The Z22 is one of the first of Palm, Inc.'s handhelds to be released under the new "Palm" brand, and the first to be released without the "Zire" moniker. Released on October 12, 2005, it replaces the monochrome Zire 21, and is priced at $99 USD. The Palm Z22 features Palm OS Garnet 5.4 and a 200 MHz processor. The Z22 runs on a standard li-ion battery that has a life of about 8 hours depending on its function.

Designed to be attractive to first-time users, the unit lacks frills such as an external memory slot, but has the capability of trickle-charging through the USB interface when connected to a PC (so the wall-socket charger can be left at home), and the NVFS, also known as NVRAM, means that the unit does not lose data even if the battery power runs out.

Software

The Z22 runs most of the basic programs included in previous Palm PDAs including

Contacts

Calculator (Calc)

Tasks

Calendar

Note Pad

Memos

World Clock

Photos

Prefs

HotSync

The Z22 includes a new program called Addit which allows users to order software while offline, and then have it sent to the handheld at the next hotsync. In addition, Addit includes several mini-programs within itself including

Chess

Solitaire

First Aid (basic first aid instructions)

Check Split (a bill-splitting program)

Carbs (a carbohydrate nutritional calculator)

Interface

In addition to touchscreen interface, there are physical and silkscreen buttons that can be used to activate programs or functions. On the silkscreen there are eight buttons. Four Large icons and four on the edges of the silkscreen writing area. The large icons activate the following functions by default: Home (House Icon) take the user to the home applications menu, Menu (pulldown icon) Activates the pulldown menu, HotSync (the two arrows icon) connects the computer and the Palm Pilot and syncs information between the two, Find (magnifying glass icon) brings up a search dialogue which allows the user to search all files on the handheld. The four smaller buttons are at each corner of the writing area and have the following default functions: Clock (clock icon) brings up the Date and Time briefly, then reverts back to the current program, Contrast (Circle icon: half black, half white) allows the user to adjust the contrast and brightness of the display, Keyboard (ABC Icon) brings up an on-screen keyboard that allows the user to "type" using the stylus, Number Board (123 icon) brings up the keypad on-screen keyboard which is used in much the same way as the letters keyboard.

Additional Hardware

The Z22 can accept input from numerous IR devices including other palm handhelds, some cell phones and a keyboard made by palm for IR devices. This device is called a Palm Universal Wireless Keyboard, and is available here.