Avoid this excellent PDA (Palm IIIxe)

Member Name: hawkida

Product:	Palm IIIxe
Date:	07/04/01 (471 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a brilliant machine with lots of uses

Disadvantages: discontinued and faulty stock still on sale

The Palm IIIxe is a great little machine with lots of support from its users. It has some great features that you can read about in other reviews in this section, and yet I would strongly advise avoiding making this purchase.

I bought one from buy.com in February and it drained batteries far too quickly. In a fortnight I went through four sets with only moderate use - a single set is supposed to last around a month. I called Palm and they said I should return the unit to them and to receive a replacement.

It took them three weeks to actually send the replacement, and that only happened after I badgered them constantly. After they had left me without a PDA for ten days I called to enquire about it only to be told it could take 24 days to be dispatched because of warehouse delays. Doing the mental arithemetic aloud I muttered "So that's 24 days minus the ten I've already waited..."

"No, sorry," the support staff member interrupted, "That's 24 working days."

I was astounded. They took my money for a machine that didn't work, then expected me to sit around for over a month with nothing to show for it? I wrote an email to this effect, stating that I was not happy with the situation and wanted it resolved somewhat faster. Days later I received notification that the email had been forwarded to the relevant people. Days after that they called me back.

I was told my replacement machine would be sent the next day and I'd get a tracking number. I received nothing. Then I was told that it was coming from Paris who don't use DHL and don't issue tracking numbers. It finally turned up from Paris, as stated, but in DHL packaging. The unit was an older one with a different screen and a horrible stylus. It crashed with fatal errors when I tried to hotsynch it and the only way to reset was to remove the batteries and wait. I eventually managed to sync it and get it working by reins
talling less of the software. And it had the same battery problem.

I've since heard of two other people who have had battery problems with new Palm III machines, and with the advent of the M105 the Palm IIIxe is no longer made. It seems to me that there is a whole batch of faulty machines still waiting to be sold and very little left to replace them with. This, coupled with the dire reaction time of Palm support suggests to me that the xe is a very risky purchase right now.

I contacted buy.com and said I wanted to return it, they accepted it and gave me a credit. I bought an m105 and it works perfectly.

There are a few differences between the IIIxe and the M105. The only things I dislike about the 105 are:

1) not flash upgradable. Palm has said that OS4 will be out later this year for upgradeable palms and I wonder how much of an issue this will be for getting software in the future

2) The screen is framed in casing that is higher than on the XE. This makes it a little more difficult to point a stylus at things on the edge of the screen - I need to use a more upright angle. On the plus side, though, I guess it means that the screen is less likely to take damage if dropped.

The smaller screen doesn't bother me, although it might be an issue for those with poor eyesight. The contrast isn't on a dial this time, it's part of the software, which seems a bit odd as if you need to adjust it it will be more difficult. Again, though, it means it's less prone to accidental alteration.

My IIIxe was a great machine when it worked, but the battery problem would have been costly to support. The time I spent chasing it and the money involved in sending it to Palm and then Buy.com wasn't trivial compared to the price of the machine. You could get lucky and get a perfect machine, and if you can somehow be assured of that then go for it by all means. I just wouldn't recommend taking the risk.

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