Handspring Visor (Graphite)

Other products by Handspring

Product Details

Product Manual [3.03mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 3 x 0.7 inches ; 5.3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004TDMX
• Batteries: 2 AAA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #40,381 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Handspring Visor connected organizer is all you'll need to store thousands of names, addresses, appointments, memos, to-do items, expense items, and e-mail. Based on the popular Palm OS, the Handspring Visor is fully compatible with thousands of Palm Computing platform applications. Plus, Handspring has added features to the Palm OS like an advanced date book, calculator, world clock, and built-in floating-point math support.

The Visor offers a fast USB connection, making synchronizing your PC or Mac simple. Exchange of information between your hand-held and PC occurs with the touch of a button. HotSync technology ensures all your data is backed up and enables significantly faster synchronization with USB support than the normal serial connection. (An optional serial cradle is available.)

The Handspring Visor also stores 6,000 addresses, 5 years of appointments, 1,500 to-do items, 1,500 memos, and 200 e-mail messages. This model includes support for Lotus cc:Mail, Microsoft Outlook, and Qualcomm Eudora. Synchronization software for AOL, Lotus Notes, Netscape Communicator, and POP3 mail is sold separately.

The Handspring Visor is fully expandable with an external expansion slot that lets you add software and hardware modules (called Springboard modules) in a snap. Modules like an MP3 player, pager, modem, GPS receiver, or video game can be added to make an entirely new device.

The Handspring Visor comes with a HotSync cradle, stylus, Palm Desktop software (Windows and Mac), software link to Microsoft Outlook (Windows only), and 2 AAA batteries.

The Visor is covered by a one-year warranty.

What's in the box

• Visor
• HotSync cradle
• Stylus
• Palm Desktop software (Windows and Mac)
• Software link to Microsoft Outlook (Windows only)
• 2 AAA batteries

Product Description

The Handspring Visor handheld is the original expandable handheld computer that lets you instantly turn an organizer into a digital camera, music player, or even a phone. It comes with a sufficient amount of RAM so you have plenty of room to store all your addresses and appointments. But what makes it really special is its unique Springboard expansion slot, which lets you snap in a wide range of hardware and software modules and turn your Visor into whatever you want it to be. Best of all, it's plug-and-play so there are no drivers to load. Just snap in a module and it works!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

150 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great possibilities for a PDA, November 7, 2000

By	"need2padl" (Salt Lake, UT) - See all my reviews

I've had my Visor for 2 months now and it has been a great purchase. Compared to the Palm IIIe and Palm M100, I believe it is superior in almost every facet. My girlfriend has a Palm IIIe and the only drawbacks I can think of for the visor are: the cover, the stylus, and lack of ROM. The cover is definitely a little annoying to deal with and handspring should really create a flip cover like palm devices have. The stylus that comes with the visor isn't as nice as the one that comes w/ the IIIe, but this is rather minor as it is plenty good to get the job done. The lack of ROM isn't as big of an issue to me because newer versions of the OS are mainly different to allow the newer devices' features to work properly (color display for Palm IIIc and Visor Prism), and in most cases do not affect the functionality of older devices. On the other hand, the visor can offer users so many more possibilities than a comparable device by palm. Springboards are now abundant and the options available are really amazing (check them out before you buy either palm or handspring). Although currently they are relatively expensive, as with any new technology, in due time the price will come down to level where the average buyer will be able to afford them. One main reason I bought a visor rather than a comparable palm was because I was worried that RAM would be an issue sometime in the near future. With Visor, you can buy a RAM springboard and get on with life again, with a Palm, what you start off with is what you will end up with. Before I bought mine, I didn't know how much I would use my visor or what I would use it for. I didn't want to get stuck with a device that wouldn't meet my needs if I ended up using it a lot.

