Handspring Visor Deluxe

The Handspring Visor Deluxe is no ordinary PDA. This little orange device - which also comes in graphite, blue, green and ice - may appear to be a glamourised version of the Palm IIIx (reviewed Labs, issue 62, p82), but it promises to be the palm-sized PC that brings handheld computing to the masses. It packs several weapons to help it in this quest, including value, simplicity, speed and a splash of style, but the Handspring's unique selling point is its Springboard expansion slot.

The Springboard concept has been around since the Atari, and is familiar to anyone who's used a Game Boy: just slot a cartridge into the rear of the machine, and the program loads up immediately. But Handspring has bigger ambitions than this. By making the Springboard technology entirely open, and claiming no royalties on products, it's opening the market to a huge number of companies to transform the Handspring into virtually anything - a digital camera, a mobile phone, even an MP3 player.

There are drawbacks to the Springboard approach. As your collection of modules increases, it becomes more difficult to carry them round with you, whereas if they were loaded directly into the machine's RAM - or into a CompactFlash card - this wouldn't be a problem. There's also the problem of what's available. On the day of the Handspring's launch in Europe, only a Backup Module, 8Mb Flash Memory card and a golf game were on sale.

The Visor Deluxe only boasts a four-bit greyscale screen, which is one of the areas where it economises compared to the colour Palm IIIc (reviewed issue 66, p173) and Pocket PCs like the HP Jornada 545 (reviewed p169). Unlike the Palm IIIx, there's no contrast control, but neither this or the Visor's mono screen proved a problem, especially as it has a backlight. The Handspring has a microphone, which is intended to work with future Springboard modules, and a docking station that uses USB rather than a serial port to connect.

Apart from its 8Mb of memory, the Visor's specifications are identical to the Palm IIIx, right down to the two AAA batteries and 20 hours of battery life. The familiar 16MHz DragonBall EZ processor is kept company by 2Mb of ROM, with an adapted version of PalmOS 3.1 installed. Unfortunately, you can't benefit from updates to the PalmOS, which is now at version 3.3, or you'll delete the extra apps that Handspring pre-installs in the ROM, namely Date Book Plus, CityTime, and Advanced Calculator.

The 8Mb of RAM provides plenty of space for third-party apps designed for Palm computers, and the Handspring is entirely compatible with all of them. It also means you don't need to worry about your contacts database, diary or email files becoming too large. If memory space isn't so important to you, Handspring's 2Mb Visor is also worth a look, as it costs just £99 (£127 with the USB cradle).

If you want a simple PDA but don't need colour or the tight synchronisation offered by pocket PCs, the Handspring is an excellent solution. You can buy the Palm IIIx for around £35 less, or the Palm V (reviewed Labs, issue 62, p82) for a similar price, but by doing so you'll lose out on the Handspring's extra RAM, the USB-connected docking station, not to mention the new world of Springboard accessories. If you have £169 to spend, and want a personal rather than professional PDA, we'd recommend the Handspring Visor Deluxe.

Author: Tim Danton