The Most Powerful Palm OS Handheld Computer Ever
Written: May 22 '03 (Updated Feb 13 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast CPU, lots of RAM, beautiful screen, built-in Wi-Fi, Palm OS, battery
Cons: No Bluetooth, no microphone, no stereo, poor D-Pad, a bit big and ugly
The Bottom Line: An incredibly powerful device with a beautiful screen. With easy-to-use built-in Wi-Fi and great battery life, it's hard not to love this device, warts and all.
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| ceconrad's Full Review: Palm Tungsten C Handheld |
Change Log
• Note 13 Feb 09 - I just finally replaced this device with an iPhone. It was still working all these years, until I broke the screen. Impressive longevity.
• Updated 28 May 03 07:52 MDT – Fixed links. Hint: Search this page for the word “Update” to find the new material, including the links. You will have to copy and paste off-site links into a browser, since Epinions does not allow “live” off-site links.
• Updated 27 May 03 21:10 MDT – Added links to photos and video, and fixed more typos
• Updated 23 May 03 14:36 MDT – Expanded screen information, and minor wording and typographical corrections throughout
• Updated 22 May 03 19:12 MDT – Added Wi-Fi information
Table of Contents
Introduction
Case
Connections
Screen
Integrated keyboard
D-Pad
CPU
Memory
Software
Wireless
Sound and Video
Battery Life
Accessories
Specifications
Conclusion
Introduction
I used to be a part-time road warrior (actually airport warrior), part-time office worker with a software company. (With the downturn in high-tech, I'm currently looking for work. If anyone needs anyone like me, let me know!)
I have owned several Palm Vx's and a couple of Palm m500s. I have also used fairly extensively an IBM WorkPad (Palm Pro), a Palm m505, an IBM WorkPad c505, a Palm Tungsten T, and now this Palm Tungsten C. This review assumes a certain familiarity with PDAs and their basic PIM functions, so these topics are not treated here. There are many articles out there about PDAs (and the Palm OS vs. the Windows CE/Pocket PC OS) generally if you still need help deciding if you need one. This review is about the Palm Tungsten C specifically.
I'll start with the first thing you see with this PDA, its outer case, and then delve deeper.
Case
The Tungsten C's case is all business. Nearly identical to that of the Tungsten W, it is a fairly bland shape, made of silver-colored plastic. It is somewhat larger than what I've become used to with my Palm Vx and my Palm m500, but neither of those models came with a built-in wireless radio, bright color screen, and the battery required to power those things, so you might forgive it's size. Still, it's not quite as pocketable as my m500.
It did warm my heart to see a channel on the left side of the case similar to that found on the V-series and the m500-series (though once again a different size and shape). This channel, which is identical to that on the Tungsten W and the Palm i705, allows the attachment of the included leather-like flip cover, and also serves as the anchor point for a fancier wallet or case you may wish to use. Over the last 3½ years I've become accustomed to carrying my Palm in a leather wallet, and using this combination as my only wallet. This ensures that the Palm always goes with me. (I learned back in my Franklin planner days that it’s essential to carry your planner with you everywhere for a planning system to work.) Palm sells a leather wallet that fits this new channel on the Tungsten C, W, and i705, which looks promising, though I have yet to try it.
Connections
The bottom of the Tungsten C sports the familiar Palm Universal Connector. When I upgraded from my Palm Vx to an m500 and had to buy new accessories, including a new folding keyboard, I was angry, but somewhat placated by Palm's promise that their new universal connector was there to stay for many Palms to come. I am glad to see that the Tungsten T, W, and C, along with the Zire 71, have so far all kept this connector. I've read some reviews that complained that the cradle isn't designed to custom fit the Tungsten C, but that is a good thing. It means all of these cradles are the same once again, just like the long-lived Palm III cradles. That means I can use the same cradle in my household for various Palms. It also means I'm likely to find someone with the Palm Universal Cradle, if I can call it that, whether in the office, at a friend's house, or on the road, if I ever need a quick booster charge. And of course using the same connector makes both customers and the makers of accessories very happy, since accessories like the venerable folding keyboard designed by Think Outside still work. (The keyboard did require a new version of the driver software for the new operating system on the Tungsten C, but it worked like a charm. In fact, it works better than ever.)
