Comments on: Palm Lowers Price on m515

The M515 is a gorgeous handheld! It runs nearly 100% of the available software for the PalmOS and is quite expandable with its SD card. Not everyone needs a PDA with every feature in the world thrown in. Sometimes they need a small, lightweight PDA for keeping track of information. I would wager that this PDA would fit the bill for lots of people.
Remember, the posters on Palminfocenter are the exception, not the rule, when it comes to PDA usage. We are generally power users, and we are not a huge market share for Palm.

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One reason why this is worth the price is the form factor. If you have never owned one and are stictly looking at specs then you would not understand this. If you lives with one in your hand and pocket for a couple months, then you would know why it is worth the extra few bucks. I agree hi-res screen would be nice, bit I would take a M515 over an S30 any day. The sad thing is that the M5xx form factor seems to being going by by. This is too bad.

As a sony lover, I have to admit, the M515 really is a beautiful handheld. It has metal casing I believe, not like the cheapo plastic on the SJ30. Sure the SJ30 has more and better features, but looks wise, it just doesn't cut it. ALso quality wise, I would say the M515 looks to be a much more stable unit.

There are only 2 things keeping the m515 from being a perfect (IMHO, for my needs) totally pocketable handheld.

The lack of the m505's backlit Grafitti area and a slightly longer-life battery (I like to have the brightness cranked up). Otherwise, it's a top-notch unit in all regards. It's probably the most elegant handheld ever made (I never liked the V's black buttons) and for many, many folks, that's all that matters.

Because it is profesional looking,
Because it is slimmer.

But those are superficial, Main reasons are:
Because Palm take care of its customers WAY better than Sony.
Problem with Palm, the send you a replacement before you send yours in.
Sony will keep you from your device for a couple of weeks, while you wait for a repair, no "loaner" PDA.

When you have real work to get done, service is far more important than resolution. (Oh and you can see a few more cells in quicksheet on a Sony. big deal.)

Just to let you know I have a PalmV and a Sony 760.
I like my Sony, Love the screen, I will get the new NR not the Tungsten.
But I fully understand why others chose Palm.

Why would people buy this? Form factor. I agree that it is still too pricey, but some people really like the size/weight/button placement of the m515. Just a thought. Remember, just because you don't like a design doesn't mean that everyone else dislikes it too.

>Why in the F would anyone buy a POS ancient Palm OS4.0 machine?

So they don't have to deal with clutter and bloatware.

"You guys are crazy. A Toshiba e310 can be had for as low as $199.99 after rebates. 206Mhz, Mp3, 32MB Rom/32MB Ram, great color screen come on."

Yes, the hardware is great, so why would anyone settle for less hardware?

The reason is because there are people who, no matter what it runs on or how cheap it is, do NOT want Windows on their handheld.

Microsoft can't grasp this concept. It is utterly unthinkable that any human being would prefer anything else. Six months was supposed to be the "takeover handheld universe" timeframe. What year is it now?

I appreciate the hardware advances, even if PPC profit margins are cut to the teeth to get more people to buy them. However, you can't force people to buy what they don't want, and a lot of people don't want PPC because of the OS and software. The hardware is not the issue.

"You guys are crazy. A Toshiba e310 can be had for as low as $199.99 after rebates. 206Mhz, Mp3, 32MB Rom/32MB Ram, great color screen come on..."

Yeah, PocketPCs are just wonderful, aren't they? My e740 was so wonderful that a week after I bought it I exchanged it for a Treo 90. I don't want another Windows machine, I want a PDA that does exactly what it was intended to do. If I wanted a mini game machine, I'd buy a Gameboy Advance.

How are all the 10 year olds on this board buying such expensive toys?

I just bought an m515 two weeks ago for $360 and free shipping off Dell's site. Let me tell you, I am no PDA newbie as I read PIC more then once a day, everyday. I looked at the m515, T665, and SJ30, and while the latter two trounced the m515 for features, the m515 beat them both in looks and style. Superficial and shallow? Of course. But I could not be happier with my purchase and it will get at least a year's use out of it before I see what OS6 handhelds are on the horizon.

By then we should see more then built-in 16mb and won't be hit with the early adopter tax, so I new that if you are buying on OS4.1 handheld, get one that is usable and pleasing to the eye over one that IMO, is ugly (T665) or chunky (SJ30). The peripherals are plentiful as well, as I got a keyboard and Kensington hard case also.

By the way, I am a longtime Sony fan. Only previous handheld was S320 and reliability was unbeatable... Hopefully my m515 is the same.

>>ALso quality wise, I would say the M515 looks to be a much more stable unit.

hmmmmmm. i like palm, but: i have a freind who bouaht an m505 with the crappy, dim screen. 1 week later the m515 came out. he exchanged the m505 and got the m515 and the screen was indeed bright and more evenly lit, however, 2 weeks later he accidently dropped it into his pool . The unit he got after that had horrible shadowing on the edges of the screen (looked as bad as m505). 3 units later (ALL has the same kind of problems, inlucing one with dead pixels) he gave up. Thats quality? I am blown away by how lame the QA is on these devices. We have 320x480 screens out there, and Palm can't make 2 units (w/screens of 160x160) the same. Each one was crappy in a slightly different way. Unbeleivable disapointment.

