The release of the Palm m515 leads me to believe that the Palm corporation actually listens to its customers when making new and improved devices. Picking up where its predecessor left off the (m505), the M515 gas a brilliant screen that everyone was expecting the m505 would include and it adds more memory with the same sleek design that has kept Palm as an industry leader. The biggest surprise is that the palm m515 sells at surprisingly competitive price of $399. (The price of the m505, when it was replaced by the m515.

Ascetically , the m515 is just like the m505, weighing  4.9 ounces, but utilizes the 33MHz DragonBall VZ processor at its heart. It includes the  Palm 4.1 OS, which supports USB connectivity; a USB docking cradle is also included. The new and improved operating system implores several enhancements, including vibrate and flash alerts and the ability to write Graffiti simultaneously while using the virtual keyboard.

Like its sibling, this model has 4MB of flash ROM for upgrading the OS in the future and a small slot on back for adding postage-stamp-sized MultiMedia Memory (MMC) and Secure Digital (SD) cards. On the bottom of the unit you'll find a Palm Universal Connector, which allows you to connect such add-on accessories as modems, cameras, and GPS receivers. Really, the only major differences from the m505 are the addition of 8MB of RAM (16MB total) for storing more data and third-party applications and a better, brighter screen that can be adjusted to display at low, high, or no brightness levels with a tap of the stylus.

As far as the screen goes, it's a 160x160-pixel, active-matrix, 16-bit LCD that supports 65,000 colors. Its reflective qualities allow you to view the screen in a wide variety of lighting conditions, including bright sunlight. However, unlike the m505's screen--which we knocked for being too dim, particularly under normal indoor lighting conditions--the m515's is plenty bright. Unfortunately, as one might expect, the bright display comes at a cost: battery life. Palm says that you can get about one week of power before having to recharge the built-in lithium-ion battery. However, the company doesn't specify whether that's with the low or high brightness setting. With normal use (40 minutes per day) on the brightest setting, we had to recharge at the end of the fourth day.

It's also worth noting that since the m515's display isn't high resolution, it isn't as sharp as the screens found on Sony's high-end PDAs, such as the CLIE PEG-N760C and the CLIE PEG T615C, or those found on handhelds that run Pocket PC 2002. Still, this is a nice, easily viewable screen that's a big improvement over the m505's.

In addition to the signature applications--such as Address Book, Calendar, and Expense--Palm throws in some bonuses. You get Palm Mobile Connectivity software for connecting your Palm to your cell phone in order to access the Internet; DataViz Documents To Go Professional Edition for viewing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files; MGI PhotoSuite Mobile Edition; Palm Reader; and AvantGo Mobile Internet Service. Palm Desktop 4.0.1 (version 2.6.3 for Mac) and conduit software to sync with Microsoft Outlook are also included.

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