palmOne LifeDrive Review
By: Ryan KairerMay 22nd, 2005
© PalmInfocenter.com
The LifeDrive is the first product from palmOne's new mobile manager category of products. This new class of device is the first PDA released domestically to include a built in hard drive. It's aim is to be a repository for your digital content, be that photos, movies, music or large volumes of office documents.
The LifeDrive takes the traditional PDA look with a modern minimalist look. It feels great to hold in hand. Even though it is palmOne's thickest model, the back is well beveled inwards for a nice comfortable hold. The front and back are a metallic brushed silver aluminum with a plastic middle section and bottom. The front buttons are a smooth rectangle around the racetrack shapped 5-way navigator. The navigator is one of the best I've come across as it's rubber material is very nice. Overall the LifeDrive has a superb industrial design, there is not a sharp edge on the unit.
The top of the device houses the power switch/slider, which includes a new hold feature that will prevent button presses and screen taps from activating the device. Also in the black top section is the Ir window and the SD expansion slot. On the top right is the stylus silo. The LifeDrive uses the same spring loaded stylus as the Tungsten T3.
On the top middle portion is the status LED. It pulses orange to indicate hard drive activity and green for WiFi use. It also lights up orange when the unit is off and plugged into the charger but does not change when fully charged. The LED can also blink for alarms. Unfortunately, there is no silent vibration alert.
The left side contains two small holes for the microphone and the voice recorder activation button below. Just below is a dedicated screen rotation button, which switches the display from portrait and landscape. Both are flush enough that it's very unlikely they can be triggered by accident.
The bottom contains a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, the multi-connector and a stylus tip pushable reset button. The back of the LifeDrive has a perforated air-hole design, with an embossed and raise square palmOne logo in the center.
The unit has dimensions of 4.76" x 2.87" x .74" inches (120 x 73 x 19 mm) and weighs 6.8 ounces (193 grams).
Hardware
The LifeDrive Runs Palm OS Garnet (v5.4.8) on a 416 MHz Intel PXA270 XScale processor. It has built in 4 Gigabyte hard drive (3.85GB user available) and 64MB of internal memory (55MB user available). It has both WiFi and Bluetooth wireless technology and hotsyncing now supports USB 2.0 speeds.
Hard Drive
The LifeDrive utilizes a Hitachi 4GB microdrive. It is one inch, low power drive capable of a maximum sustained data rate of over 7MB/sec. palmOne chose this model because it has the best spin-up time and read/write speed on the market. The drive is partitioned so that 64MB acts like internal RAM and is called Program Memory. The remaining is shown, and acts like an external memory card, which is the 3.85GB user storage area.
The program memory has all of the same characteristics of RAM and is structured similarly as the memory system on the Tungsten T5. However the program behaves a bit differently on the LifeDrive because it is hard drive based. There is 32MB of dedicated SDRAM that is used for the dynamic heap and is where apps are chached once executed. When an application such as Contacts is launched, it is copied over from the program memory to the cache. This process causes a short launching delay depending on the application and hard drive spin up. Some apps execute almost instantly while more robust apps can see up to a 5 second wait at maximum. Most of the built in apps open in under 3 seconds and the last five apps are stored in the SDRAM and will launch instantaneously when chached. It's not that bad of an inconvenience, but is a departure from what many are used to given the relative quickness of the Palm OS.
Processor
The LifeDrive is powered by a 416 MHz Intel XScale a member of the PXA270 family of chips. This is just a incremental speed boost over the 400MHz T3. The PXA270 chip offers more multimedia support and some better power management features. Performance on the LifeDrive is fast, aside from the few HDD related issues. Large websites render quickly and many complex games such as Snails, ran very fluidly.
Display
The LifeDrive has a 16bit color, 480x320 pixel TFT screen, which measures 3.25" x 2.2" inches. It is the same improved display that debuted in the Tungsten E2. The display is 30% brighter and has 40% better color saturation than previous models. The display is very vibrant and holds up extremely well outdoors and in direct sunlight. There is an on-screen slider to adjust, but it does not turn off the backlight.
