
Palm LifeDrive
Pros
- Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth, large screen and memory
Cons
- Expensive, slightly large
Bottom Line
While expensive, the LifeDrive is an excellent PDA packed full of features, and it would surely satisfy even the most demanding of business users.
-
Price
$ 899.00 (AUD)
Palm's LifeDrive mobile manager is a sleek, silver device that not only looks good, but is packed full of features, including a 4GB hard drive, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.
The LifeDrive's sturdy silver casing looks professional. Unlike the Palm Tungsten E2, the stylus input area is built into the screen, which is significantly larger than most other models. Below the screen is an easy-on-the-fingers, five-way navigational button as well as four convenient customisable shortcut buttons for Home, Files, Media and PocketTunes. The LifeDrive does not include a keyboard, but it's an optional accessory.
The LifeDrive has a large 320 x 480 TFT touch screen with support for 65,000 colours. It looks good in both low-light and daytime conditions and its colour and brightness are very impressive. A handy feature of the LifeDrive is its rotating screen, which changes to portrait or landscape orientation when you press a button on the side of the PDA. This is particularly useful for viewing and working with Microsoft Office documents.
The LifeDrive is powered by Intel's 416MHz XScale processor and contains 16MB of ROM. It has a rechargeable lithium ion battery, and a memory card slot at the top which supports SD, SDIO and MMC cards. The LifeDrive battery (non-removable) can be recharged by an AC adapter.
Running Palm OS 5.4, the LifeDrive comes with the usual Palm applications, plus DataViz's Documents To Go for viewing and editing Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and converted PDF files. It also includes calendar, contacts and task management applications, and can synchronise email with Microsoft Outlook.
The LifeDrive comes with a photo viewer and a voice recorder. The large, vibrant screen was great for viewing photos, while the voice recorder was clear and the sound quality good for a unit this size. This PDA can also be used as an MP3 player, with sound provided by a standard set of stereo headphones (not included), or the PDA's speaker. While the speaker does its job, the sound quality wasn't great for audio files.
Measuring 12.1 x 7.3 x 1.9cm and weighing 192.8 grams, the LifeDrive is slightly heavier and larger than most of its PDA contemporaries, but it still fits nicely in your hand.
Brand Post

Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Dell U3223QE review: A winning debut for an IPS Black monitor
- 2 Netgear Nighthawk M5 mobile router review: Probably too expensive, but nice
- 3 MSI Katana GF76 review: Decent gaming performance for a reasonable price
- 4 Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: A full-fledged gaming PC disguised as a tablet
- 5 iPhone SE (2022) review: An uneven and disappointing ‘upgrade’
Latest News Articles
- Bizarre iOS bug swaps out Spotify for Apple Music in the iPhone dock
- Fortnite returns to the iPhone (sort of) courtesy Xbox Cloud Gaming
- Want to go watch the WWDC keynote at Apple Park? Here’s how to apply
- iPad buying guide 2022
- Apple to support ‘passwordless’ iPhone logins on Android phones and PCs
Resources
Macworld
What's new, plus best mac-related tips
and tricks

Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers

Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world

Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles

PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D

The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G

Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65

This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76

It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- What laptop should I get? Top 12 things to consider
- Best Optus iPhone SE (3rd gen) plans
- eSIMs: The advantages and disadvantages for smartphone users
- Everything you need to know about Smart TVs
- What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
- Laser vs. inkjet printers: which is better?