Palm Zire 71 or Sony Clie SJ33?

[RADAR1797]

Howdy all,

Looking to get a Palm OS PDA, anyone have a preference between the two? The Zire has a Digital Camera built in, but the Sony has a lot more software with it. Any inputs appreciated!

-RADAR

[daveleau]

Depends on what you plan to use it for, but that camera feature sounds good. You can always add software, and most of the software on my PDA was junk other than Word, Excel and Acrobat reader.

[RADAR1797]

Dave,

Well that is the rub. The Zire 71 does not appear to come with Documents to Go (which allows you to work with Word and Excel files), but the Sony does. Also the Zire can use MMC or SD cards, where as the Sony uses memory sticks. I do not know enough about the differences to discern.

-RADAR

[implexant]

I'd say get the Palm Zire 71. I have a friend who has and it is to die for. Crisp color screen, speaker, camera, long lasting rechargeable battery, stuff like that. What are you looking to use it for? I think editing or viewing Word and Excel docs would be a pain in the rump.

-Chris

[RADAR1797]

Basically I want to use it for work, but also as an MP3 player. My new work place has a gym so it would be nice to be able to strap the thing to my arm for my run or lifting at lunch. For work I use Outlook extensively and beig able to view word and excel files would be an added bonus (because those are the most popular attachments).

-RADAR

[implexant]

Originally posted by RADAR1797
Basically I want to use it for work, but also as an MP3 player. My new work place has a gym so it would be nice to be able to strap the thing to my arm for my run or lifting at lunch. For work I use Outlook extensively and beig able to view word and excel files would be an added bonus (because those are the most popular attachments).

-RADAR

well this is just MO, but email, viewing attachments, word documents, excel stuff, is just a plain pain. I had a palm once, it synced with outlook, but it still stunk. if your seriously into the outlook/word/excel thing get a pocket pc. it can do everything you mentioned no problem.

-Chris

[implexant]

just saw this, thought you might enjoy reading it

-Chris

[RADAR1797]

I went with the Zire Sorry the pocket PCs are still too bloated and complex compared to the Palm OS to be attractive. Maybe in a couple of years when memory on a PDA ramps up to the GB level I will consider them. Can't beat a PDA that operates on less than 2 MB. Anyhow the clincher for me was memory modules. The Sony takes memory sticks (and cannot accept Memory Stick Pro) which at the 256 MB level only offers "flipable" sticks. That means you get two 128 MB devices on one stick and you have to flip it to access the other side. With MMC or SD cards (which can go up to 512 MB). Seeing as I will be using this as an MP3 player, 256 MB of memory was a minimum (giving me 4 hours of music at 128 kb MP3 encoding). I will get it early next week and will post my opinions.

-RADAR

[fletchb]

You will love the Zire. I have had one about 2 weeks and really love it. Besure and read up on the SD cards as some brands seem to cause problems. Panasonic 256 seems good but some say panasonic 128 is a problem. Ironically, a few days after I got my Zire my employer bought me a Tungsten C. WHile the wireless is nice , if I had to give one up it would be the C and not the Zire. Oh and I agree with you on the Pocket pc's or whatever they are calling them these days. It was fancy but it was just a toy and was not reliable.

Enjoy,
Fletch