Handspring also bundles a USB cradle for use with its Visor products (Visor Sole does not come bundled with a cradle). Palm ships a slower style serial cradle. Utilizing a computer’s USB port, the visor achieves a connection up to 1.5 Mb per second, resulting in several hundred percent faster transferring time than over a serial connection.

However, not everyone can take advantage of the USB connection (Link: USB Dilemma), so they will have to purchase a separate serial cradle for $19.95.

The Visor also comes with software to synchronize the Visor with a USB equipped Macintosh. Palm requires Macintosh users to purchase a Macintosh Connectivity Kit separately for $19.99.

What about speed?

The Palm series, as well as the Visor series both utilize Motorola’s 68K Dragonball EZ 16 MHz processor. However, the Visor is roughly 10% - 20% faster than comparable Palms. CNN Interactive reported that Visor’s seem more prone to crashes than the Palm III, but contributed it to the fact that Visor is currently in a review unit status.