Dual Wireless
The LifeDrive has both Bluetooth v1.1 and a WiFi (802.11b) wireless radio's built in. This is palmOne's first device with both and is a most welcome feature. WiFi signal strength and status is indicated in the bottom status bar. A tap on that will bring up the WiFi preferences which includes a network scanning tool and the ability to turn the radio on and off. You can also set how long the device keeps connections, preferred networks and configure the WEP or WPA wireless security. WiFi strength was on par, if not better than the Tungsten C handheld.
Bluetooth can keep you connected on the road via a compatible mobile phone if you can't find a nearby WiFi hotspot for wireless internet access. With Bluetooth, you can dial out contacts from your address book, send and receive files, send sms and photos wirelessly, link upto a Bluetooth GPS, hotsync, and connect to the internet from a bluetooth mobile phone, computer or a bluetooth access point.
Audio
The LifeDrive's top rear speaker is moderately loud and mp3's and sound effects are clear, though most will opt for using headphones (not included) for listening to audio. palmOne includes a version Normsoft's PocketTunes for mp3's. This is a much nicer player than RealPlayer and offers support for background play and on device playlists. I was disappointed to discover the LifeDrive still uses the same old fashioned pilot 1000 alarm sounds for the calendar.
One problem I had was with listening to mp3's in the background. Anytime I switched to another application or the device read from the hard drive would cause the music (being played from the HDD) to be interrupted by short, yet annoying, pauses and clicks. This only happened with files on the HDD and not files on an SD card. It sounds like the drive may have some issues with multitasking and listening to music off the hard drive.
Multi-Connector
The LifeDrive has the new palmOne standard Multi-Connector for hotsyncing and DriveMode functions. It has been upgraded to support much faster USB 2.0 speeds which greatly enhance hotsyncing speed and allow for quick transfers of large files to the hard drive. Transferring a 30MB mp3 over Drive Mode, took just under 20 seconds.
Unfortunately, the LifeDrive does not ship with a cradle. Instead it comes with a USB cable and a separate AC charger, that can plug directly into the handheld or into the dual USB cable connector. The supplied USB cable has a button on the connector that can be used to initiate a hotsync. The USB cable alone will not charge the handheld from the computer, you must attach the AC cord.
Battery
The LifeDrive has a non removable 1660 mAh rechargeable lithium ion battery. The same that is found in the Treo 650. Battery life is going to vary very significantly with how you use the device. With all the built in features, your usage pattern is going to determine how much you can get out of a charge. For my general reviewing purposes, I was able to get about 4 and a half hours out of a full charge. This included moderate web surfing over WiFi, lots of Bejeweled 2, using the PIM applications and listening to a few track's from the HDD. palmOne's official numbers are with 45 minutes of use per day, one would get about 2-2.5 days of use. Because the HDD does not need a charge to store your data you will not loose memory content's when the power is empty and the device has a longer keep alive time.
Software
The LifeDrive features palmOne's most impressive software bundle to date. Out the box on the device is: the enhanced PIM suite (Contacts, Calendar, Notepad, Memopad and Tasks), Media, Pocket Tunes, Blazer, Versamail, Camera Companion, Drive Mode, Phone Dialer, Doc's to Go, Addit, SMS, Handmark Solitaire, Voice Memo, Files, Calculator, World Clock, Expense and Favorites. On the CD is: Adobe Acrobat Reader, WiFile, a trial version of Handmark Express and eReader.
Smart File Management
palmOne touts the LifeDrive as a mobile manager and has built up an application suite to make managing large amounts of digital content easy. On the device this includes the Files application for viewing your files and folders. It is a basic on device files and folder navigator for the HDD and SD cards. You can open/rename/copy/send/delete or move files and create folders. You can also select which program to open a file with, baring the program supports the files application. Also on the handheld is Drive Mode, which with the included USB cable, mounts the LifeDrive's storage space as a removable drive on your PC or Mac for direct file management.
Folder Sync, for windows computers only, can be setup to automatically update selected files or folders of files when hotsyncing. This can be local folders or even network drives. You can simply drag entire folders of data and the folder organization will remain intact. LifeDrive Manager on the PC, provides a live windows explorer like view into your Hard Drive and SD cards. It also lets you drag and drop files from your PC, but additionally gives you the option to sync, format for the device or just copy to the LifeDrive.
palmOne bundles the latest v7 release of Dataviz's Documents to Go on the device. Docs to Go supports creating and editing native Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint files. You can use files received from email, Bluetooth, stored on SD or beamed to the device.
