Customer Reviews

PalmOne m500 Handheld

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(41)

 

 

Ok...I just finished reading all the reviews between the Palm m500 and the Palm m505 (color). This is my first Palm so this review is coming from a novice point of view. I decided to go with the m500. I made a wise choice! I really don't need a color screen. I don't play games or anything like that. So I decided to go with the m500 and save almost a hundred bucks. I bought it for the address book, the memo feature, the to do list, and the additional memory you can buy. I really don't need to see these things in color. Many people complain about the screen clarity, size etc..etc..I really don't have a problem with it. It is nice and clear. I can see the fonts no problem, and the palm icons are nice and clear. The screen is a good size too. The illuminated light is nice and bright. The screen is dark while the fonts and all the graphics nicely light up. It comes with alot of extra software too. It was also very easy to operate. I started to feel confident within 5 minutes after I pulled it out of the box. It's navigation is very straight forward and easy to understand. I just installed software that allows you to view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files right on your Palm!

All in all I am very satisfied with the m500. I would highly recommend it to beginners who want basic Palm functions, but also want the option of exploring and using the other great features that puts the m500 at the top of the line of Palm handhelds. You also save some money too!

I used to own a Sony CLIE. As most people know, it is a so-so Palm clone with NO accesories. Finally I decided to upgrade to a new m500. It is the smallest handheld running on Palm OS (yes smaller than the Vx and the m505). It also has the clearest screen (far superior to my almost new CLIE). And comes with around $200 of bonus software, something the Vx lacks. I think this handheld is better than the m505 for two reasons. 1, it is cheaper, and 2, the screen is much better (it is not black and white, but displays 16 different shades from black to white), while the m505 has a very dissapointing color screen that is sure to leave you squinting even when looking its best. If you are debating over Palm OS and Windows CE, Palm is the hands down winner for several reasons. One reason is that their handhelds are smaller and faster than Windows handhelds (The smallest windows handheld is equavalent to two Palm V's stacked up). Palm is also more econimical. Palm handhelds batteries last around a month. Windows CE lasts 4 hours. Palm has 10's of thousands of software programs (around half of it is free), while Windows CE has 100's of expensive programs. If you are looking for a PDA with great features, accesories, software, and mobility choose Palm.

The Palm m500 is very similar to the very versatile Palm Vx in many ways. Palm has added some features that make this model even better. The interface with the PC and hotsync tasking is flawless.

The response time and speed of this unit is very much improved as is it's overall functionality given the software package. Coming with Documents to go, AOL and Power One, the software just keeps getting better. Now I can take my important documents and spreadsheets with me.

It has a nice greyscale screen and is much lighter than the Vx model. Eight MB of RAM might not be enough, but it can be expanded through the use of memory cards. I've backed up all of my data, e-books, databses and applications on one card which [are fairly inexpensive].

I highly recommend the Palm m500 for professional uses. It's wide variety of supplementary accessories also makes this model a plus. My only criticism is that the power button does protrude more than the Vx model. In the Palm hard case, the power button does turn on inadvertently at times. Hopefully better hard cases will become available for those, who like me insist on such accessories. Overall, a very responsive, high quality unit.

I really liked this machine when I got it, and I like it now-- when it works. The m500 is runs the programs I need it to run, is light and fits in my pocket, has a long battery life, and is expandable with SD memory cards.

Unfortunately the m500 is so unreliable that I am selling it and buying another brand. My screen developed problems 2 months after buying the machine. That machine was replaced with a machine that developed a screen problem before I had the chance to ship the first one back. The next replacement worked for 4 months with a screen that worked moderately well, then completely died. It was replaced by a machine with a defective screen, which has been replaced yet again with a machine that will last who knows how long. All Palm can do is continue to send me bad replacements, which I do have to admit I get quickly. That's about all Palm can do-- replace bad machines with more bad machines, as quickly and politely as possible without addressing the real problem.

Please do yourself a favor and investigate the product further before buying an m500. I have read reviews on other web sites and am definitely not the only one with this problem. One site shows the m500 with a 52% negative rating for this machine based on 222 opinions, far worse than ratings any other PDA I've seen. Many people who comment on problems seem to be having very similar problems to mine.

I have owned 3 different pocket pc or palm made devices. I first started with the Palm IIIxe, which I got a lot of use out of. It is not only functional, but it makes writing in your organizer, and adding addresses easy, if not fun. I decided to move on to a color model, but the available color models running palm OS were far from adequete, especially for their prices. The best value was a HP Jornada 525, which was their old model, close to being discontinued. I was happy with the Jornada, until I found that upgrading to the new Pocket PC OS wasn't possible, and recently I have noticed that the Pocket PC industry hasn't gotten it's act together. Pocket PCs, up until Win CE 2002, have been running on 3 (or maybe 4) different types of processors, and none of them are compatible with eachother. Models with different levels of color cannot run the same software, and the list goes on. I decided to move back to palm, but keep my Jornada when I needed a color device. The best buy seemed to be the m500. I am happy with this model. It writes much better than my first palm. Some reviews have stated that it has a plastic screen, but in fact, it has a glass screen, and a thinner "membrane" for sensing touches. It's display is a big step up from the early grayscale palms, and it has fixed all of the annoying bugs of the old Palm Vs. My only complaint is that the "odd" shape makes leather cases (especially fit cases) much more expensive, and the peripherals are all more expensive. Otherwise, this is a great model!!

