While the first releases in this family focused on the pocketbook of the average high school or first year college student, no more than $100, Palm has in the Zaire 71 moved $200 upscale in terms of cost, still a bargain for all the multimedia features that the company has incorporated into this 5.3 ounce PDA.

It includes all of the standard personal information manager (PIM) for storage of phone numbers, addresses, to-do lists, meeting and class notes -- each instantly accessible via front panel buttons. But, in addition, it has thrown in digital camera capabilities, audio and video playback, as well as the ability to communicate wirelessly over short distances.

Fortunately, these multiple capabilities do not come at the cost of performance. Earlier PDAs from this and other companies were powered by the low cost Dragonball, a variant of the 68000 processor that use to power the Macintosh, but at a clock rate of about 25 to 50 MHz. This time around, Palm has moved to the use of Texas Instruments' 244 MHz OMAP310, which based on clock speed alone is about ten times faster. But the OMAP architecture is a dual CPU design, combining a 32-bit ARM processor for normal PDA functions with a digital signal processor that is optimized for audio and video functions.

The Zaire 71 allows the user to jot down handwritten entries into the PIM directly on the screen with a special stylus supplied with the unit. If you wish keyboard entry and are willing to pay the cost of an additional accessory, it can be attached on the bottom edge of the 4.5 x 2.9 x 0.67 inch PDA, via the Universal Adapter port. That same port can be used for attaching an external battery charger when the internal rechargeable Lithium Polymer battery runs down.

Taking full advantage of the OMAP's 244 MHz DSP capability, the Zaire 71 has a decent 640 by 480 pixel VGA resolution point-and-click digital camera built in. But rather than crowd out all of the other functions and buttons on the front of the device, the camera lens is located on the back of the device, controlled by a button on the front.  

Color photos of 640x480, 320x240, 160x120 (VGA) resolution can be taken in a variety of lighting environments including 5 lux at 640x480, 10 lux at 320x240, and 20 lux at 160x120. To view or preview the photos taken, Palm has done some work on the display incorporating a 16-Bit, 320x320 transflective TFT color display with brightness controls that supports 65,536 colors.

For multimedia, the device comes with RealOne Mobile Player for MP3, Kinoma Player for video, Audible Player for audio books, RealOne Arcade for games, Palm Reader for eBooks, installed along with the Palm OS and about 50 other applications in about 4 Megabytes bytes of onboard nonvolatile read only memory.

With about 16 Mbytes of user accessible synchrnous DRAM, there is more than enough room for the multimedia content from any one of these applications. But for additional storage capability you will have to buy additional external memory which is attached via a MultimediaCard  expansion slot located next to the universal adapter port. The slot can be used also to add more functionality such as games, a dictionary/thesaurus card, or even an SDIO card modules (all sold separately).

Finally, what is the use of taking down notes, snapping photos and listening to music via a standard headphone jack on the top edge of the PDA unless you can share them? At the bottom edge of the PDA near the expansion ports, Palm has included an infrared link that allows the user to share with other Zaire 71 PDA users who may be nearby. 

Pricing and Availability

Available now at most retail outlets and on-line, the Zaire 71 is current priced at about $299 (or $249 with any PalmOS or PocketPC-based trade-in).

(For access to more than 4,500 other hands-on product reviews on all variety of wired and wireless appliance and consumer devices, go to the iAppliance Web Portal Page. )