Handspring Visor Deluxe (Ice)

To set up the Handspring Visor Deluxe, we followed the Getting Started instructions printed on the software CD-ROM case, inserting the batteries, calibrating the touch screen, entering the date and time, connecting the included USB cradle to our PC (an optional serial cradle is available), installing the desktop synchronization software, and synchronizing the Visor with our PC. The entire setup process was straightforward and intuitive, requiring only about five minutes.

Fans of Palm Computing's Palm III line of connected organizers will have no difficulty using the Visor, as it runs on a licensed version of the Palm OS. All the popular Palm personal information management (PIM) applications are included and work exactly the same way as they do on the Palm. The Visor also uses Palm's Graffiti handwriting recognition system for text entry, which takes only a few minutes to learn and a few hours of practice to master. Handspring has added to the Palm OS an advanced date book, calculator, world clock, and support for floating-point math.

The Visor Deluxe comes with 8 MB of RAM, providing plenty of room for thousands of addresses, to-do items, and memos; hundreds of e-mail messages; and several years of appointments. It also includes a USB synchronization cradle, two AAA batteries, a stick-on Graffiti "cheat sheet," a leather slip case, a stylus, a Handspring logo decal, a Quick Reference Guide, inserts describing accessories and cases, and a software CD-ROM. The CD-ROM includes Palm Desktop Software 3.01, a software link to Microsoft Outlook, and the full-length User's Guide. However, the Visor Deluxe does not come with an AC adapter.

Using the Visor was intuitive and fun, just like the Palm III series organizers that it's based on. However, unlike the Palm, the Visor has an easily accessible expansion port that supports Springboard modules. For our tests, we installed a modem module, an 8 MB memory module, the Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf game, and a Physician's Desk Reference module (note that you can install only one module at a time). Installing these modules is very easy, and they can greatly increase the functionality, power, and usefulness of the Visor. (For more information, see the descriptions of the individual Springboard modules.

Overall, we were very impressed with the Visor. It takes the best of the popular Palm platform, and adds memory and expandability--all at a great price. --Mike Brown

Pros:

• Easy to set up and use
• Runs the Palm OS and supports thousands of existing Palm applications
• Expandable with Springboard modules
• Good price

Cons:

• No AC adapter included

The Handspring Visor Deluxe offers a fast USB connection, making synchronizing your PC or Mac simple. Exchange of information between your handheld and PC occurs with the touch of a button. HotSync technology ensures all your data is backed up and enables significantly faster synchronization with USB support than the normal serial connection. (An optional serial cradle is available.)

The Handspring Visor Deluxe with its 8 MB RAM also stores 12,000 addresses, 10 years of appointments, 6,000 to-do items, 6,000 memos, and 400 e-mail messages, plus it has plenty of room for add-on applications. This model includes support for Lotus cc:Mail, Microsoft Outlook, and Qualcomm Eudora. Software to synchronize with AOL, Lotus Notes, Netscape Communicator, and POP3 mail is sold separately.

The Handspring Visor Deluxe is fully expandable with an external expansion slot that lets you add optional software and hardware modules (called Springboard modules) in a snap. Modules like an MP3 player, pager, modem, GPS receiver, or video game can be added to make a new device.

The Handspring Visor Deluxe comes with a HotSync cradle, stylus, snap cover, leather slip case, Palm Desktop software (Windows and Mac), software link to Microsoft Outlook (Windows only), two AAA batteries, and a one-year warranty.

What's in the box

• Visor Deluxe
• HotSync cradle
• Stylus
• Snap cover
• Leather slip case
• Palm Desktop software (Windows and Mac)
• Software link to Microsoft Outlook (Windows only)
• Two AAA batteries

color: i chose the ice color as i wanted it to be in a different color compared to my mobile phone. however, this color makes it look like its made of soft plastic. for other colors, this would confuse the visor for a game boy.

feel: I was expecting the visor to be a lot bigger and was quite surprised that it fit in the palm of my hand. it seems to be a little heavy to put in your shirt pocket but it fits perfectly in the front pants pocket.

durability: the visor does not have the sturdiness look of a mobile phone or an electronic organizer(especially if you were to get one of the colored ones) i got to test its breakage accidentally as i got out of the car, the visor fell from my pocket and hit the pavement. the cover separated from the pda. when i looked it over, there where no obvious damages. pretty sturdy, it seems.

features:

stylus: my friend who owns a palm pilot tried it out and he says the stylus has a better feel on the screen.

