I am considering a PDA, first time. I have narrowed down to Palm or Visor - any recommendation between those 2? Thanks.

I forgot to add: I am looking for a mid-range price, nothing over $300. Thanks again.

Suzi, This is a tuffie. For under $300, you can get a Palm Vx, which is sleek looking, small, and has 8 MB of RAM. There are also plenty of accesories for it. There is also the larger VIIx, which is wireless internet out of the box. There of course is the Palm IIIc, with incredible color, also in a larger package. Then the cheapest for Palm... the m100. Then on the Handspring side, you have the Platinum, with a 33 mhz processor, and 8 MB of RAM. Then there is the deluxe, available in different colors, and then the solo, the cheapest of the Handsprings. So, what do I recommend? Well, I am about to buy me a Palm m505, but, that is out of the price range, so next best, in my opinion is the Palm Vx. It is good looking, fast, plenty of room, and many accesories available for it. The Palm Vx competitor, is the latest Sony Clie, PEG-S320 for $199. I have the old version of the Clie, PEG-S300. For the respective PDA's: http://www.palm.com, www.handpspring.com, www.sony.com/clie/ Please fell free to email me with anymore questions, Mario msmasitti@yahoo.com

You may want to consider how long you plan on using you PDA before buying another. I was given a Handspring Prism this past Christmas. It uses the newest Palm operating system and I love it! Handspring has not released any more PDAs that are improvements on the ones they first released in Aug 2000 when the company first started selling them. I personally think that they have got the most stable and expandable format for a PDA. The handsprings all accept springboard modules (cell phone, digital camera, GPS, modum, 8 or 16 MB memory, etc.) for practically anything you could imagine. In addition, all the software used on Palms are compatible with Handspring, which opens even more doors. Palm just released the PalmV at Christmas 2000. Since then, they have released Palm Vx, VIIx, m100, m105, m500, and m505. I seems that as soon as you buy a Palm PDA, another better one will be released the next month. If you buy a Handspring, it's pretty likely that you won't wish that you waited a month to buy your PDA because another Palm is released. Just about every month, new springboard modules are being developed that will work with your already existing Handspring. All of the Handsprings use the springboard modules, so you have more flexibility and expandibility even with their cheapest PDA. The price for Handsprings are falling. The Handspring Prism sold for $450 when it was given to me. Now it's on sale for $399 and the Handspring Platinum (no color, but everything else offered by Prism) sells for $250 which is well within your range. You should check out their website to see how many avenues for expansion and free software that Handspring provides. Best of luck choosing. In the end, $300 is a small investement in the company, so choose wisely. Sincerely, Katherine

Thanks everyone! I got a Handspring Platinum, for $249 with free $49 leather case. I am very happy with it so far! I also got the LandWare Go Type keyboard and have "Documents to Go" ordered. This is going to be a tremendous asset in my job! But my employer won't pay for it. Supposedly we will all get laptops (sometime), but this will be great and may even eliminate the need for the laptop! I chose the Visor for many of the reason cited here, versatility for one and compatibility with so many other modules etc.

Suzi - I am in the same boat as you described and am hoping that you can give me a follow up response. I am overwhelmed by the many choices, have the $ to spend on a system, and also debated a lap top for which I do not have the $. My ultimate goal would be a PDA that could run large programs. So how goes your choice?

I was given my bosses old Palm III, when he upgraded to another system. I love the unit after I upgraded the memory to 8 megs, now standard. But I would in a heartbeat switch it for a Handspring. Why? For expandability. You can get springboards with additional memory, cameras, GPS's, and I believe ports for flash memory. On some of the newer ones you get a combinination of memory and their main function. I tend to use up a lot of memory with books that I download.