Along the top of the case, there is the infrared connection, an SD card slot, and a headset jack. Someday I would like to see a dual-SD slot, so that you can keep a mass storage card inserted and still plug in an accessory like a camera or a Bluetooth card. But I wouldn’t want to see the size of the device increase anymore for this. (I don’t ask for much do I!)
The headset jack accepts the smaller headset plugs that mobile phone headsets use. You must connect such a headset in order to record voice memos, as the Tungsten C has no built in microphone. Oops. I fell in love with the voice memo feature on the Tungsten T, because it was so simple to use. You simply press and hold the record button on the side of the unit, and speak into the microphone right above the button. I could picture how this would be convenient while driving, walking down the street, or in any other situation where I did not want to stop and enter something into my Palm the slow way. When I saw Voice Memo listed as one of the features of the Tungsten C, I was relieved. However, the cleverly hidden fact that you don't discover until you open everything up is that (a) there is no built in microphone, so you have to fumble for and plug in a headset (not supplied, small extra cost), and (b) there is no dedicated key to activate the voice recorder either. So the Palm marketing folks get to check off the little box on their features list that says "voice recorder", but the feature will hardly be used by anyone.
The headset can also be used to listen to music, but the sound system in the Tungsten C is monophonic only. No stereo sound. I understand that most business users would not care about this too much, and I certainly wasn't shopping for a PDA based on its ability to play music or games. However I do sometimes spend a lot of time waiting around in airports and so forth, and a little music, or a high quality game experience wouldn't hurt. The Tungsten C does come with an MP3 player, but in mono, what's the point? My disappointment over this is more poignant because Palm did see fit to outfit the Tungsten T with stereo sound, so why not the Tungsten C?
By the way, the rational engineer-wanna-be side of me guesses that this is because Palm really wanted to include the mobile-phone-style headset jack, and two jacks didn't fit into the design. Why the headset jack? Well, besides the fact that it provides the only microphone, Palm has hinted that there will soon be a number of VoIP (voice over IP) telephony applications for the Tungsten C, allowing travelers to place voice calls anywhere there is an 802.11b wireless network. (Cool!) You'd need the headset for that.
Screen
This is a fantastic screen, and I am very picky about screen quality. When the Palm m505 was introduced, I thought, "finally, a small Palm PDA with a color screen!" I bought one and carried it around for a few days, trying to like it. In the end I returned it for an m500, which was infinitely easier to read. Well, the screen on the Tungsten C is three huge notches above the m505's screen. To start with, the 320 x 320 pixel resolution has four times the pixels of the first generation of Palm screens, so fonts and icons are no longer afflicted with that chunky, pixilated look. (It also has 33% more pixels than most Windows/Pocket PC devices!) It is very sharp. But that was true of the Tungsten T's screen too. What is different about the Tungsten C's screen is its truer colors and its brightness. The new transflective TFT screen used on the Tungsten C (the same one used in the new Zire 71, by the way) has whiter whites, blacker blacks, and deeper and truer yellows and reds. It is also significantly brighter than the Tungsten T's screen, which I thought was attractive when it was released. Also, since the Tungsten C's screen is mostly back-lit (contrasted with the front-lit reflective screens of the Tungsten T, and Palm m505 and m515), the screen appears to be closer to the surface, which I prefer. The displays of the m505, m515, and Tungsten T always felt a bit distant to me, and there was some distracting parallax because of the spacing Palm had to allow for the front lighting.
This beautiful new screen is so legible that, under indoor lighting conditions, I can keep the brightness adjustment all the way down and it still looks great. And it makes me a bit ill when I look over at my m500.
