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Marshall's Review |
Another strength of the Sharp OZ-770 is its long battery life. A set of two AA alkaline batteries will easily last a month, two months, or even longer. Also, there is no battery drain when the unit is turned off. OZ-770s can be left in a desk drawer for years, and still function perfectly, with all memory and data intact and unchanged.
The Palm M500 has a rechargeable lithium battery. When you first get your Palm, you must charge it for at least two hours before trying to do anything else with it. As far as day-to-day useage is concerned, battery life on the M500 seems to be quite good. I don't know how the battery would fare after being left unused in a drawer for a month. This may be difficult to check out, since I prefer to use my M500 regularly. I have used my Palm for 30-60 minutes each day for the past week, and battery strength still checks out at 100%. The M500 cradle serves double duty for re-charging and synchronizing the unit.
UPDATE (February 12, 2004): I have tried setting the unit aside for a week, and the battery continues to hold a charge. I give a definite thumbs up to the M500 battery.
The battery in the M500 seems at first glance to be non-replaceable. However, there are companies who advertise in PDA magazines, and who sell a battery replacement with a small torx wrench for removing the back of the M500. Here is a photo that shows the four torx screws that must be removed to open up the Palm.
