Palm Zire 31

I have had this little PDA for just over three years now, and I'm very pleased with it.

I got it for about £50 in the clearout section of PC world when I was looking for a replacement for my old Sharp organiser.

One of the main plus points is that it is very easy to use. The built in applications do most things I need and the interface is very well thought out.

Backing up to the PC is so easy. Just connected it to the USB lead, press one button on the Palm, wait a few seconds, and it's done.
The palm application on the PC is also very useful for entering a lot of data (or copy/paste from other PC applications).

I find it much quicker to "type" with the onscreen keyboard and the stylus rather than the "Graffiti2" mode. But Graffiti2 is fine for a few short words. Pretty much all the normal characters are as you would normally write them, with the exception (for me) of k and x. It's a lot easier than what I've heard about the old graffiti method, where you had to learn lots of strange ways to write the letters.

The screen is not as good as the more expensive models, and not particularly high resolution. Photos, for example, look horrible!
But for most applications it is fine and easy to read.

It hardly every crashes. Usually it only does so when using something I've found on the internet that doesn't work properly. It's useful to have a paper clip in your wallet, so you can reset it when this happens. But, like I said, this hardly ever happens. It must be months, if not a year, since I've had to reset it.

The battery tends to last about a week. I've heard that it's better if you keep topping it up each day - but I keep forgetting! I've not had the battery run out on me yet, but come close a few times.
It's a shame you can't get new batteries, or use rechargable ones in this PDA, though.

It's lasted well (as I said above, just over three years) and it's still going strong. There is a tiny speck of something stuck under the screen near the bottom. Not sure how it got in there, but it doesn't really get in the way, it just annoys me a little.

I dropped it once and the case came apart at the side. But I pushed it back together and it's been fine since.

There are tons of free applications you can get on the web. The most useful ones I've found are:
JPAD - like memo, but a smaller font, so you can cram more onto a screen.
Converter - to convert pretty much anything you can think of (grams-ounces, feet-metres, etc)
Plucker - not so easy to set up, but good for downloading web pages to read offline.
Yaps - a database for storing password in encrypted mode.
Yahdice - a yahtzee game.

Most applications use up very little memory - so there is plenty of space for installing things. An SD memory card gives you tons more space - it's hard to find things to fill it.

Overall it's a great first time PDA if you can get hold of one cheap. If you want to splash out some more money one of the more expensive Palms will no doubt be even better.