Outdoor lighting presents a bit more of a challenge for the Tungsten C. As its screen is partly back-lit, rather than completely front-lit like the Tungsten T and m5X5, the sunlight competes with the backlighting and washes out the display. However, to be fair, outdoor lighting is a challenge for all color displays. To my surprise, though, the Tungsten C was still quite legible even in bright outdoor lighting. However, if you are the rare sort that works in bright sunlight all the time, a front-lit screen would be best for you, or a monochrome screen, if you can still find one.
I performed two tests. For the first I held my m500, a Tungsten T, and a Tungsten C in my hands in bright overcast light. The m500 was considerably more legible than either color device, with excellent contrast, and the Tungsten T was somewhat more legible than the Tungsten C. The Tungsten C’s colors were significantly washed out, and the sunlight revealed the true color of the display’s background (which is not the beautiful bluish white color you see indoors, but a brown-gray color). However, I must stress that the Tungsten C was still legible.
For the second test I used even brighter light, this time direct mid-day cloudless sunlight. This time the difference between the two Tungstens was more noticeable, with the Tungsten C coming out the clear loser. The Tungsten T’s display really shone, and had contrast just about as good as the m500, but with high resolution and some color! The background was still not white, but the contrast was still very good. The Tungsten C’s display under this very bright light suffered significantly, with everything looking muted and washed out, and poor contrast, but all you had to do was angle it until you were slightly in shadow, and then it was acceptable. I have taken some good comparison photos that I will put online if anyone asks.
Update: For the photos, please go here: http://conrad.st/pdas/tungstenc/.
I should also point out that when I was shopping for my m5XX organizer, I probably overestimated the amount of time I'd be using the thing outdoors anyway. In fact, I frequently find myself in dimly-lit rooms where the m500 performs at its worst – just a bit too shadowy to see the screen well, but not dark enough for the weird reverse backlight to help. So in most situations I find myself in, the Tungsten C's screen is by far the easiest to look at. Still, I hope someday there will be a color screen technology that looks great indoors and out.
Data Entry and the Integrated Keyboard
I have to admit that at first the integrated keyboard (or thumboard, as I'm going to call it), was a turn-off for me. I've become quite good at Palm's Graffiti writing, and I thought the keyboard added to the bulky look of the Tungsten C. However, in an attempt to be subjective, I decided to test myself. I wrote in Graffiti on my m500, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." I think it took me about 19 seconds to enter the sentence correctly. Then I poked the same sentence into the Tungsten C using the thumboard. The time to get it entered correctly? About 19 seconds. And that was without any practice on the new device. So I've hung up my anti-thumboard prejudice for now and accepted the fact that (a) many people find this a wonderful new addition, (b) this will help Palm compete with RIM, and (c) even I might get to like it.
As thumboards go, this is a good one. The keys are roughly where I expect them to be, and they have a pleasant tactile feel when you press them. It is easy to get capital letters, either by pressing the CAPS key first (no need to hold it – its behavior is "sticky"), or by simply holding on the key a bit longer. Most keys have two functions; there is a blue function key that you press first (again, no need to hold it down).
A nice touch is that the yet-again-redesigned system preferences application lets you remap any key (in either it's normal state or it's function-shifted state) to any other letter, symbol, command, or even application. So, if you wanted to, you could remap Fn-T to launch Tetris instead of typing the number 5. Of course, then you could no longer type the number 5, but you get the idea. A more common application might be to change the function of Fn-Z from typing a $ to typing a £, ¥, or €.
Below the thumboard are the four application keys we've grown used to on Palm devices, though the two on the right have been relabeled and reprogrammed to launch the email application and the web browser, instead of your to-dos and memos/notes. The keys can, of course, be remapped to launch any application you want.
