Product Reviews

It's been a while since UK Palm fans had anything to get excited about. Since the beautifully sleek Palm V was released over two years ago, the most notable hardware release from the company was the m100 (see Labs, issue 74, p135), and that was aimed at bargain-basement users rather than the Palm V elite. Now, amid much hype, Palm has produced two high-end rabbits out of the bag: the m500, a replacement for the Vx, and the all-singing, all-dancing, all-colour m505.

The biggest difference between the Vx and m500 series is expandability. The new Palms have the ability to add memory and more via the SD/MMC (Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard) slot. Despite this, the m500 is the same weight as the Vx, so fits perfectly in a jacket pocket.

Palm kindly sent us a PalmPak Games Card, which is incredibly simple to use: with the device switched on, just plug in the card and the games menu automatically appears. Ironically, the games emphasise the m500's main weakness: lack of colour. Although this screen is slightly sharper than that of the Vx, you'll struggle to catch all the detail because colours tend to merge into the same shade of grey. With PalmOS 4 now offering support for 16-bit colour, expect many more apps to appear that take advantage of it.

This is where the m505 comes in. It's noticeably larger than the m500, with a greater depth and weight adding to its bulk, but it's still a vast improvement on the Palm IIIc (see Labs, issue 74, p135) and looks positively diminutive when placed side by side with Casio's Cassiopeia EM500 (reviewed issue 78, p159). Only the Compaq iPAQ H3630 (see Labs, issue 74, p135) can rival it for sleekness.

Palm takes the sensible step of using a reflective screen, making it easy to see outdoors, but there's no brightness control for the sidelight. It's either on or off. In fact, brightness is the m505's great weakness - under fluorescent lights, the lack of lighting and reflective screen often means it's difficult to read. We far prefer the screens of the EM500 and iPAQ.

Where the m505 does win out is in battery life, with Palm claiming three weeks' use on the basis of 20 minutes per day (the

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m500 offers four weeks' life), while Pocket PC devices need more frequent recharges. Still, it's a shame that Palm only provides the cumbersome docking cradle for recharging; unless you're willing to include this in your case, you'll have to ration the use of the Palms when you're travelling.

Without any recharging the m500 should last for an extra week over the m505, and there are a couple of slight differences between the two units. The m505 includes a metal back for extra protection (as opposed to the plastic one on the m500), you receive a leather flip cover rather than the m500's mock leather, and it has a metal rather than plastic stylus.

One excellent innovation both Palms share is a universal connector, which allows you to snap on a foldaway keyboard, GPS camera, digital camera and more. This is a nice touch, although previous Palm owners will be disappointed that their current generation of Palm peripherals don't work with it.

The other common factor is PalmOS 4. This boasts more security features, including password protection for the actual device, support for vCard and vCal, support for a vibrating alarm - which both the m500 and m505 take advantage of - and enhanced reminders. Another bonus is full support for POP3 and IMAP 4 Internet email. Web Clipping 4 is also included in the Flash ROM, and with a suitably equipped mobile phone or the optional modem, you can even browse the Web live.

If you've got a large database of contacts and a hectic diary, you'll appreciate the faster processor (not to mention the USB docking cradle). While 33MHz may not sound much these days, it's a significant speed boost over the 20MHz of the Vx.

Most of the time, though, you won't need the faster processor thanks to the inherent simplicity of PalmOS and the apps. Take AvantGo, for example. With a Pocket PC, anything less than the Cassiopeia EM500 with its 150MHz chip will seem slow, because Microsoft squeezed a pocket version of Internet Explorer into the OS. With a Palm, even a 16MHz chip displays pages with little or no delay.

The drawback of Palm's simplistic approach is a lack of features. Despite costing over £200, the m500 and m505 are really just PIMs. They can't play MP3s, only play back video without sound, and lack screen area: 160 x 160 pixels compared to the Pocket PC's 240 x 320 pixels.

The even bigger problem for Palm is that Casio's Cassiopeia EM500 keeps on dropping in price. At £289, it's appealing to the same buyers but offers more multimedia features; what you sacrifice is sleek design and simplicity. If these last two features are what's most important to you, buy the m505; we can't recommend the m500 at its current price. Otherwise, opt for the iPAQ H3630 or EM500.