The casing of the Visor Edge is made of anodized aluminum on the front
and back and a translucent plastic on the sides. Nine tiny screws
are visible on the sides and another six on the back of the casing, giving
the Visor Edge a riveted industrial look. The only paint that I could
see on the Visor Edge is the word "Visor" on the front. All the other
labels like RESET or the Palm Platform logo are embossed. It is actually
pretty hard to scratch the casing of the Visor Edge. I used a paperclip
and scratched a little on the inside of the flip cover, but it took several
swipes to do so.
The Visor Edge is very rugged. I slid it off my desk a few times
from 2.5' and it worked like a champ. I also dropped it from about
5' so it would land flat on its back and another time on its corner.
No problems then, either.
The Springboard Slot
To
get its thin size, the Visor Edge makes the Springboard Slot an add-on.
The Visor Edge has a grove along its sides that the external slot uses
to snap in place. Although the external slot adds depth to the Edge,
no additional weight is added as the external slot weighs the same as the
flip cover.
The
external slot looks black but is slightly translucent. If you look
at it in the light you can see that it is a very dark blue. The Visor
Edge's cradle is also this color.
The external slot is passive and doesn't cause the Visor to do anything
when you insert or remove it. I tried it with a few Springboard modules
and they worked fine. Removing oversize modules like the Geode can
be difficult, and I found it easier to just remove the Geode and external
slot at the same time from the Visor Edge and then remove the Geode from
the external slot.
When using the external slot, the Visor Edge is just over 3/4" thick
-- just a sliver thinner than the Visor Prism. It is easier to grip
when using oversize modules than other Visors; this is probably the perfect
Visor for using with the Geode.
I know that this is the only way Handspring could get the Visor thinner,
but the Visor Edge is butt ugly when the external slot is attached, to
put it mildly. I would rather have the slot match the color of the
casing or keep it translucent so that it matches everything. I also
think Handspring should have kept the circuitry for the slot inside the
Edge and let the external slot be a connector and nothing more. Maybe
then they could have gotten the connector to be thinner.
"Button, Button - Who's got the button?" >>
