56 out of 56 people found this review helpful.
Handspring Visor Pro - Update to French Vanilla
Date of Review: Oct 7, 2001
The Bottom Line: Definitely a consideration for heavy Palm memory users... like physicians, power AvantGo and vindigo users, and others. It's more like French Vanilla than regular Vanilla.
As I write this, a good analogy popped up while reading mkaresh's 2002 Camry epinion. I couldn't help but think of Handspring's latest entry into the market as plain vanilla in the Palm OS hardware world. This isn't to say that the Visor Pro isn't worth it, but the unit has many similarities to the entire Visor line (except for the Edge). Let's take a look at Handspring's new entry in an increasingly crowded field!
Design
Well... urm... I guess Handspring stuck with a design that has been quite a winner for them. The design is basically the same design as the Visor Solo, Visor, Visor Deluxe, Visor Platinum, and the Visor Neo. The unit is exactly the same size and similar weight to the above mentioned models. The Pro has the color of light grey or should I even say light Platinum.
The nice thing with the design is that you can use all the Springboards for all the above mentioned units with just about no difficulty. You can use all the accessories for all the above unit with the Visor Pro with no difficulty. You can use all your old and nice Visor cases with the Pro with no difficulty. I think you get the idea by now. Only accessories specifically for the Edge and certain accessories for the Prism are not compatible with the Pro. So if you're upgrading from an older Visor unit, the Pro should definitely be on your wish list... especially if you invested in some accessories for your Visor unit!
Again, you have the IR port on the top side of the unit... whether you like it there or on the top center (like on the Palm line and Sony CLIE line) is a matter of personal preference. The layout is exactly the same as other Visor units... no jog dial... no LED power button... no true speaker... no battery cover... uh, wait?! No battery cover? What about power?
Here is the first new feature over many older Visors. You now have a rechargable battery in the unit like the Prism and Edge. Whether you prefer this or not is still a matter of personal preference as well. For those who spend long trips away from home, carrying the cradle to charge your unit every now and then can be considered a pain... or even the cost of purchasing a more compact recharging station/cradle.
This also leads to the next update, the slightly redesigned cradle... well, the only upgrade is that you have an AC adapter added to your cradle setup (USB with product... serial purchased seperately). The cradle can still be used with older Visors for plain hotsyncing.
Details
The Pro has the fastest available Palm OS processor in it... the Dragonball VZ 33MHz processor, like the Visor Platinum, Neo, Prism, Edge, and Palm m500/m505 (and the m125 too? I haven't looked at this model yet), Sony CLIE N610/710/760, and HandEra 330 models. No big whoop there.
Handspring decided to stick with the Palm OS 3.5.2H version that they have used in most of their released models over the past year. Again, like the other Handspring models, the Palm OS is not upgradable.
If you're wondering why not Palm OS 4.0, well... honestly, the Pro has a 4-bit B&W screen used with the Platinum and Edge already and the new Neo with no problems so far. The Springboard modules have worked with no real problems before OS 4 was released. Most Palm OS software works with Palm OS 3.5 just fine. OS 3.5.2H has USB capability already (the same code for the most part was used in OS 4 with Handspring's permission!). So as of now, Palm OS 4 didn't offer anything new to the table for Handspring to take advantage of. For now, OS 3.5.2H will suffice. Down the road is where a question might appear... then again it may never become an issue.
16MB of memory... the most alluring spec for this product. 16MB of main memory is a godsend for heavy Palm users. Especially for medical people, most medical software needs to run off the main memory like ePocrates and qID. Power AvantGo users can easily eat up megs of main memory (you can do a few tricks to put AvantGo on memory cards for other Palm units but what regular joe wants to fiddle with that?) Main memory is still the fastest way to access Palm programs. You have to admit it... having twice as much main memory as the nearest Palm handheld competitor is so very, very nice! But if you're using the Visor as regular organizer or use up less than the 8 MB of memory on other units... heck if you use less than 2 MB, there isn't a reason to consider the Pro in your handheld arsenal.
The Pro can still use the older Visor cradles for regular Hotsyncing. You just need the supplied cradle to charge the bleedin' unit. So you can always place the older cradle in the office or home for hotsyncing. Don't worry, you can use the Pro cradle to hotsync your older Visor units as well.
You also get a decent stylus that can be disassembled for the pin for the reset button and a mini-screwdriver too! You also get the hard plastic face cover that you see with all the other Visor units. Handspring.com offers free shipping and a free Bi-fold case with a Pro purchase. You can also get a VisorPhone free with cellular plan activation too.
Software
Not much new here... basically the same as the Visor Edge package. Even the neat fast lookup feature for your address book is here. You can put the "first three letters" of the last name to get a list of contacts with those requirements. Well, that's not exactly true... you say that the first letter is in the first half of the alphabet or the second half using the application buttons, and do the same for the second and third letters. It narrows the list considerably and makes it easier to find the name in question. I personally don't have a great deal of names in my contact list but it may be helpful to those of you with hundreds or thousands of names on your contact list.
One more thing, you can purchase Documents to Go regular or Pro, and get the purchase price refunded back to you... Now you can view and edit MS Word and Excel files on your Pro unit and view Powerpoint presentations as well! The program doesn't offer all the formatting features of Word and Excel but it is highly functional with enought formatting features like font size, color, bold, underline, and the such. There is no extra cost to you!
Springboard modules... but no Palm Virtual File System (VFS)?
The Springboard system has been around for a while... which gives this unit a good advantage in the accessories department. You instantly have many Springboards to choose from and you'll know that they work with your Pro handheld. But you don't have the VFS system with the Palm OS 4... well, that's not really true either.
I should point out two exceptional Springboards as well as the 8 and 16 MB Flash Springboard modules. The Flash modules don't work like main memory but have very quick access compared to other flash memory systems found on other Palm units. The two Springboards I want to bring up are the FlashPlus (uses Compact Flash cards) and the MemPlug (two versions... one uses Compact Flash and the other SmartMedia) modules. You can use Compact Flash and SmartMedia to "expand" your memory. I have some experience with the MemPlug unit... it acts similarly to the Palm OS 4 VFS system of storing programs and files as well as running them... but this allows you to use cheaper flash memory than the SD/MMC standard and the Sony Memory Stick standard. You do have to add another $50 to purchase the module and extra cash for the Compact Flash or SmartMedia card size of your choice.
Conclusions
For the memory intensive Palm OS user, the Pro may be the current answer to your needs. There is no substitute for having 16 MB of internal memory on your Palm device, even with some sort of flash card storage system on your unit. There is a selective market for this kind of product...
However, the average user who doesn't need this kind of memory should look at other units like the Palm m100 ($99), Palm m105 ($129), Palm m125 ($249... ok maybe not for that price), Sony CLIE 320 ($199), TRGPro, Visor Deluxe ($149), Visor Neo/Platinum ($199), and even the B&W Pocket PC models like the Compaq iPAQ 3100 series. These are great units for use as organizers as well!
Again, the major advantages of this unit really are only the 16 MB of main memory and rechargable battery (well, this may be a negative for some). It's a good, reliable product... but for a very seletive audience indeed.
If you like to read my other Palm OS reviews or my iPAQ 3135 review, check out my profile page. All my past Palm OS reviews and related reviews are listed in the drop down menu box on my profile page.
I'll have a review on the Visor Neo up in a few days... sooner if I can't find any real differences between the Neo and the Platinum and Pro.