cradle: unfortunately, my pc does not have a usb slot to be able to use the cradle. It indicated in the manual that if i required a serial cradle, it didn't come with it and i could just purchase it at handspring.com . i would have expected at least a choice on which to buy especially since the manufacturers assume your pc comes with a usb slot. i thus now have no way of testing the cradle and loading other programs. this seems to be the downside of the cradle connection and leaves me with 2 choices. either buy another cradle or bring my pc and have a usb slot attached.

features: it has a lot more programs than an organizer. what impressed me was the memo pad as i have a tendency to take down notes and ideas when i am reading but i misplace my notes frequently. the visor gives you three choices on how to write. the first is the grafitti which took me a while to master. the letters and the numbers were explained how to do but the other characters such as punctuation were not. the 2nd was the punching in of characters using an onboard screen keyboard. the last was a separate keyboard. i also like the address book feature where you can segregate contacts according to personal, business, etc. theres a to do list, calculator, datebook(two of them, wonder why) expense list, etc. all in all a complete package. my only complaint seem to be the registration of my time zone. the only asian countries on the list are japan and hongkong which i find kind of silly since they should have at least either put all the countries or put in a function that allows you to type in your home base. my friend had a palm pilot IIIe(the colored one) and we were zapping each other using the infrared functionality. i was amazed that i am able to send info also to a mobile phone and vice versa.

all in all, it is a must have gadget.


Visor Deluxe Vs PalmIIIxe   November 12, 2000
50 out of 50 found this review helpful

I got my Visor Deluxe last month and I love it.

If you are considering buying a Visor Deluxe, I'm sure you are deciding between this Visor and PalmIIIxe, because they have similar feature, spac, and they both have the same price.

AT the same time I bought my Visor, my roommate bought a PalmIIIxe (and he also loves his Palm very much). So i'll give you the differences between these 2 PDAs, and let you decide which one you like better.

I'll start with How Visor is better.

-Visor has expansion module, which means alot, you can add many many feature afterward, you can make your Visor am MP3 player too! And you can also easily add more memory to your Visor, while for PalmIIIxe, you can only add 2MB flashcard.

-Visor is a bit lighter than PalmIIIxe (5.4oz Vs 6.0 Oz, not a lot of difference though)

-When you buy a leather case for your Visor, you dont have to stick a valcro to the back of your PDA like you have to for Palm. (Palm need a Valcro to hold it to the case, while for Visor, there's a plastic holder attach to the back of the leather case, so you can jsut put your Visor securely in there)

-Visor comes with a fast USB cradle while Palm comes with slow serial cradle, so if you buy palm and want a fast synconizing, you'll need to buy a USB cradle separatly for about thirty dollars.

-Visor comes with a good quiality stylus, it has solid feel of metal, and if you open it up, there's a little screw driver and a reset pin inside. Palm comes with a piece of plactic stylus, my roomate had to buy a new stylus for about fifteen dolars

-And another important nice thing about Visor is, you have 4 cool colors to choose from (5 colors if you include boring graphite color) If you are getting Visor as a gift to a college students or someone young, they'll love the colors.

Ok, now to what's better about PalmIIIxe

-PalmOS on Palm is upgradable, while Visor user will stuck with PalmOS version 3.1 for the rest of the VIsor's life. However, this is not a problem as it may sounds. most version of PalmOS's are essentially the same thing.

-PalmIIIxe has better display than Visor. Palm has 4bits display, while Visor deluxe has only 2bits. This means that, for Palm, u'll be able to display 16 level of grey-scale, while for Visor, you can only display 4 levels of grey-scale.

So, that's about it for the little comparison chart I made. Other tings about these 2 PDAss are the same, they use same processor, and dimension is the same. (Visor is slightly thicker, and Palm is slightly wider)

As a recommendation if you r going to buy Visor Deluxe, get one of the cool color, don't get graphite one, unless you are a businessman, and want a more sophiticate looking device. Otherwise, other 4 colors are way cooler, (mine's orange)

If you have more cash to burn, then I recommend you getting either PalmVx or Visor Platinum, they are a little bit more expensive. However, I've never used them so I will not write any comments about them.

P.S. DO NOT get a PDA with less then 8MB memory, must have AT LEAST 8MB


This one is ready for the future!   June 17, 2000
Sander Claassen (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
43 out of 44 found this review helpful

I have quite some experience with the use of mobile phones andPDAs. For example, until recently, I had an Ericsson MC16 (based onWindows CE). In practice, I actually did not use much more of it than the agenda, although I could use it for word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing and so forth. I just noticed I didn't need those functionalities that much and if I wanted them, the user friendliness and performance were below my needs. As such, it was too big, cumbersome and slow for me.

