- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 195 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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32 out of 37 people found this review helpful
2.0 stars
"High hopes... unmet"
Pros: Georgeous Screen, wifi setup & signal strength, Doc to Go software, overall software installation went smoothly
Cons: MP3 sounds scratchy, can't see screen outdoors, battery % way too tiny to see, no vibration mode, Live Drive must be off to use Palm apps, on/off switch awkward to use, too heavy and bulky for a Palm
Summary: So beautiful! So warm and heavy! That pretty much sums up my past 6 days using the Life Drive, which I'll be returning. I was attracted to its large screen, thinking I could type in landscape mode using Docs to Go 7. Unfortunately, I can't really make the screen size large enough, without increasing the font size, to make this practical (suggest looking at the AlphaSmart Dana for real typing on a Palm). The Life Drive feels like a nicely shaped bar of soap, and therein lies a huge problem. You can't just put it in your pocket and, by the time you put it in a case, it's huge! The weight of this unit is almost too much for the Palm Universal Keyboard. I kept thinking it was going to slip out, although it didn't. Also, by having a built in hard drive, this unit is apparently more fragile than previous Palms.
I found the system responsiveness too slow, even when turning it off. On the plus side, the screen is bright and clear, and voice recorder feaure worked well. Wish I could say the same for the MP3 player. Songs which play just fine on my other units sounded scratchy and there was an annoying buzz in between songs. Battery life looks like it may be a problem. It went down by half in a day. Finally, don't plan to access anything else while the Life Drive mode (like a USB drive) is going. I tried to add an appointment while transferring my MP3s. Sorry, it's one way or the other. So, back it goes... I'm going to try out the E2, although I swear, the T3 and T5 are looking like interesting possibilities. For my money, spending an extra $250 just to get a few GIGs of space isn't worth it.
