Palm Z22 - One Great Organizer

I have never been a very organized person when it comes to addresses, birthdays or appointments. I decided that at my age it was finally time for me to get organized, since my memory tends to leave me every now and again. I knew that I wanted a PDA, but just wasn’t sure what kind. I didn’t want anything to complicated that I would have to spend a lot of time learning to use it. I just wanted something that would fit comfortably in my purse and get me as organized as possible, in as little time as possible.

I guess I have to admit that I didn’t do a lot of research when I was trying to decide what PDA I wanted. I had always heard that Palm was the way to go when buying a PDA, so off I went to Office Depot in search of my first PDA. After looking at all they had available there in the store, I decided that for me the Palm Z22 Handheld was the way to go.

In The Box

When I got my first PDA home I opened the box and inside along with the Palm Z22 was a USB Cable, an A/C Adapter, software CD, a getting started poster and a handy plastic case for carrying your Z22. The stylus was neatly tucked in its place on the top of the Palm Z22 and the manual in incorporated on the software CD. The first thing I read was that the Z22 must charge for 3 hours before using it for the first time. The Z22 uses Graffiti 2 for writing your letters and numbers or you can use the built in keyboard to type if you had rather enter information that way. You can synchronize the Palm Z22 with Microsoft Outlook, but since I don’t use that at home I used the Palm software and found it to be very easy to use.

The Hardware

The Palm Z22 is small and fits very easily in your purse, jeans, a shirt or back pack pocket. The Z22 is also very light weight and does not weigh down your purse. I carry mine in my purse all of the time and haven’t noticed it making my purse any heavier.

The buttons on the Z22 are flat against the surface so they don’t get pressed on accident while it is in your purse or pocket. Since mine came with the plastic carrying case this really hasn’t been an issue for me, but I thought I would mention it. The page up and page down buttons are oval and also allows you to move left and right. There is a button in the middle that you can touch to remove the unit from sleep or you can use it as an enter button. At the bottom of the screen on the left and right hand sides are small pictures these can be touched with the stylus for Calendar, Address book, sync and find. The on/off button is on the left hand side and is very convenient.

The screen is a great size and very bright. I haven’t had any problems reading it in a dark room or outside in the sunlight. The resolution of the screen is great, everything is clear and vivid. The Z22 comes with a sticky screen protector, the problem with it is that you have to cut it to fit and I had problems getting mine exact, but I did get it close enough to protect the entire screen. I think the screen protector is very important in keeping your PDA in tip top shape.

The Z22 has a small USB connector at the top, all you need to do is plug in the supplied cord to the top of the Z22 and into a USB port on your computer and you are ready to go. This unit charges while it is plugged into your computer also, which is great when traveling you don’t have to carry another charger with you if you have your computer and Palm USB connector.

The thing that I really like about my new PDA is that I can download(Sync) all my information to my computer in a matter of seconds. This makes it so that I always have a backup copy of what is on my PDA. You are not supposed to lose your data if your batteries go bad, but having it on my computer makes me feel better. The Z22 comes with 32 megabytes of memory and as far as I can tell this is more than I will probably ever need.

The stylus that comes with the unit is light, black plastic. It fits securely in its holder on the top right side of the unit. You just slide the stylus into its holder and you don’t have to worry about it falling out.

The battery life so far has been great. I was a little worried about this when I purchased the unit, but I have kept it with me for a week and never had to charge it. I use if practically everyday and so far I have been amazed with the battery life. If only my cell phone was half that good!

The Software

I have been really impressed with the software of the Palm Z22. It is very easy to organize your calendar, your addresses or appointments. You can give your events there own color, personal could be red, business appointments can be blue. You can view your calendar by days, weeks or months. You can scroll through them using just the buttons and not have to use your stylus.

The contacts program is great also, you can put a picture of the person beside their name. It has places for all of the information you could think of for each person. Work and home address, phone numbers, email addresses, their website and even their birthday. This is the best part of the program for me since you can set an alarm to let you know that someone has a birthday coming up and you need to send a card. I have mine set for 1 week before the event and it works great.

The Palm Z22 has many great features. You can upload pictures and create a digital photo album this has been great for me being a first time grandmother, I always have pictures to show. You can play and download games and books to it. You can take notes, create to do lists, write your grocery list, use it as a calculator or as I said before play games on it. It comes preloaded with the game Crazy Daisy which has already become an addiction of mine. You can download more games and applications to it if you want to. The only thing you can’t use if for is to play music or take pictures.

Final Thoughts

All I can say is that this is probably one of the best purchases I have made in a long time. It has really helped me to get organized and have all of my information stored it one place. It is very easy to use and you don’t have to be a computer guru to work it. If you are looking for a quick way to get yourself organized, then the Palm Z22 is probably for you. I know that I am happy everyday that I purchased mine.