Palmone Zire 72, Worth It?

I don't know if this will help but I found this website for replacement parts for PDA's.  I have a Zire 72 and I love it.  I never though I would use the camera feature at all, but with two kids it is handy, not to mention if you get in a car accident  you can snap some quick picks of the car, damage and other person (it might freak them out, but who cares if they hit you).  Anyway, here is the website to the Zire 72 replacement battery, http://www.gethightech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PA1382&Category_Code=BATT

They also sell the tools to take your PDA apart, I did it with my M130 and had no problems doing it.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Brandon

I've had a Palm Vx for almost 5 years now.  No problems with the battery running down or wearing out ever.  I am in an out of my office everyday and use it pretty extensively (but not constantly) while out of the office.  It is usually in my cradle charging when I am at my desk, but I also carry it to meetings, etc. while in the office.  Most evenings it gets an overnight charge in my cradle at home.  I have not had any problems with charge memory (losing charge capacity from overcharging).  Palm seems to have built good control circuitry to help prevent that occurrence. 

Of course, my Vx doesn't have a camera, an mp3 player OR a color screen like the Zire 72 does either.  I'm sure those use a lot of power when used extensively during the day.  But based on my experience both with my Vx and my mobile phone, I don't think you'll have any problem with the battery wearing out. 

I also am interested in the Zire 72 as a replacement for my Vx.  I need the memory expansion and would really enjoy the color screen and increase in processor speed.  I also want the integrated camera since my mobile phone doesn't have one (Nokia 6610 - TMobile).  The voice memo recorder is a plus that I think I will enjoy for recording quick thoughts or phone numbers, etc. 

I am not ready to use the Treo to integrate my phone and PDA yet.  Since Local Number Portability arrived, I don't want to spend that much on an integrated device that I may not be able to move to a different mobile carrier.  Good mobile phones are too cheap and reliable.  I don't do email on my PDA and am not really interested in instant / text messaging or sending pix to my friends. 

I'm trying to wait to see if palmOne brings out a Zire "73" type device, but it sounds less and less like they will do so.  Ideally, if they would add a large screen like the T5, more than 32MB RAM (at least 64M or 128M) and 802.11 WiFi to the Zire 72, I would purchase that device in a heartbeat.  But with the announcement yesterday (?) of the Mobile Manager product line, I don't think they'll be bringing out a Zire with my desired specs anytime soon.  I'm waiting until the LiveDrive comes out to take a look at that, but doubt that is what will fit my needs.  I'm waiting to see if there will be a price decrease on the Zire 72 (I like the silver Special Edition) after the LifeDrive is announced. 

Brent

A postscript to the '73'....

And please, please, please - how about adding an user-replaceable battery - like the competition already does?

Brent,

By user-replaceable battery I meant as that as found in most (if not all) Windows Mobile PDAs at the moment.

With Pa1mOne, the battery that is enclosed in their PDA is rechargeable - and that's fine - just so long as you are not doing a lot power-draining stuff (like reading an ebook or writing in Docs2Go while listening to your RealOne Player, for instance) and you can access a charge regularly. Bear in mind, in PDAs like the 72 (or your Vx), once you've run out of charge, there goes all your information until the next time a charged unit can be hotsynced with your Desktop. Also, should your ownership of the PDA outlive the lifespan of the battery enclosed, there is no really elegant way of swapping out the battery for new one. It can be done, but it ain't pretty -

http://www.gethightech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=GHT&Category_Code=_TungEBat

Just like, as you say, the brouhaha with the iPod.

Now, with most Windows Mobile units, they have two batteries in each unit. One the rechargeable, and one as a backup for hotswapping the rechargeable - with an easy access door at the back to get to it. You can get an additional rechargeable battery and either charge it up (some of the cradles available have a space for just this) for emergency use or just stash it away for the inevitable death of the original battery.

I'd like to upgrade from my E - not because of lack of memory or speed, but because what does appeal is Wi-Fi - but Pa1mOne appears to have no clear grasp of it. Bundles are available to the 72 and T5, but that means losing access to the SD card at the same time and having a portion of the Wi-Fi card sticking out - just waiting to get snapped off. Wi-Fi is readily available in Windows Mobile units, built-in and fully integrated, but I'm really not all that keen on the OS or ActiveSync or Outlook or.....

Your 'pokey old nag' sounds like it has served you well and I hope you find one that satisfies as well at it did. P1's build quality is suspect these days, the OS can be problematic and their Support these days sucks, but catch a unit on a good build day and track down some of the excellent OS5-friendly freeware out there and you should be served well.