palmOne continues its tradition of pushing yesterday's high-end features into new low markets. Larry Garfield examines the Zire 31 and finds a new low-end king, except for one major problem.
While high-end devices get most of the glitz and press, palmOne's biggest success stories have generally been with their low-end models, pushing more and more features into lower price ranges and breaking sales records with each new model. The m100, Zire, and Tungsten E have all been major mass-market successes, and palmOne is now pushing the bar even lower with their latest entry-level device, the Zire 31, offering an SD slot and audio support at the lowest price to date.
 | The Zire 31 brings palmOne's new PIMs to a new low market
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Design
The Zire 31 carries on the well-known curvy Zire design, fitting well in the hand at 111 x 73 x 15 mm and 116 grams. The back half of the device is white, while the front is a dusty blue, all plastic.
The screen is a 160 x 160 pixel color STN display, not the TFT that palmOne has been using of late. It is roughly comparable to the m130 display, although color saturation is very good. The refresh rate is not impressive but gaming is still possible, although some games that expect OS 5 implies 320 x 320 screen will not display properly. There are only two brightness settings, but full range of contrast.
As with other low-end Zires, the Zire 31 has only two application buttons, Calendar and Contacts. Between them, however, is now the palmOne 5-way Navigator, which is most welcome, with the power button on the left front. The top of the device now includes the silo for the cheap plastic stylus, a Secure Digital slot, including hinged door, and headphone jack. On the left side of the device are plugs for the mini-USB sync cable and AC adapter, protected by a rubber hinge cover. A surprisingly-good mono speaker is included on the back.
Connectivity
As mentioned, the Zire 31 includes only sync cables rather than a cradle, as is typical of the Zire line. The SD slot is SDIO capable, however. The Zire 31 does not include any wireless connectivity, although at this price range that is hardly unusual.
 | Audio playback makes the Zire 31 the least expensive MP3 player / PIM on the market.
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Specifications
The Zire 31 is backed by a 200 MHz Intel ARM processor coupled with 16 MB of RAM (14 MB user-accessible). That's an impressive processor for this price range, although the RAM is about average.
That processor, however, does a number on battery life. In our usual AtomSmash burndown tests with the screen on maximum brightness, the Zire 31 lasted a mere 2 hours 14 minutes before giving its first warning, finally dying after only 2 hours, 38 minutes. Given that palmOne's previous handhelds in this price-range in some cases had double-digit battery life, that is very unfortunate.
Software
The Zire 31 runs Palm OS 5.2.8 with Graffiti 2, and brings in many software features formerly seen only on higher-end models.
The handheld includes palmOne's new PIM suite (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Memo), with some additional features. For instance, contact entries now support embedded pictures taken from the available images on the device. The Agenda view of Calendar and the built-in launcher now both support customizable backgrounds.
Other included applications include Palm Photos for image viewing, seen on several previous models, and the RealOne audio player for MP3 playback. 3rd party audio players are also supported.
Availability
The palmOne Zire 31 is available now for a suggested retail price of $149 USD.
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