There are a number of reviews on the 'Net already about this much-anticipated device, and I won't claim to make yet another. Just some interesting observations from a week of ownership:
1) I have found only a single program (Skyscape 5-minute clinical consultant) that does not like OS 5. All others so far work like a charm, including LOTS of medical software.
2) While the OS itself really is not much different, the processor has really revolutionized the Palm handhelds. Example: using Tabers medical dictionary on my m505 was a chore, and looking up a word often took >30 seconds. Now I write in real time and get word lookups in 1-2 seconds.
3) My handwriting recognition (Graffiti) is MARKEDLY improved over the m505.
4) The screen is UNBELIEVABLE! Fantastic, useable under all lighting conditions.
5) The battery life is just fine. I do recharge nightly, but I use it a good 2 hours each day, with the backlight at 50% all the time, and rarely get to below a 70% charge.
6) The sliding design is very sturdy. Also, it just FEELS much better in my hands.
7) The D-pad is a huge improvement, and I think more than makes up for Sony's Jog Dial.
8) Voice recording feature is very nice.
9) Does not come with mp3 software built-in, though word is that Real will be releasing an mp3 player for Palm in the coming weeks that will be available free.
10) Only gripe is that Versamail STILL does not synch e-mail with my Mac...
11) Palm has all but said that this device will be OS6 upgradable, which you can't bank on from the Sony products.
Buy one, you will definitely not be disappointed.
The m550 or more commonly known as the Tungsten T is refreshing addition to the Palm product line. It's been a while since Palm took a step in innovation but the Tungsten T is certainly a move in the right direction. If this is a preview of things to come for Palm or OS5 then things really do look bright for the PDA industry. However as great as the Tungsten may be, I think it would be premature to pick up a OS5 unit at this point in time and in the OS's life cycle.
Being the holiday season many PDA manufacturers, particularly Palm OS units, historically don't release any major units. New units generally come out in the 1st and 3rd quarters of the year. This will hold true for Palm and Sony.
If you are a first time buyer the Tungsten would be ok but at that price range you might be better off with a T665C or even an SJ30. If you are looking to upgrade, just hold out for a few more weeks. There is nothing worse then picking up a new PDA and to have a new one introduced only days after.
Despite all negative feedback on its price, it still is an amazing unit. Although i am not a big fan of the flip or even the slider design, the compactness of the Tungsten T is difficult to ignore. As Palm research have shown, the grafitti area is used only about 20% of the time so tucking it away shouldn't pose too much of a problem. However I personally would have prefered a virtual grafitti for more real estate as opposed to a "sliding away" grafitti area.
With many objections on a slider design on many fan sites and user groups Palm went ahead and developed on for their flagship OS5 unit. They felt that if they construct it well enough that they can convince people that the huge decrease in overall volume will be greatly appreciated. (After all it was the ultra slim design of the V that took the industry by storm.) And construct it well they did. The sliding action is smooth and firm with a noticable "clicking" noise to indicate that it is fully open or closed. The material which was used to construct the unit is of good quality and the multidirectional pad is a great addition. But i think the best feature of the Tungsten T (which is not present in ANY OS5 unit to date) is the integrated bluetooth.
Lastly as for OS5, there are many comments about its compatibility with pre-OS5 applications. Many major apps have already been updated. You just need to find the right ones to install. All OS4 optimized apps will work on OS5. Only the apps made for the older OS3 might encounter some problems.
As i always say before you go out and pick up any PDA, i strongly suggest you take it for a test drive and read LOTS of reviews. As for this unit, i think you should just wait a few more weeks. At the very least let the christmas crunch pass. However if you have money to waste, this is not a bad buy at all.
Buy PalmOne Tungsten T Handheld Now
I've had several Palm PDAs and Pocket PCs, and I'm a big fan of them. The new Palm Tungsten for the first time brings the same resolution as the Sony CLIE models along with the Bluetooth technology to the table, and in a small package, and with good screen brightness.
The screen is much better than the M505, but it looks about the same as the M515, which was much better. However, even the M515 can't beat the now aging but still amazing brightness of the original Palm IIIc, which still has the brightest screen of any PDA, although the Handspring Prism's looks to be just as bright.
I compared the screen also to the Sony PEG T665C, and the Sony's is still noticeably brighter, but the Palm's is still very good. Also, the Palm had the nicer screen font. The font was thicker and easier to read than the Sony's, which looks light and thin and a little grainy by comparison, but I don't know if this can be fixed with a custom font package, of which there are several.
