Advantages: Cheap Price
Disadvantages: Less than spectacular performance

...Upon the purchase of our new Mitsubishi Pajero (Shogun), we were given a Zire 21 as a bonus gift. I didn't feel that I needed a PDA but I used the it for a while anyway. This is the summary of that experience. The Zire 21 was released by PalmOne as the entry level PDA of its home consumer Zire range. It only costs 69.99 pounds direct from PalmOne and can probably be found considerably cheaper elsewhere. But does the Zire 21 pay the price for its low cost? I think it does. Obviously, being so cheap, you have to have realistic expectations of what this PDA is going to be able to do. It is really just a beefed up organiser. Although you can download more software, it only has 8MB of onboard memory and of this, only 7.2MB is available as actual storage capacity (0.8MB is required to store the operating system). Not only... Read review

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Advantages: Easy to use, small, inexpensive organiser.
Disadvantages: No memory expansion, No Backlight

...The Palm Zire is one on the handiest pieces of technology I have purchased. Though I have heard bad comments about the Zire compared to its fellow palm bigger brothers, the Zire is an excellent piece of equipment at a low price. To sum it up, it is Microsoft outlook in your hand! But there is more! . . . As well as having an address book, diary alarm clock, note pad, to do list and calculator, it also boasts expenses chart, an infra red port to speak with your mobile phone etc., Games when you get bored, and the opportunity to down load loads of games and programs, lots of which are free. I have managed to get Microsoft excel and word on my Zire as well as some games for very cheap, and still have room on the 2mb memory. Admittedly 2mb of memory is small, and it would be excellent if the Zire was to have a removable media... Read review

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Advantages: Easy to use, very small, affordable, battery lasts long
Disadvantages: not too many applications, basic features only

...Recently I’ve bought a Palm Zire because I ‘ve got fed up using ‘pen and paper’ and not be able to find either pen or paper when needed to jot something down or to have to buy every year a new diary for my phone numbers/ addresses and appointments. Besides I’m the sort of person who likes these new small gadgets and which, supposedly, make your life easier. So I’ve decided to get one of those ‘little thingies’ which you use a stylus to tap on the screen as I thought they looked ‘cool’ (yes I know, pathetic!) But as I was and still am in a very tight budget I couldn’t afford anything too extravagant with spreadsheets or word documents or emailing or making coffee and tea as I can do all these at work or at home. I wanted something simple to use with basic features and very small so it could fit in my very full otherwise handbag... Read review

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Advantages: Looks good, rechargeable
Disadvantages: cheap stylus, cheap cover, tiny screen, not colour

...I was utterly disappointed with the Zire. It cost me £70 new, and was no better than my Vx, which cost less. I ended up selling the Zire after a week, and went back to my Vx. I found every aspect of it cheap, except from the price. The stylus was poor. The cover was flimsy, to say the least. The screen was tiny. There were only 2 appliction buttons. AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!! The only upside was that the charger and USB were separate, as I disliked this on the Vx. I also found out it is a development of the m series. I owned an m105, and liked it except the stylus, small screen and it was not rechargeable. At least they got the rechargeable bit right in the Zire/m150. I definaely would not recommend this if you lose your temper easily. It could well end up being broken......... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap, Fast, Not a windows wannabe, digital camera built in!!
Disadvantages: not that many programs available

...The Palm Zire 72, the powerful PDA for those on a budget. I use it all the time in school for keeping an eye on timetables, meetings, clubs and homeworks set. It has a simple menu system and fantastic hand writing recognition. It does truely put Pocket PC systems to shame. I borrowed an Ipaq H5555 for an evening to compare to this Palm Zire and have to say that it was slower and a lot more bulkier than the Palm. Yes it does have wi-fi but i don't want to use the internet on my PDA. The machine looks the part, forget silver you want blue!! And not matt blue ooooh no... metalic blue. Fantastic looking piece of kit A fantastic machine for the price, and some cheap ones can be picked up on ebay for silly prices. Mike... Read review

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Advantages: Good Price, Ease of Use, Good Features, Portable (Lightweight), Good Battery Life
Disadvantages: Poor Durability, Low Memory Capacity, Manual Needs Improvement

