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Review: Palm IIIc (color).
April 3, 2000
by Stephen Hildreth
Editor-in-Chief
The PowerBook Central skunkworks acquired a color Palm IIIc over the weekend. One word to describe its color active-matrix TFT display? Wow! It's leaps and bounds better than the older monochrome displays, which look terrible in comparison. For the first time, it's possible to do some serious reading using a Palm without undue eyestrain. The color display is bright and clear, and being active-matrix, text is visible at a wide range of viewing angles. Applications that have been rewritten to take advantage of the color screen display beautifully, and even the older apps display nicely in black and white. The screen is a little difficult to see in bright, direct sunlight, but then again, what screen isn't? All we know is that we'll certainly never go back to the old displays - it's that much of an improvement.
The Palm IIIc comes with 8MB memory and a rechargeable lithium ion battery which lasts for up to two weeks. We have yet to test that claim, but extensive use over the weekend barely made a dent in the battery indicator. The Li-Ion battery recharges everytime you place the Palm into its cradle, making the recharge process a snap. The Palm IIIc ships with Palm OS 3.5, and everything else about the machine resembles the rest of the Palm III line.
If you're considering the purchase of a new Palm device, the extra cash for the color display is definitely worth it. Handspring may have released some nice machines recently, but they now have some serious catching up to do.
What's your opinion of the Palm IIIc?
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Stephen Hildreth has been the Editor-in-Chief of PowerBook Central since its inception in 1996. When not working on his Mac, he shares his love of the outdoors with his family and can be found biking, snow skiing, or educating students on the internal & external processes of our planet.
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