The Platinum makes the best use of the 33 MHz processor (cue the "Dragonball
inside music"
).
PocketMark gives the VPL
a 199 rating overall (203/178/201) compared to a 125 rating (129/101/132)
for the Visor Deluxe and a 192 overall rating for the Visor Prism .
In actual use, the Prism blows away the VDX. I had Star
Pilot 3.10 refresh its greyscale night sky view on City magnitude
setting with constellation lines turned on. The Platinum took eight
seconds to finish (slightly more than the Prism's 5 sec), while the Visor
Deluxe took 14 seconds to draw the stars. Under Rural magnitude (where
more stars are calculated and drawn), the Platinum blew away the other
Visors, taking only 29 seconds to finish drawing. Comparatively,
the Prism took 56 seconds and the Visor Deluxe took 1:06. This gives
credence to Handspring's labeling the Visor Platinum as "the infinitely
expandable handheld computer with amazing speed."
Another application I could really tell a difference with the Platinum
is AvantGo. Loading up the home
page with my channel listings could take almost 5 seconds with the Visor
Deluxe. The Visor Prism shortens that to about a second or two, but
the Visor Platinum cut the load times to almost zero. Individual
page loading is also faster.
Platinum Accessories
Thankfully,
the Visor Platinum is fully compatible with all Visor Deluxe accessories.
I guess if you want to get picky, since the Platinum has a silver back,
you would think that those ice modules may not look good in it -- but they
do. I tried out the MiniJam in the Platinum, and it looks fine to
me. One great thing about the Platinum is that you won't have to
worry about getting a different keyboard or case.
Conclusion
The Visor Platinum is slightly more than the Visor Deluxe, and
at first glimpse, the feature list doesn't seem to warrant the extra $50.
However, this is a case of little things adding up to give a better experience.
Palm OS 3.5 + faster processor + nice color = the perfect handheld for
power users that don't want color or a rechargeable battery.
|
|
| Pros |
- Fastest current Visor
- Palm OS 3.5
- Nice silver color
|
|
| Cons |
- Almost useless backlight
- Cradle and hard cover not silver |
|