I bought my 515 at Staples about 2 months ago for $295 (Internet price match) and am very happy with it for that price. The form factor is elegant and practical and it does everything I want it to (e-books, date book, addresses, games, and on...).

My decision was between the 515 and the Sony T-615, and for me, the button design, UC, and battery life issues were the deciding factors. The 515 isn't flashy, just rock solid at what it does, and good-looking to boot.

My question is why anyone would want to buy that finger-pinching Tungsten T thing? Sure, the guts sound nice, but the design is just impractical and gimmicky. Palm should have stuck with a classier, one-piece look and made the innovations where they count most (virtual grafitti, jog dial, etc.)

"How does the 515's battery life w/ backlight set to the low setting compare to the 505's battery life w/ the backlight constantly on?"

Better, by about 15% even though the brightness is about twice of the 505. On high, it will be less than the 505. I use the high setting only once in a while, like in some board rooms, offices, and stores that have a strange effect on screen brightness. I went through six 505's, so I had plenty to compare with...

"Is the Grafitti area visible/usable in total darkness (like, in bed) with the brightness cranked up all the way? Does it produce enough ambient light?"

It's usable, but does not stand out like the 505. Of course, there IS no other handheld with a backlit hard grafitti area.

"Finally, does anyone here regularly overclock their m515? I like to run my games and Kinoma a tad faster than default"

I have FastCPU which I bought mostly for TealMovie. Kinoma Player runs fine without FastCPU. Sometimes I'll kick it up to 40 or 50Mhz just for kicks, but keep it at the usual 33Mhz because everything is pretty much instant anyways. That is, unless I'm working on a laptop-choking spreadsheet or my relational database is way past due on it's archive appointment. Slight increase in battery drain at 38Mhz, more noticable battery drain above 40Mhz.

Most people mention the vastly improved screens of the Sony's, as compared to the Palm m5x5's.

I personally couldn't go back to that crappy beep beep that the Palms offer, after having Polyphonic sound on a T665.

Between having built in MP3, Hi Res, MUCH better alarm sounds, and jog wheel, I just can't understand ANYONE choosing the M5x5's over a Sony.

Crummy stylus? Crummy up/down buttons? Yeah... but what you get in exchange far outweights (for me, anyway) what you give up in a "nice stylus/buttons"!

>The m515 is way to wide to be held comfortably

Don't worry, your hands will get bigger when you grow up. Hope your spelling also improves.

"Oh and you can see a few more cells in quicksheet on a Sony. big deal"

Try 4x as many, if you keep the scale 1x1 for the cells

Yes, and you get crashes from Sony's implementation of 320*320, short battery life, heavier and bigger unit, no support from Sony. Bottom line: if you want a toy, get a Sony. It's your choice, but don't try to forcefeed me your nonsense.

Yes, I've actually tried the SJ30. I wasn't impressed.

I carry the Palm (starting with the V) in a shirt or suit pocket, daily, all day long. And dispite what some think, "almost" the size of a V/5x5 just doesn't cut it.

And I'm not a "Techno-Idiot", and I *don't* need an MP3 player or camera to do business. I do need a solid PDA, and it doesn't have to play games. (I also don't need a cellphone that plays games or has 1,000 ring tones.)

Now I'm sure there are those that need such features and just *must* have a 320x320 screen and a 225MHz processor, yadda yadda. That's fine. Get what you want, or what you need.

But there is absolutely no reason for *me* to get something I *don't* want because some pre-pubescent pinheads (Slayer rulz!) feel that their PDA de jour is the only possible choice for everyone else. Kids strive for status in the strangest ways.

There are just not enough adults here to wedge a foot up the poor excuse for a brain center, so the adults can *discuss* without their whiney rants.

maybe wait for the OS6 devices?

For the poster above, i would bet tht all of the accessories you mentioned that you have for the M515 would work on the next generation of Palm devices, except the case and maybe the keyboard. I am glad Palm is standardizing a little bit on the hardware for their latest PDA's. It makes life easier.

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Mark, whether you are doing it deliberatly or not, you are spreading FUD. (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) Palm is announcing three models next month. Just one of them is a really cheap model designed to sell at Target and doesn't have all the features of mid-range and high-end models. From that, you are drawing the conclusion that Palm is going to drop these features from all future models. It's as logical to say that the low-end model has a monochrome screen therefore all future Palm models will be monochrome. Surely you realize that isn't going to happen. The same is true for the other features that the Zire lacks. If you want a glimpse of Palm's future plans, pay more attention to the Tungsten T and W, which have 4 hardware buttons, d-pads, and use the universal connector.

As a current Palm.net customer, I am curious to know how this will compare in terms of expense and coverage area. The Mobitex network has been quite reliable, though slow. I am a Palm VIIx user looking and looking at the new device. But, my questions will be expense and coverage in my rural area.

Exactly what I said in one of the first few posts on this story. I have met too many people that just can't seem to understand that all PalmOS machines run the same software.

"If I get something other than a Palm, I won't be able to find software for it."

Maybe when Palm changes it's name this problem will become a thing of the past.