Product Reviews

Handspring has refreshed its range with two new Visors - the Pro, a mid to high-end model, and the less expensive Neo. Both improve upon what is currently available in their respective price categories and also feature a slightly modified design and a new shiny plastic finish.

The Pro and Neo don't represent radical departures for the Visor and their introduction means there are now seven different Visors, many of which seem far too similar in terms of price and features.

The most notable feature of the Pro is that it's the first Palm OS-based PDA with 16Mb of memory. But the usefulness of this depends on what you want do with the Pro. If you want to store contacts, create lists, manage your calendar and play games, then it's excessive. But if you use your organiser like a mini computer, for storing images and Web content and running demanding application, this extra capacity is ideal. However, the Visor Pro's 4-bit greyscale screen is hardly the perfect display for such applications.

You would be forgiven for assuming that all this memory would come at a price, but Handspring retains its reputation for value for money with the Pro, which costs just £229. This is £40 less than the mono Palm m500, which only has 8Mb as standard.

Double vision

The rest of the Pro's hardware is pretty much the same as the Visor Edge, with a 33MHz DragonBall VZ processor, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, USB HotSync cradle and Springboard slot. In fact the two are so similar that they even share the same price.

But on the outside this similarity ends. The Pro eschews the metallic finish found on the Edge, returning to a more familiar plastic case. This choice means that the Pro is 7mm thicker than the Edge at 1cm and 25g heavier at 161g. The extra bulk is useful as the Pro has a proper slot for Springboard modules

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and doesn't require the fiddly adaptor used by the Edge. However, given the high price of these add-ons, which often work out at more than the device itself, we wonder how much use this slot will get.

The body for the Pro is silver and looks similar to the Platinum, but its screen cover is a clear smoke grey plastic. This looks very nice, but we found the shiny finish soon became seared and unless you keep it in a case it would soon become scratched, so it's not really as practical as the textured plastic Handspring uses for older models. You also have to remove the screen cover to charge and synchronise the unit, which isn't a big problem, but we prefer the Palm's solution with its flip-over cover that can protect the screen even when you are charging.

The Neo doesn't have any new features to offer and the most notable thing about it is its look. It comes in three shades - smoke, red and blue, all in the same shiny plastic as the Pro's screen cover, with the same drawbacks.

But what the Neo does well is bring high-end features down into the lower reaches of the range. It slots into place above the Deluxe and Visor, and bings with it the same 33MHz DragonBall VZ used by the Pro, which is a real hike from the 16MHz model found in the Deluxe. The rest of its features bear a resemblance to this model as it has the same mono screen, 8Mb of memory, USB HotSync cradle and is powered by two AAA batteries.

The software bundle is the same for the Pro and Neo, offering the usual array of organisation software, including a contacts book, calendar, to do list, CityTime (which allows you to display the time in up to four countries simultaneously) and a calculator. But, despite Palm launching version 4 of its operating system months ago, both the Pro and Neo are stuck with the older Palm OS 3.5.2H3 and as ever with the Visor there's no simple way to upgrade. This means that taking the Handspring route leaves you without the new features found in version 4, such as direct dialling from the phone book with a mobile phone.

The Pro and Neo bring some minor benefits to the Visor range, but other than the extra memory in the Pro, we can't see any compelling reason to upgrade. For first-time buyers, they're worth a look as they offer excellent value for money, but the Palm m125 or m500 will provide you with a more up-to-date operating system and the slimline expansion capabilities provided by SD or MMC cards.