Review: Palm IIIxe

by ComputerBob

January 19, 2001

Disclosure: I don't work for the Palm company or have any ties to the Palm company at all, except for the fact that I own one of their computers, which I bought online with my own money in late December, 2000.

What Is A Palm?

A Palm is a tiny computer, made by Palm, Inc., that weighs next to nothing and fits in the palm of one hand or into a shirt pocket (with room to spare). A top-hinged protective cover on the front of every Palm quickly flips up and out of the way, revealing either a black and white Small and easy-to-use! or color touch-sensitive LCD display screen, depending on the model. All of the various Palm models come with a suite of useful software programs installed. Palm programs are started by pressing their activation buttons at the bottom of the Palm, or by tapping their onscreen icons with the tip of the included stylus (a small plastic pencil that stores in a slot on the back of the Palm). Data can be entered by writing in the handwriting recognition area of the screen with the stylus; by tapping the keys of an onscreen keyboard with the stylus; by connecting an optional folding Palm keyboard; or by using a desktop version of the Palm software on a Windows or Macintosh desktop PC and then using Palm's HotSync process to transfer the data to the Palm. A backlight makes the Palm usable even in complete darkness. One set of two AAA batteries will run a Palm computer for up to 3 months, depending on the model, the amount of installed memory, the way you've configured its automatic shut-down feature, and your particular usage. The Palm company's excellent Web site includes descriptions of the features of the various Palm models and optional Palm add-ons, and also provides updates and support to Palm owners.

What Can You Do With One?

Every new Palm comes with the following applications and capabilities:

Date Book: Store up to 5 years worth of meetings, appointments, birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates and set optional audible alarms to remind you of them. Create events that repeat every day, week, month or year. View your daily, weekly, and monthly schedule, or even see your To-Do list on the same screen as your daily schedule. I entered my entire constantly changing teaching schedule into Date Book so I can carry it with me wherever I go, along with my other appointments and the birthdays and anniversaries of everyone I know.
Address Book: Store the names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and other data for thousands of people, making them instantly accessible. I entered all of the phone numbers and other information that I used to carry on little sticky notes in my wallet, to make them easier and faster to find, and transferred all of the existing information that was in my Microsoft Outlook Contact List (see Palm Desktop, below).
To Do List: Make a list of things you need to do and optionally set a priority and a due date for each of them. Check off the items that you've completed. In the first 2 weeks I had my Palm, I entered and then completed about 15 to-do items.
Memo Pad: Enter quick notes, lists, email messages (that you will send from your desktop PC) and reminders and see a list of their titles. I entered a list of 19 tasks that I have to do at the beginning of each new semester, so that from now on, I'll never again have that sinking feeling that I'm forgetting to do something important at the beginning of a semester.
Expense: (not included with the cheapest Palm model m100) Enter personal or business expenses into a simple spreadsheet whose files can be read by Microsoft Excel on your desktop PC. I've only used this feature once or twice, and it wasn't very configurable, but it was very easy to use and did what it was supposed to do.
Email Storage: (not included with the cheapest Palm model m100) Transfer the most important email messages from your desktop PC to your Palm. I haven't had any need to use this feature so far, but if it works as well as the other Palm applications work, then it must be excellent.
Find: Quickly find any appointment, address, to-do item, memo, email message or other information by searching for any word or phrase in that information. I use this feature all the time. For example, if I search for someone's name, my Palm instantly shows me a list of every appointment, Address Book entry, To Do list item, Memo or other entry on my Palm that includes that person's name.
Purge: Instantly delete old appointments and other events so that they no longer take up your Palm's memory, thus saving you from having to find and delete each appointment and event manually.
Palm Desktop: Enter, edit and delete Palm data, using a version of each of the Palm applications that runs on your desktop Windows PC. Optionally, if you have Microsoft Outlook on your desktop PC, you can use it instead of Palm Desktop, since Outlook has all the features of Palm Desktop plus many more features, like the ability to print your Date Book (Calendar) in many different forms. I started out using Palm Desktop, which worked extremely well, but then I switched to using Outlook 2000, which saves me from having to manually enter my Palm's information into Outlook on my desktop PC. Palm Desktop software is also available in a version that runs on Macintosh computers.
HotSync Cradle and Software: (not included with the cheapest Palm model m100) The HotSync cradle is a tiny stand that holds your Palm, with a wire that connects your Palm to your desktop computer. I installed the HotSync software on my desktop Windows PC in less than 5 minutes. It immediately recognized the cradle, and the entire HotSync process worked flawlessly from then on. Just set the Palm into its cradle and press the cradle's HotSync button to synchronize the data on the two computers in about 10 seconds, though I've read it might take up to 2 1/2 minutes for people who use the Palm's email storage feature. Every time I HotSync my Palm, I'm amazed at how quickly and easily that process works.
Infrared Beaming: Every Palm has an infrared port on its top that works like a TV remote control. Print your Palm's data to any printer that has a standard infrared port. Beam programs, appointments, addresses, and other data from your Palm to a friend or coworker's Palm, from up to 3 feet away.
Palm OS: Because Palm is the leading maker of handheld computers in the world, and the Palm OS (operating system) is licensed by several other computer manufacturers for use in their handheld computers, you can find many sources of online support, news and reviews of software and products for Palm computers; all kinds of Palm-compatible devices like digital cameras, global positioning systems, printers and network cards; plus thousands of free and inexpensive Palm programs -- business applications, home applications, utilities, games with sound and much more -- on hundreds of Web sites, including CNet, FreeWarePalm, The Gadgeteer (reviews), Handango, MemoWare, Palm Boulevard, PalmGear, Palm Infocenter, The Palm Pilot Webring (over 800 sites internationally), PalmStation and PDA Buzz and PDA Handyman (news and reviews), Palm Tipsheet, PDA Geek, PalmVenue, Suite 101, and ZDNet. Within 2 days of receiving my new Palm, and using totally free software, I had already upgraded its operating system (from version 3.5 to version 3.5.2) and installed several programs that give it a multiple time zone alarm clock; make it act and sound like a Star Trek Tricorder; display the day/date/time, a battery level indicator, and several utility icons at the bottom of the screen; let me draw maps or diagrams on the screen; and let me drop depth charges onto little virtual submarines that cruise across the screen. All together, those additional free programs took up less than 175K of my Palm's 8MB of data memory. By the way, my Palm's 8MB of data memory is 512 times as much as the 16K of total memory that my first desktop PC had in 1980.
Reliability: Palm computers have an excellent reputation for reliability. Despite my using it many, many times each day, and despite the fact that I've tested its features over and over, my Palm has never locked up, crashed or exhibited any problems of any sort. I know a few other people who have owned Palm computers for a year or more, and none of them has ever had any problems with their Palms either. If you read the support messages on the various Palm support site message boards, you will see that nearly every message asks for advice on how to do something, or asks for a recommendation for a specific type of software, while only a few messages here and there complain about someone having a problem with a particular Palm computer.

