http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/edge-review.html

Sure, I'm drawn to the size (I'd have to see one in person before I draw any conclusions about its looks - so far I'm not impressed), but my Vx is even thinner, so where's the incentive for potential customers like myself to "upgrade"? And don't give me that expandability crap - the new devices from Palm and Sony will let me do that without destroying the form factor (which is the only reason to own an Edge in the first place).

Sorry Handspring, but you've lost your "Edge".

quote:

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Originally posted by srauly:
Julie, one minor thing I was curious about was the dimensions. Hawkins referred to it as the thinnest device in its category. Others were quick to point out that according to Palm's specs, the V is thinner. Can you confirm this?

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From what I have read at other sites, the "thinnest device" mention by Hawkins refers to the fact that the Edge is the thinnest device with a usable case built-in.

quote:

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Originally posted by acraniotes:
And don't give me that expandability crap - the new devices from Palm and Sony will let me do that without destroying the form factor (which is the only reason to own an Edge in the first place). -Adam

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You forgot to mention that 25 seconds after you got your Edge out of the box, I almost broke your flip cover :-)

The back of the PDA has a small metallic plate glued to the plastic insert that makes the door fasten to expansion port connector. I pulled on it to remove the flip cover and the thing came off in my hands!! (I thought Julie was going to kill me!) You could see how it was glued on, but it didn't take much for it to come off. Sorry Julie.

Anyway, I wanted to also make some comments on the Edge. The case feels a lot like the iPaq. It felt very slippery to me. I don't have a strong grip, and sometimes I felt like I was going to drop the Edge.

Also, the shaft of the stylus is not round. It's got an oval shaft, and the tip doesn't protrude from the shaft equally from all directions. Therefore, you have to hold the shaft just right to be able to see the tip. With the oval shaft, I really didn't like the feel of the stylus. I'm pretty particular about the feel of a writing instrument in my hand, and I wanted to rotate the stylus to a better position, but then I couldn't see the tip.

The speaker was as loud if not louder than any Palm PDA we have looked into. It's probably because of the metal body and the placement of the speaker in a thinner body.

And finally, since there are not many new features on this and it doesn't have a color screen, a word about the cost. I think that you get a lot for the money, (8mb, cradle, springboard adapter, rechargeable batteries, flip cover, metal stylus). But I don't think I would pay close to $400 for it. When the M100 came out, it was relatively inexpensive. It would seem to me that they have priced this in the same range of what the next generation color PDAs will be going for. I think that is a bit too much.

The fact is that you should not need another cradle, (they should have kept the connectors the same), you should not need another expansion adapter, (should have tried to keep on the same platform), and the batteries and stylus are nice, but shouldn't add that much to the cost.

Don

I stuck the metal plate back on after you broke it, and it's been there ever since. If it falls off again, I'll use a little super glue

BTW: I don't find the Edge to be slippery at all.

Julie

Regardless of whether or not SDIOs will be shipping on the same day the m505 is released, I'm still not buying an Edge - nor do I consider it a good value (and as I recall, there was quite a disparity between the time the original VDXs were released and viable Springboards came to market - at least SDs aren't proprietary).

Like I said earlier, Handspring is a day late and a dollar short with the Edge. No doubt it's a nifty device - but not for $400 (maybe if they brought it in for $300, but then they'd have to drop the Platinum). There are simply too many other compelling PDAs on the horizon to justify this device.

If they had only brought it out a year ago...

Palm makes it hard to tell. A quick look at their specs for the Plam vx do not show"EZ", 20mhz or 33mhz.

- toby robison

Here's an excellent reference link:

http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/hardware/compare.html

Julie

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Originally posted by Tully:
As for the placement of the IR Beam-window, it makes perfect sense if you use your VDX or Edge with many IR-equipped mobile phones. Good placement.

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Which phones? Not Nokias--either the phone or the Visor is upside-down. I agree with Julie--I've never liked Handspring's moving the IR port. It may have been necessary on the first round of Visors, but with the new form factor, it might have been nice to put it in the top left corner like Palm's m100 series or the Clie. (I'm assuming that the Springboard connector would give the Edge enough space to not block modules, but that's just a guess on my part since I haven't seen an Edge in person yet.)