It should also be noted that die-hard Graffiti fans can switch on a feature that allows the use of Graffiti anywhere on the screen. If this feature is enabled, a small icon appears on any screen that accepts text input. You simply tap this icon to tell the Palm that you will be entering Graffiti, rather than performing pointing operations. Unfortunately, you must remember to tap the icon again before leaving a text-input screen, as the Palm does not do this on its own, and the icon is not visible on screens that do not accept text input. The Palm will (optionally) echo your strokes on the screen as you make them, which helps you see if you’re doing them right. While in Graffiti mode, you can still perform pointing and selecting operations by holding the stylus down slightly before dragging. All in all, it took a little getting used to, but it works. I did, however, find myself simply using the thumboard more and more instead. Also worth noting is that starting with this device, Palm has implemented Graffiti 2, a custom version of Jot licensed from CIC. Before all you Graffiti lovers groan and say “I hate Jot”, this implementation of it seems more like original Graffiti than the last time I tried Jot. Only a few letters have changed, and it shouldn’t take too long to get used to it. (The punctuation has changed drastically though, for the better mostly.) The good thing about Graffiti 2 is that each letter can now be entered several ways, so that the Palm recognizes the “official” fast one-stroke method of entering a letter, but it also recognizes several other more conventional ways of writing the same letter. This means that people just learning, and people just trying out your Palm for a few minutes, are likely to have much more success writing. Of course with the thumboard there, my guess is that new PDA users will probably not even try writing with the stylus.
D-Pad
Between the Address book and the email keys lies the directional controller, or D-pad for short. The D-pad was first introduced on the Tungsten T as a replacement for the up/down scroll buttons. It allows you to press left, right, up, down, and includes a center select/enter button. However, on the Tungsten T the D-pad works. It is large, and solid feeling. The D-pad on the Tungsten C is a diminutive imitation of the Tungsten T's D-pad, squished in under the thumboard almost as an afterthought. It is not as easy to operate when holding the unit in one hand, because it is so low down on the unit. More importantly, both because of its small size and the lower quality of the key switches used, it is hard to get the D-pad to do what you want. I inevitably end up operating one of four directional switches when I'm trying to press the center select button, and because of the poor tactile feedback, I'm never quite sure if I've pressed the correct button. The left, right, and down switches feel pretty good, but the up switch feels a bit "squishy", and the center select switch is abysmal.
Luckily Tungsten C users won't need the D-pad quite as much as Tungsten T users, since the thumboard of the Tungsten C gives an alternate way to find contacts in the address book with one hand, one of the best uses of the D-pad on the Tungsten T.
Just as with the mono headset plug issue above, I can see engineering reasons for making the D-pad so small and down out of the way, but I don't think the cheap feeling of the switches themselves can be excused so easily.
CPU
It's really fast. The Tungsten C sports Intel's new PXA255 processor, "with Intel XScale technology", whatever that means. I'm not an expert on mobile CPU architectures, so I'm not sure about the difference between the StrongARM and XScale CPUs, but the PXA255, according to Intel, is "ARM Architecture v.5TE compliant" (see http://www.intel.com/design/pca/prodbref/252780.htm). I assume this means that this is an ARM processor (as is the TI processor in the Tungsten T) and that Palm did not port OS5 to yet another CPU design.
For Pocket PC fans, the PXA25X processors should be familiar. The PXA255 is an updated version of the PXA250. It uses less power and has twice the bus speed as its predecessor. Also according to Intel's web site, the PXA255 includes an integrated "920 Kbps Bluetooth interface", which leaves me scratching my head as to why Palm chose not to include Bluetooth support in the Tungsten C (more on this later).
Palm runs this CPU at its maximum 400 MHz, and this is by far the snappiest Palm OS device—no, the snappiest PDA of any OS—that I've ever used. Applications pop up instantly. Everything appears to happen almost instantly. In fact, some things happen too fast, and developers (including PalmSource’s own coders) are going to have to learn to insert some wait instructions into bits of code that were previously slow enough on their own. One example: when you tap on a scroll bar, either on the scroll arrows at the top and bottom, or on the space between the scroll "handle" itself and the scroll buttons, the scroll repeat rate is way too fast and the list you're looking at just flies by.
