Test Drive

The m130's has a fiarly bright display screen. It has two backlight settings and a contrast adjustment. Although I had to have the contrast adjusted nearly to the stop for my preference indoors, color transflective STN screen is very crisp.

At 160x160 pixels, you are not going to watch Gone With The Wind on it. However, the included photo suit software makes viewing small avi and mpegs marginally passable.

The Cradle:
The cradle that comes with the m130 is obviously a generic one intended for several of the Palm handhelds. Connecting the m130 to the cradle is not easy. Between the connector and the base noted by the arrow in the picture on the right, there is about a 1/4inch gap. Even after the m130 is resting firmly in the cradle, if feels like it isn't inserted properly. Putting the m130 in the cradle is akin to balancing a ball on a broom stick. It can be done, but not without some extra effort.

The biggest concern for me, is that you have to gently rock the m130 a bit to get it to line up and seat properly. Rocking hot cartridge style connectors with open live pins is NEVER a good thing to do. I hope Palm got the static discharge problems fixed, because rocking a a cartridge to seat it, means crossed connections and static discharge. Hopefully, the large Ferite bead style static protector (large block on cable in 2nd picture from top) on the cradle cable will be enough.

Having used thousands cartridges and connectors for 20 years, this is one of the poorest designs I have ever seen. Combining that with the fact that there are no guide rails, slots or even visual clues, means you will have to pick up the cradle and "eyeball" the connection to get it right. It is double whammy since the cradle and Palm are black and hard to see.

On the other hand, when you remove the m130 from the cradle, it does so with a crisp easy snap.

I sumise that the cradle and/or connector on the handheld will be the first thing that wears out on the m130. For that reason, I will probably opt for the IrDA interface or grab a BlueTooth card to beam sync the handheld.

Operating System

One thing I was surpised by, was that the desktop portion of the software was so complete. The desk top package has the exact equivalents of what is on the handheld. When you "sync" the handheld to the desktop, it makes a local backup copy of your databases. You can also enter data in the desktop to be sent to the handheld.

There are dozens of reviews of the Palm OS floating around the net.

Expansion

Unfortunatly, the Palm line of computers does not support Compact Flash memory cards.
(yes mivox, I'm suffering Visor envy which has CF adapters available)

On the bottom of the 130 is another expansion connector. Normally, this is just used to connect the handheld to its cradle. There are a few 3rd party options such as modems, gps units, and printers that use the connector for various expansion capabilities.

A 32meg SMC expansion card was the first thing I purchase for the m130. It pays to shop around because smc cards are dropping hard and fast. 128meg cards can befound for around $50 now.

A Palm BlueTooth card is available for the 130. http://www.palm.com/products/accessories/expansioncards/bluetooth/

Conclusion

After I finished writing the above, I though there was kinda light for a good review. Fact is, I've not had it long enough to make any lasting impressions other than those mentioned. I'll come back and update this in a few months after I've had it with a status report.