Reviews for Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager Handheld PDA

Awesome Features but has some problems

Strengths: You must get Docs to go and then you can transfer or use word, excel and powerpoint, documents which is awesome and much better than using the memo area of the pda.

Weakness: The craddle is tricky and if you don't touch it, make sure it's attached right, then hit the button and hope it won't give you an error message which is frustrating.

I've had to reset my machine a lot because it would lock up. Outside of that and the problems with the cradling mentioned above, this is the first one I've ever own and it does a lot. I have 2 elderly parents and keep their medical records in there in a word document, this has helped me a lot to keep organized and to remember everything that needs to be done. I can't imagine now being without this it's that valuable. You do pay a lot and thought palm would be the leader with pda's but now, I would shop around and see if there is another one that does the same or more and is more reliable. When this one goes I will look at the competitors like Dell to see if they are better or if Palm improved on their problems with this machine. I am disappointed but on the other hand this is like my walking bible with so much information, it's a walking computer and it really works GREAT!!! Would recommend it if Palm improves on the inherrited problems.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Those little things you wish you knew before...

Strengths: Lots of storage space, MP3 decoder, USB drive capability, landscape mode for screen

Weakness: battery life, brightness limits, some incompatability with older software

OK, here are some tidbits of information that I wish I had had before I purchased my Lifedrive.

1) The unit has both flash memory and an internal micro drive. Only programs and files installed in flash memory are backed up automatically unless you set Documents to Go to backup specific documents that you might have installed. In the event of a hard reset, you will lose files stored on the drive.

2) The unit eats power like crazy. I use mine A LOT. One of the things I use it for is to read ebooks. The large screen makes it very good for this, even in direct sunlight. However, I only get about 4 hours of constant usage before it needs a recharge, which brings me to my next point...

3) You can only turn down the brightness of the screen by a very small amount. I like to dim my screen a bit more than most people do and I find that it helps to conserve batteries. However, unlike some other models, that allow you do dim it all the way to unreadability, the lifedrive, when dimmed to the max still makes a decent flashlight in a darkened room and if reading in the dark, completely blinds you to anything except the display.

4) The power switch sucks! It is a slider that locks in one direction and powers on/off in the other. I can't count the number of times that I have been sure I have locked it after powering off, only to take it out of the case to find it has powered on by a button push while in the case. I would really have preferred a different arrangement.

5) No hard cover. The pouch-type case has a reinforced front that protects the screen, but has no belt clip and precludes you from using other belt cases without sacrificing some protection.

6) Software oddities. Whenever I load video files to the unit, unless they are windows media format, it flips them upside down and backwards. You can turn the unit upside down to watch, but it is odd seeing your movies and videos from a perspective like you are inside the TV, looking out.

Problem: I just sent mine back to Palm today for a hardware problem. The unit decided it would not power back up all of a sudden. I was using it and powered off to talk to someone and when I went back to what I was doing, it failed to power on. I know Palm has identified this as an issue with many of thier devices, but none of the fixes restored it as they should.

Conclusion: With all of its quirks and issues, I am still glad that I purchased it and will probably upgrade to the 6GB version when it is released (giving this one to my wife). The storage space and large screen is too handy for use at work and school and for keeping me entertained between the two.

99% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager Handheld PDA

Strengths: Beautiful screen. Seriously large capacity for file storage. Integrated WiFi. Easy upgrade from previous Palm OS device.

Weakness: Gets kind of hot after awhile. Applications launch takes a couple of seconds.

I debated between the LifeDrive and Tungsten T5 as an upgrade from my Sony TG-50 Clie. If the T5 had WiFi, I might have gone that way, but the price difference between the T5+Wifi card and the Lifedrive pushed me in the direction of the LifeDrive. So far I'm happy with my choice.

The screen on the LifeDrive is crisp, clean, no fuzzy or bad pixels. There is some glare with direct light, but that is also true of most handhelds. The device itself is lightweight and comfortable to hold, but it got kind of warm after being on for awhile (not as hot as a laptop, but warm). Though in its case, you don't really notice it as much.

Compared to my previous Palm OS device, it seems like the LifeDrive has a bit of a pause before responding to a tap on the screen buttons or launching an application. My guess is that the delay is due to the time required to access the hard drive. I was surprised by it--my Clie responded pretty much instantly and I expected the LifeDrive would also. Palm probably should have gone with a flash drive instead of a hard drive for faster access times.

The integrated Wi-Fi and mp3 capabilities are key features and both work seamlessly. I was up and running on email and the web in minutes, and had a full library of mp3s loaded up in no time also. Transferring my information and applications from my old handheld was quick and easy also.

All in all, I recommend the LifeDrive. It's pricey, but in my opinion it is the best Palm OS device currently available.

96% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Pretty nice once you get it set up.

Strengths: Lots of storage, big bright screen, landscape mode, and drive mode.