Another new program to the LifeDrive is camera companion. When a SD card from a digital camera is inserted the program will automatically detect it and ask you what you want to do. You can copy the entire card to the LifeDrive, copy them to the Computer, or view them on the device without copying. It's a good application for taking a large amount of pictures with a camera and then dumping them down to the LD allowing you to wipe the card and continue shooting. This is a nice "leave the laptop behind" feature.
palmOne's media application has been greatly speed up to display photo thumbnails, even from large megapixel camera's. It is still a weak movie player as it does not support many compressed codec's such as Divx and Xvid. It's best to use MMPlayer or the TCPMP player for a much improved video viewing experience, but it does work well for short clips and movie trailers.
LifeDrive includes palmOne's Blazer browser v4.1 for wireless web surfing and Versamail v3.1 for email and messaging. Blazer is an excellent and very speedy browser. It renders web pages significantly faster because it displays the text first, before loading the formatting and images. It has both an optimized and a widescreen mode and support javascript and VPN connections (with VPN software). The browser also has excellent support for bookmarks and offers proxy and proxyless browsing modes.
With VersaMail's support for POP and IMAP email servers, users can download mail wirelessly or by synchronizing with their desktops. For Enterprise users whose organizations run Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, the program has built in Exchange Server ActiveSync that will directly import and enable corporate email and calendar synchronization.
One the desktop side of things, palmOne includes their Quick Install program for Windows. Quick Install simplifies installing programs and converting documents and photos for handheld use. Users simply drag zip files, prc application files, photos, videos and even MS office files into the app and it will preform the necessary conversion and install the the files on the next hotsync. The software CD includes the Palm Desktop for windows and Mac as well as the palmOne Outlook Conduit.
Summary
palmOne new flagship handheld is a handsome PDA. It is loaded with features and has massive amounts of storage to spare making it an exceptional portable media solution with a huge base of applications to choose from. With the addition of the hard drive and dual wireless, this model may be the best laptop replacement PDA's out there.
The LifeDrive mobile manager from palmOne has an estimated U.S. street price of $499. Limited quantities are available now from the palmOne online store and select retail stores worldwide. Volume availability is expected by early June. You can also search for the lowest price on our PriceGrabber service.
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PROS
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CONS
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RATING:
8.5 / 10
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| Design: |  |
Attractive, Good Build Quality |
| Features: |  |
HDD, Bluetooth, WiFi |
| Screen: | |
Vibrant, Large Display |
| Battery: |  |
Average Battery Life |
| Value: |  |
Top of the line model |
PriceGrabber Lowest Prices on the Palm LifeDrive
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RE: ...LD or Axim 50v
I'd be very interested in the previous posters thoughts and others.
I'm concerned with the new LD's speed to start up the hard drive and wonder if the space can be done with compact flash, SD, etc.
I'm looking for PIM, bluetooth, WIFI, music, MOVIES, primarly and have BOTH the LD and Dell Axim X50v on order.
So, I know I'm on a Palm site, so go gentle and share your thoughts, please.
RE: ...
http://www.archos.com/products/overview/pma_400.html
RE: ...
They now both support native format files and folders.
They now both have hi-res full-size screens.
They both now have a full set of applications.
They offer remarkably similar value.
They each now feature such simple features as screen rotation without rebooting, sleek exteriors, dual storage, WiFi, BlueTooth, etc.
This is the toughest choice ever for PDA buyers.
I won't be ready to upgrade for 6 months to a year. Wonder what these features will be available for by then? I think the race is coming down to price, price, price. Right now, the Axim goes for as little as $360. The LifeDrive will not be available for that price for some time. That might make your decision for you.
RE: ...
No it's not. You leave out the fact the PPC PIMs (bundled and 3rd-party) are all crap. No, wait: LESS than crap.
Have fun missing all your appointments because the alarms don't go off.
RE: ...
http://www.pocketinformant.com/awards.php
Surur
RE: ...
