I picked up a PalmOne LifeDrive today with the hopes that it would become a useful enough tool to warrant carrying around one more device with me, not to mention justify the $450 price tag. After spending a couple of hours setting it up and playing with it’s features, specifically the Blazer web browser and VersaMail email client, I realized it’s nothing more than a glorified Palm PDA. Sure it has a nice bright screen, sexy looks and feels great to use, the 4GB of storage (the only really enticing feature about this device in my opinion) can be added to just about any PDA on the market today in a variety of form factors. All of the software included is either already included in other devices or readily available at little or no charge. I’m just not as impressed with the device in hand as I was while salivating over it on Palm’s web site. It’s already back in the box and heading back to the store in the morning.I’d like to find a device that I can surf the web from without having to pull out my laptop, maybe watch a video now and then, and have a decent amount of storage to carry documents and whatnot with me. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but certainly needs to be strong in the web surfing category.
If you haven’t already seen the specs on the PalmOne LifeDrive, here’s a quick overview for you:
Intel 416Mhz XScale processor
4GB hard drive
Bluetooth 1.1
802.11b wireless
Palm OS 5.4
4.76h x 2.87w x 0.74t in.
320×480 Transflective TFT color touchscreen
16 bit color / 65,000+ colors
Supports SD, SDIO and MultiMediaCards via built-in expansion card slot
Stereo audio jack