PalmOne Zire 72 Handheld
by Palm
|
Our Price: $298.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $49.49 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of PalmOne Zire 72 Handheld
Customer Review: Approaching perfection
Summary: 4 Stars
I'll compare the Zire72 to the Zire71. On the surface it looks like a small upgrade. But it's not. The camera on the Zire72 is almost useful now, and has decent resolution at 1.2M Pixels. However the focal length is longer and snapping documents is less effective. For general photos the Zire72 works fine although taking pictures requires plenty of light and a steady hand.
Voice memo recording is entirely useable though not up to the level of dedicated digital recorders. An external mike jack would probably have helped here. Quick-and-easy self-memos are the key value of this feature.
MP3 playback volume is much improved over the Zire71 and the unit can now drive most high-impedance (32ohm or greater) headphones without appreciable distortion at any volume. Highly recommended, especially with a 256MByte SD memory card.
Overall processor speed is markedly better too.
I haven't used the blue tooth yet but I have used documents-to-go. This is okay and any limitations are those of the application; not the palm.
Haven't used bluetooth yet, but I have to say this was a much desired feature and if I ever buy a brain-destroying mobile phone I will certainly use it.
So overall? This is best of breed for me. MP3 is a big plus and the Palm is much easier, faster and convenient to use than Windows-based software. Graffiti 2 is more intuitive than earlier versions and works particularly well on both the Zire71 and 72.
Is there a negative? Yes. My Zire72 came with a couple of broken pixels. For this reason I recommend a store purchase or make sure in advance that your supplier will replace a machine with one or two broken pixels. They are very annoying on a machine with such small screen real estate! This is the ONLY Palm I've ever bought that had a display fault so it's hopefully NOT representative.
Customer Review: Expected More After The Breakthrough Zire 71!
Summary: 4 Stars
I think that for the features you get with the Zire 72 it is an excellent product. Camera, PDA, Digital Camera, MP-3, audio books, games, books etc.
The Zire 72 is ahead of my old Zire 71 by a smidge because of the digital and still camera.
The drawbacks are still the same which they have not fixed and some additional bugs:
1) RealPlayer Plus and downloading music. Their security codes tend to make the system crash alot.
2) Occcasionally when you are using the built in keyboard the PDA starts typing periods.....instead of what you wanted it to write.
3) No documentation or literature tells you how to adjust audio when you are using the digital camera. I went to an outdoor concert that was not very loud and all of the audio came back distorted. The pictures were great.
4) The battery power does not seem to last as long.
5) The audio button tends to turn on when the Palm is in my pocket in the case.
The Pros:
1) Everything you could possibly want or ask for in a small package.
2) Inclusion of a digital camera
3) Upgrades to the still camera
4) Advanced editing functions for the still and motion pictures.
5) Easy one touch button functionality that you can assign as you see fit.
6) Smart attractive design
7) Wireless connectivity
BUYER BEWARE:
One large problem is the rubber casing. If you buy a metal case from Palm to store your Zire in it will destroy it. Palm was good enough to replace mine and take the case back.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a PDA with more bang for your buck you will not find anything out there that is close to the Zire 72.
Customer Review: A good Handheld with a few problems
Summary: 4 Stars
I've owned my Zire 72 for almost a year and am pleased with it's performance but let me tell you about the problems first.
The Blue skin: regardless of how well it's taken care of The Rubber skin peels right off, so the only logical thing to do is peel it all off which leaves it cosmetically damaged.
The Hum: This Hum is something that shouldn't exist, Palm will tell you to send in your Handheld to fix the problem but it's expensive and the results always revert back to hearing the hum. The Hum is annoying, it's hard to read Ebooks at night without getting distracted by it.
Apps cause the Handheld to freeze: Web Pro and Adobe reader cause my handheld to freeze.
The Camera is a nice idea but the 1 megapixel Camera requires skill to take a varieties of pictures and without flash, BYOL...bring your own light because you'll need it!
Bluetooth and Macs: Bluetooth internet sharing doesn't work if you have a Mac unless you either 1. Write a UNIX code for it, 2. Write an Apple Script for it, or 3. By the Missing Sync for $29; I choose the later but more than likely you wont use it for surfing the web through Bluetooh but keep that in mind.
Now on to the good!
The OS is stable and the battery life is excellent it's a step up from my old handspring and I can do much more because of the rechargeable battery rather than going through AAAs like they were going out of style.
I use mine for ebooks and music and of course lots of writing and verbal notes so I can remember what I was doing later.
I like mine I suggest you get the new Special edition that is just silver it's sans the Blue rubber skin.
Customer Review: Fine basic functionality. Some weak points.
Summary: 4 Stars
The basic Palm functions are familiar and run fine on this machine. The processing speed is much faster than earlier Palms and Sony Clies I've owned. Walt Bilofsky's excellent Tide Tool freeware runs dramatically faster. Sync to a Mac under OSX 10.3.4 is fast and reliable. Palm finally has given Mac users some support. The camera is the poorest excuse for a digicam I've used. Pictures are extremely contrasty, and color balance is usually way off. The lens vignettes, causing severe shift toward green at the corners of the frame. The Zire 71 camera, although lower resolution, had better color balance and more manageable contrast.
The audio player quality is not nearly as clean as an iPod, but good enough to be listenable. The output jack has surprisingly high gain. There's no equalizer, i.e. no tone control. The voice memo recording feature works well, and its audio quality, while not hi-fi, is good enough for guitar practice.
Downloading audio files to the Zire 72 via USB hotsync is unacceptably slow-- several minutes per MP3 track (this is acknowledged in the manual). I bought a $20 SD card reader and copied the files to the card directly. This is many times faster.
The case supplied by Palm for the Zire 72 is a bad joke. It's bulky, and the fit is overly tight. Earlier Palm models had convenient flip lids that attached directly to the machine. I don't know why Palm has retreated to this Mickey-Mouse approach. Also, the case supplied with my unit, when taken out of its plastic bag, had a powerful chemical or solvent smell (some sort of artifact of the manufacturing process?).
All in all, a powerful machine, a reasonable value, but not a masterpiece.
Customer Review: Great Palmtop!!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Wow what a great Palmtop! Bought it on Ebay a week ago and received it this week. Am just upgrading from my VIIx, so this is huge for me. Some advantages over the VIIx.
1. Color screen
2. Fast CPU
3. Docs to go
4. MP3 player
5. Camera
6. Built in audio recorder
7. Smoother more powerful OS
8. USB sync which is many times faster than serial
and Much more!!
Some disadvantages vs the Palm VIIx
Stylus- The VIIx had a nice stylus. Why then does the Zire 72 a unit made 3 years later have a plastic stylus?
Battery- A replaceable battery would have been better. This unit needs charging like once a week. The VIIx would last a month on 2 AAA batteries.
Cradle- I really miss the cradle. This is very handy for desktop users. Laptop users I can understand why they would not need one, but I am a desktop user.
Lack of Wifi and wireless WAN capabilities- I miss the old Palm VIIx WAN wireless capabilities. Personally thus business of having to be near a internet hotspot is a major downgrade vs. the Palm VIIx's wireless WAN capabilties. With the VIIx I could access the internet from a taxicab, a train, inside a building, or out in the woods. The old Palm VIIx could access the net from anywhere a cell phone could. personally I think it was a shame that palm.net had to close.
Overall this is a very good Palm. I am enjoying the unit, but bare in mind that I've only had it for two days. Perhaps after a month I might want my VIIx back, but I hope not. This unit is very nice!!
John