All of this CPU power is probably meant to support the processor-intensive encryption functions the Tungsten C includes. The Tungsten C includes support for WEP encryption on Wi-Fi access points, as well as including a PPTP client for connecting securely to corporate VPNs. The fast processor probably ensures that all this encryption and decryption won't get in the way of communications. However, it makes things like viewing pictures and video a wonderful experience too.
The ARM-based TI OMAP processor in the Tungsten T runs at 144 MHz. Does this mean that the Tungsten C is 2.8 times as fast? It's hard to say, since processors of different designs are not directly comparable with one another, just as an AMD Athlon XP CPU running at 2 GHz in a home computer will perform differently (better) than an Intel Pentium 4 running at 2 GHz. So, to compare them I ran an old benchmark application that was actually designed for OS 3 machines. That it ran at all was a testament to Palm's PACE (Palm Application Compatibility Environment) that is part of OS 5. The result was that the Tungsten C ran 2.1 times as fast as the Tungsten T. The Tungsten T, in turn, achieved a score 1.7 times as fast as my Palm m500, but this last comparison is actually not fair, because the benchmark was running in the CPU's native language on the m500, but in PACE (which emulates the old Motorola 68K processors) on the Tungsten T. If the benchmark were rewritten in ARM code, it would likely run much faster yet on the Tungstens.
Memory
At 64MB (51 MB available to the user), there is 4 times as much memory as you've ever seen on a Palm OS device before. Palm users like me used to make ourselves feel better about our comparatively small amounts of RAM (compared with Windows devices) by citing the fact the the Palm OS is much more efficient with its use of RAM. As an example, Palm applications offering roughly equivalent functionality tend to be much smaller than Windows/Pocket PC applications. Address books records and other Palm OS database records are much more compact, and so forth. While this continues to be true with OS5, Palm has suddenly given us as much RAM as the high-end Pocket PC devices. The combination of an OS that's miserly with its use of RAM, together with a huge amount of RAM is quite a coup for Palm.
It's tempting to say that 64 MB is more than you'll ever need (especially because you can store all of your large books, databases, etc., on SD cards, which are now available up to 512 MB). However the Tungsten C now does more memory-intensive things than Palms ever used to do, such as manipulating full-sizes images, handling email with large attachments, and browsing the regular un-clipped, non-WAPed, un-proxied world wide web. So I'm going to resist the temptation to say you'll never use the memory. I've learned that if I have it, I'll find a way to use it. (I have a GB of RAM on my desktop computer, and 160GB of hard disk space, and I've used it all.)
That said, I think 64MB of RAM, needed or not, helps market the device to those who like to compare specs without understanding the differences between the operating systems. With its 400 MHz processor and its 64 MB of RAM, whether or not the Palm OS is more efficient, the Tungsten C looks competitive with the best Pocket PCs spec for spec.
Software
The Tungsten C seems to come with more software than Palm has ever included before. It contains all of the basic PIM functions from previous models, of course, and these work as well as ever. But there is so much more: Like Palm has done with many recent models, they have included Documents To Go with the Tungsten C (version 5.03 this time), which allows you to view and edit word processor and spreadsheet documents better than Microsoft's own Pocket Word and Pocket Excel do, according to Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal (see http://webreprints.djreprints.com/683841477972.html). Documents To Go comes burned into the Tungsten C's ROM this time, so it doesn't even take up any of the 64 MB of RAM.
The Tungsten C also includes the familiar Chapura PocketMirror application to synchronize PIM data with Outlook, a PPTP client, the Palm photo viewer, Kinoma Player and Producer (video encoding and viewing software), Bachman PrintBoy (for printing documents on printers equipped with either Wi-Fi or infrared), Handmark Solitaire, voice memo software, the free Adobe Acrobat reader for Palm OS, VersaMail 2.5, Palm's new web browser, and the RealOne MP3 player. (There may be more I'm missing too; I've only had the Tungsten C for about two days.)
