I've finally had the chance to take a look at the Palm LifeDrive, which I wrote about back in June. In spite of the price, I'm quite impressed. The form factor is pleasing and is indeed a palmtop device. In the limited amount of time I had to experiment, I noticed the navigation is simple, fairly intuitive (at least as intuitive as the Sidekick II) and efficient.
The color screen is sharp, and can operate in both portrait and landscape mode. I entered the media viewer and was pleased to see that playback of video files is sharp and, at least for the file I watched, free of stutter and distortion. I did not have the opportunity to listen to any audio output, but I noted the iTunes-like interface, right down to the brushed metal look of the GUI.
The browser seems like it might be easy to use, but unfortunately there was not a WiFi connection available at the time I was inspecting the LifeDrive.
From my brief encounter with the device, the LifeDrive remains on my personal wishlist. I'd prefer to take a longer test drive to really get into detail and write a better review. Stay tuned; I'll see what the options are for getting that underway.
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