PalmOne Zire 31 Handheld

Trust me, I have owned quite a few handhelds from all walks of life including the mini mini laptop known as a pocket pc and I must say that for my money I got a bargain. First of all the price is reasonable and the vendor from Amazon mailed it to me within two days. Complete with the Zire 31 was the CD Rom, guidebook and a free leather case too. The Zire took less than most to upload on my desktop and get it running. It has everything I need such as contacts, calendar, alarm etc... It also has mini databases that I can use to track everything from household expenses or use to view a list of hotels or find a specific area codes, etc... The color resolution is not as sharp as some of the other expensive models but as one reviewer said, "I am not looking to watch a movie or play a high tech game". If I want to do that, I can use my laptop. This is not to say that the color is bad, it's not, its just not as clear as say my Apple laptop.The sleek design of the Zire is easy on eyes and light on the hand. For having so much capabilities, this Zire is slim and very light.All in all, for the money you pay, you will get you money's worth. Also, downloading stuff from my desktop onto my Zire is a breeze compared to others. I have downloaded Weight Watchers and tons of game on my Zire and it still runs great. I think the only downside to this product is the battery life. It is not as long as I would like it to be but that is ok because I just have to charge it like my phone and I am ready to go.I really like this product and I think you will to.

At first, I was happy with the Zire and recommended it for those who only want the basics. But after a little more than a year, when I hotsynced it to my PC, I received an error message. When I checked my info, ALL of my contacts had been wiped from both the PC and the handheld, and I had lost all the categories in Memos and Tasks. Luckily, I had been syncing to a 2nd PC, and as a precaution I PRINTED OUT everything from that PC, then used the program's "archive" function, then tried to sync with the handheld to see if it would restore the info. Nope - - another clean wipe. No problem, I say - I "archived" it. Oops-- restoring the archive does not work - - I get a mixed up mess of a few of my old things. So now I have 100 printed pages of contacts, memos, and tasks and one handheld that turns on and makes mincemeat of any data I put into it.Don't buy this. Yes, it's inexpensive - - and it's not that way because of its limited functionality (which is ok), but because it's cheap junk.

The Palm Zire 31 became my "other brain" about six years ago. At first I was reluctant to get anything like this because I'd been using a pocket notebook organizer for years and thought I didn't need an electronic gadget. WRONG! I especially need and appreciate the alarm feature on the Zire 31, which gives you the option of setting a warning in advance for appointments, recurring chores, birthdays, etc. I set mine to remind me to change the furnace filter, apply the dogs' flea medication, send off greetings for family birthdays, get there on time to the medical appointments, take my medicine on time, etc., etc., etc. Priceless!!!So many people these days use very fancy phones to store all their information in addition to making calls. This device will do everything except make phone calls, and I really think it's wise to not have all one's eggs in one basket, so to speak. It bothers me not at all to have separate devices for different purposes. In fact, it seems prudent.The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is that this week my trusty Zire 31 simply quit on me. It still has all the information in it, but the touch screen no longer functions, and the buttons only function sporadically. It no longer communicates with my computer, so I can't even sync it any more. Thank goodness I did sync it only two weeks ago, so the info is pretty much up to date in my computer. So, here I am, looking to buy another Zire 31. Bet it will last me another six years, and maybe then I'll be up for getting myself a fancy phone instead! Maybe.

2 Stars for the item I received, it'd be 4 or 5 if the item I got was actually fully functioning.First of all, whoever had the unit previously put velcro on the back obscuring the reset pin so I had to peel that offSecond, the battery was stone cold dead and will not hold a charge, but this was expectedThirdly, what I didn't expect was a very nearly dead digitizer, I've had plenty of resistive devices these past 15 years to know this one is on the brink and needs to be replaced to actually use itLastly, for the short time I was able to get to the home screen it seemed that the SD card slot would not read cardsNot at all what I intended to buy, I knew it was device only and that the battery was most likely dead, but the digitizer was quite a set back, and if indeed the SD card slot doesn't work then that could spell certain doom for this handheld other than to be used for parts.

This product works, but was not in the "like new" condition as advertised. 1st, the screen has two large marred sections, 2nd, the screen images are very dim and difficult to read, 3rd, it is missing the rubber flap cover which protects the screen from damage, 4th, some of the screen and different user color selections are not available. I know how a 'like new' one should perform because I have another one just like it and wanted this one as a spare. About the only good thing I can say about this purchase was that the price was low. If I'd paid any more, I have returned it to the seller for refund.