Palm Z22 Handheld

This is a review that I wrote ages ago, but never published on Treo Today. I bought a Palm Z22 in 2005 as a stopgap PDA while waiting for my Treo 650 to be returned from a warranty repair. The Palm Z22 Handheld makes a good entry level PDA, although it’s outdated by today’s standards. In terms of price, it was the first sub-$100 colour PDA. Interestingly enough, its place has been taken somewhat by the Centro, the first sub-$100 smartphone.

Introduction

It’s been a while since Palm has launched a basic PDA that captures the imagination of many. Indeed, in the low-end PDA category, only Palm is left to duke it out against the “original” PDAs : the daytimers and the electronic organizers. All the other players (Dell, HP) have gone straight to the mid and high end of the market.

The Palm Z22 (note that Palm has dropped the Zire sub-brand) is Palm’s first-ever colour entry-level PDA, and it replaces the Zire 21. The difference between Z22 and its predecessor is, in fact, like night and day, which makes it seem even more amazing that Palm has managed to keep the price at just under $100.

The Outside

The Z22 is surprisingly small, yet feels solid in the hand. It’s super light at only 3.4 ounces (96.4 grams). Appearance-wise, it keeps the form-factor of its older Zire and Zire21 cousins – it looks remarkably similar to the iPod, especially with the white front cover and shiny, translucent back.

The screen is limited to 160 x 160 resolution, but the small physical size helps increase the sharpness and clarity.

The Inside

The Z22 is quite powerful for an entry-level PDA, with a 200MHz ARM processor and 32MB RAM (20MB available to the user). Palm hasn’t skimped on the software with the Z22. It runs the latest Palm OS operating system, known as Garnet 5.4. While a bit dated by today’s standards, Garnet is still very easy learn and use, especially for beginners.

Palm has also wisely included a good bundle of software with the Z22 to get new users started. On the handheld and in the software CD you will find :

The classic built-in applications :
- Calendar
- Memos
- Tasks
- Contacts
- Calculator
- Expense
- Photos
- World Clock.

Third party applications:
- Crazy Daisy game
- Addit software catalog with Chess, Carb Counter, Solitaire, 1st Aid and CheckSplit
- Mobile DB
- eReader
- PowerOne Calculator
- SplashShopper

The Z22 performs well in most cases, and especially excels at the task of reading ebooks. The two main software ebook readers for the Palm OS, eReader and Mobipocket, both work well on the Z22.

The Conclusion

The Z22 is a solid performer at a great price point. I definitely recommend it as a low-cost ebook reader, either for yourself or as a gift for friends and family.

Filed under: eBooks

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