The Palm Vx was a personal digital assistant made by the Palm Computing division of 3Com. It benefited from the sleek design and low weight of its predecessor, the Palm V, while increasing the available storage to 8 MB. At 114g, it is one of the lightest models ever offered by Palm. Retail price at launch was US$299.
Soon after the device's release, Palm Computing was spun off to form Palm, Inc.. The Palm Vx was the first Palm device to be released without "3Com" branding.
he Vx was based on the Palm V design, with the primary difference between the two being the Vx's 8 megabytes of RAM compared to the V's 2 megabytes. This was one of the last palm models to not include a memory slot. It was also one of the first to feature interaction with email, AvantGo, and other online programs.
The Vx is powered by a Motorola Dragonball processor operating at 20 MHz. It has 8 megabytes of RAM. It was originally equipped with Palm OS 3.3, but later models came with Palm OS 3.5. A free upgrade is available from the Palm website. An upgrade to Palm OS 4.1 was formerly offered for sale on the Palm Website but is no longer available.
The device came with a built in rechargeable battery (not replaceable unless the unit is disassembled), and a button on the top of the screen that permitted access to a contrast menu. It also included an illumination feature, which caused the screen to be backlit by a green glow. However, the default backlight behaviour was inverted so that the text glowed while the background remained dark. This had the unfortunate side effect of making backlit pictures appear as negative images and made the display hard to read if the ambient lighting was at the same level as the backlight. The screen was very crisp and clear in bright sunlight and total darkness
Palm - Vx review (23/08/2000)
This is a machine which sorts the fun-seekers from the business types. If you want fun, expect to pay lots of money and walk away with bulky and heavy palmtops. If you're serious about your PDA requirements for business, you'll want something affordable and extremely portable - like the Palm Vx. We're talking about a palmtop that's less than 120mm tall and 1cm thick, and weighing barely over 100g (less than half the weight of Casio's Cassiopeia E-115). It really does feel like a small jotting notepad, compared with today's typical palmtops which feel thick and heavy when hanging in your jacket pocket.
Inside you get all the core PIM applications from Palm OS 3.5: Date Book, Address, To Do List, Memo Pad, Calc, Expense and Mail. You'll need third-party software if you want direct access to e-mail and the Web, but the built-in programs synchronise superbly well with your PC. As with other Palm products, just placing the unit into its serial/USB-attached cradle initiates the Hot-Sync process, recharging the battery at the same time.
The machine comes with 8MB of memory, which is plenty considering how small Palm OS software tends to be. The Palm Vx screen is just black-and-white and offers a resolution of just 160x160 pixels, but it's very well used thanks to the excellent quality of the built-in applications. We feel the screen is a little dark, though, and look forward to more contrasty alternatives in the future. That said, everything is perfectly readable and, combined with easy navigation and the reliable Graffiti pen-based input, the Palm Vx is very easy to use. It may not have the multimedia sparkle of PocketPC-based palmtops, but it handles PIM functions far better.
Type Bar PDA
Release date October 1999
Operating system Palm OS 3.3
Power Built-in rechargeable Li-Ion battery
CPU Motorola DragonBall EZ MC68EZ328 20 MHz
Storage capacity 8 MB Flash memory
Display 3.2", 160x160 px backlit monochrome STN, 16-grayscale LCD touchscreen
Sound Mono loudspeaker
Input Touchscreen
Camera None
Connectivity IrDA, RS-232
Dimensions 80mm x 115mm x 10mm
Weight 114 g (4.0 oz)