Weakness: Somewhat slow (at times, you get used to it), and lack of support for earlier palm software

I bought this as a replacement for a Sony Clie T615 that I have owned for over 3 1/2 years. I had been thinking about the T5, but when the LifeDrive came out, I started looking at that because I planned on buying an external hard drive as well to replace my "geek stick".
It seems like most people (including myself) had trouble upgrading from a prior Palm OS handheld -- this version of Palm OS is very incompatible with a number of prior apps, and the installation program tries to migrate your old apps onto the LifeDrive. Trust me, skip this part. Start clean. If you have any old favorite apps, download the current versions.
So, do I like it? After working through the initial hell of getting it running, yes. This is not, however, a "plug-and-play" device -- not for newbies. It was frustrating even for a techie like me. But now, I do like it. Haven't had a lockup or hard reset in a week and a half.
I installed DataViz's "Beyond Contacts" and this works very nicely, as it did on my Sony. The built-in "Ptunes" suits my needs as a music player.

I recommend it for anybody who likes a challenge... once you have it tweaked you'll swear by it.

96% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Nice when it works...

Strengths: Lots of good features when it works.

Weakness: Unit locks up repeatedly.

I purchased this LifeDrive hoping that it would be an improvement to my previous Palm PDA, which had problems of its own. The LifeDrive began to freeze up erratically within about one week. Several times, the touch screen would get out of alignment with respect to where it was touched with the stylus. After numerous calls to Palm support, they revealed that freezing up and alignment issues are common problems, but that this unit was defective. They agreed to replace it with a refurbished unit.

89% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Good, but quirky.

Strengths: Great versatility, nice storage, great screen.

Weakness: Constantly experience unexpected soft resets and often have to hard reset, thereby loosing hard drive contents

As much as I love my LifeDrive, I wish that Palm could fix the quirky nature of resets. I constantly have the situation of working in a program and it goes into a soft reset, which takes a long time to reboot. Then, periodically, I have to initiate a hard reset because of program problems. This results in loss of hard drive data. Other than these problems, I love the product. Even with these problems, I would buy again.

89% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Palm LifeDrive

Strengths: I thought this would be a welcomed upgrade from my Tungsten T1 with all of the new features on the LifeDrive.

Weakness: Won't turn on at times, stylus entry pops all over the screen, time delay in switching from contacts, calendar and all programs terribly slow, hard resets more than anyone should have to endure.

I researched the Lifedrive before upgrading from my Tungsten T1 and am soo sorry I purchased it. The first unit I bought was defective in the 1st 30 days, so Palm replaced it. The 2nd unit is no better, and have spent countless hours online with their unknowledgable tech support people and it is a waste of my time. Palm corp. keeps insisting that my problems are due to 3rd party software - but all of this software worked perfectly fine on my Tungsten T1. So I get to use the Lifedrive with ONLY the programs it came with (or suffer another hard reset) and keep my Tungsten as a backup for the files that I can't get to work on the Lifedrive. This is a poor "upgrade" and it appears that once you bought it - you're stuck with it as Palm Corp. doesn't seem to mind how many hours of your life you try to get this thing operational. Would NOT recommend to anyone - stick with the other models. For me - I will go to a windows based PDA on the next go-a-round!

88% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

LifeDrive Mobile Manager

Strengths: Landscape Mode greatly enhances usability of spreadsheets. USB, WI-FI, and InfraRed syncing. Hard Drive and SD Card can be used as removable USB drives on any computer.

Weakness: Only a USB Syncing Cable (not a cradle) is included. Can't use LifeDrive Manager over wireless connection (except for syncing). Can't view/launch files within LifeDrive Manager.

I am extremely pleased with the PalmOne LifeDrive Mobile Manager. Other than a few older, freeware applications (resistor decoder, big clock, and a few games) not working, the transition from my Handspring Visor Prism was very smooth. Yes, there are occasional pauses (1-2 seconds at most) when accessing some applications or files, but the overall speed of the LifeDrive is so much faster than my old Visor Prism that these occasional pauses are not even a slight annoyance. I have not experienced any hesitation while entering text into the input area or in full-screen mode.
The large, bright screen with landscape mode makes it possible to actually use spreadsheets productively. The latest version of Documents to Go included on the LifeDrive even allows editing of spreadsheets in native format. WI-FI syncing is nearly as fast as USB syncing.
The LifeDrive Manager software (which allows transfer of files between the hard drive and a computer) lacks two features I would find useful: 1) It requires a USB cable; it will not work over WI-FI (although files marked for syncing will synchronize over WI-FI (or any other syncing method)) 2) You cannot open files/launch applications from within Life Drive Manager (you need to use Drive Mode for that, but when you use Drive Mode to make the hard drive (and SD card) available as USB drives to the computer, nothing else is operable, except for alerts). The only two times I have had to reset the device was after removing the USB syncing/charging cable from it, turning it off, and then trying to turn it back on. It would not respond until I did a soft reset. Except for those limitations of the LifeDrive Manager software and Drive Mode, I am very happy with my PalmOne LifeDrive Mobile Manager.

84% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager Handheld PDA

Strengths: Attractive, built-in Wi-Fi, extra hard drive space

Weakness: Expensive, a bit slow in responding

This is a very good looking piece of equipment. It's an added bonus to have the built-in Wi-Fi and extra hard drive space. I would have liked the hard drive to be much larger though. The unit comes with a protective case which is nice. The unit is very easy to setup and use. It seems a bit slow in responding to a touchscreen command; it should be faster for the high price. Overall, I'm happy with my purchase.

83% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager Handheld PDA

Strengths: it does have a lot of features, 4 gigs are nice, screen is huge, and loved the stylus

Weakness: ONE HOT BRICK.

I nevered owned a PDA before, I am using for college. When I went to pick one out I thought" Palm is good, right?" They are but not in this model. I find it to be a heavy hot slow brick as it cooks the flesh off my hand! I didnt know what to use it for, keep my class work straight or just cook breakfast on it!
I returned it after I had 2 blue screens on my Dell, called but was not able to fix. It should have come with a cradle, but it did not.
Ps. if you want a pocket and/hand warmer this is the product for you!
I got the hp ipaq 2495 and LOVE it. got a 4 gig card for 20% off...if you like palm, do not buy this one!

75% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Life Drive Review from one who has had 4 different...

Strengths: Can't think of one good thing about the Life Drive. Hard to use, soft ware added you might not want, and cannot take off the unit. Thick, and believe it or not slow.

Weakness: Slow, lots of unnecessary software. I am going back to a Tungsten C, ..

Would not suggest you even try it, for you will be sorry. It is to thick, its two slow, and they have added software you would not want, but you can't take it off your Life Drive. I find nothing that I can say as a plus for the Life Drive, and I have just thrown 500.00 away. Back to my Tungsten C.

52% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Not everything that shines is made out of gold...

Strengths: The capacity of a 4GB hard drive and the wireless support makes this handheld a mini laptop, easy to carry as well as weightless.

Weakness: The handheld freezes very often, so I have to reset it until it starts working again and it's kind of slow whenever you enter data.

I like the handheld and the potential it has as advertised, although getting to learn all the features will take me a while, as there's too much info and links and sometimes it's overwhelming. I have had no problems setting it up and downloading the software, all the info from my last Palm M515 was transferred ok and I did not loose data. I'm getting used to it, and I guess when I get to fully understand the LifeDrive I might reconcile with it, right now, I miss my Palm M515.

50% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

so slow

Weakness: very slow- it died after a splash

It is very slow; it dyed after a splash; I called palm and they did not offer even an exchange. I will not buy it again. I regret the purchase

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

A great PDA, even "open box"

Strengths: user friendly, great MP3 sound, Wifi internet is so handy

Weakness: There is some delay (1-2 seconds) switching between programs

This is a great PDA. I upgraded from a Zire 71 and this has everything I want on a palm and more. The MP3 player is easy to use and has fantastic sound with headphones or hooked up to the auxilliary jack in my car. The built-in speakers are adequate, but for the best sound, use headphones. The internet was easier to use than I expected. It pretty much set itself up. If quickly finds new wi-fi connections when I take it places and it downlaods quickly. It also checks my email for me every morning so that I can read it when I'm out and about. I haven't used the document programs yet. It also uploads and shows photos in brilliant color. I have had a bit of trouble getting good conversion for movies, but I haven't tried very hard yet.

My one complaint has to do with games. I played one game on my previous palm that required movement of a paddle to bounce balls and knock out bricks above the paddle. I can't play that game on this palm. The movement of the curser is too jerky and doesn't respond fast enough.

Aside from that and the 1-2 second delay occasionally experienced when moving from one program to another or when shutting down, this PDA is fantastic. It does so much. It is small and light and has a great pop-out stylus. I'm very happy with it. And buying it "open box" saved me hundreds of dollars.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Best Connectivity Palm PDA

Interface is Good according to 28 PDA experts. -- "The display is very vibrant and holds up extremely well outdoors and in direct sunlight."-palminfocenter.com -- "beautiful 320-by-480 color display round"-pcworld.com -- "Color depth and vividness is good"-brighthand.com Read more to find expert opinions on more features like Connectivity, Audio, Performance, Multimedia, Battery, etc.

Read Full Review

PalmOne LifeDrive Mobile Manager PDA review

Palm's top of the range PDA sports a 4GB hard drive, SDIO card slot, a large screen, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity and wants to be your digital camera's companion. We find out if it fits the bill.

Read Full Review

Palm LifeDrive Review

Over the last few years we've seen PDAs evolve into more media friendly devices. While some PDA purists will tell you that PDAs were meant to be productive and not iPods, consumers want more choices and they want them in as few devices as possible. <p> <p>That's where the Palm Lifedrive comes in. While Palm calls their other devices handhelds, the LifeDrive is appropriately called a Mobile...

Read Full Review

Palm LifeDrive Review

The LifeDrive is the first member of Palm's new Mobile Manager handheld category, aimed at those who want "Digital everything": Photos, MP3s, videos, lots and lots of documents and the usual PIM applications to keep track of appointments, contacts and tasks. Yes, many PDAs can handle these tasks, but the LifeDrive sets itself apart by providing you with a whopping 4 gigs of storage and an...

Read Full Review