The Palm Z22... in detail

I was thinking over the last year about an organizer. I go to school, and using an agenda was alright, but I don't think i'd take it with me to an outing to remember a friend's birthday. Or play a game. Or remember all my homework, be able to categorize, prioritize and finish all of it within a day. Or to remember my badminton racket for PE, which had an alarm...

INSIDE THE BOX:

Inside the Palm Z22 box are the HotSync cable (USB), a charger, grafitti 2 sticker, 3-step poster, a quick-start guide and a manual. There is also a 'universal' screen protector to fit any Palm screen, although in this purpose it was for the Z22. There is also one stylus, but no plastic cover as was mentioned in another review.

SPECS:

The Palm Z22 is a very functional organizer for the price, and surprisingly powerful. It has a 200 mHz ARM processor, as well as 32 MB of memory, although only 20 MB of it is user-accessible. The memory is non-volatile, which means that even if the device completely loses power (i.e it's completely drained) your memory will still be backed up. It's a nice claim to have a bit of support on, but i'd still sync to be on the safe side. The battery is Li-On, so you don't have to worry about buying new batteries every couple of days.

BATTERY LIFE:

The battery life has surprised me over the period of time i've had this device. On a single 3-hour charge (give-or-take), I was able to run the Palm for 5 days without a charge. These facts are not completely accurate, but if you're not on it as much as you are on the computer, you'll probably have no trouble at all.

FUNCTIONALITY:

To-date, I think it's helped me a lot, birthdays, remembering items, tasks, and even games for the boring rides on the bus. My marks have gone dramatically up from last year. Of course, this doesn't generally mean because of the Palm, but because it was there when I needed it. So for functionality, i'd have to give it 5 stars.

BUTTONS:

The Z22 has a painted part, which is very similar to the older Palms like the Zire. On the far left, you have the home icon, underneath that the menu button. On the far right (at the top) is the sync button, and below the sync button is a find button. On the four corners of the Graffiti 2 input area are the clock button, brightness/contrast adjust and keyboard (alpha and numerical). Below that are the hard buttons, which are a Calendar and Contacts button and a 5-way navigator with an enter button in the middle. Also on the far left is the power button.

CUSTOMIZING:

On the Z22, there are endless ways to customize your Palm to your specifications. For example, instead of a grafitti help menu when I stroke the stylus from the grafitti area to the top of the screen, it turns off & locks. If I press the power button for more than three seconds, keylock is activated (although I haven't had very many problems with button-presses). You can also change the hard button application that opens. You can even select what you want to do with your private records, you can mask, show or hide them. The password on all files is exactly the same as it is on system entry.

PROBLEMS:

I haven't had very many problems with my Palm. I've had it since October 21, and the only minor problem I've had is the screen protector scratching too fast. Also, it occassionally doesn't want to turn on, so you'll have to soft reset. Even with all the applications that I've downloaded, some of them crashing the system, I haven't had to perform a hard reset yet so that's pretty good. Other than those two problems, it's smooth sailing.

AVAILABLE ACCESSORIES:

There aren't many accessories available for the Z22, but there are screen protectors and plastic cases. I recently purchased an air case and it's helped preserve the plastic body. There are also stylus' in case you lose one. The price for the case (there were 2 inside, blue and white as well as 4 screen protectors) was only $20 CAD, which is pretty good I think.

OVERALL:

Whether you need an upgrade from a paper planner or your Palm IIIxe, the Z22 is a good choice. It doesn't have wireless and bluetooth and advanced functions of the cellphones today, but it's a good way to keep your life in order, without loose papers...