Targus Leather Universal PDA Case

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by Judie Clark

January 02, 2001

Product Requirements:
Device:
Various handheld PDAs

The Targus Leather Universal PDA Case will fit any PDA with measurements up to 5.375” x 3.875” x .875”. In case you are wondering, this includes all Palm & Handspring models, the TRGpro, the Sony Clie, the Compaq iPAQ (without an expansion sleeve), the HP Jornada 548, the Casio E-100 series, and the new Casio EM-500. I’m sure that there are a few that I may have left out – but you get the general idea.

The outside of this Targus case is beautiful. It is made of smooth black glove leather, and has contrasting gold stitching all around the borders, and down the backside.

The front cover has an embossed Targus logo on the bottom right corner. This is the only real imperfection that I found with the appearance of this case. Personally, I think that the Targus logo is just too blocky and big, to emboss on the front of an otherwise flawless exterior. I believe that the logo should have been placed on the inside of the case, and believe it or not, they embossed their logo there, too – on the off chance that you missed it on the front side. J

The stitching that runs down the middle of the backside, almost gives the appearance that there is a pocket there. There isn’t, but it would have been a great place to put one.

The Targus Leather Universal PDA Case unzips on three sides in order to lay flat, like an open book. This style always makes me think of the Day Runners, Day-Timers and Franklin Planners that I am sure many of us started out with years ago. Only, instead of a binder full of paper, when you open this book, you are greeted with your PDA of choice, which in this picture happens to be the new Handspring Visor Prism.

Upon opening this case, you will find places for almost everything that you might need to carry. The left side has four ID or credit card slots, and two vertical deep pockets. There is an elastic loop for a slim, replacement-style stylus, and a wide elastic memory-card holder.

I put a compact flash (type I) card in this holder, with my HP 548 also in the case, and I found that I kept turning on my PDA even when I had the Jornada set to only come on when the Power button was pushed, not the hot keys. Well, the power button is evidently where the Jornada was being pushed, so I found that it wasn’t a good idea to use the cardholder with this particular PDA. I suppose you could leave the flip cover on your HP 548, if you needed to carry the extra CF card – However, this seems like overkill.

When there is no card inserted in the elastic, none of the PDAs I experimented with accidentally turned on. Now, I realize that it is highly unlikely that you will be toting a memory card around with your Palm OS PDA (unless you have a TRGpro), however, since the slot is there, I wanted to show something in it, and point out the problem – in case you have something of similar size that you were thinking about putting in this slot.

On the inside right, there are two Velcro fasteners, so that you can affix the Velcro to your PDA in a place where nothing important is covered up – such as your reset button, springboard slot, serial number, or what have you. You can either discard the extra fuzzy-piece of Velcro, or save it for the likely event that you will peel the first piece off your PDA eventually, and will need the replacement.

Just for size-comparison’s sake, here are some PDAs in this Targus case. From the top left, I show the Palm IIIc, the HP Jornada 548, and the Palm m100:

You can see that this case looks good with just about any PDA in place. Even though it is generic as far as fit, its not too big, so as to “swallow” the smaller PDAs.

This case seems to offer some defense from dings to the screen of your PDA; however, it is not overly padded, and it is definitely not crush-proof. I do believe that for ordinary day-to-day use, it should provide adequate screen protection, though.

All in all, I think that this is a great case, as long as you don’t mind affixing a tab of Velcro to your PDA. Measuring in at 5.875” x 4.375” x 1-1/8”, It is a little too large to fit in a suit jacket, but it will fit well in a medium to large size purse. Of course, it can fit in any briefcase, and can also be carried on its own as a daybook/wallet.

 

Price: $39.99 – Comes with a Lifetime Warrantee

Pros:
Very nicely styled, Looks & feels expensive
Can use as a daybook/wallet

Cons:
Large “Targus” embossed on the bottom front
Must stick a piece of Velcro to your PDA
If you put a CF card in holder, some PDAs will accidentally power on