I have had the V35 for just over a year. Currently ...
Strengths:Price and condensed MS Office programs.
Weaknesses:Battery life while in use is not even close to manufacturer claims. Sync program is inconsient, drops data, and causes problems with MS Outlook contact list.
Posted Feb 24, 2005 - I have had the V35 for just over a year. Currently, with the battery setting on optimal, I get the "back up battery dangerously low" message after about 30-45 minutes of use--even if it is my first use after it has been charging for 8 hours or more. I have returned the whole unit to ViewSonic on warranty; the returned unit lasts longer than it did before the warrantly work (at which time I had average of 11 minutes before battery low warnings appeared), but is still unsatisfactory.
The sync program is glitchy: files won't have synced but it will tell you they have, it drops data out of the calendar, and causes problems (creates duplicates and loses data) in the MS Outlook contacts list. In the latter, problems appear in both the PocketPC and desktop contacts lists.
The manual and the ViewSonic product support web site do not provide insightful user tips or help files. For instance, in their Q&A for syncing problems they recommend you check to make certain that the prongs are not bent on the ports.
One aggravating feature is that it only holds past appointments 8-10 days in the calendar (with or without syncing) and then drops them off completely. It will pull them off the desktop calendar when it syncs, as well. Any information, notes, phone numbers, or other info you might have wanted to retain in that calendar entry is gone.
It is a disapointment that there is very little customization available--for instance, changing default meetings slots from 30 to 15 minutes or chosing to display the task list rather than the number of tasks. These things don't make the unit unusable, just less appealing.
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