Customer Reviews
It's Okay 
2006-10-19
This was my first experience with a PDA. It was really cool at first because I just started college and I didn't have to deal with the messy paper organizers. I grew to dislike it because I had to change the batteries left and right. I didn't much care for that. The thing kept crashing on me, I grew tired of having to plug everything back in. It's okay for the price you get. I would recomend this if you haven't had one before. It can get the job done if you fon't want bells and whistles.
Works great as long as you don't have to change the batteries 
2006-07-20
I received my Palm m105 as a christmas gift a few years ago. It worked well for my needs at the time. In recent months I have been using it alot more which therefore resulted in more changes of the batteries. Every time I change the batteries I have to sync up again. All of the additional programs I have loaded on have to be reloaded again after every battery change. I also lose some programs and have to completely reload them.... For that reason I am buying a new PDA, one with a rechargeable battery!
Quailty 2006-06-25
It's cool... Expect it only has 8 mb, no card slot B /w screen non-rechargable batteries but that's convient Because no charging required. Just install and go. Trick: install 1 battery to avoid data eraseure. Most of the specs reek pretty much.
Nicholas
Support or lack of 2005-05-21
The M 105 does what it was designed to do, howerver the apparent lack of interest by the Palm people when trying to sort a problem sours the experience.
This unit uses a 3.3 volt cell as a power backup when batteries are being changed and once it is flat there appears to be no replacement available. When approached the Palm people in Australia couldn't have been less interested in providing access to a new cell or offering a solution. I have carried out extensive searches with all the battery suppliers I know of and none make a cell of the required specifications.
So to conclude, it is a good product providing you don't want any backup in the way of spares.
Palm M105, a wonderful planner for someone short of cash 
2005-05-09
When I bought the palm m105 I was surprised at how much memory was installed despite the immensely low price. I immediately started loading programs onto it and was, overall, pleased. If you are someone short of cash and in need of a planner this is your ticket.
I Love My Palm M105 2008-05-31
I see a lot of negative comments about the M105 here, so I decided to share my experiences with it. When I first got it, I had some problems too, gettting the HotSync to work, and changing the batteries. I eventually figured out the HotSync. The batteries are an interesting problem. They don't explain the procedure for replacing them very well, but after trial and error, much swearing and lots of time spent on internet tech forums, I finally figured it out. When you replace them, take one battery out fast, and put the new one in. Now here's the important part. Wait a few minutes. The gizmo that retains your data has a small charge, that gets used up when you take out the first battery. It needs a few minutes to recharge. After a couple of minutes, replace the second battery, again, fairly quickly. I have found that this way I nearly always retain my data, and then the Palm just restarts. A few times I've been impatient and not waited long enough, and I lost everything. Even so, I always back it up with the HotSync just before a battery swap, so I can easily restore everything, it's just a minor nuisance.
Recently I had been thinking of getting a new Palm. I am really interested in the Palm TX, but I absolutely hate the new Graffiti 2. There used to be a hack for replacing it with Graffiti 1, but PalmOne has changed the innards of the TX deliberately, to prevent the hack from working in new TX units. After much agonizing about it, I installed a few new programs on my Palm M105 instead, including a hack that lets me write capital letters in the center line on the digitizer, just like in the new Palms, only I get to still do it in Graffiti 1. I love my Palm M105, and am sticking with it.
I also have a Palm M130 and a Palm Tungsten T3. The color is nice, especially on the T3, but I got sick of constantly having to recharge them. I actually lost data a couple of times with them, as I didn't get back home to recharge them soon enough. The rechargeable batteries of the time, weren't as good as the newer ones, so they didn't last long. I can go from about 5 to 8 weeks with my Palm M105 before I need to replace the batteries, depending on how much I use it.
Great if you enjoy an element of chance. 2008-02-26
I got the m105 and the very expensive portable keyboard so that I could do lots of text entry when I was away from my computer at home, then upload what I'd written later. I was unemployed at the time and didn't want to spend the money on a laptop. I thought I was being clever and thrifty.
Serial connectivity was already on its way out when I bought the m105, but I wasn't worried because my shiny new (bought just before the layoff) no-serial iMac had an IR port, and the m105 was supposed to be able to hotsync via IR. In fact, this turned out to be an iffy procedure at best.
I thought I'd improve my odds of getting a proper hotsync if I bought a serial/USB converter, but I was wrong, and I was out some more money.
Soon, I was unable to hotsync at all, and the m105 started losing its memory every time I had to change the batteries (contrary to what it said in the manual). And believe me, I changed them quickly, but I still lost a LOT of data.
All of this nonsense began shortly after the warranty ran out. I called Palm for advice. They didn't try to troubleshoot the hotsyncing problem, offer to tell me where I could send the device for evaluation, or even recommend a similar model I might like. I was very surprised to read another review here that mentioned a class action lawsuit. I never heard anything about it.
It's too bad, because when this PDA worked, I loved it. If the ability to hotsync, retain data across battery swaps, and receive courteous service from the manufacturer aren't important to you, a used m1xx-series Palm could be a pretty sweet deal, maybe as an organizer for your kids. I certainly won't ever buy a NEW Palm-brand PDA again after the way they treated me; but if you're looking for something cheap, easy to use, and NOT for critical data (appointments you can't afford to miss, etc.), this could be just what you need.
Palm Garbage 
2008-01-02
This product is a piece of Palm garbage! You are supposed to be able to change the batteries within 60 seconds and still retain your data and settings. Unfortunately, the little capacitor inside the unit that stores enough power to enable this was defective. If you were lucky, it would work for a few months before it failed. Palm kept telling me that I was not performing this operation correctly or that I was exceeding the 60 sec time...bull! They knew there was a problem and didn't address it until a class action lawsuit was brought against them. I had registered my unit with them but was never contacted regarding the "voluntary recall". I contacted Palm after finding out about the recall but was only offered a 20% discount on a new Palm device. Excellent customer service...not! I will never buy another Palm device...they suck! P.S. you need a serial port on your computer to sync this unit. Most computers do not use serial ports anymore, so you will need a USB/serial adapter.
Palm m105 
2006-11-05
I'm a grad student and I bought a "like-new" Palm m105 for its basic organizing functions, such as a "to do" list, memo pad, and calender. I'm also using it for a backup phone/address list in case my cell batteries die at an inopportune time (I'm unfortunately a slave to my cell remembering all numbers instead of me). I'll probably put some games on it too, for those boring days in class.
I've had it for about a week and it seems to work well for the purpose I bought it for. So far my main gripe is that it doesn't have a backlite screen, so you have to hold it at a good angle where there's low light. A backlite screen (especially one that you could turn on and off as needed to save battery power) would have been really nice. It was also frustrating that the HotSync cable was a 9-pin serial, which I don't have a spot for on my lappy, so I have to buy a converter cable. This is easily fixable though, so I can't complain too much. I haven't used the batteries up, so I can't comment on other people's complaints about losing data when the batteries die.
Despite these gripes, I'd say that overall it's a good entry-level pda if you don't care about a colored screen or other bells and whistles (or if you can't afford a newer-series model, like me). It suits my lifestyle just fine, and for $30 for a "like-new, used once" Palm, it's a great bargain.
Good BASIC Handheld 2006-10-23
If you need a very basic handheld, the Palm M105 is as basic as it gets, it does what a basic handheld is suppose to do. I like having the flexibility to enter data using the desktop software and just hotsync to have everything uploaded to the PDA.
One disadvantage though, once you change the batteries, you lose everything, even if you change one battery at a time, so it suits you to hotsync often before your batteries go.
