Customer Reviews
Get rechargeable batteries! 
2002-10-26
This device would have earned 5 stars if it only had a rechargeable battery. But rechargeable batteries add a significant cost to a pda. Here's my suggestion for those who find the lack of this "feature" unbearable. Simply go to Radio Shack and buy 4 metal-hydride rechargeable batteries and a AAA / AA charger. You save lots of money AND you save the environment. Plus you can use the batteries in other devices.
Good entry point PDA 2002-10-20
After debating for a few months, I finally broke down and bought a Visor and have never regretted the decision one bit.
Good:
- The USB cradle makes it easy to sync with your computer without having to buy an adapter to do so, unless you don't have USB.
- Battery life is not too bad, I can get a few weeks on a pair of AAA's, and I use it a lot.
- Being able to read e-books or play solitare when I have a few minutes on downtime.
- The large amount of software for the Palm OS that makes life a little more organized like a mileage calculator.
Bad:
- Black and white screen is a bit hard on the eyes and can be difficult to read in some light conditions.
- The outer shell feels fragile.
- Can be a bit slow in doing some tasks or when moving through large documents.
- 8 MB of storage seems a bit small, but that can be remedied by getting a expansion module.
- The case tends to show every smudge and fingerprint on it, I know I'm nitpicking.
This has to be one of the most useful eletronic devices that I have bought to date. I carry my Visor all of the time and it hasn't let me down yet. The only reason that this does not get 5 stars is that it is not perfect, but still well worth the price.
Good PDA solution for the bare necessities 2002-09-15
Handspring's Visor NEO is just one of dozens of PDA's on the market. Basically, if you are looking for a good serviceable PDA, the Visor NEO is just about as good a choice as any PDA out there.
Here are some product highlights:
1. It has everything you need. All the standard PDA features you've come to love and expect are here: calendar, address book, to-do list, notepad, tools and utilities, expandable hardware, downloadable software, beaming, HotSync software for your PIM software (Outlook, PalmDesktop, etc).
2. Black and white screen.
3. 8 MB ram
Drawbacks:
1. Black-white screen. While Handspring PDAs have bigger screens than their Palm competitors, if you use your PDA frequently you'll eventually suffer from what I call "old-school" Gameboy syndrome as you'll probably rack up the optometrist visits due to all the squinting because of the black and white screen.
2. Needs batteries. As this PDA does not come with lithium batteries (which are rechargeable and in most cell phones) you'll need to occasionally replace your AAA Energizers every few months when they die out.
In a nutshell, the Visor NEO is just as good as about any other PDA. If you are on a budget, at about $$$ this is the cheapest and most serviceable solution out there for your needs. The Visor NEO is good, but not great.
The one advantage the Visor NEO (and all Handspring PDAs) have over their Palm competitors are its larger screens. They are easier to read than Palms because of this.
Overall, the Visor NEO is a solid, if slightly flawed product. It's the cheapest, but still very much serviceable, PDA solution out there. If you need more out of you PDA, consider the higher models.
Mildly Recommended
I love it! 
2002-08-27
My job has been technology related for years, but I've avoided getting a PDA. My reasoning was that if I couldn't remember a phone number or address by heart, then it wasn't really that important.
But now that I have one I take it with me everywhere. Download AvantGo and have lots of news and other stuff handy, and get a doc reader and download free ebooks. I even bought an Eyemodule to play around.
Get one!
Not there yet 
2002-08-16
I purchased a blue Neo for my wife last April. At first it seemed to be a decent tool. She enjoyed entering contacts and making grocery lists on it. It was so successful that she began taking it with us on trips and using it as her only source of addresses, phone numbers, etc. while we travelled.
Well to make a long story short...the predictable happened. The Neo failed when we needed it. No postcards home, no way to contact friends. Of course, we still had some things committed to memory and the disaster was survived. But needless to say, my wife was extremely disappointed. The problem seemed to be related to the screen though we are unsure. (My wife is a computer engineer and I'm reasonably technologically sauve so I don't think it was us that failed.)