I think the big appeal of this model will be the smaller footprint, which fits easily in your front shirt pocket, where I like to carry mine. I compared the Palm with the Sony SJ30, which is its only competition in this form factor, and they are very similar in terms of size. I compared both of them side by side, and the Palm looks to be a tiny bit wider and about the same height, but they're both very close. The Palm costs almost twice the money because of the built-in Bluetooth technology. Also, the Sonys have the jog-wheel feature, which makes them almost capable of single-handed operation.
Both the Sonys and the Palm have a slightly milky appearance to the screen, like my Compaq iPAQ 3650, so I suspect they both have partially back-reflective screens, but I'm not certain about that.
Also, the drop-down graffiti area is pretty cool. I might prefer this to the virtual one on the Sony NR70 and 70V models. My only complaint is that the Graffiti area, at least for the numbers area, seems to be slightly narrower than I'm used to. The unit has a nice, metallic blue finish which makes it more attractive than any other Palm model up to this point. And last but not least, the five-way navigation button and the voice recorder features are useful also, which again, makes this model more competitive with the innovative Sony models.
Overall, this is a great PDA from Palm that should give the Sonys a run for their money, and I'd actually give it 4.5 stars if I could. And the only reason I subtract half a star is the unit's relative expensiveness compared to the Sony T615C, T655C, and T665C models, but again, this is mainly due to the Bluetooth technology, so it's not really comparable to the Sony's in this regard. But if you don't think you need it, the Sonys offer the same features without Bluetooth for less money.
Overall, however, a great PDA from Palm and probably the best thing they've done yet.
Read Best Reviews of PalmOne Tungsten T Handheld Here
As a computer geek and a person who really enjoys PDAs, I had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Palm's new ARM-based line of handhelds. When the Tungsten T hit the market, I was enthralled. It looked like a fascinating product, and I decided it was finally time to upgrade. While the price tag is a bit high, in my opinion the money I spent on the TT all went to a worthy cause.
This model has a beautiful high-resolution color screen. It's also screamingly fast, and I have certainly noticed a difference in speed from my old Palm Vx. I like to use hefty database-type applications such as Pilot-DB and BibleReader, so the added speed is a great benefit to me. It also has great sound, and I look forward to having more multi-media software for this thing. It is not disappointing at all! One of the neatest improvements over older models is that it has become very possible to use all of the included PalmOS apps (such as DateBook, AddressBook, etc) with one hand using just the multi-directional D-Pad.
While at first the dimensions of the TT might seem odd, it feels very comfortable in one's hand. It has a bit more heft to it than my old Vx, and while thicker is much shorter and slimmer. It feels more substantial, which I like.
Now for the drawbacks! Being so new, there is unfortunately lots of old software for earlier Palms that seems to have problems. While most of my favorites moved over to PalmOS 5 and the ARM architecture without problem, a few of them have failed to work correctly. Among these are AvantGo and Quickoffice. However, it seems more common for software to work as expected. DateBK5, Space Trader, iSilo, Pilot-DB, and many others work as expected. Oh yes, and old PalmOS hacks which worked with HackMaster and X-Master also no longer work.
Most of the drawbacks will undoubtedly be solved in a matter of time. I am very pleased with my purchase, and certainly think that the Tungsten T is worthy of its five stars.
Want PalmOne Tungsten T Handheld Discount?
The Palm Tungsten T is a great piece of hardware, but having switched from the Pocket PC platform, the software doesn't quite pass muster. While the new Palm OS 5 is not great, neither is the Pocket PC. The Palm OS keeps it simple, whereas the Pocket PC suffers from an over zealous interface (all it's missing is a wallpaper with palm trees and a pina colada). The Tungsten T also seems to operates faster than many Pocket PC, even given the more powerful processors that are standard in Pocket PCs. It's worth pointing out here that standard entertainment software for the Pocket PC (and Sony Clie Palm) is noticeably missing in the Tungsten T bundle, such as an MP3 player and video playback (MP3 player is now available for download on the RealNetworks website). Many competing PDAs now include either Bluetooth or WiFi (but not both). It seems like Palm is entrenched in Bluetooth for mobile computing, whereas more Pocket PCs now include WiFi, such as the new HP IPAQ, and the Toshiba e740 and e755. In April 2003, SanDisk is coming out with an innovative combination WiFi/128MB SD card that should solve this deficiency; a combination WiFi/256 MB SD card will also be released (both at reasonable prices). They are said to work with Palm OS 5.
