Comments on: Palm Z22 Review

What I think they've got right here:
small size
memory not too big
simple USB connectivity, no complex expansion port
no bluetooth/wifi etc
color screen, but not a good (ie expensive) one
price

What I think they've missed:
No SD expansion
No stereo audio output

In fact, even the things they've got right, I don't think they've got right enough.

So what should a successful cheap device aim for, and look like.

In this category, it is primary a simple note-taker, reminder, and perhaps runs a couple of specialist applications, such as a 'pregnancy calculator', a couple of games, a unit converter, etc.
But there are a couple of functions that could make it much more useful.
The main one being, I think, that adding SD and a headphone output could make it an mp3 player.
What, you don't have one already?
Well some people do. But there are two kinds, hard-disk, and flash. The hard disk players are specialised, and rather like a digital SLR camera, it's going to be a long while before mobile phones or pda cameras can compete with SLRs. But the flash players are nearly all internal-memory devices of between 256Mb and 2Gig. These can easily be replaced by a Palm device equiped with a decent audio stage/headphone socket, and an SD slot (4Gig SD cards go for about $50 currently).
Mobiles phones are busy attacking this niche, but they seem to be making a mess of it (not least because of using varying standards of memory card) but palm could do it too.

The screen doesn't have to be up to much, in fact I'd say the current one is a good compromise - even fairly cheap mobile phones have color screens these days, so color is a neccessity, but making it a gorgeous hi-def screen is not.

Size is another crucial element here. Its the kind of device that needs to slip into a handbag, or unobtrusively into a suit jacket pocket - one that is already likely carrying a mobile phone, mind you. Why is the bezel so wide on this device? And the button area? Imagine the same sized screen/grafitti area, with a bezel the size of a trea, and the button area shrunk in half.

I think plam are probably right about leaving tcp/ip out ... but then again, since it's only software, what's the harm in including it?

If anything, I'd say they could put less memory in the device, if they had the SD slot, since this isn't going to be loading with every application under the sun - and the slot would allow things like talking books-on-an-SD-card.

The piezo-buzzer is probably fine, as long as it genuinely does save space/money, and is loud enough to use as an alarm. I don't see so much call for playing music/sound effects/etc over the speaker (though this is very popular in asia).

So, all in all, we'd like a similar device, possibly with less memory, definitely a little smaller (the wasted bezel space etc, not the screen), but with an SD slot and stereo headphones socket. Maybe this would cost a few $$ more. But not much.
I think someone was pandering a little too much to marketing's request to get it under $100.

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