The Neo began working again some time after we reached home. Needless to say we don't trust it for any important information. It will also be interesting to see if we can "exchange" it or have it fixed under warranty since it appears to be working now.
As a side note, the MP3 player I also purchased for her goes unused. It is VERY slow downloading songs through its USB stand.
The bottom line: Can you really trust important information to an unreliable device? Are you willing to hear "What c r a p" from your wife in reference to a gift if it fails?
Good for Beginners but watch out.... 
2003-12-24
I have had my Neo for about 6 months now and use it several times an hour as I am a therapist trying to keep up with appointments and phone numbers all day in and out of the office. This thing had become like my right hand until last week when the batteries went dead. As before, I fetched some new batteries, put them in the back, closed the compartment, but...no power. Tried several other sets of batteries, still no power. My heart sank, considering all my appointments for the day (not to mention the month and previous few months) were in there and I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing that afternoon. After several attempts, the Neo powered back on but guess what? ALL MY INFORMATION WAS ERASED. Thankfully, I had hotsynched about 2 weeks before this event but not often enough to retrieve any information for the last two weeks or the following month. I have spent a solid week recompiling my appointments and phone numbers but, even so, all the phone numbers have my fax number in parenthesis before the actual number. I don't understand that, but whatever, it was easy to erase all that. Lesson learned here: if you purchase one of these, hotsynch daily and be careful of technical glitches in the programming. Myself, I am returning this and shopping for a color PDA NOT made by Handspring.
rock solid handheld 2003-08-21
I have owned my handspring visor neo for more than a year and a half now. The machine is extremely reliable. It has never crashed on me, despite falling on the floor multiple times. The machine has never had any problems hot synching with the internet or any problems beaming with other handhelds. I use it daily as a medicine intern and rely heavily on epocrates and 5 minute clinical consult programs. The software is outstanding--very detailed and easy to use and continually updated and improving. Finally, the machine is reasonably priced when compared with other devices of similar utility. I have friends who paid more and received defective devices, and I feel lucky to have bought this one.
true story addendum: I recently got sick in the hospital and while vomiting, dropped my handheld into the toilet bowl. For three days it wouldn't turn on. Then, miraculously, it turned on. I managed to hot-synch all the data from my PC back onto the handheld without any problems. Amazing!
Best buy for a beginner 2003-05-01
Basicly, what I want from a PDA include organization functions, being compatible with the majority of softwares available and the potential to expend the memory. With a resonable price, handspring Visor Neo gives me all! With plenty of Palm OS freeware, easy and quick synchronization, my PDA just become more and more valuable! And boy, they have the best customer support team in the world!
A fantastic PDA 2002-12-17
The Springboard slot allows amazing use variety--
great value and quality, but may not be right for everyone 2002-12-17
I've had the original Visor for about 1.65 years (nice, black plastic that feels like that of a TV remote, 2MB of RAM, Palm OS 3.1, 4 shades of grayscale, 50% slower processor than the Neo) and the Visor Neo purple (I don't care if it says blue on the box, everytime I look at it, I see purple/indigo) for about 5 months now. I primarily made the upgrade to a Neo over the original mostly due to the extra RAM and faster processor. The new version of the OS and continuing Springboard compatibility were additional plusses. Finally, It was priced cheaper than what my Visor had cost, had free shipping, and came with a free promotional nylon carry-case (the one with the big zipper, 1 big pocket for your handheld, 2 mini-pockets for any Springboard modules, and a little room left over to squeeze something else, like a set of headphones).
Here's my detailed breakdown of the Neo:
Palm OS: If you've ever played around with a Palm OS before, then you gotta admire its simplicity. There's Very little micro managing, relatively low problems, and has thousands of applications available. This platform is also used by 75% - 90% of the handheld community, so unless they're sticking with their cell phones, you'll be able to freely-exchange software, contact info, and variety of other things. Unless you're hardcore on viewing video, listening to mp3s, or other heavy multi-media tasks, PalmOS should suit you fine.
