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Tuesday, October 14, 2003 |
Review: Palm™ Power To Go
I attended the "Malaysia" launch of the Tungsten|T3, Tungsten|E and the
Zire21 on October 7th to have a closer look of the new Palm handhelds. 0ther
than the three new models, the event also showcased a few add-on accessories
for the new handhelds and one that caught my attention was the Palm™ Power To
Go emergency charger. I liked it so much that l immediately ordered one at
the end ofthe event and got it a few days later. Here's what I think of the
Power to Go ......
The Palm™ Power To Go (PTG) is a snap on battery pack that charges your handheld when you are away from a power source or when you just need the additional power for extended usage. Very good for the "road warriors". I am far from being a road warrior but I got the PTG for the sake of convenience. The convenience of "topping up" power whenever I need it. During my Palm III days, recharging means popping to a nearby 7-11 for a couple of fresh AAA batteries. Now with PDAs comes with rechargeable lithium-ion, not changeable by end users. Carring PTG is just like carrying a pack of fresh batteries for these new handhelds.  The PTG is slim and very light. I did not weigh or measure it though, and there were no mention of its weight/dimensions in the user manual. All it says is that the PTG is able to give one or two full charges depending on the handheld. I assume the PTG can give one full charge to larger capacity battery, like the 1500mAH battery on Tungsten|C. On my Zire71, the PTG charged the battery twice now, from roughly 50% to full 100%, and there's still power left in the PTG. This is just a rough test, not very scientific, but good enough to give me an idea of the PTG charging capability .... and I am satisfied. The PTG has what Palm called a passthrough universal connector. You place the PTG on the cradle to charge it. If a PDA is attached to it, the PDA will be charged first. When the PDA is fully charged the cradle will charge the PTG. The passthrough universal connector allows you to do a hotsync when the PDA & PTG is charging on the cradle. You can also charge the Power to Go using a travel charger or a USB charge cable. All you need is three hours to fully charge the PTG. At the bottom right of the PTG, there's one green LED which is a charging indicator and the another 3-color LED charge level indicator to enable the user check the charge level of this emergency charger. Green indicates at least 80% charge is available, amber indicates 30%-80% charge and red says it's time to charge the PTG.  Overall, this is a good add-on to have if you are on the road a lot. USD99, is the price to pay for convenience, it is rather steep but to me it is well worth it. It is cheaper here in Malaysia. I bought mine for RM270, which comes to about USD71 only .... 25% cheaper than what PalmStore is offering. Tapping off, Nazley posted by Mohd Nazley Fadhley at 7:16 AM | permalink | 
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