An excellent entry level PDA, but not for the power user?

What a change for me to review an entry level PDA instead of the top of the line, fully loaded model. A price tag of $99 vs. $299+ is also a welcome change.

What would I do with a PDA sans Wi-Fi and Bluetooth?. Exactly what Palm intended, replace a paper based organizer with an electronic one. The last time I used a paper based planner was in 1998, and I was not faithful in keeping it up-to-date. The target market for the Z22 are those individuals still using a paper based planner/organizer, a billion dollar market. Palm includes a nice brochure on basic organizing skills to assist paper planner users in the transition to PDA's.

As soon as I turned on the Z22, I immediately had flashbacks to my first color Palm device, a Palm IIIc. The screen quality of the Z22 is on par with the Palm IIIc, highly pixelated by today's standard. Of course in 2000, I was enamored with the first color based Palm. Although I am accustomed to high resolution, rich color displays, I found the display on the Z22 to be quite useable. The display is definitely appropriate for the intended uses, and to have a color display for $99 is fantastic.

Installing the desktop software and establishing the first hotsync were uneventful. The Z22 has a min-USB connector which can connect with a charger or a USB sync cable. The device also charges while connected to the USB port. For the most part, I charged via the USB port of the PC. My PC has a USB2 port, but the sync was relatively slow. No problem for the average user with just contacts, calendar etc. Of course, I had large database files as part of my test, and although they sync'd fine, it was slow.

The PIM apps are well suited to replace a paper based planner. Between the calendar, contacts, task, notes and memo applications, just about everything you could do with a paper based planner system can be done with the Z22. The calendar app. has the features we expect from Palm (with enough fields for every type of phone number), and it is easy to include a photo of the contact with their entry. Of course you would have to beam or hotsync the photo as the Z22 does not include a camera. I certainly do not expect a camera to be included in this price range, but a .3 megapixel built-in camera would be nice to have. After a new contact beams you his or her information, or you input via Graffiti, you could take a snapshot, and easily include it with the entry for that person. The front of the Z22 only includes two PIM app buttons (calendar and contacts) and the navigator button. This was not a problem for me personally as the calendar and contacts are the PIM apps I use most. One warning - the alarm that notifies you of appointments etc. is considerably softer than higher end PDA's. With most higher end PDA's. you can usually hear the alarm with normal activity ambient noise. Unless the Z22 was near you, you may miss the audible alarm, and would have to rely on seeing the appointment alarm on the screen.

Of course me being me, I installed SmartList To Go, HandDBase, JFile, TinySheet, QuickWord, FileMan, Printboy, and the latest Palm Keyboard driver. This review was written using the Z22 memo app with the Palm Wireless Keyboard. I did have some concerns about the relatively small screen size; however, I found the screen size was not a problem while writing this article. The text was displayed in bold black on white, and was easy to read.

The keyboard/Z22 picture was taken with a .3 megapixel camera in a Clie TH55 in the dim light of the restaurant. As the popular saying goes, he/she is better looking in person than in the picture, and this is also true for pictures of PDA screens. That said, as acceptable as the Z22 screen is, you really notice the difference when you start using a high end, high resolution screen again. The screens on the TX, TH55, PPC's etc look even more impressive than normal after using the Z22 for awhile.


The filter execution times in SmartList and HanDBase were slightly slower than the other 200 MHZ machine I have used, a Sony Clie NX70, and significantly slower than a 400 MHZ T3. However, the Z22 can definitely be used with 4000 record database with very acceptable filter execution times (SmartList To Go 4300 record database filter execution time - 1.7 seconds for T3, 5.9 seconds for Z22). On a positive note, the Z22 executed filters in about one quarter the time the Palm IIIc, the first color Palm PDA, took to execute the same filters. Not bad for a machine that cost $99 vs the IIIc that cost $449 in 2000. When you hotsync, the databases are transferred to the appropriate desktop applications where you can print them, copy to servers, etc. You can also print via the infrared port with Printboy. I still had an old infrared connector on a laser printer, and Printboy worked fine from the Z22.

Well, what is the verdict? Inspite of the lack of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, high resolution screen, fastest processor etc., I really like the Z22. Frankly, it surprised me how much I liked it. With the Z22, it is easy to efficiently store your data using the included PIM apps, with the bonus of an automatic back-up when you hotsync you Z22. With a paper planner, you have no backup, and what happens when you loose it, or spill coffee on it - data loss.

Well Jim are you going to buy one? Probably not. I liked the Z22 a lot, and believe the Z22 is an excellent device for its intended market, current paper planner users who are switching to a PDA for the first time. The Z22 could not replace my T|X, T3, TH55 or PPC's. I would miss Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, the excellent high resolution screens, and fast performance of the T3, T|X, PPC's too much. However, if I ever needed a device with good PIM apps, very acceptable performance with databases and spreadsheets, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth were not needed, I would definitely consider the Z22. The Z22 weighs only about 3 ounces, easily fits in the pocket, and at $99 US, it will not put too big a bite on your wallet. There are not many PDA's that you can say those three things about.

Since you are reading this, you probably already use a PDA. If you have friends who still use a paper planner, recommend they purchase a Z22 and give it a try, or better yet, surprise them with a really nice holiday gift.

Final Grade = "A" for the intended target audience.

http://www.palm.com