Exterior: has that "cheap, greasy plastic" feel in where fingerprints and body oils smudge very easily on it. Would-have been nice if there was an alternative to this, but I've gotten used to this. Having a snap cover as opposed to a flip cover means that you'll need 2 hands to open/close it, but I've gotten used to this too. They're 3 different colors, mine being opaque/translucent, lighter-colored ones being more transparent/translucent. If your cover is also clean, you'll be able to see your screen without removing the cover, which can be convenient due to what I've mentioned previously.
HotSync/Palm Desktop: Easy setup, easy to use. Backs up your handheld, lets you enter data onto PC and sync it over to your handheld, as well as new software. It'd be nice if it displayed important notices more clearly, such as same files being duplicated because of different information from HotSyncing. Currently, you need to go through the logs to pinpoint this. All in all very well done (with a backup module to provide fail-safe if something should go wrong)
Screen: Grayscale does look ugly next to a color screen and/or higher resolution screen, but you do get your "returns" with a less expensive and less power draining PDA. For me, it would've been nice to view pictures, maps, and games in color, but the grayscale gets the job done quite adequately. Pressure detection on the screen produced minimal concerns, as several times I would miss when I try to click on very small targets, although it may have been like that because I miscallibrated the detection accuracy.
Battery life: the 2 AAA alkalines last me about 2 weeks when I do an hour of gaming or other heavy use a day, while over 3.5 weeks with more mild usage of daily lookups and small notetaking. If this is a concern for you, nickel cadium batteries should save you money. Even though Handspring doesn't recommend this, it's moreso a battery guage monitoring issue than performance/damage-wise.
Reliability: As of with my Neo, I never had any fatal problems. Certain times I had to soft reset because of missing files for some applications caused errors that prompted me to do so, but I never had any information losses, freezes, or crashes. With my original Visor however, loading tons of games or something caused it to "downward spiral". This is where day-by-day, the performance and operation gets noticeably worse (like Win 98 from when you first use it fresh from a reformatted hard drive to4 years later when you need to reboot the damn thing 2-12x a day). Soft-resetting my old Visor temporarily solved this problem for a few days at a time, but ultimately a hard reset (purging all of your data) was required to, yet again, Temporarily remedy this problem. Tech support (NOT a toll-free number BTW) was kind enough to promptly send me a replacement (but first sending me an actual return box to put the defective handheld in. Procedures.... humph).
Springboard: Of the 2 Handspring handhelds I own, both aren't tremendously innovative compared to what the competition has to offer, but are nice values, so I'd generally recommend them to anybody. However, if you aren't going to bother dealing with them modules, I'd recommend you consider the Palm series or even a PocketPC, just to keep your options open. If you Are primarily interested in Visors for their Springboard modules, then poke around online and other places to find out more information, specifically, what modules you would use, availability, and prices. Thankfully, modules no longer cost "an arm and a leg" like they did years ago, but certain combinations of purchases can still deplete your wallet quickly. Many models of the latter 2 also have some sort of expandable data storage/backup and can even mimic the functionality that Springboard technology offers for Visors (e.g. certain Palms have wireless email/web capabilities and PocketPCs have a built in mp3 player). As for myself, I currently own 4 different kinds of modules: 8MB backup module (peace of mind for in case my PC AND my Visor BOTH fail), 16MB Hagiwara flash memory (expandable storage for databases, Ebooks, and games), a 2MB flash memory + "silent" vibrating alarm (for the limited amount of memory and also being cheap), and the SoundsGood mp3 player I managed to find on Amazon Marketplace (I plan on getting a REAL mp3 player soon, but this novelty item does come in handy for when I don't lug the player around).