Reviewing each of these applications right now would take much more time and space, but it's an impressive package. I use and am happy with Documents To Go and PocketMirror. The photo viewer is clean and fool-proof, and allows you to beam photos, move them between the storage card and RAM, and even send and receive them as email attachments using VersaMail. VersaMail has been beefed up considerably; it can collect mail from multiple accounts, check for new mail every 15 minutes, send mail via HotSync (as with the old Palm Mail application) or via a network connection (as with the old Palm MultiMail application). Support for attachments is well-integrated into the rest of the OS.
Wireless
As a first for a Palm OS device, the Tungsten C comes with a built-in 802.11b (Wi-Fi) radio. However, Palm did this at the expense of the Bluetooth radio, which was included in the Tungsten T. This may have been for engineering reasons (though I doubt that, since the CPU has this functionality built-in), or for pricing reasons. However, I liked the idea of being able to communicate with a Bluetooth-equipped GPRS phone whenever I needed to access the Internet. I can, of course, still use a GPRS phone using either the IR port or cables, but neither of these solutions is as convenient as Bluetooth. Of course, Wi-Fi offers much better performance at lower cost anyway, but Wi-Fi access points are not everywhere. Why not offer both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi?
As to the Wi-Fi functionality itself, it looks foolproof, but I haven't actually tried it yet. I will go to a Wi-Fi equipped cafe and report back on this later. (See update below.)
Update: After a false start today in a cafe that supposedly offered Wi-Fi service (their equipment was faulty, it turns out), I made it to another HotSpot and tapped on the Wi-Fi Setup application on the Tungsten C. This HotSpot was in a computer store, and the application showed a couple of private networks that the store was running. Since these networks asked for encryption keys, I figured neither was the public network I was looking for, so I tapped on Previous and Next a few times in the Wi-Fi Setup application until it listed the public network I was looking for. (Thanks to Palm's Tungsten C web site for this tip.) I don't know why it didn't show up the first time, but maybe I was standing in a dead spot.
As soon as the public network showed up on the list and I tapped Next, the Palm quickly connected to the public network and got itself an IP address. I then launched the built-in browser, and that's where the joy stopped again. The web browser showed that it was connecting to a web site and downloading a page, but when it was done downloading, the screen was totally blank. I reloaded the page several times with no luck, so I called the toll-free support number of the public network I was trying to connect to. It turns out that I was to be their first ever successful Tungsten C connection, as several others had tried with various problems. Anyway, the phone rep (who turned out to have programmed the system and was thus very knowledgeable) suggested that I turn off display of images in the Palm web browser. I did this and refreshed the page again. This time the provider's login page loaded and actually displayed, minus the graphics, of course. It seems that their web page was incompatible with the Palm browser. I tried logging in with the username and password I had created earlier in the day on my home computer and I got an error saying that I wasn't actually using their network. This was not Palm's fault at all, but rather a problem with users of one HotSpot provider roaming on another HotSpot (which is what I was doing). Using the Palm browser, I created a new account for the actual network I was using, and it let me in with no trouble.
Finally I was redirected to Palm's little home page (preset in the browser, but changeable, of course), which they have formatted for 320 pixel displays. I loaded up a few complex web sites, including CNN and Air Canada, and I was generally impressed with the browser's faithful reproduction of the sites, but viewing pages designed for 800 pixel displays on a 320 pixel display leaves something to be desired generally. Also, the fonts used by the Palm browser seem unnecessarily large, exacerbating the need to scroll so much. While there is an option to make the fonts larger, there is no option to make them smaller. Furthermore, while the speed was truly impressive for a handheld, it was still a slow experience to load and render large, complex web pages on a PDA. It made me wish that there were more simple, predominantly text web sites out there.
