Pros: Price, features, decent battery life, speed, 32MB of memory, PIM improvements, Documents to Go 6.0
Cons: limited MP3 capabilities, no universal connector, minor issues.
The Bottom Line: This handheld should be on your short list is you want features and good expandibility without breaking your budget. No universal connector on the E does hurt it a bit.
yusakugo's Full Review: Palm Tungsten™ E Handheld
Well, I can't review every Palm model out there since I can't afford to buy every model out there... but with the most exciting lineup of Palm PDAs I've seen in the past year in a half in the under $400 range and being a member of the Palm pays back program (which got me this model and a Zire 21 model to play with) I've been able to get my hands on quite a number of Palm branded models for my own collection. I would like to add a few high end Sony models but the price tag drove me away since I didn't desire all of those features. The Treo 600 should be also coming into my collection soon (mostly because of a number of problems coming up in my Motorola V70 and the nice feature of a Best Buy Extended Warranty).
However, the Tungsten E and the Zire 21 from Palm are two of the more exciting models to come out for the general consumer (along with the Sony TJ25 and TJ35 series PDAs) sporting the Palm OS. These models are not ridiculously priced PDAs that lack the high end features that consumers desire, these models sport a price tag under $200! They don't compromise on speed, quality, memory, or features either! It's about time... Palm had let Sony have this part of the market for years until now (The m1xx series Palms were overpriced compared to their Sony counterparts).
The Tungsten E sports all the major needs you need for a Palm PDA. You have a high resolution color screen, decent battery life, a good amount of memory, expansion capability, and more with a few drawbacks. The basic design of the handheld is a bit of a cross between the Sony T series, TJ series, and the old Palm V and m5xx series handhelds. Since you can score one of these models as low as $150 before taxes with the tips I wrote about in my epinions article The Art of Buying... Getting your money's worth!. This makes the Tungsten E a top choice along with the Sony TJ35 for a powerful but affordable Palm OS based PDA!
Short Take
As stated above, the Tungsten E is a great affordable model that allows some decent expansion and room for growth without killing your wallet. It does lack high end featues like the universal connector, bluetooth connectivity, and Wi-Fi compatibility, but it costs under $200 while giving you excellent speed, an abundance of memory, memory expansion, high resolution color display, and a good software bundle. I've had a chance to play with this model for at least 1 1/2 weeks during my vacation in Las Vegas in October (bought along with a Tungsten C which is still my most used model right now and a Tungsten T3) and have been overall impressed with the features and performance for cost. Heck, you even get multimedia capability with this low/medium cost Palm! You do get MP3 playback on this!
Where does this model fit into the Palm lineup then? It is perfect for users who don't need Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or GRPS connection who don't have a lot of Palm hardware using the Universal Connector. It is especially noteworthy to Palm users with much older models (especially those using Palm OS 4.x models), original Zire users who want more power and flexibility, and new users to Palm PDAs. It is hard not to recommend this model to anyone looking for a good PDA overall. The only issue that I should remind people of is the software patch available on Palm's website for early models of the Tungsten E that corrects a problem with the SD card port.
Pros:
1) Price
2) High resolution color screen
3) Palm OS 5.2.1
4) 32 MB of RAM (28.3 MB available)
5) Improvements to PIM functions
6) Documents to Go 6.0!
7) High speed processor
8) MP3 playback and video playback capabilities
9) Good stylus compared to Sony PDAs
10) Secure Digital card or MultiMedia Card expansion (SD and MMC)
11) Graffiti 2
12) Rechargable Lithium Ion Battery with Decent Life
Cons:
1) Loss of Universal Connector
2) No cradle
3) Graffiti 2
4) Lithium Ion battery not user replaceable
Pricing?