RE: ...
Let's see...HOW many PPCs are out there with NON-FUNCTIONING ALARMS?
That you two happen to have bought THE NEWEST UNITS that might have (or even might not have) fixed that problem doesn't mitigate the fact that MOST PPCs in service DO have that problem. And it's been PPC weenies who have posted about it!
Next!
RE: ...
HDD spin, as I've seen on Life Drive is almost same delay as in windows, when you run any application for the first time after reset.
Better battery on LD. If it uses HDD - about same (about 7 hours mp3's you can get on LD and on 50v. if 50v works on 208Mhz=). But if you work with SD or cached PIMs - LD works longer, as it's 416 mhz, 1650mah vs 624mhz, 1100mah.
3D on 50v is advertised feature, but it is supported by 2 games only and probably will not be supported any more.
Dell with CF Microdrive for 4Gb (16g) costs more and weights more. And Dell will not work as flash drive, because transferring files through ActiveSync is very slow, so you need reader and additional wires-moves.
After having TCPMP player Palm becomes in par on video playback with PPC. Other soft is mostly better and-or faster on POS.
LD works with images much faster than Dell (seen it in some reviews).
RE: ...
I wonder which LD's lowest brightness is, as it's too bright to read-see movies in dark on Axim. (look: http://www.hpc.ru/lib/arts/2116/low.jpg).
RE: ...
And hello, PPC's are much more stable than recent Palms. In some of the reviews published here people had devices reset on them while they were playing with them in store! How many soft resets are that per day?
The new OS will have direct X included, which will support the graphics chip.
The battery life issues is real, and its the Dell's great weakness. At least you can swap the battery when its gets low, and you can get a massive 2200 mAh extended battery.
Surur
Get serious Ryan. Is the LifeDrive really rated 8.5/10???
------------------------
Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------
Say hello to my little friend...
RE: ...
RE: ...
Care to put on record how many PDA's you think P1 will sell this quarter? 500 000, 400 000. How many devices (including Treo's) this quarter? 800 000, 700 000? Less?
Surur
RE: ...
Care to go on record with VERIFICATION of that "30 min change to 'LifeDrive format'" comment?
RE: ...
Mike, again, I don't usually say things without "verification".
If your video format isn't supported by Media, you can use the LifeDrive Manager desktop application to automatically convert the video to ASF format while copying it to the LifeDrive's internal disk. Be warned that like many video conversion processes, this isn't fast and is slower than some standalone converters. We converted a 30 meg 320 x 240 WMV to ASF format using LifeDrive Manager and it took 30 minutes, creating a 130 meg file!
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/palmone-LifeDrive.htm
Of course you don't have to convert, but high bit rate video will need to be converted to play on the LifeDrive. Not so on the Dell. Now if 30 megs took 30 minutes, I wonder how long a typical 300MB Dead Like Me episode at 800 kb/sec will take.
Surur
RE: ...
That is APPALLING!!!
RE: ...
Application start times on a PocketPC vary depending on the processor, model, storage location, program, and screen resolution. If you want to see a fast machine, try out the Axim X30 624 MHz, or the iPaq hx2750--they're as fast as anything.
MP3s off the LD's hard drive last for just over 4 hours. The only way to get 7 hours, at least on my unit, is to not use the microdrive at all. On minimal settings, the Axim will run for 8.5 hours. Also, the Axim's battery is replacable, and you can get a high-capacity 2200 mAh battery for it.
Actually, there are four or five full games that support the 2700G, a couple of video players, and probably half a dozen more demo programs.
An Axim X50v is $360. A 4 GB microdrive is $140. Total is $500, the same price as the LifeDrive. The Lifedrive would have better battery life and the USB drive function, the Axim a better screen and video chip.
In the course of having both models, I've seen no significant difference in the way the two handle photos. Pick your poison, the speed hit of a hard drive versus the speed hit of a VGA screen.
RE: ...
