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PDA
| PALMONE LIFEDRIVE |
| P30,500 | |
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It's got a huge appetite for files, but needs to go on a diet.
PalmOne's latest device was probably one of the world’s worst-kept secrets. Websites and discussion groups were swamped with rumors and leaked product details. No doubt much of the interest spawned from the geekgasmic specs.
Ooh! At first touch, we would have made a mess in our pants if not for one thing. You see, we were expecting the LifeDrive to be a svelte device, perhaps like a T5, or E2. Instead, it’s as thick as two copies of this magazine. In more creative terms, it’s more Anna Nicole Smith than Nicolette Sheridan.
Then again, just like Ms. Smith, this Mobile Manager is stacked. Headlining the specs, of course, is the 4GB internal microdrive. With such copious storage, the LifeDrive has a sweet tooth for multimedia files. MP3s, video, and photos all find their home in the non-volatile hard drive. This means your data is still safe even if you do run the battery down. PalmOne’s Pocket Tunes and Media applications do a good job in playing back MP3s, videos and photo slideshows respectively. The bundled LifeDrive Manager desktop software makes transferring these media files all too easy. Simply drag and drop your selection. The software can even convert your videos, ensuring you get the best playback experience – not that the 416MHz processor is a slouch.
Its connectivity options are hardly wanting either. Pairing this via Bluetooth to our mobile phone, we were able to manage contacts, send files and even SMS. Infrared is also present for “legacy” devices. You can also use your phone as a GPRS modem, but with integrated Wi-Fi at your fingertips, why bother? Just take a short stroll to your favorite hotspot and you can have both your caffeine fix and web fix sorted. And yes, surfing is best done with the screen on landscape mode.
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Intel 416Mhz Xscale CPU. 64MB Program Memory. 4GB hard drive. 320x480 pixel TFT color display. Palm OS 5.4. Built-in 802.11b, Bluetooth 1.1 and IR support. SD/MMC expansion.
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4GB capacity + big screen = one cup size too big
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The LifeDrive isn’t just all fun and games though. The included Documents To Go handles Word and Excel docs in their native format, sans conversion. It also plays back your fancy PowerPoint presentations.
With all the things the LifeDrive can do, battery life is surely an issue. We did manage to squeeze a day or two of heavy use, which is quite acceptable. The device also charges via the USB 2.0 port, a boon if you leave your charger at home. Another observation we had is that while the slight lag in launching apps goes with the territory (thanks to the microdrive), there was a high-pitched whine coming through the headphones, especially in between audio tracks. A bit annoying, especially if you’ve got the volume cranked up.
The LifeDrive truly is the sum of its parts. It’s a whole lot of PDA for the money, even from just a storage point of view. It would have been an inseparable companion if it fit our pockets. Literally. - JayJ Ramos
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T3 Magazine Philippines - August 2005 Issue
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