Palm Zire 71 vs. NX70

[bobd]

I bought a zire 71 in June. Really loved it, but unfortunately, while on vacation, a pickpocket liked it even more. Fortunately, AMEX purchase protection covered it, so I can afford to buy another one.

But I have a friend who just went gaga and bought a Clie PEG NX70V on closeout. Right now, the prices are sufficiently close to consider either one. Since I had no extra SD cards beyond the stolen ones, the type of media is unimportant.

Really, the only 2 dislikes I had with the zire were:

1) the case. but now that the The Piel Frama case is available, that problem is solved

and

2) MP3 playback was too quiet if I used it on an airline. I bought Pocket Tunes, but their DB Boost just generated too much distortion.

Anyone have any ideas? MP3 player or camera substantially better on either unit? I'm posting this to both the Clie and Zire forums to get both sides of the argument :-)

Thanks!
bob

[HansonT]

Hi Bob,

I had an NX70V for a number of months, and have recently changed it for the Zire 71.

The main reason was that I never used the built-in keyboard on the NX70V (I thought I would when I first saw it, but it really is quite unusable unless you have tiny fingers), and because of this I thought the unit was too large with literally one half of it not in use -- it also felt like a bit of a waste. I like my small PDAs, but I chose the NX70V because it was the best PDA around at the time of its release, and I'm a bit of a PDA nut so I just had to have it.

Before then I had a Palm m515 which was small and compact, and really kick some butt. When I purchased the NX70V, I found after a very short while, that I really missed the small size of the m515, and being able to put it comfortably in my jeans without ripping the pockets! The other reason then for choosing the Zire 71 was because I wanted the small size back, and I wasn't jeopardising too much of the functionality either as it included a built-in camera (which I believe is better quality on the Zire 71 even though they take the same pixel pictures - the Zire 71 I believe has better contrast control and offers a much brighter image) and an MP3 player. One thing you really will notice Bob if you purchase an NX70V (other than the jump in size), is that viewing your photos (whether taken with the built-in camera or uploaded from a digital camera or PC), takes absolutely ages to load using the Clie Viewer software (which comes as standard). It doesn't cache the images whenever you view for the first time, and therefore, has to 'redraw' them after every view. Very painful! It's not too much of an issue - you could just purchase another photo viewer like Splash Photo for example. The MP3 sound quality incidentally on the NX is much better than the Zire 71 -- I too found the Zire 71 quiet, but the NX really can get very loud, without distortion.

I personally think the Zire 71 screen quality is much better than the NX70V -- I put the two together and upped the brightness to maximum on both, and the Zire 71 was just so much more crisp and clear. The standard system font is much nicer as well on the Zire 71 - the NX70V is the standard thin Sony font which can be difficult to read sometimes.

The NX70V though has a Voice Recorder and a decent Video play back program -- it's also extremely quick and I reckon it's about one second faster at doing things than the Zire 71, in my estimation.

Anyway, if you're interested Bob, I write a weekly PDA journal at www.pdastory.com which contains some stories of how I've used my NX70V, which you are more than welcome to read (FYI the site will be up and running within a couple of days, I'm just doing some basic maintenance to it, and I've also added a bulletin board for adverts, stories, support, etc.). Please check it out then.

Hope this helps?

All the very best,
Barry.

[bobd]

Exactly the kind of analysis I was looking for.

Although I was sure I'd see this review when I posted on the Zire side, not the Clie side! I find this very interesting...

And I look forward to visiting your site when it's back up.

Thanks!

[HansonT]

To be honest Bob, I did actually mean to post this on the Zire 71 forum, but had already posted it before I realised where I was :)

Anyway, glad it helped.

Take care.

[gaskup]

I have recently bought a peg nx70v, and the sound quality with headphones, (included+ a wired remote that the phones plug in to) is very good. Like many mp3 players the loudness is not the same for each song from a different source, but all in all it's a good piece, compared to my Kyocera 6035 which was slow, lacked memory, and was b/w.

My only complaints are that you can't take photos directly to the smart card, and I can't use infrared to link to my mmode, at-t phone as a modem and access the internet from there.
Gaskup

[helmutk]

The Clie Camera in the NX70 can save to the MS card. This is the default. There is an option in the CLie Camera tools (wrench icon) to set the 'Save To' location.
You can get the Sony Compact Flash WiFi card to get to the internet if you have access to a wireless network.
I also use my cell phone, with a cable to the CLIE, as a modem, to get to the internet.

[gaskup]

Sir Helmutk,
I am using a Nokia 6200 as a modem for my nx70v without any results. I seem to log on but then get a message that state that my internet setting are not complete. At-t (GMRS) tells me the settings to use, but I still get the error message. TheSupplynet.com, a maker of tethering cables for phones and pda's say they don't yet have a cable for the Nokia 6200.

Will pro v.prc be a browser that will configure to use the nokia as a modem?
Thanks,
Gaskup

[helmutk]

gaskup;
The browser in the CLIE does not affect or have settings for the network connection. Your settings are in Connection and Network in the Preferences of the CLIE.

In the Connection settings I have a new connection called "Cell Phone" with the following settings in it...
Connect to : Modem
Via: Cradle/Cable
Dialing : TouchTone
Volume: Low
speed: 57,600bps
Flow Ctl: Automatic
Init String: (none)

In the Network settings I have...
Service: AT&T Worldnet
User Name: xxxxxxxxx@worldnet.att.net
Password: [Assigned]
Connection: Cell Phone
Phone: xxx-xxxx
Connection Type: PPP
Idle Timeout: Never
Query DNS: [checked]
IP Address: [checked] Automatic
Script... (none)

I am currently using the NetFront browser.
I too had trouble initially getting my internet connection working through my cell phone.
I am using a Nextel Motorolla IDEN i1000+ cell phone as a modem and the AT&T Worldnet for the ISP. I am using a supplynet cable. The supplynet cable intructions were too generic and I had to also contact AT&T support and they helped me with the Network settings and got me connected.
It sounds like you are having problems with your Network settings.