Palm M130

Alright guys, today I have a Palm Pilot M130 PDA for me to review. I wasn't expecting this one- and I got it from a local sale that was going on. IDK (I don't know) if I envisioned/exaggerated more of what it could do- but I am going to list it again- as it is something that will not work for me. Alright- so I previously had used a Dell Axim X51V, and it was owned for a short time yes, but I owned other devices with Palm OS and was actually very happy with their functionality- so why do I dislike this.

Well, with devices nowadays, you need to have WIFI. I understand that I could probably by a card for that- but I decided that with an iPhone, I shouldn't even use a PDA. I was going to see if i could put some of my photos and contacts into it to have it as a data holder- but I decided that i have an iphone for that. The next thing, is the most hard to use, under the screen thing that you write in. This will display on the screen which you have written on the pad below. Now I have had a hardest time writing on that, I generally write good, so this shouldn't be a concern, but I could never get the right things I was writing to pop up.

The next thing, is the on-screen QWERTY is unbearably small, meaning that with the stylus you have to get into hard angles so I would probably get carpal-tunnel syndrome by using the keyboard for a long time.

And after a day of using, I wanted to clear what I had synced to it, the PDA would not clear! I had to clear all notes and contacts and such by hand which was hard as the screen had hard times even with calibration. Overall, I think I envisioned this as something it really was not. I would get it if you just need a simple pda, but if not save yourself and dont get.

A couple years ago I recieved a new Palm Pilot M130 as a gift from my parents. As a student I was pretty excited about what the possiblities were. I could get rid of some notebooks because I could keep class notes on it (thanks to the handy keyboard accessory), I could keep all my phone numbers and email addresses, and whatever appointments I had. Also I thought I could throw a game or two on there for the boring times in between classes.
Well I did all that, and it was good.
However, there are a couple of things that I don't like about this particular PDA. The battery life is non existent, if you forget to charge this thing overnight you should write down all your appointments for the day on a piece of paper and leave the Palm on the charger because it will not last to the afternoon. Also along with the battery life being short it's not customer replaceable(it's a Lithium Ion), so you have to send it off to Palm to get the battery replaced if it quits, and God help you if it's not under warranty anymore, I've heard the fee for a Palm service is 120 dollars plus YOU pay shipping. So you might as well just buy a whole new device.
And if you do let the battery go dead you better have done a HotSync right before because ALL of your information will be lost. And you better be ready for it to fail on you regularly. It has failed at least 3 times on me.
But if you are on top of charging, and HotSync it whenver new stuff is added or taken away then this should be easy to fix and little more than a minor headache. Just get used to saying "It did it again." If you are looking for a shopping list or something to keep your schedule and phone numbers in, then this product is, now, inexpensive and has the memory to do it (provided you charge and HotSync regularly)
I suggest that you save up some more money and buy a more powerful Dell or HP.

While the M130 is an older Palm PDA it's still a quite capable PDA for organizing information for the busy user. The color display is easy to see and use. The setting and adjustments are user friendly and easy to master even for the faint of heart. With just a few minutes even the inexperienced user can be up and running entering important information.

What I don't like about the M130 is the inability to synch information between the optional SD/MMC card and the M130 to copy files directly and save them. I also don't like the docking cradle that doesn't allow a secure docking ability when charging that allows the charging process to be disrupted with the littlest movement. Another issue is the battery itself, instead of using NIMH rechargeable batteries Palm chose to use a non-user friendly battery that needs to be replaced by a service center when it needs replacement. I overcame that issue and replaced it myself, but I'm a gadget person and am well equipped to do things like that. Battery life is acceptable, but could be improved because the Palm needs charging after a busy day of use or every other day of light use when the current OEM battery is installed. I installed the extended life battery and receive more operational time.

Overall the M130 does exactly what it was designed for and it does it well.

Over all not a bad product. Removing the stylus though should be done before flipping over the protective cover, which I do like by the way. I upgraded from a serial port, black and white screen, to this USB version with color screen which is much easier to read.

Placing the palm into the hot sync and keyboard cradle is not as smooth as my older model, you seem to have to get it just right, but without too much fuss it sets into place.

Scrolling: The scrolling bar on the side does work better than my old Palm Pilot, not as finicky as before.

If your running Windows 7 the palm pilot software installed fine but the DataViz software and Keyboard driver gave a little bit of a problem. Windows 7 reported some macro running problems and in both software install processes Windows 7 a couple time indicated the installation was not complete but the software and driver were actually installed.

love the size,portability,and easy to read,colorful display.Very simple to navigate and use.
I do not like the way it slides onto it's charger/docking cradle as it does not snap-in tight and always feels like a flimsy connection.I would like a more sturdy and quality feel to a device when I am docking.Other than this I have nothing but good things to say about this gem of an older PDA.