Although the two may look the same, think of the Palm Vx as the turbo-charged version of the popular Palm V. With a hefty 8Mb of storage - four times that of the Palm V and Palm IIIe, it,s doubtful that you,ll ever have to worry about running out of space for applications and data.
The Vx,s sleek, anodised aluminium casing should suit executives types and the style-conscious, and is a definite step up from the plastic-clad Palm III models, which seem cheap by comparison. Despite the extra memory, the actual size of the Vx is the same as the V, and as such, is easy to store in a breast pocket.

The Palm Vx comes with the same HotSync cradle as the V and WorkPad models, and it also doubles as a charging station. The built-in Lithium Ion battery provides a good charge; we found that it ran quite happily for a week with frequent use before the charge level dropped to half.
Historically, the Palm platform has always excelled in ease of use, and the Palm OS version 3.5 that came installed with the Vx is no exception. It,s still the pick of the crop when navigating the menus of Palm devices over the competition. The combination five-button/stylus-based handwriting recognition interface has proven its worth, both in terms of ease of use and versatility. If you don,t like using the Graffiti handwriting recognition, you can opt to peck away at an onscreen keyboard and number pad instead.

The touch sensitive LCD display is easy to read, and you can switch to larger text if you have trouble. Reading an entire Ebook on the Palm didn,t induce any eyestrain but the screen does pick up annoying glare in certain lighting conditions. The backlighting is subtle in daylight - you may not notice that it,s on, but it works reasonably well in dim conditions. Text is still quite easy to read providing you,re holding it at the right angle. Another minor niggle is the stylus fitting so snugly into its holder that it takes fingernail-breaking force to remove it. As standard, you get one metal stylus and a plastic replacement one.In terms of price, the Palm Vx is less than the IIIc, which has the same amount of RAM but a colour screen. It,s not overpriced, but unless you need to carry around loads of data or run some complex applications, you,re probably best off with a 2Mb Palm V instead.