My wife bought me the m500 for Christmas to replace my Palm V (she was sick of me telling her I had to delete Frogger to make more room for Datebk4). I am very happy to have the additional memory and room for expansion. Color would've been a nice upgrade, but it wasn't my choice.

On the down side, my first disappointment was the new diameter of the case-holder, or whatever they call it. I'm talking about the slot along the left side that is used to keep the palm attached to a protective case. With my Palm V, I used the Metallic Blue, Special Edition Hard case from Palm. Seeing as the overall dimensions of the m500 are just slightly smaller than the V, I figured I could reuse this case on my new toy. Apparently Palm saw this coming, and shrunk the diameter of the slot so that the old Palm V cases will not fit in the m500 series. I read an explanation somewhere that said this was due to some design change in the internal circuitry, but I don't buy that. It's a marketing change to get upgraders to shell out [more] for a new hard case.

Also, I'm on my second m500 now. The cradle on the first one stopped working after 2.5 months because of a pin that bent when I was putting it in the cradle. I called the customer support line, and they offered to replace it even though it was my fault. Great! Problem was, they had to replace the entire system - cradle and handheld. I was even more upset when I found out the replacement I got was a refurbished unit. The service rep didn't mention this on the phone - I had to learn about it from a message board. Palm's replacement policy could use some improvement.

All-in-all, it's been a worthwhile upgrade for me. The added flexibility of the expansion slot, USB HotSyncs, and the same dependability of the Palm V (excluding the bad cradle) continue to earn my respect. The design changes and replacement policy, on the other hand...

I came into some money, so I bought one of these. First, I traded my Visor Platinum for this. I gave that to my wife. I knew after owning that that I wanted a thin form factor, with a good software set. Sony was my first choice, but they don't support Macintosh. (I run OS X on my iBook.). I looked at the Visor Edge, but the software set in the m500 and 505 made those my primary choice. I really wanted a color screen, but the 505 screen looked miserable. So...m500.

Pro:
Thin
Fast
Great included software set. 4.0 is a nice system, and the other software, Documents to Go especially, is good.
An absolutely wonderful b&w screen.
SD/MMC slot.

Con:
Seems slower than my Visor Platinum.
Datebook.

First, I hate the standard Palm Datebook. After Handspring's Datebook+, I'm spoiled. So I needed to improve it by 3rd party software. It also seems a bit slower than the Platinum, but that is probably my perception.

I did buy screen protectors and a NICE Kensington metal case for it.

Overall, I'm happy with my new toy. It is a good workhorse of a Palm, hasn't done anything completely bizarre on me, or crashed, or had screen problems yet. It is fast, has large memory, and the SD/MMC slot is great. (I have a dictionary installed right now, and I plan to get an atlas and tuck it into my wallet.)

I'd recommend one to anyone.

I bought a Palm Vx and the IR port kept failing on me. Although my confidence in Palm's quality control was wavering, I took a risk and paid more money to upgrade to m500. It was a good decision which I made more than 1 yr ago. After some usage, I have the following Pros and Cons:
Pros
1. Lighter weight than the all aluminum Vx
2. Longer battery life
3. Faster processing speed when launching applications
4. great storage. I stored 2 translations (NIV and NASB)old and new testament of the Bible and it still has a lot of unused memory
5. now the price has gone down a bit so it is a good deal.
6. Sleek and light design. I personally prefers the all aluminium casing, but the plastic backing has been fine so far
7. you can use the graffitti and keyboard mode at the same time

Cons:
1. expensive/hard to find accessories e.g. camera attachment, memory backup card, external memory storage card
2. some of the free games available through the Palm community web site might cause this m500 to crash, so download cautiously

I bought a PDA kicking and screaming, and this, my first one, has been dynamite. It's got great battery life and visibility, it's incredibly easy to use, and despite the fact that I've dropped it on the driveway five or six times, it just keeps on going. The slim leather case is fabulous--it's replaced my wallet altogether, and I have a simpler, more orderly life, with fewer bulky items to carry around. The design is incredibly elegant, and as a low end tech user, I'm very pleased.

I have just upgraded from a Palm V with 2MB meomory to the Palm m500 + a 16MB card, giving me a total of 24 MB. So far I am very happy with it. The added memory allows me to keep virtually all my documents on the palm. I also developed the habit of writing daily notes. The small size is perfect to be carried around ALL THE TIME. The m500 synchronized with my laptop easily. In fatc, I synchronized it with two laptops, one with XP and another with Win 2000.

I didn't have problems with the screen shifting, which I did with the old Palm V. When it happened with the Palm V I just tapped the Welcome icon and ran the preference setup again. But indeed I had to do it more and more later on. With the m500, I didn't need it so far (after about 2 months).

However, I would like to bring up a couple of little glitches, and I'm not sure whether you all had the same problem:

(1) The To Do List does not accept "due date" option. As soon as you enter the due date, the to do item disappears from the handheld, although it remains on the desktop.

(2) I don't know how useful the expansion slot is. I can't put many of the programs on the expansion card, particularly Documents-To-Go. Despite having 16 MB sitting there, I can put preciously few things on it. It is not clear that once the internal memory is full everything will be automatically written on the expansion card. I suspect you cannot.

(3) Don't waste your money on the travel kit. Buy a USB charger/sync cable ($16, I bought it for $9 at Best Buy). It is much lighter, much cheaper, and much more convenient.

(4) Palm is trying to rip people off by making the accessories for m500/m515 completely incompatible with Palm V/Vx. So beware of it.