The MRSP is $199 for the Tungsten E. If you can locate a $50 off $200 coupon from the online office stores, the Tungsten E is a real steal! I got the model from my referrals to the Palm Pays Back program at www.palmone.com/palmpaysback site under my email/id epinionsgo@hotmail.com. With my actual purchase of a Tungsten T3 (and plugging it into the site) and the referral of a good number of new Palm unit purchases from friends, I was able to pick up a Zire 21, this Tungsten E, the new infrared keyboard, and a battery pack extension for Palm PDAs with a universal connector.
Specing Around
The Tungsten E has a more "classical" look that Palm has avoided in their other models. The E model actually looks like one that was made by Sony than Palm since it reminds me more of the older Sony T-series PDAs. The current Sony TJ-series has similar looks to the Tungsten E. Okay, hard facts time... the dimensions of the E are 4.5x3.1x0.5 inches with a weight of 4.6 oz. This makes it closest in size to the old M505/515 unit from Palm... well slightly smaller than that actually. The unit has a silver metallic color (it's a polycarbonate plastic body however) with rounded sides. The unit is easy to hold and the case easily gets smudges and fingerprints. The unit has a 5-way navigator (4-way D-pad with center multipurpose button) and your four standard application buttons (all remappable to other functions)... two on each side of the navigator. By the way, the four application buttons are Calendar, Contacts, Memos, and Tasks (notice that it is no longer Calendar, Address, Memos/Notepad, and To Do).
In a design move that harks back to the Palm V/Vx/m500/m505/m515 days, you have the return of the side channels! The right channel holds your stylus (which is a slight modification of the Tungsten C stylus... different top of on the stylus that can be changed if you bought the 3-pack of sytli). The left channel has the slit for the flip cover.
The top of the unit has a familar look to other Tungstens, you have a infrared port, the SD/MMC expansion card slot, the power button, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack (i.e. standard headphone jack). The bottom of the unit has the univer... urrmmm... where is the universal connector? Unfortunately, you don't have the universal connector on this model so all the accessories you have using the universal connector is not compatible with the E model. What you have is a power port and a USB mini-connector (similar to the Sony SJ series handhelds).
There are holes in the back for the internal speaker as well as the reset button.
Oh by the way, no cradle is included in the package. Hey, how much do you expect for $200?!
Blood and Guts of the E
The internal processor is a speedy Texas Instruments OMAP311 ARM processor running at 126MHz. What the heck does that mean to you? It's much faster than older Palm models that it is supposed to replace. The processor seems a bit slower than those used in the Tungsten T and T2 however... but it is hardly noticable. Note that the processor is the same one used in the new Zire 21 model.
The E has 32 MB of internal memory although only 28.3 MB are available for your use. 4 MB are supposed kept for system use although I would keep 2-4 MB free at all times just in case. So realistically, you have 24.3 MB for use.
Screen and Colours?
The E uses the same screen as the Tungsten C/T2 and the Zire 71. Comparing this to the older Palm PDAs and even many of the Sony branded PalmOS PDAs... I felt that the E/T2/Tungsten C/Zire 71 screen were the best of the bunch. They are 16-bit color screens capable of 320x230 resolution and displaying 65,000 colors. These screens are also transreflective and are decently easy to read in sunlight although when bright lights/direct sunlight hits the screen at very specific angles, the screen may be unreadable due to a washout effect. Again, overall, the screen is fairly easy to read with the worst case scenario of mild/mod washout of the colors in bright lights and direct sunlight. There are a few odd angles where you get complete washout of the screen. Overall, I think this screen is much better than that used in the Sony UX series handhelds!
Colour reproduction is very good overall. Blue might be a tad darker but I'm overall very happy with the colour reproduction of the E. Reds, yellows, and flesh colors were especially pleasing to the eye.
Same issue with the digitizer, I wouldn't set the writing area (accessible via the preferences screen) to include the whole screen. It you want to use Graffiti2, stick to the dedicated Graffiti area. Setting the writing area outside of the dedicated Graffiti area only plays havok with other programs on your Palm... especially in delaying taps and strokes on your screen because the Palm is trying to figure out if you wanted to write a letter or select something on the screen. The delays are more pronounced than on the Tungsten C and a little worse than the T2... again mostly due to the slower processor of the E model.
