I got my visor this year as a birthday present after slipping my wife a subtle hint that I wanted one to replace my overloaded Palm III. I sent her the URL for the Handspring web site with the message that I wanted one.

Now that I've the opportunity to use it for a month or so, I figured to share my first impressions with you.

The visor is a little thinner than the Palm III, so it still fits into my shirt pocket. That was very important to me since I already suffer a relatively high "geek" factor based on the fact that I keep more than one pen in my pocket. A belt holster or fanny pack ("bum bag" in the UK) are definitely out. I don't wear a lab coat in my clinic and I haven;t since I was a resident.

It is very eye-catching. The Visor comes in 5 different colors. I got one in green which suited me well. The plastic cover is transparent, allowing you to see the innards. It looks a lot like my son's Game Boy to the great amusement of my patients.

I miss the flip up cover of my Palm III. The cover which comes with the Visor is totally removable. To their credit, however, it was designed so that you can clip it to the back of the device. To date, I've almost lost it three times.

The control layout is the same as the Palm organizers. The buttons have a more positive feel than my Palm III and I find that I like them better. The writing surface is superior, too. It has a nice give to it that feels good as you write. The supplied stylus, however, is cheap and cheesy. I plan to get a better one as soon as I can.

Handspring moved the infrared transceiver to the left side of the Visor. This does not seem to impact its utility in transferring files to other Palm OS devices. I had no trouble swapping files with a Palm V user.

On the back of the Visor, you find the expansion port. I have not used it yet. I plan to get a backup module in time, but I'm waiting for some of the reported bugs to be worked out before I buy.

Doing a Hot Synch is a piece of cake. The cradle I have is a USB device and it swaps nicely between my Dell notebook and my Mac G3. I'm not sure that I've seen a significant difference in synch speeds from the serial port version with my Palm III. I was hoping for faster synch speeds.

The screen backlighting and improved contrast controls have gotten a lot of press. To my middle-aged eyes, it is still difficult to use in low light situations. I've tried to optimize the contrast using the control on the main screen and I've been frankly disappointed. I still take out my penlight to see information in poorly lighted rooms. My patients are amused by this, too.

The increased base memory of 8 MB is a definite plus. I'm planning to use it extensively for more medical databases and some time-wasters too (check out PocketChes, PGammon, and MineHunt)

The version of Palm OS 3.1 works nicely. Included with the Visor is a version of DateBook+ that has been improved over the original. It offers some additional views of the calendar and has some other enhancements to make navigation and notation of events easier. It is an incremental improvement but not a radical redesign.

All of my other software seems to work seamlessly on the Visor. I use ePocrates extensively and find no appreciable delays in searching the database.

All in all, I am happy with my Visor. I have to give it 4/5, losing points for the losable cover, cheap stylus, and awful backlighting. I'm greatly looking forward to the line of accessories under development for use with the Visor. Positive factors include the increased memory, expansion slot, and the much-improved writing surface.

If you're looking for a new Palm OS device, give the Visor a good look. It's worth it and it offers a good deal for the money!

Harlan R. Ribnik, M.D. is a Pain Management specialist practicing in Cheyenne, Wyoming where he has altogether too many computers and too much software in the opinion of his beloved wife. Dr Ribnik disagrees, of course.