Finally, just some advice for those buying PDAs: regardless of which brand you buy, think about what you will use it for. For example, if you aren't going to have a ton of reference data or books stored on your PDA, 2 MBs will get you through quite a bit. Buy a PDA that will take care of your needs, but also one that will allow a little growth (most people don't realize how much potential there is for their PDA... tons of free downloadable programs). Finally, I highly suggest buying some type of protective case (there are some nice small ones out there that aren't too bulky, e.g. a palmglove or the new handspring neoprene) for carrying your PDA around in. Whatever brand you buy, it won't be able to hold up to very many drops (if any) or sitting down on in your back pocket.

251 of 257 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not only better than WinCE, it's better than Palm, June 6, 2000

By	Leo Lam - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought the Visor after my Philips Nino DIED after less than two months of service. The short battery life of the Nino wasn't nice, but the short life of the BACKUP battery definitely hurt! I didn't bother getting it changed, the Nino is in the bin.

So, I had the obvious choice of the Palm platform. It is robust, no crashes (yes, CE crashes big time), highly compatible (CE has compatibility problem with Win NT! ) and has extremely long battery life (2 months, versus 2 days for CE powered devices). The obvious choice was Palm IIIe for a no-frill technology minded engineer like me. However, Handspring popped up on my screen at the right time. Now this is what I call value.

Handspring was established by the inventor of the original Palm Pilot and the team consists of all the key personnel of Palm Computing (before they left!). The Visor, from all that I have read, was developed to OVERTAKE Palm, in terms of productivity, infinitely upgradeability and value. The Visor is selling at around the same price as the Palm IIIe and has about the same specifications. However, while the Palm IIIe will always be what it is, the Visor can be upgraded through the purchase of SpringBoard modules. These modules include memory, backup software, games (like PGA Golf), digital camera (you read RIGHT!) etc etc, and a lot are on the pipeline. And remember, anything that runs on Palm will run on the Visor, they use the same operating system. Also, Visor comes with the IMPROVED version of Datebook, called Datebook+, and it's more useful than ever. It is so user friendly it requires NO learning on my part and I could almost run it straight out of the box.

Now you know why the Visor is a better choice than Palm III, and even Palm V. Identify your need. If you see less than 1200 friends normally, I guess you would be very happy with the normal Visor (also, really great for college students, believe me). If you are the gadget guy, go get the Deluxe version (with more RAM and comes in five tasty colors). Still want to get the Palm? Well, feel free...I stick with my Visor, with a big smile knowing that it is 110% well worth the money.

90 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Broke my Palm IIIx, bought a Handspring Visor...., September 6, 2000

By A Customer

My Palm IIIx (which I loved) slipped out of my hand, and as luck would have it, fell face down on a rock. Bye-Bye IIIx. Since I've become addicted to PDA's I waited several days until my mourning period was over and was ready to by another IIIx (actually IIIxe, the IIIx replacement). Didn't even think about buying another make or model since I was so satisfied with my IIIx for the year that I had it. I mentioned my loss to a fellow worker, who had a black (graphite) 2MB Handspring Visor. Found out that it not only used the Palm OS, but that the company was created by some of the folks who worked at Palm, which suggested to me that with all that know-how, the Handspring would be as good as my Palm or even more so. When she showed me that back of her Handspring, and I saw the removable module, that did it! The one thing I had always wished the PDA's had were interchangable modules, like my Texas Instruments T-58 programable calculator from over twenty years ago! If only my Palm had a backup module I would very rarely have to hot-sync to my laptop to backup my data, and here it was in the Visor. Even though there is an 8MB model, for my purposes I never even used half of the 4MB in my Palm, so the 2MB Handspring model was plenty. Plus, if the time came where I did need more memory, there is an 8MB flash memory module that I could slip into the handspring. That did it. I've had mine for two weeks now (with the optional backup module and a metal stylus to replace the plastic one that comes with the 2MB model). I love it! The screen is tack sharp, and I've had no problems what so ever. If you are in the market for a PDA, check out Handspring before making your decision.