Note that you cannot turn off the backlight... but you can change the brightness level.
Graffiti2
Personally, I like it and got adjusted to it fairly quickly. The major difference in Graffiti2 from Graffiti 1 is the use of two stylus strokes to write certain letters. An "i" was written as a straight line down in Graffiti 1, but it is now a straight line down then you dot it (remember to dot your i's) in Graffiti2. A straight line down in Graffiti2 is an l but if you dot it, it becomes an i and if you cross it, it becomes a t. However, I know many long time Graffiti users will have more difficulty switching to it since they are so used to the original Graffiti. Unfortunately, you cannot switch back to the original Graffiti system. I am unsure if this was due to the lawsuits with Xerox in the past or if this was part of some settlement... even an effort by Palm to avoid future legal problems. By the way, the Graffiti2 system is based on Jot.
I will say that regardless of which Graffiti system you prefer, the dedicated Graffiti area is nice to have and that I wished it existed on the Tungsten C these days.
On SD slots
Well, the Secure Digital (SD) slot accepts thumb sized flash card media called Secure Digital Cards. Palm OS 5.2.1 can use SD cards with up to 512MB of memory and can be used to "extend" the memory of your Palm... note that this is NOT the same as having more RAM! Not all Palm programs can be stored on the memory card and be used from there. You must have a certain amount of free RAM available to run programs stored on your memory card... which is why I made the 2-4 MB free RAM comment earlier. There are a few other SD card peripherals out there which include a SD Bluetooth card and a SD VGA camera available as well. You can also use MultiMedia Cards (MMC) in the slot as well. These are flash memory sticks that are the same size as SD cards but are slower and have a limit of up to 128MB of memory.
The price of a 256MB SD card usually falls about $65 for a SanDisk branded card (although I would avoid SanDisk branded or made SD cards now).
There was an issue with the SD/MMC card slot which may require a software patch available at Palm's web site (www.PalmOne.com) to fix issues with SDIO compatibility (use of Bluetooth, camera, and other such cards... not with the memory cards as that seemed to be working fine).
On Palm OS 5
Palm OS 5 is extremely efficient and fast OS especially on the hardware it is on which is still weaker than most PocketPC hardware or at best equal to PocketPCs. If you compared the Tungsten C whose hardware profile matches many high end PocketPC models, the Tungsten C speeds through most applications with the slightest of ease. The Tungsten E is not nearly as speedy as the C model but it is still much quicker that older Palm models from more than a year ago.
There are hardly any delays when looking up information to performing multimedia functions.
Overall, the E uses the latest Palm OS 5 version which is Palm OS 5.2.1. This incorporates a few tweaks from the original Palm OS 5 and introduces colored screen schemes to the Palm PDAs and the replacement of Graffiti with Graffiti2(or should I call it Jot instead). Running programs specifically designed for Palm OS5 has never gotten me a crash or fatal exception error. However, a handful of Palm OS 3 and 4 programs have crashed Palm OS5 to the point I had to press in the reset button. Note that you should not use hack programs from Palm OS 3 and 4 on a Palm OS 5 handheld, you frequently will get the fatal exception error and reset your handheld. Any program written specifically for the Sony's Hi-Res standard is not compatible with Palm OS 5! My understanding was that the Hi-Res mode used in Palm OS 5 came from HandEra (if they still exist) and not from Sony. Case in point... the game Galaxa written specifically for the Sony Hi-Res models doesn't work correctly in any Palm OS 5 PDA from Palm or Sony.
5-way Navigator
Note that the built-in applications support the D-pad pretty well. The problem is that most programs not built with the Tungsten lineup and Zire 71 in mind don't utilize the left and right directions of the pad/joystick as of yet. None of the compatible Palm OS 3 and 4 programs recognize left and right presses on the pad/joystick. Just make a note of it so it doesn't surprise you.
Multimedia?
