The Palm Zire 31 became my "other brain" about six years ago. At first I was reluctant to get anything like this because I'd been using a pocket notebook organizer for years and thought I didn't need an electronic gadget. WRONG! I especially need and appreciate the alarm feature on the Zire 31, which gives you the option of setting a warning in advance for appointments, recurring chores, birthdays, etc. I set mine to remind me to change the furnace filter, apply the dogs' flea medication, send off greetings for family birthdays, get there on time to the medical appointments, take my medicine on time, etc., etc., etc. Priceless!!!

So many people these days use very fancy phones to store all their information in addition to making calls. This device will do everything except make phone calls, and I really think it's wise to not have all one's eggs in one basket, so to speak. It bothers me not at all to have separate devices for different purposes. In fact, it seems prudent.

The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is that this week my trusty Zire 31 simply quit on me. It still has all the information in it, but the touch screen no longer functions, and the buttons only function sporadically. It no longer communicates with my computer, so I can't even sync it any more. Thank goodness I did sync it only two weeks ago, so the info is pretty much up to date in my computer. So, here I am, looking to buy another Zire 31. Bet it will last me another six years, and maybe then I'll be up for getting myself a fancy phone instead! Maybe.

Trust me, I have owned quite a few handhelds from all walks of life including the mini mini laptop known as a pocket pc and I must say that for my money I got a bargain. First of all the price is reasonable and the vendor from Amazon mailed it to me within two days. Complete with the Zire 31 was the CD Rom, guidebook and a free leather case too. The Zire took less than most to upload on my desktop and get it running. It has everything I need such as contacts, calendar, alarm etc... It also has mini databases that I can use to track everything from household expenses or use to view a list of hotels or find a specific area codes, etc... The color resolution is not as sharp as some of the other expensive models but as one reviewer said, "I am not looking to watch a movie or play a high tech game". If I want to do that, I can use my laptop. This is not to say that the color is bad, it's not, its just not as clear as say my Apple laptop.

The sleek design of the Zire is easy on eyes and light on the hand. For having so much capabilities, this Zire is slim and very light.

All in all, for the money you pay, you will get you money's worth. Also, downloading stuff from my desktop onto my Zire is a breeze compared to others. I have downloaded Weight Watchers and tons of game on my Zire and it still runs great. I think the only downside to this product is the battery life. It is not as long as I would like it to be but that is ok because I just have to charge it like my phone and I am ready to go.

I really like this product and I think you will to.

I purchased two Zire 31's. The Zire 31 has many nice features compared to the Palm V. The one problem was with the Desktop software upgrade. My Memo and Task categories were lost and I had to delete all of my old Tasks to prevent the software from crashing when I tried to display Tasks on the right side of the Calendar screen. Having two cables, (hotsync and charging) is not as nice as having a cradle. The picture feature is very nice. The bottom line is that once we got past the hurdle of converting the data from the Palm V, my wife and I are both very happy with the Zire 31. I also did quite a bit of research and Amazon had the best price and shipping was extremely fast, even with the lowest price option.

This Zire 31 is my first PDA! I've had it 2 weeks! It takes some concentration to get used to it, and to get away from keeping your life on two paper calendars and endless scraps of paper! But it has turned out to be a GOLDMINE for people like me who can't keep track of things! The calendar setup is great, as are the "Tasks" and the "Notes". A program called "SplashMoney" helps keep track of expenses, and it comes on the CD at no extra cost. There's a cool little screen to write notes to yourself with the stylus. There's an "on screen" keyboard that is a cinch to use if you don't want to print! I even found a thing on the CD that I HotSynched onto my Handheld, and I'm in process of entering the titles of all my DVDs into there... and it automatically ALPHABETIZES the titles as I enter them, so that's a great timesaver! So I'm really sold on this thing! Thing is, the memory fills up fast, so you're going to have to get some MMC or SD cards to expand the memory. You can save a little money by buying your Zire 31 off the internet. I did! Good luck! :-)

I recently got the Zire 31 and the Palm Z22 Handheld (for my wife). For me it was to replace my trusty IIIxe; its the first PDA for my wife. We both like them a lot. The pluses of the 31- speed, color, applications, SD card slot. The minus- 160x160 screen, only 14 mb memory, can hold only 1 gig SD card. I like the Z22 also, but the screen is a tad smaller and it has no SD card slot. My wife has quickly learned to use it for jotting notes and other items that used to go on slips of paper, besides using the calender.

Palm has improved the calender function but I still recommend the DateBk program from Pimlico. I used DateBk 3 on my IIIxe so I could see my todo lists with appointments, and am trying out DateBk 6 on my 31. It is very powerful with many functions/options/views not in the palm datebook.

I was looking at the TX, but for its price I got two very good PDAs. Overall we are both pleased.