I have had my Pro for a little more then a week and I love it. I owned a Palm IIIxe that I also liked very much but I kept running out of memory. I was tired of deleting items to have other applications installed. The Pro offered the advantage of 16mb and infinate upgradability*.I have a little less then 8mb of information on my Pro but that would be dependent on whether I'm using my eyemodule or not. What is nice is that I still have 8mb of free space to take pictures.
I decided on the Pro over any other modile avaliable now for it's fast processor, expandability*, 16mb of standard memory, and Lithium Ion battery. My only debate was for between the Prism and the Pro. The factor that decided it was a deal through BestBuy last week Nov. 12th, 2001 that offered the Pro with Rebates for the Targus Keyboard that gave me $100 back. A PRO AND A FREE KEYBOARD.
I use the keyboard alot with my Palm IIIxe and the cost of a new keyboard for a different PALM OS device was what really detered me from buying a new PALM device. What is nice is that I can share my keyboard with my Mom who I bought a NEO and my friend who owns a Deluxe. Also the eyemodule that I picked up new on ebay for $50 bounces between the three of us. This is the benefits of Handspring and the universal Spring Board.
As for my complaints, there is not much. If anything I wish it had a color screen, especially after I recieved my eyemodule a few days ago. I think I would really like to upgrade when Handspring comes out with their color unit offering 16 mb.
The other issue is the speed of the unit. It comes equiped with the 33Mhz processor by Motorola, the same processor found in the Handspring Line excluding the Deluxe. I compared speeds of different Units using BenchMark 2.0 and the Pro as well as the Neo records a 161% score where my Mom's old Platnium ran a 204% and the Prisms that I have tested ran 205%. I spoke with Handspring about this but wasn't given an answer that came close to an explination. However in real world use it seems as fast as anything out there running the same processor.
Oh one other thing is the lack of FlashROM on the Handspring. The flash ROM on Palm units allows for the OS to be upgraded. The explination for the lack of this on www.handsping.com is that they wanted to keep cost down for the consumer so they left that out and went with standard ROM. This can be an issue that I won't be able to remedy in the future without buying a new unit. I have already seen issues with the older 3.1 OS on the Deluxes not being able to run software written for the 3.5 OS. I find this to be upsetting especially when MemPlugs contain flashROM for upgrading their Springboard Modules and sell for a retail value of $49.95.
Over and above those three issues, the unit is the best you can buy in a Monochrome screen. And if color is not an issue the best Palm OS device. I am very pleased with the unit and would recommend Handsprings Products to anyone.
*Almost anything can be added to a Pro, memory, camera's I even found a company that sells a robot that is controled by a Visor. If only the screen could be changed to color.
Submitted by: Chrishi
Email: chrishi@mail.com
Location: Pomona, CA
Date Added: 2001-11-21
