LifeDrive: Yeas and nays for a 4GB PDA

Gary Krakow Columnist • E-mail

Recently, I’ve received an enormous amount of reader feedback about my review of PalmOne’s newest PDA, the LifeDrive, which is the company's first with a 4GB built-in hard drive. Some people are intrigued by the idea of a super-storage hand-held device — others, less so.

Lon C. Lundgren wrote:

“I wanted to write you about your recent article on the PalmOne LifeDrive.  In short, this very attractive PDA is missing one very important feature, a slide-out keyboard.  I use a HipTop II (T-Mobile SideKick II), and although it is regarded as a toy for hipsters and teens, it is the most intuitive and functional device (almost) on the market mostly because it has the flip-out keypad.

The LifeDrive missing CDMA or GSM phone functionality is something that I can live with, however not having a keypad? We are long past the point of accepting this as a viable replacement for any convergent device. Writing with a stylus is so passé, slow, useless, pointless.... well you get the point.

You can pass on to our buddies at PalmOne that I will not be buying a LifeDrive.”

Randy Griffin disagreed with my opinion that a built-in cellular phone would make the LifeDrive even better: 

“Nice review, except the finale.  I don’t want a PDA phone.  Too big.  Look at those poor Trio 650 geeks.  Even with a Bluetooth headset the 650 would strain belt loops.  Remember the slide rule?”

John Inman, though, agreed with me: 

“The last sentence of your article about Palm Live Drive is exactly what I want to know.  Is there another model coming that will also be a phone?  And if so, what is the time horizon?   I want to get one but if a second phone model is coming out in 6 months, I will wait.”

John, Palm makes a wonderful PDA/cell phone called the Treo 650. There’s no hard drive built into the 650, but thousands of happy users will tell you they don’t need 4GB of storage at all.

Which brings us to Antons Fomishkins’ two questions about my personal preferences: 

“After I have read your 18^th May review I have written out two questions:

a)   What kind of mobile device are you using in normal time?

b)   Would you recommend PalmOne’s ‘Life Drive’ to the student that is learning in school?"

First of all, answering your first question is difficult because I get to test lots of different devices. I carry at least one cell phone and one Smartphone with me at all times. It could be a plain cell phone, or one with a camera or even a handset with built-in TV video features.  As for a Smartphone/portable e-mail device, I’ll carry a Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian or Linux-based device. Brands names don’t matter since they change so often. What matters is that they connect easily and do what I want them to.

Which brings me to the second part. You should check out the LifeDrive’s features and see if it does what you want it to.  It’s a top-of-the-line device and it comes with a top-of-the-line price tag.  I would check out the entire PalmOne line to see which one fits your needs.

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