WHAT’S HOT

   One of the hottest aspects of the Zodiac is the
dual Secure Digital (SD) card slots. Which means, the size of the unit
can be kept small while still providing plenty of (optional) space to
load up games, music, movies, etc. The screen is also quite amazing.

IN THE BOX

   Let’s take a look at what comes in the box:

The Tips & Tricks,
Quick Start Guide, warranty and CD.

The Zodiac itself (with
lanyard and flipcover attached), power supply, USB cable, and headphones.

THE DEVICE & FEATURES

   Let’s take a look at the features (copied from Tapwave’s site):

   Thankfully, a headphone
jack is included – albeit in a bad spot. The included headphones (which
we’ll cover in a moment) have a special plug shape so as to take advantage
of the curve in the Zodiac. If you choose to use standard headphones,
be prepared to shift your left hand a little bit to compensate for the
cord sticking out. The included headphones fit pretty well in the ear,
but don’t compare (sound or comfort) to my $30 pair of Koss headphones.

   The sound on the Zodiac
is pretty good. As long as you do not touch the screen or any of the
buttons. Doing this will produce a slight buzz that I’ve found in every
Palm-based device that I’ve ever owned. And with button-intensive games
such as Spy Hunter, wearing the included headphones, you are hearing
that buzz quite a bit. There is also a noticeable click and crackle
when the you turn the unit on and off (with the headphones on).

COMPARISON

SOFTWARE

    Compared to some of the other gaming devices
out there (and those to come), the Tapwave Zodiac has a fairly decent
title selection. Although I could never get Doom II to run (nor did
I hear back from technical support on the problem), nor Orbz. Of course,
you also have the massive selection of Palm-based games available to
you, but they won’t be able to take advantage of the screen space and
thus may look a tad odd. Add on the fact that while this was a gaming
unit, some of the supplied review games were extremely sluggish (GoldenAxe),
or didn’t really look that great (Duke Nukem – see below).

   I also discovered that the
unit will unmute the sound without your help. And the option to keep
the mute on only gives you 14 hours, max. It would be a nice feature
if you were using the alarm sounds, etc. – but if you want this unit
muted at all times, you are going to have to verify that every time
you turn it on.

HELP SUPPORT

    I had some trouble with a couple of the games,
and even sent in a support request on Doom II to a "special" reviewer support email. But never heard a response back. I did try the
Live Help while writing this review and Trevor there was at least responsive
to my questions (although the final solution was to install the OS update).
Seeing that I’m in the final stages of this review, I did not update the
unit yet. There are other support options available on Tapwave’s website
such as support phone numbers (and live chat), a knowledge base, downloads,
and support email addresses.

BUGS AND WISHES

    Sadly,
I found fatal errors with some of the games, but not with the unit itself
so we’ll skip those. I do have a wishlist:

PURCHASING

    You
can purchase the Zodiac 1 from Tapwave,
the price listed is $299. I was unable to find the unit for much cheaper.
For about $100 more, you can opt for the Zodiac 2, which, as of my
research, simply increases RAM to 128mb, and has a different color;
I hardly think these changes are enough to be appealing.

PROS

• Fantastic
  screen
• Dual Secure Digital slots
• Decent sound
• Small size
• As a Palm-based device, it
  can take advantage of a larger software base

Fantastic
screen

CONS

• Some applications
  don’t run, or run sluggishly
• Button colors can’t be seen
  when your finger is on them
• Analog stick can be flaky
  at times
• Sound can be crackly and buzzing
  can be heard
• Flipscreen will not stay closed
• OS Update needed to run a
  game that has already been released
• Price

Some applications
don’t run, or run sluggishly

OVERALL IMPRESSION

   It really comes down to this: would I buy this
unit, now that I’ve played with it for about a month? The answer is
no. I already have a great PDA that can act as a mobile entertainment
unit. The games available were okay, but if I want a game unit, I would
probably wait for the upcoming Sony or Nintendo unit. Even the Nintendo
Gameboy SP has just dropped in price (in advance of the DS unit). I
recently attended a huge
gaming expo where I saw hundreds of portable gaming units, PDAs
(both Palm and Windows based) – but didn’t see one Zodiac. So I asked
around, and the biggest turn off to the unit was the fact that it was
so expensive. Everyone had heard the unit was great, but nobody wanted
to spend the $$ on it. But with such a great screen, I may be tempted
if the price was to drop into the $100 range…

Have you used the Tapwave
Zodiac? See something that isn’t quite right? Tell us what you think!
Click on the Discussion Link below.