Wednesday, August 9, 2000

Palm VIIx, first thoughts

PalmPower Contributing Editor Jason Perlow has acquired a Palm VIIx and will be checking in periodically with his initial reactions. Here are his first thoughts on the new device:

The unit has been completely re-designed; the case is completely black like the Palm IIIc and has a similar heft and feel. Buttons are dimpled like the Palm IIIxe’s, not like the Palm IIIc. The digitzer is a scratch-resistant plastic like the Palm m100’s. It’s got kind of a squeaky, rubbing feeling when you write on it; it doesn’t glide like on the glass digitizers. I’m not sure if this bad or good, just different I suppose. The plastic flexible antenna flips out toward you. The joint feels a little flimsy, but this could just be my paranoia setting in.

The OS, of course, is 3.5. There’s about 18 pre-loaded PQA’s including iMessenger, which replaces the Mail application. There’s no evidence of Multimail on this thing yet, though I haven’t tried the included CD which I understand includes AvantGo.

The general response time of the unit is great. It’s much better than the Palm IIIc. It has obviously got an updated processor in it (20 Mhz?).

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