...: Zire™ 31 Handheld w/ Rechargeable Battery Stylus Protective Flip Lid Mini-USB HotSync® Cable Power Supply Cable Desktop Software CD-ROM with Palm™ Desktop 4.1 PIM software, bonus Software Essentials software, and interactive tutorial Easy, 3-step setup instructions and electronic Getting Started Guide Overall Summary: I think this is a great product for the first time buyer - I would recommend it and it is bundles of fun!! Best Wishes, Robert.... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap, Very Easy To Use, Grafitti Handwriting Recognition, Great Software
Disadvantages: Only 2MB Memory

...++++++++ Vital Stats ++++++++ Manufacturer: PalmOne Range: Zire Model: Zire/Palm m150 Memory: 2MB Processor: 16 MHz Motorola Dragonball EZ Processor Operating System: PalmOS 4.1 Battery type: Rechargeable Lithium-Ion IO Ports: USB (Slave), IRDA/Consumer-IR Width: 2.9 inches Height: 4.4 inches Depth: 0.6 inches Keys: Up, Down, Datebook (Assignable), Addresses (Assignable) = ++++++++++++++++++ Background/Overview ++++++++++++++++++ Let me start off by quelling some myths - not everyone needs a 64MB color screened multimedia pda, acually - few people do! And secondly, the Grafitti handwriting system is not difficult to use, it's fantastic! I'm dyslexic (which not only affects my reading, but also my Short Term Memory so I find it hard to remember things) and dysgraphic (dysgraphia is a writing... Read review

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Advantages: PalmOS gives access to many legacy 3rd party apps
Disadvantages: Overpriced, underpowered

...- those which use Microsoft WinCE (a windows like operating system which is increasing in popularity) and those that don't - Palm's products fall into the second category (and that isn't always a bad thing) 'Zire' is the name for Palm's entry level systems; two monochrome and one colour screen versions, all using PalmOS. This includes the 'Graffiti' handwriting recognition application, and offers applets to help you maintain a diary, expenses, address book, notepad and 'to do' list. The lowest specification is offered by the 'standard' Zire - using a 16MHz Dragonball processor and only coming with 2Mb of memory, this is little more than an amnesic version of the 5 series of systems which has undergone a makeover. At $79 dollars list price (about the same in sterling) this is under powered, overpriced and lacks upgradability. As a stand... Read review

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Advantages: Fast processor; 16MB of memory; color display; MP3 and RealAudio playback; expansion slot
Disadvantages: Battery not user-replaceable; no camera

...Entry level model but it has everything you need and expect on PDA's. Good softwares, RealOne as MP3, SD card - to organize my daily busy life, I don't think I need anything else on this. If I . Wanting to take photos, I take my digital camera. Needing to make phone calls, I use cell phone. I didn't need to buy an all-in-one expensive device. it even comes with the hard case (plastic, though), . I don't know if this is a sign of newer models coming up soon or not but I have no complaint. I love my Zire 31. the location to store a stylus - it is in the back almost. It is hard to take it out when Zire 31 is placed in the hard case. Manual - to understand all programs and how to use them, the hard copy manual would be nice. You can download the basic guide from the installation CD but in this case, you can not go through a program... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap
Disadvantages: Monochrome screen, No backlit.

...The palmOne Zire 21 comes with many basic features and doesn’t have the extras; it is powered by an ARM 126 MHz processor. It PDA has 160 x 160 pixel display screen without a backlit which makes the screen unreadable in low light and nighttime conditions, It is mainly intended for making a simple lists such as addresses and phone numbers. It has an 8 mb of RAM about 4x as much as the cheaper Palm Zire, This is just enough for basic use. The applications available are: Address Book, Date Book, World Clock, To Do List, Memo Pad, Expense, Note Pad and Calculator. The battery life of this one is about 8 hours Palm states 2 1/2 weeks of normal use a day for the battery. The built in applications applications for the Zire 21 are the same as the original Zire having an older Palm OS 4. It has a Grafitti2, which I didn’t want to use... Read review

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