| Palm Buyers Guide |
|
The Palm Z22 and Palm TX The Palm was introduced in 1996 and it was immediately liked by the consumers to the extent that people who owned the palm started flaunting it and it assumed importance as a status symbol. The market is full of different models of Palms and they are available at varied prices. If you are interested in owning a Palm, then you can take your pick from a wide range of models depending on your budget. A comparative study of a high end model of Palm and the lowest model of Palm will give you an idea of the features available depending on the cost involved for each of these models of the Palm. Palm Z22 This low end Palm model costs less than $100 and it weighs 3.4 ounces. The model is 4.06 inches high, 2.7 inches wide and 0.6 inches deep( or thick). The design is a clean look which gives it an iPod-like feel. If you are interested in owning a Palm that can be used for listening to music, then Palm Z22 would be a wrong choice as this model does not support music or video clips; rather it is designed especially for maintaining and organizing your personal information. However, it has been designed in such a way that it supports the display of images. The Z22 has a 2.5 inch Color Supertwist Nematic (CSTN) display at 160x160 resolution and the display supports 4,096 colors. If the Z22 is compared with high end models like the Palm TX, one would notice that the Z22 falls way behind in terms of the multimedia and networking capabilities of the higher end models. The display of the Z22 is of a lower resolution and hence, the images and icons that are displayed on its screen look uneven and pixilated. Another glaring disadvantage of the display properties of the Z22 is that the backlight display becomes almost completely invisible in bright light. Palm OS 5.4 is the operating system that is installed in the Z22. It comes with a non-volatile memory of 32MB. This is an advantage because the non-volatile battery ensures that you will not lose any data if the battery discharges completely while you were using the Palm. However, the 12MB that is utilized by the Palm for the operating system and core applications do pinch the user as he is left with just 20 MB for his own use. The Palm Z22 has a 200 MHz processor that is Advanced Reduced Instruction Set Computing Machine (ARM) based. The software that is used with the Z22 includes Palm Photos, PowerOne Calculator, SplashData SplashShopper, Palm Addit, Astraware Crazy Daisy and Power By Hand eReader. The Z22 comes preloaded with software that handles your dates, contacts, memos, tasks. After all it is meant to organize your personal information and the software installed is tailored to do exactly that only. Palm TX This model of the Palm comes at a price of $299 and it weighs 5.25 ounces. It is 4.76 inches high, 3.08 inches wide and 0.61 inches thick. It is therefore, heavier than the Z22. It will cost you an additional $49.99 if you want to buy the Palm TX’s optional cradle too. The TX comes with the operating system, Palm OS 5.4. Its processor is the 312MHz ARM-based processor. Palm TX supports a non-volatile memory of 128 MB out of which 100 MB is available with you for your use. The TX comes with an SD slot which can be utilized for extended storage and headphones. The LifeDrive, which is a high end model of Palm, differs from the Palm TX only in terms of its storage capacity which is 4 GB. The remaining features of LifeDrive are supported by Palm TX as well. The display of the TX is 3.8 inch TFT (thin film transistor) display with a 320x320 resolution and it supports 65,536 colors. The Palm TX supports audio and video files in addition to digital images. The display quality of the TX is much better than that of the Z22. TX has an edge over the Z22 in the fact that its display is readable even in bright sunlight as opposed to the Z22 whose display becomes dim in bright light. For communications, the TX uses USB as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies. Hence, the Palm TX can be connected to other Bluetooth devices like laptops and mobile phones. You can utilize Wi-Fi technology to connect your Palm TX to other wireless devices thereby enabling you to access the internet through your Palm TX. Both the Wi-Fi and the Bluetooth connections are not possible if you are using the Z22. The battery of the Palm TX has a life of about 5 days. This is one aspect where the Z22 manages to gain an edge over the Palm TX. The battery life of 5 days can be expected if you are using the Palm TX moderately. However, if you are using the Palm extensively for playing videos, listening to music or connecting to the internet, then you may have to recharge the battery as often as every alternate day. The Palm TX comes with more software as compared to the preloaded software in the Palm Z22. You can even utilize your Palm TX to create or edit Microsoft Office documents as well as Microsoft Power Point presentations. The Palm TX comes with additional software that lets you listen to music and watch video clips on your Palm. Therefore, if one has to choose between the two models, then he would have to assess his requirements first. If you are keen on utilizing your palm for accessing the internet and for viewing and listening to multimedia clips and there are no financial constraints, then you can easily go in for the Palm TX as that would be the best option for you. However, if you feel that organizing your personal information takes precedence over internet connectivity and multimedia support, then you should go in for the Palm Z22 especially if you are keen on saving money as well. |