Last summer I bought a Palm V for my wife. She really enjoys it and I got to see all the benefits of the Palm-concept. For example, it's so small you just always have it with you. That means killing time waiting somewhere for something can become much more fun and productive: you can continue playing a game or do something more business oriented like reading some notes before a meeting.

When I thought it was time for me to get me a new device, I found out about the Handspring Visor. I also considered the new PocketPC devices like the HP Jornada and the Casio Cassiopeia. First of all, these devices are a lot bigger. Second, they are more expensive. Third, they have a lot of features (color, video, audio) but before you buy such a device, you don't know whether or not you'll actually use it as an MP3 player, for example. So you end up with a device that has too much functionality that you didn't want after all (but did pay for). Plus, if you wanted the device to have new features later on, you would probably only have the option to buy the newer version of it and thus shorten the economic lifetime of the device to perhaps just a year.

The great benefit of the Visor is that you have this all under control. A lot of springboard modules are or will be available. If you are an early adapter, you'll buy yourself the MP3 player, the GPS system, or a camera. If you are not so sure, you will just wait and see how people around you actually use it before you purchase a springboard module.

I myself am interested in really mobile Internet, so not just off-line web browsing when I am on the move (like with avantgo). Therefore, I already downloaded and tested three WAP browsers on my visor. I get online using the IR port to my mobile phone. Today, this is still a bit cumbersome: I cannot walk around doing this (the devices have to keep in line all the time). But soon there will be Bluetooth enabled mobile phones, so if I buy the Bluetooth springboard module I can browse the web leaving my mobile in my pocket, suitcase or on the table.

The Visor gives me this opportunity, which none of the other PDAs in the market can. So even though most springboard modules are not yet available, I do not have to worry getting rid of my PDA for a long time. So, besides the fact that the device is a lot cheaper than most other PDAs, I predict it will also last longer.

Summarizing my review...

Plus: * Looks cool * Good performance * A lot of memory * Better standard calculator than Palm * Buttons can be redefined to any program * The versatility using springboard modules * The nice minimalistic plastic cover can be put on the back side when using the Visor. It gives good protection and does not get lost.

Minus: * Batteries do not recharge and drain quite fast * Thicker and heavier than the Palm V * Does not have all necessary software on board to start making use of IR with other devices...


Buy it, live it, love it   July 13, 2000
Mike Freed
42 out of 44 found this review helpful

What an amazing little piece of technology this Visor Deluxe is. Of course, it works the same way a Palm does, but Handspring gives you more stuff for the same money as a Palm IIIxe. Both machines have 8mb of memory (way too much if all you're using it for is a day planner; the 2mb version will be fine for non email users), and work exactly the same way. But the Visor has the expansion module, and while Palm makes do with a serial hotsync connection, Visor has a quicker USB port.

I also had occasion to try out Handspring's customer service the other day (apparently I loaded a bad app onto my Visor, which kept it from booting up), and I'm pleased to say it was fast, very courteous and effective.

The only thing I'd improve on is the thickness of the product, but then again, that's what makes room for the expansion module. And if you look at one of those ultra-thin Palm V's, you'll find they run off rechargable batteries...which means if you're taking it on a long trip, you'll have to bring the charger with you. With the Visor, the AAA batteries last about a month, and they're easy to pack along when you travel (if you think it'll go dead during the trip).

All in all, I'd heartily recommend the Visor to anyone who needs a little organization in his or her life. Now if only Handspring would make good on their promise to make more expansion-module apps...


Great Product: Easy to use and more.   June 22, 2000
Joseph Haas (Monsey, NY)
30 out of 31 found this review helpful

I know that all Palm OS devices are just as easy to use, but the Handspring goes beyond that with ease of upgrading via the Springboard module.

The USB sync is also faster that the serial port used by other Palm devices. Graffiti is easy and fun to learn, but you can alsways use the on screen keyboard.

Another advantage of a Visor is the 5 colors. This may not sound important, but you'll have all your friends coming over to you and asking "what is that?". There is also a built-in Microphone for use with software that handles voice input, I have never used it, but it has a lot of potential.

But again, I think the best feature is the Springboard module. You can add a MP3 player, digital camera, modem, extra memory, even games and books. Can your Palm do that :)

If you're thinking of getting a Palm based PIM, get the Visor, you won't regret it. (and Amazon has a 30 money back guarantee if you do)