one peripheral breaks, I'm out one item and not five. My wife just walked by and reminded me of another reason I was hesitant-you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
For the first time buyer thinking of a PDA, this is a perfect choice. I spent a lot of time going though a lot of units, and in my experience it's the best value for its cost. It is relatively inexpensive--and I was amazed as all my paper was reduced to a little unit about the size of a deck of cards. I installed the software (no problem on my XP), and spent a couple hours going through all my to-do lists, chore lists, car maintenance lists, contact lists, birthday lists, schoolwork lists, work lists, house lists (I just recently bought a house), aquarium lists (I'm an avid fish hobbyist)...all those LISTS-and put them all in my computer. Then I hooked up the hotlink, and voila! All that paper reduced to a little unit.
When I have the unit away from my computer, I was wondering how I was going to enter data without a keyboard. Then I discovered "Graffiti 2". Wow, just wow. I understand for prior users this is a "Duh", but for me it was revolutionary. For those like me who had no idea, you "write" letters on the screen using the stylus, and it picks up the letter. And here I am thinking "oh jeez, I have to tap stupid keys on that tiny screen." I'm still getting used to a couple letters, k and r get me every time, but it's nearly as fast as writing for me now. Oh, and no more post-its, my PDA took care of those too.
I feel like a puppy again.
Customer Review: Just what I wanted and needed
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned several Windows CE and Windows Mobile devices (including WM2005 based machines) over the last several years made primarily by HP and by Dell, but I finally gave up on Microsoft-based products entirely in total frustration. I am a scientist and what I wanted was an pda style organizer for my numerous tasks, memos, contacts, etc. without having to babysit the battery for its short period of portability (except for the HP 720 pda) and still had put up with software that had way too many bugs and needed numerous third party applications to be really useful (which often conflicted when used together however since they were produced by independent programmers from numerous companies). What I found after much looking at Royal, Franklin, Sharp, Casio and other companies was the Palm z22 and it is just what I wanted and needed. It has a tremendous battery life of about 9+ hours (quite amazing for a colorful portable machine, but with a low resolution screen), quality software provided with 3 calculators (2 of which are science-based and made by infinity softworks), and a quality, no frills input system for tasks, memos, contacts, notes, etc. It also syncs very easily with my Windows XP-based PC where data is backed up and synchronized with either MS Outlook or with the Palm Desktop software very easily (your choice). It also works well and easily with the Think outside infrared (IR) portable keyboard which I highly recommend for writing long memos and also fits very nicely in a Rhinoskin/Saunders metal case (with a large full screen sized, clear viewing window) and that provides access to the most needed function keys directly below the screen. I also highly recommend this IR keyboard since it runs on its own batteries and hardly drains the Palm z22 at all (unlike bluetooth based devices!). I also purchased a 1 year extended warranty through Amazon for $ 9.99 since the Palm OEM version lasted for 90 only days which is hardly reasonable in my opinion for such a portable device. All in all I am quite pleased with the unit and use it extensively every day to record my detailed wishes, thoughts and future plans.