Overall, the Tungsten T is worth the price (especially after the price drop) because the hardware is very well designed and has only one minor software flaw. The hardware's great design beats out the software's many setbacks. If you're not a demanding user, but want a small PDA for a reasonable price, then this is the PDA for you. For advanced users, you'll have to evaluate competing Palm and Pocket PC PDAs on price, features, design and portability.
The points I allocate are given in staples [points]
Hardware "Excellent," Total of +9.5 points
Here's a breakdown of the hardware, by importance:
+ The smallest PDA on the market, elegant and slim [3]
+ Sharp screen, bright colors [2]
+ Great design and slider concept (albeit borrowed from the Sharp Zaurus) [2]
+ Fast processor [2]
+ Bluetooth [2]
+ Recorder microphone is built in. Record your classroom lectures or boardroom meetings [2]
+ One of the lightest PDAs on market [1]
+ Finally, a Palm with a headphone jack. The volume with headphones connected is not very loud and audio quality is average. Headphone jacks come standard on Pocket PC PDAs as well as Sony Clie PDAs. PDAs such as the HP IPaqs are significantly louder and more clear. [1]
+ SD card reader [1]
+ 2 groves on sides are used to dock Palm Tungsten T into leather cases, etc. This innovation eliminates the need to use Velcro or to use bulkier cases that hug your PDA. [1]
+ 5 way navigator is neat, haven't found a use for it yet though. [0.5]
~ Speakers are loud, but not all that clear [neutral]
Short battery life, clocks about 3 hours [3]
Only 16 MB of RAM included. You can install most of the bundles programs, but you'll run into space constraints. [2]
No 802.11b capabilities (WiFi) [1.5]
Same tired cradle design. It has 2 cables, 1 for USB connection to your computer, 1 for power. This cumbersome layout prevents you from charging your Palm without the cradle. Big disadvantage when you're traveling, etc. [1.5]
Software "Mediocre," Total of -1.5 points
Pros & Cons of OS 5 Software, by importance:
+ All the basics are included, including Documents to Go (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), a few games, web browser, Bluetooth software, Acrobat Reader, Arcsoft Photobase, Voice recording, and Email software [3]
+ Graffiti is fantastic [2]
+ Simple to operate [2]
+ Clean design [1]
~ Unparalleled 3rd party software support for Palm; but Palm OS 5 is not backward compatible with Palm OS 4 software. [neutral]
No MP3 software bundled with player. The RealOne Palm Tungsten T MP3 media player was released late March, 2003 on RealNetwork's website. Average player without the bells and whistles. No powersaving feature or other extra features. Can't play other file formats [1.5]
Design flaw: "Home" button is on graffiti area, and you can't assign a button to "home". This means that when the slider is up, you can't change tasks (unless task is assigned to 1 of 4 buttons). For example, you can't switch from a game you're playing to the web browser when slider is up and graffiti area is hidden. [2]
Web browser is mediocre. You can surf the Web using Bluetooth to connect to a GPRS (2.5 G) phone, but setup for each session takes a few minutes. I tested Yahoo! Mail, ESPN, Cnet and Washington Post. Graphics are crisp, but web pages are not formatted for Palm. For example, while you can reduce the font size, I couldn't find a way to uniformly reduce the graphics on a Web page, or uniformly scale down a page that is wider than the 320x320 pixel screen, and you have to scroll sideways on many pages. You also can't open multiple browser windows to surf the Web (which would have been useful when I was trying to add email address in Yahoo! mail). [2]
Bundled organizer software has fewer features than Pocket PC (can't assign multiple categories to a contact; can't choose how long to snooze a reminder). [2]
No bundled video software (MPEG2 or AVI/MPEG 4). [1]
Email lacks SSL support. I managed to set up my main email account, but couldn't find the Secure Socket Layer options necessary for one of my email accounts. [1]
...
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I don't give the 5 stars because I have owned and used this card only for about one month. It was cheap, for I bought it refurbished, but in very good condition and I received it pretty fast. It works nicely everywhere, not only in my wireless connection at home, but in general wherever there is an accessible connection.
