Palm Tungsten T

Tungsten T is Palm's newest PDA for the professional market. Designed to simplify work and connection in any environment, the new Tungsten is Bluetooth-ready, which allows its wireless connection to the Internet through a Bluetooth-compatible cell phone or to link with other similar devices.
Aesthetics is a strong point of this PDA. Compact, ergonomic and easy to use, the Tungsten is a perfect mix of functionality and design, thanks to a sliding panel that hides the real size of the gadget. Prominent features include the new 320x320, 65,000-colour screen, a first for a Palm model, giving good luminosity and especially a good sized area for inputting or displaying data.
Inside the box, we can find the recharge and data synchronization dock, the power feed, the manuals and two hybrid CDs for Macs and PCs. The first CD contains the latest versions of Palm Desktop, the other with additional applications for communication with cell phones, Bluetooth, Internet and for data exchange with Microsoft Office.
Palm bundles a respectable collection of software. One can visualize, create and modify Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, memorize and share photographs and synchronize perfectly with Microsoft Outlook, Entourage for Mac or the Palm Desktop solution. Tungsten T is a real portable office.
Palm Tungsten T, the first PDA by Palm designed with Palm OS 5 and built around Texas Instrument's OMAP1510 chip, offers a new range of improved performance. Tungsten T supports multimedia files and applications such as short movie clips, audio files or digital photos, as well as interactive games. Moreover, the new colour screen, sharp and easily readable, confers new definition to presentations, spreadsheets and images. In addition to the Bluetooth features mentioned above, Tungsten can also be used as a recorder for storing voicemail and listen to them subsequently.
The new Palm product also supports SD/multimedia Card, sports an IRDA port for infrared links, and is equipped with a universal connector for snap-on peripherals such as keyboards, GPS receivers and Wireless LAN (802.11b). Synchronization and battery life are other pluses.
Even considering all these features and the numerous software packages Tungsten can use, our impression is that it is overly expensive. It would also be better if the box had included also a case or a cover better suited to the product. The new keys are very reactive, so that the PDA frequently switches on of its own accord.
Tungsten is nothing revolutionary, but it represents a good evolution for the Palm brand.

Publication Date: 2003-01-12
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2208