Now, back in the days before WinMobile 2003 (like PPC 2002 and first generation 2000 hardware), there was a LOT of truth to this. Previous PPC devices that I've owned crashed if you so much as looked it funny. But over the years both the hardware and software has become increasingly more stable, while the reverse has happened in PalmOS's case. Every recent Palm-powered device I have owned in the last two years has been nothing but trouble, belching out Fatal Exception errors, self resets, lockups, and other odd behavior. At least when a Pocket PC crashes it does so for a reason. PalmOS often crashes for God only knows what reason. There are times when I'm using my T5 running some app that the damn thing just stops and resets itself. Quite a common occurrence with VersaMail...especially on the Treo 650. Ah the Treo 650....I LOVE that device but it's about as unstable as a farm tractor hauling a shaky load of Nitroglycerin.
Granted, I no longer use Windows Mobile devices, but I have had various units in my possession at times. So I know what it's like to use both platforms. That's not to say that WinMob isn't without its serious shortcomings, like a retarded memory management scheme that forces you to share RAM with a glutton OS. Thankfully that's going away soon in the form of WinMob 5 (Magneto).
But lets do stop bandying myths about, shall we? Windows Mobile instability is as mythical as PalmOS's supposed reliability.
This has been a public service announcement by Foo Fighter. The more you know....
-------------------------------
Editor, http://Pocketfactory.com
Contributing Editor, http://digitalmediathoughts.com
RE: ...
I have an X50v but I use my old Palm
RE: ...Soft Reset
I never had to reset, or had applications reset themselves as many times in 3 years with my m130, as I have had with my lifedrive in not even a week of ownership.
However I must admit to messing with it as much as i can by installing apps and pouring gigs of music at it every night to see what it can do.
Maybe if I stop messing with it..............
We shall see.
RE: ...
--
http://arpx.net/docs/top_10_palmos_applications - my top 10 palm apps.
Delays!
RE: Delays!
RE: Delays!
RE: Delays!
RE: Delays!
Ah well. Perhaps next years model will offer a real 64 MB RAM, a camera, and lower price.
Not saying this isn't nice, but not for me, not yet. And the biggest deal killers are the price, RAM, and camera.
I wish PalmOne would update the Zire 72 to 73 this Summer, but doesn't look like that'll happen.
RE: Delays!
Or maybe me. Who *still* needs GBs of storage and doesn't really give a fek if an MP3 skips now and then. But I've yet to fondle it, so this is a hypothetical assertion (note that "maybe").
Will Mike Cane EVER buy a new PDA (and keep it)?
Bull. You keep talking about buying a new Palm and still all you have is a 4 0r 5 year old monochrome CLIE. Time for you to put up (and actually BUY something) or S T F U. You've contributed all of $30/year to the Pal economy, Cane. Thanks. You're quite the high roller.
------------------------
Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------
Say hello to my little friend...
RE: Delays!
RE: Delays!
RE: Delays!
Compusa said I get 21 days to decide if I even want to keep the thing.
Gotta say I see no reason to return it yet (5 days and counting - upgraded from a Zodiac which replaced my T3)
Why not Bluetooth 1.2?
T3 & T5 user
RE: Why not Bluetooth 1.2?
"People who think they're smart annoy those of us who are."
RE: Why not Bluetooth 1.2?
The reason is that PalmSource has lisenced the BT 1.2 sig for use only in Cobalt and the Lifedrive of course only runs Garnet! However, if PalmOne wanted to, they could have just as easily lisenced BT 1.2 themselves and integrated it into the LD...but since most deviecs on the market still use the 1.1 spec, they choose not to...
I support http://Tapland.com/
--------------------
GNM
RE: Why not Bluetooth 1.2?
-Bosco
NX80v + Wifi + BT + T637
RE: Why not Bluetooth 1.2?
>>>>>There is very little benefit to using BT 2.0 besides being able to say on the box USES BLUETOOTH 2.0.
Actually, there are a few things that are definitely better in BT 1.2. (I think BT 2.0 you're referring to was recently released but very few devices are using this). For one thing spec 1.2 supports A2DP (BT stereo headphones etc) and HID profiles (BT keyboards etc) which is not supported in 1.1 afaik. Also BT 1.2 uses freq hopping tech to reduce interference with wifi...
I support http://Tapland.com/
--------------------
GNM
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we'll see if i settle for the lifedrive or the axim x50v
regards,
Rainer/SaxonMan