Palm LifeDrive Handheld Review

The palm lifedrive is not a bad device, but with new technology out it is definitely obsolete. The device sports a 4gb harddrive which provides a lot of space, but battery life is a ridiculously low 2 hours. This provides enough time to watch a movie and that's about it. Additionally load times can be slow when data is stored on the harddrive because it needs to be spun up every time. There are a few 3rd party applications that will help you cache frequently used programs to extend battery life and increase speed and this is also a hack that allows you to use a solid state drive. However, the drawbacks outweigh the advantages. The device is still very heavy as well as bulky. It was fun as a novelty item, but overall i found it to be very impractical. It is not even very useful as a music player due to the amount of battery it uses, the size, weight, and inconvenient control access. Phones offer more features, and music players do their job better. The only advantage was the screen to view a movie on, but at the same time A small netbook would be cheaper and more flexible if that was your goal.