 Palm Zire 72 Silver Edition 7 of 7 people found this review helpful.
This PDA has EVERYTHING I need, and the capability to do even more if I used it's bluetooth and wireless features. The Zire 72 has great features built in like the camera, voice recorder e-reader, documents-to-go and RealPlayer to play MP3s. It has plenty of memory to run the programs, and the card slot (card sold separately) allows me to store even more books and documents on it. (I bought a 4GB card and have over 500 songs at my fingertips). The MP3 capability alone makes the price worth it. With other accessories that are sold separatly, like a keyboard I use my Zire 72 as I would a laptop to type word files and spreadsheets. There are many additional programs that you can purchase that will work with this PDA like "My Bible" program (9 translations so far) and e-books. As an ADD person, I find reading the e-books one screen at a time, and scrolling the text like a teleprompter helps me get through books that I never would have attempted. The Zire 72 syncs everything with the computer easily, so I use the two in tandem for the documents and calendars. The only downside is that it sometimes locks up, but a quick soft reset usually takes care of it. This doesn't happen more that 2-3 times a week. I bought this PDA on ebay because Palm does not sell this PDA anymore. I don't know why they stopped selling this one. The newer models have faster processors, but besides that I don't see much difference between the newer, more expensive PDAs and the Zire 72. The newer Palms don't have the camera. I use the camera a lot. It is great for those moments when I say "I wish I had a camera - Oh wait I do!" - I usually take pictures of people I put in the address book for future reference. This palm keeps the person's picture next to their name - and when it syncs with the computer, it stores the picture in Outlook too. The camera isn't as good as some out there, but it's good for a quick snapshot. There is also a lot of free software out there that is fun - one was different alarm tones, and some games.
In short, I use this PDA for my Calendar, Address Book, Task list, Memo Pad, MP3, Bible, Daily Devotional Reader, e-reader to read books, Camera, calculator, Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets, Voice Recorder, Doodle Pad, Solitare player, and Guitar tuner (free program add on) - Not necessarily in that order. I even bought 2 so that in the future I will be able to have another one just in case this one ever dies.
Review ID: 10000000001560156  Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours. You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later.   Even better than the 71, but with less time to enjoy 5 of 8 people found this review helpful.
After being so happy with the Zire71, I was so convinced by the Zire72's specs that I bought one when I found a good price. Well, one thing's for sure, it does live up to those numbers.
YESSS, it still has the bright screen. It still has the nice round style. and now that it's silver, it looks more bling than ever. The slider is now gone. There goes the days of hiding your camera, but hey, the PDA is now much slimmer and now takes higher resolution photos, so I'm not complaining. The center D-pad is definitely much more durable, and easier to operate, because you no longer have to dig your finger beside the center joystick to push it around.
The awesome sound was what lured me to continue using the Zire series, because the way it kicked iPod ass was amazing. And since this new one supports up to 2Gb worth of SD memory, it was really looking like my own personal iPod-killer. To my surprise, the sound is even better. It's just as good, but LOUDER. The only thing I didn't like about the 71 was that the volume was a tad on the quiet side. The 72, well, volume was jacked up twice as loud, and funny how the quality didn't go away. There was a small hiss though, kind of like when your cd player is turned to max volume but with the music stopped. But, any sound will drown it out completely. OH, having said that, I am astonished with the rear external speaker. IT IS REAL LOUD AND CLEAR!!!! It's like Palm listened to my prayers and corrected EVERYTHING in the audio department. Well, apart from the little hiss that is.
This leads us to the next best thing. The beefy CPU. the PXA270 is such a powerful little giant. At 312MHz, it not only runs the apps that I want, it also plays ALL of those 700Mb DivX movies, perfectly straight off the spot! No compression needed, just drop and watch! Man, I wish I could do that for the 71, no more fumbling about with the video conversions. Bye Kinoma Producer.
The camera, now 1.2Mp, covers 4x more area than the old 0.3Mp. It captures rather good pictures in broad daylight, making use of that large resolution, but at night, it becomes quite dissapointing compared to the 71, as the older camera had a much broader range of light sensitivity. The video-recording function on the 72 is great, and I have no complaints. However, I suspect having a better camera program will really help make use of the full potential of the camera.
OH YES, finally I get a microphone. All that time when I wish I could've recorded those conversations, well, now I can.
and you might be wondering, why less time to enjoy? Well, it would've been nice if it didn't eat through the batteries that fast. Not even the extra speed can justify that. For me, it lasted a bit over half as long as my 71, and not to mention, thats just on basic MP3 playing. Video and camera functions drain even quicker.
Also, what's with the crashing? I know I shouldn't ask for too much but this thing is definitely less stable than the 71 was. Twice as likely to ask for a reset. Luckily, the reset hole on the back can now be activated by the stylus itself so I don't have to break anymore paperclips. Speaking of which, WHY did they bundle it with such a budget stylus? This is even MORE expensive than the 71 and at least I want a stylus that doesn't feel like tic-tac box plastic.
So, what do I think? Well, the Zire72 is definitely a seriously amazing PDA; it's just more amazing on paper than it is in real life.
Review ID: 10000000001422526 Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours. You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later. | |
) 
) 