As for the new base connector, I agree that Handspring should have kept that the same. Adapter, anyone?

Question about the silent alarm--do you set that in Prefs, or in the datebook? Or can you set it to sound for one event and not for another? (I'm sure there'll be a program or hack before long to expand the capabilities, too.)

I have to say that while there's a lot to like about the Edge, I'd want a color one to even consider plunking down money at this point. I'll probably wait for OS 5.

The silent alarm feature is set in the Alarm preferences of the Datebook+ application. Once you set it, all alarms are then silent. Unfortunately, you can't mix and match the settings per alarm.

Julie

how does the clarity (contrastiness) of the Edge's display compare to that of say the Platinum? I ask because Handspring claims that they have altered the background color of the display to make it more like "black-on-white"? Would you agree?

I will be checking out the iPaq 64MB
and the new Palms when they come out.

The Sony PDA screen and built-in DSP sounds
interesting as well.

I didn't have a problem getting used to the stylus. Don did though. He keeps wanting to put the tip into the slot at the top...

Do you have your alarm set to HIGH? The default is MEDIUM. I found the HIGH setting to be VERY loud. Way louder than any Palm device yet.

abc:
It is possible that Handspring will release patches to the OS that will give the same functionality as OS v4.0 and can be installed on the Edge. I'm just guessing...

Erik:
I can put the Edge in my back jeans pocket an sit down and not worry about it. I'm not THAT heavy though... A very large, heavy person could conceivably flex the Edge and break it.

Mike1196:
I find the clarity of the display on the Edge to be almost identical to my Palm V (I don't have a Visor Platinum to compare it to). The background is the same... greenish.
So no, I don't agree with the "black-on-white" claim.

quote:

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Originally posted by Tully:
Several Erricson, Simmons, and Nokia phones (not available on your side of the Atlantic) have IR ports placed on the side of the phone. GSM mostly.

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The Nokia phones with IR ports on the side all (AFAIK) have the port on the left side, though. The 8290 in the US and its overseas equivalents, the 8890 and 8850... If there's a Nokia phone with the port on the other side, that's news to me--the only other place I've seen them put the port is at the top of the phone in the 6100 series (and on US models, it was just the IR window and not a functioning port). Other manufacturers may do it differently, but if you line up the IR ports of a Visor and a Nokia 8xxx phone, one screen is upside-down.

I think this horse is dead--let's not beat it any more.

(1) Several people have noted that the Edge's sound is louder. I think this is good (I want a pda that can wake me up!) but the comments seem to suggest the writers feel a louder sound is bad.

(2) It seems to me that the price of the Edge is going to drop before the beginning of April (or at least very soon)! It really is an alternative to the Palm Vx, and surely the older models will drop prices when the new palms come out next week. I personally think it was a mistake for handspring to price it so high unles they really think it will be a little better than the new palm b/w model.

(3) Up to now, handspring has had an advantage with its springboard slot. I think that Palm will now overcome that advantage VERY quickly. Even if Palm modules come out slowly, in a short time people will assume that if they buy an expandable palm, all the springboard modules will soon be available for sale in the pam's MUCH BIGGER market.

(I also expect to benefit; there will be lots of palm modules in a year, and many of them will be ported to springboard as well, increasing my choices.)

- toby robison

Tobyr:
I think the louder speaker is great. And if the HIGH setting is too loud, you have MEDIUM and LOW.

If you don't care about an SD or Springboard slot, then I would wait a couple weeks for the Palm Vx to go down in price. I'm almost sure it will...

The cover does seem a bit flimsy at the connection with the PDA, but it is SOOOOO low profile as to be almost not there. To bad it doesn't flip back all the way.

I got the Blue unit, which has a black semi-opaque plastic border that does transmit the light from the flashing green LED on the power button so you can see it even if the very thin and effective metal cover is closed.

The speaker is much louder than the Original Palm V too, wonder if it can produce proper DTMF signals? Maybe I'll try using the TRG dialer program and find out...