Zire Handheld

This article should include material from Zire 71; alternatively this page should be split in the same style as Tungsten Handheld.

The Palm Zire series of PDAs is Palm's consumer line. The lower-end models emphasize price — Palm's original Zire model was the first PDA under $100 from a major manufacturer — and the higher-end models emphasize multimedia capacity, including features like cameras and audio playback functions suitable for listening to MP3s.

Models

Palm Zire & Palm Zire 21

These models are inexpensive and are differentiated from the rest of Palm's line by having monochrome screens without backlighting, only two quicklaunch buttons instead of four, and having a quarter or less memory (2MB resp. 8MB). The two models share the same lightweight (3.8oz) physical design.

Palm Zire 31

The Palm Zire 31 is an upgraded version of Palm Zire 21. The display is color (but still 160x160), the RAM size is 16M, and they feature audio capability. It was designed by PalmOne to replace the original Zire hanheld. It sports a 200mhz Intel processor (which is ironically more powerful than the more expensive Tungsten E), an updated operating system, and a Palm "5-Way navigator."

Palm Zire 71

The Palm Zire 71 is the former high-end model, which is basically a Tungsten T (ARM-based, OS 5.x, 320x320 resolution with 16-bit color, 16M of RAM etc.) device without Bluetooth, but with an incorporated digital camera able to take (640x480) pictures. It also features a small joystick for quick navigation. Audio playback capability is possible with the inclusion of a SD card slot, and a Palm version of RealPlayer was included. To counter the slow file transfer rate for uploading songs to the device, Palm offered an MP3 playback kit including a memory card writer.

Reviewers were impressed by the excellent quality of its LCD display and the comparatively good quality of its camera compared to similar generation VGA digital cameras.

Certain users found issues with the sensitivity of the device's joystick, which on certain devices was prone to powering up the PDA inside pockets. However, there are third party applications (PocketProtector by geakware and Power by whizoo) which fix the problem. Those users are strongly recommended to install one of these applications.

Palm Zire 72

The Palm Zire 72 is an upgraded version of Palm Zire 71. New features include Bluetooth, voice recording, and video capture with sound. The joystick was removed and replaced with a recessed pad similar to that of the Tungsten models, the camera was upgraded from 0.3 to 1.2 megapixel, the RAM size was increased from 16M to 32M, and the processor speed was increased. The weight was reduced to 4.8oz versus 5.3oz for the Zire 71.