Home > Consumer Reviews > PalmOne Zire 72 Handheld

I'll compare the Zire72 to the Zire71. On the surface it looks like a small upgrade. But it's not.

The camera on the Zire72 is almost useful now, and has decent resolution at 1.2M Pixels. However the focal length is longer and snapping documents is less effective. For general photos the Zire72 works fine although taking pictures requires plenty of light and a steady hand.

Voice memo recording is entirely useable though not up to the level of dedicated digital recorders. An external mike jack would probably have helped here. Quick-and-easy self-memos are the key value of this feature.

MP3 playback volume is much improved over the Zire71 and the unit can now drive most high-impedance (32ohm or greater) headphones without appreciable distortion at any volume. Highly recommended, especially with a 256MByte SD memory card.

Overall processor speed is markedly better too.

I haven't used the blue tooth yet but I have used documents-to-go. This is okay and any limitations are those of the application; not the palm.

Haven't used bluetooth yet, but I have to say this was a much desired feature and if I ever buy a brain-destroying mobile phone I will certainly use it.

So overall? This is best of breed for me. MP3 is a big plus and the Palm is much easier, faster and convenient to use than Windows-based software. Graffiti 2 is more intuitive than earlier versions and works particularly well on both the Zire71 and 72.

Is there a negative? Yes. My Zire72 came with a couple of broken pixels. For this reason I recommend a store purchase or make sure in advance that your supplier will replace a machine with one or two broken pixels. They are very annoying on a machine with such small screen real estate! This is the ONLY Palm I've ever bought that had a display fault so it's hopefully NOT representative.

I'm thrilled that they've released this model (especially at this price!) While palm hasn't managed to get it "perfect" just yet, this model is a definite improvement over the Zire 71! If you're new to the Zire series, be sure to read the specs - there's a ton of great features for this price!

For starters, there's a higher resolution on the built-in hidden camera. It's now up to 1.2 Megapixels, with automatic white control (which basically means that in most situations you don't need a flash!). It's not as high of a resolution as Sony's models, but still a definitely improvement. Of course bringing the photos to the desktop is very easy when you use the included Palm desktop software! Now with the addition of video it's even better!

Second is the redesign - some reviewers of the Zire 71 called the unit "slippery", but I haven't had that problem with this model!

Third, is the BlueTooth. I've found it to be less easy to use than WiFi, which is popular with PocketPC and higher-end Palm models, but still very effective for accessing the internet. However, with WiFi you can't connect to the internet AND have a local network with other BlueTooth users so if there was only one technology to choose from - BlueTooth is the one. I swear if this unit had WiFi I would have bought one for everyone I know! Also why it gets 4 out of 5 stars.

With this model they have included a conduit to sync with Outlook, which previously had to be purchased. That's a big draw, especially for multimedia-loving office workers!

They've also redesigned the model some, including removing the joystick. Some reviewers of the Zire 71 disliked the joystick because they felt it turned the unit on excessivily, but I loved (and will miss) the Joystick for playing the Sonic the Hedgehog game that was released for the Zire 71. I find that the directional button that palm has changed to can be clumsy for game-playing.

Two years ago I would have given this unit 5 stars, but Palm seems to always be slightly behind the times. Of course BlueTooth is a nice edition, and the redesigned packaging is also a note that Palm is paying attention. However, if they had added Wifi instead of BlueTooth I'm sure they would be selling a lot more of these. The camera resolution is less than the Sony Clie's, but still an overall improvement. The price is what makes it such a catch - you get the basic functions of most high-end Palm Pilots, for half the cost. If you're into multimedia and contact management this is definitely the unit for you! It seriously makes contact management FUN!