The Tungsten E isn't too shabby in this department. MP3 play back clearly and are surprising loud through the stereo headphone jack... it easily is the loudest and clearest I've heard on any Palm branded PDA so far. Yes, I think the sound surpasses that of the T2/T3 and Zire 71 models! The included RealOne player is decent although there are probably better programs with more options... RealOne is very basic. The E wasn't made to be a dedicated MP3 player and lacks a way to put the unit into a hold mode or playback mode with the screen turned off... at least, I'm still trying to figure that part out.
The Kinoma player is decent for the Palm and has the occassional slowdown with the E. This is still a PDA with a 320x320 screen. It's a bit small for viewing movies so my expectations are that high. The unit is a bit choppier than the Tungsten T2 unit but is still quite acceptable overall.
Software Improvements
The PIM software has had major improvements from prior versions. It looks as if Palm renamed most of their PIM applications to match that of Microsoft Outlook applications. That made it easier for MS Outlook users to sync the Tungsten E with Outlook. In fact, the improvements goes so far as to have interactivity between applications. The Contacts screen allows you to input birthdays which will show up in the Calendar automatically. The Tasks (old To Do list) can be assigned times that also appear in the Calendar. You can even add location information to your appointments. Overall usability of the old PIM apps has been extended greatly.
Palm has also included Documents to Go Professional Edition 6.0. In addition to having an updated and cleaner look, this version can read and write into the original MS Word and MS Excel files... that's right no conversion needed! However, if you want to keep the formatting of the original file intact, it is better to convert the file through the DocSync technology/program. The direct modification of Word and Excel files often causes formatting problems when opened on the main computer.
The Tungsten E and T3 models have IBM's Java Virtual Machine installed. We'll see if this pans out in the future.
Battery Life?
The battery life is decent... the Kinoma player lasted over 3 hours before giving me a warning. The MP3 player lasted more than 4 hours. On the 5 hour plane trip going to Las Vegas, the unit lasted just about the whole tip playing Monopoly on the lowest brightness setting. That was better than the Tungsten T3 which died during the 4 hour trip back from Vegas.
Note that using the wireless/infrared keyboard really drains the battery life! It will decrease the battery life of the unit up to 2 hours (on continuous use from when fully recharging the handheld... I got about 3 to 3 1/2 hours of life on the E at best).
If you're interested, the battery in the unit is a 840 mAh rechargable Lithium Ion/polymer battery. Just slightly weaker than those used in the Tungsten T series handhelds.
Other things in the box?
Well, you get the flip cover, the power cable, the HotSync cable, and software CDs.
Software on the CDs include:
Palm Desktop Software with Microsoft Outlook conduits for Windows based systems (Mac users don't get the conduits), Documents to Go 6.0 Pro Ed, Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm OS, PowerOne personal calculator, RealOne Mobile Player, Handmark Magic Dogs, Handmark Mobile DB, Handmark PDA Money, Kinoma Player and Basic Producer, Palm Reader, VersaMail v2.6, Telephony/SMS, Phone Link, Phone Link updater, Palm Dialer.
Anything else I should consider buying with the E?
Consider buying a 128MB SD card for storage space, a real protective case, and earphones/headphones.
A 128MB SD card should run anywhere from $30-$50 and will allow you to store 2 hours worth of MP3s. Heck, a 256MB isn't much more and may be worth the investment.
A quality case is worth $35+ and will be more protective that the flip cover. At least you can live with the flip cover compared to the hard, clear polycarbonate plastic cover on the T and T2.
Palm doesn't include earphones/headphones with the E. You have to buy your own.
If you desire a keyboard, you're stuck with the Infrared keyboard from Palm (there is another manufacturer of a infrared keyboard but it was a poor option). That will run around $60.
The Palm that I most recommend at this time is the Palm Zire 71 with 16MB of RAM and integrated VGA still camera although the Tungsten E is likely going to replace that (I am still trying to get my hands on a Sony TJ35 model to play with to see which is better!).
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