Update: For a photo of the Palm web browser in action, please see here: http://conrad.st/pdas/tungstenc/.
All in all, I was impressed with the Wi-Fi connection process, but I look forward to improvements to Palm’s web browser, or to better third-party browser’s. Also, browsing secure web sites suddenly showed the wisdom of specing a 400 MHz processor for this unit, as a noticeable amount of time was spent not only rendering pages, but in encryption and decryption.
I videotaped the process of connecting and surfing using the Tungsten C. If a few of you leave comments requesting it, I'll post a URL to the video.
Update: For a 5 minute video demonstrating the process to connect the Tungsten C to a public HotSpot, follow the link from http://conrad.st/pdas/tungstenc/, or go directly here: http://conrad.st/pdas/tungstenc/Tungsten_C_Wi-Fi_Demo.html.
Sound and Video
As I mentioned above, the Tungsten C provides a mono sound system for voice memos and future telephony applications. As a serious device, there is no stereo. The built-in mono speaker is plenty loud enough for all of the system sounds.
I have not actually played any video on the Tungsten C, so I'll add this information later if I do. However with the beautiful fast screen and the fast CPU, I'd be surprised if the Tungsten C does not do a brilliant job with video.
Battery Life
The Tungsten C comes with a large, 1500mAh battery. Though I have not done a scientific experiment, the battery seems to go on and on, compared with the Tungsten T. (Other reviewers have reported that they can get a whole day of heavy W-Fi use on one charge. Truly impressive.)
Accessories
The Tungsten C comes with an attractive brushed aluminum stylus, a flip cover (already attached so you can see how the attachment channel works), and the standard Universal Connector cradle. It also comes with CDs for the software, and quick-start style instructions. I believe a full manual, for those of us who do eventually get around to looking for one, can be found on the CD. I haven't looked yet, because you don't really need the manual. It's that easy to use. Those items that do need some extra explanation are quite well documented right on the handheld's screen.
Specifications
• Size and Weight: 4.8" x 3.07" x .65"; 6.3 oz.
• Memory: 64MB (51MB actual storage capacity)
• Operating System: Palm OS® 5.2.1
• Processor: 400MHz Intel® PXA255 Processor with Intel® XScale Technology
• Screen: 3.1", 16-bit, 320x320 transflective TFT (more than 65,000 colors)
• Battery: 1500mAh Rechargeable Lithium Ion/Polymer (not removable)
• Palm Expansion Slot: One slot, accepts SD, SDIO, and MMC devices
• Palm Universal Connector: (Add hardware like a portable keyboard, GPS module, or Palm's new battery pack).
• Built-in Keyboard
• 5-way Navigator Button (D-pad)
• Mobile Radio: Wi-Fi Certified 802.11b Radio
• Hands-free Headset Jack Accepts Palm Tungsten W and C Hands-free Headset for audio playback (sold separately), 2.5mm connector.
• Notification: Vibration, Audio, LED Notification
Conclusion
With its beautiful screen, fast CPU, and enormous amount of RAM, I'm in love with this device. I also like that it attaches to a wallet using a rail channel. I do wish this device were smaller (and thinner like my m500), and I don't like the omissions of stereo sound, Bluetooth, and a microphone. The plastic case and the poor D-pad are a bit of a turn off compared with the Tungsten T too. However, at this price and with these features, I think Palm stands an excellent chance of selling a lot of these to its target business user market. I'm still trying to decide whether to keep it or make do with my m500 a little longer and hope that my complaints are remedied in the fall with another OS5 device, or in spring of 2004 with an OS6 device.
Amount Paid (before tax) (CAD): 749.00
The USD amount below is also before tax and uses the May 22, 2003 interbank FX rate of 0.74036.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 554.53
Recommended for: Business Executives - Powerful and Professional
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Epinions.com ID:
ceconrad
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Member: Chad Conrad
Location: Calgary, AB, Canada
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:Husband, father, pilot, and business systems analyst. See my bio.
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