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Palm Zire 71
7.0
final rating

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Criteria Comments Rating
  • Features Not too many bells and whistles - but it did the core features decently. so-so
  • Display Good for its time, decent for today. so-so
  • Battery life Almost all PalmOS PDA's have great battery life by today's standards. good
  • Ease of use PalmOS is very simple to use. Graffiti text input has learning curve. good
  • Storage capacity SD card required for serious use. 16MB of onboard storage is very cramped for the power-user. Since it uses RAM - battery completely dead = bye-bye data. poor
  • Design and form factor Not bad. It slides. so-so
  • Portability (size / weight) No comments so-so
  • Durability It is durable, but the slider ribbon cable can break after a long time of sliding, rendering hotsync, charging, and the camera button useless. so-so
Detailed review
It won't put a dent in anything today.
But it works for the no-frills, simple PDA user who wants a camera. (.3 MP)
Worked for me back then, now, not so much.
(but even those are becoming rare, even then, the Zire 72 is another option.)

There are other, newer models worth considering. Namely, the Tungsten series.
review history
2012-05-24
Edited comment on Durability
Edited comment on Ease of use
Features rating changed from 4 to 3
Updated detailed review
2012-04-29
Edited comment on Storage capacity
Updated detailed review