Now some 18 months after the original Zire 21 we have the Palm Zire 31, its much more than a re badge and much more than a change of colour (now a fetching blue) but purists need not worry it certainly doesn't suffer from bloat on unnecessary features for this is a PDA that is back to basics but not in a cheap way.

The Palm Zire 31 is based around the 200MHz Intel XScale processor and runs the latest Palm OS 5.2.8, but they key difference is the new colour screen which gives a resolution of 160 x 160 pixels which is comparable to a smartphone, in fact the Treo 600 uses the very same screen. Should this put you off? well if you are expecting 65k colour performance and clarity walk away now and look at its big brother the Zire 71, while the limited resolution of the Zire 31's screen does result in soft images and dubious colour separation it does an honest job of day to day tasks and is very workable with a bright good contrast.

Playing Video back on the Palm Zire 31 is a definite no, but then the potential buyer of this unit doesn't want that, it is very focused around the basic role of a PDA, calendar, to-do, contacts and some basic office functions, these all benefit greatly from the addition of colour.  The user interface is a familiar one and the controls are similar to the bigger Zire 72 and there is a simple single button hot sync for updating your files with a host PC via the supplied mini USB cable. Navigation is via the palm one five way pad and text input uses the dependable graffiti system, in fact alongside the now bombproof OS and applications it makes for a very tight system.

The palm Zire 31 comes with 16mb as standard of which about 14mb are free for your own gratification, that's not a lot but there is an expansion slot on top of the unit capable of taking SD /SIDO or MMC cards which gives enough capacity for a misleading claim that the Zire 31 can be an MP3 player just by adding headphones. Sadly our tests found that it was a poor quality MP3 player with an annoying hiss and some playback stutter on occasions, so no Ipod then!

But Palm are missing the point the reason anyone buys as Zire 31 is as a PDA pure and simple not a replacement for an MP3 player and not for watching videos, so if you can see your way past the marketing £110 buys you a compact 11.2 x 7.4 x 1.6 cm pocket companions which weighs just 116 g. Battery life is excellent even with the new colour screen requiring more juice.

So if you are after a simple uncluttered digital assistant this is a good option, sure you can't show video to your mates and perhaps you'd love to play MP3's, but you'd do better to buy and Ipod of Gmini for Mp3 and let the Palm Zire 31 do what its good at looking after your calendar, contacts and to-do's.

More PDA Reviews -

[ Sony Clie TH55 ] [ iMate Pocket PC and Phone ] [ HP 2210 Ipaq ] [ PalmOne Zire 72 PDA ] [ Palm Zire 31 ] [ Tungsten T5 Review ] [ Acer N30 PDA ] [ Tungsten E2 Review ] [ Dell Axim X50 ] [ Fossil Abacus Review ] [ PalmOne TX Review ] [ Nokia N800 Review ] [ Dell Axim X30 ] [ Sony Clie TJ35 ] [ Dell Axim X3i PDA ] [ Lifedrive Review ] [ HP 4150 PDA ] [ Palm Tungsten E ]