How Easy Is It To Use?

Even after using it extensively for a few weeks, I'm still constantly amazed at how intuitively everything on my Palm works. When I turn on my Palm, either by pushing one of its application buttons (Date Book, Address Book, To Do List, or Memo), or by pushing its main power button, I am instantly either in the application that I started or right back to exactly where I was when I last turned it off. In other words, unlike many other small computers and organizers, I never have to wait for my Palm to boot up. And every icon, option and feature is extremely well designed and works exactly the way I expect it to work. There has only been one task -- changing the date of an existing appointment -- that I've ever had to look up in the included Palm manual before I could do it, and that was only because I hadn't thought of simply clicking on the appointment's date to change it. Why does the Palm's high ease of use come as such a surprise to me? Because over the years, I've used many different personal organizers or handheld computers from Casio, Sharp, Franklin, Royal, Psion and Hewlett-Packard, but none of them ever worked the way I expected them to work, so I eventually stopped using each of them. Whenever I use my Palm -- which is many, many times each day -- instead of feeling the frustration that I felt when I used those other devices, I feel relieved to have finally found a product that is so well designed and that works so well. At first I thought that the Palm's lack of a built-in keyboard would make it slower and less convenient to use than the other small computers and organizers I had used, but it turned out to have exactly the opposite result -- it's a lot faster and more convenient to hold a Palm in one hand and enter data with the stylus in the other hand than it used to be to have to find a flat surface to set down a keyboard-based computer or organizer to be able to type on its keyboard. And when I'm done using my Palm, if I forget to push its main power button to shut it off, it will automatically shut itself off to save battery power if I don't do anything for however many minutes I've specified in its automatic shut-down feature.

How Can I Get One?

The cheapest Palm model m100 currently retails for $149. My Palm IIIxe has a bigger display screen, 4 times as much memory, comes with a HotSync cradle and retails for $249. There are other Palm models that come with a color display, wireless internet access and other features, but they cost a lot more than mine. Unfortunately most stores and online dealers either sell Palm computers for their retail prices, or they discount the retail prices slightly, but then charge you up to $30 to ship the tiny Palm box to you. I was lucky to be in the market for a Palm at the same time that Palm was offering a temporary $50 mail-in rebate on the Palm IIIxe model. However, because I usually research the heck out of anything before I buy it, I didn't order my Palm right away. Instead, I spent several evenings reading information files and support messages left by Palm users on the message boards at Palm Boulevard, PalmGear, and PDA Street. That night, I ordered my Palm IIIxe from Amazon.com for $249 minus a $50 instant Amazon.com rebate, minus the $50 Palm mail-in rebate -- total cost: $149 (a whopping 40% off the retail price), plus only $6 for shipping. By the time you read this review, the two rebates that I used to buy mine may have expired, or Palm may have discontinued or lowered the retail prices of one or more Palm models -- after all, computer stuff is always getting better and cheaper -- so you would be wise to shop around awhile before buying a Palm. Some great places to read reviews of computer products and compare several dealers' prices and shipping charges are ComputerShopper, Computers.com, mySimon (prices only) and Price Watch (prices only). If you have a Staples office supply store nearby, note that several messages from Palm users say that Staples office supply stores will match any online price that you can find for a Palm computer if you bring a printout of the online price to the Staples store when you're ready to make your purchase.

Conclusion

The Palm IIIxe handheld computer is probably the best designed, most intuitive to use, most trouble-free computer product that I've bought in the twenty-plus years that I've been buying and using computer products. As of this writing, I've had mine for only a few weeks, yet it has already become my constant companion and assistant. If your lifestyle requires you to keep track of appointments, notes, to-dos, phone numbers, email addresses and other information all day, do yourself a favor and take a good long look at the easy-to-use, extremely well-designed handheld computers from Palm. Then buy one.