In June 2001 I acquired my very first handheld: the Handspring Visor Edge (see my review of it at
http://www.epinions.com/content_37165043332) and I realized that PDAs are indeed for me. As soon as it became affordable (if I remember correctly, it went from $350 to around $250 or so) I moved on to the next level of Handspring Visor models: the color-enabled Prism (which I never got around to reviewing, but really really enjoyed). And now, this being January 2004, I have purchased my 3rd handheld: Palm's Tungsten E.
The three handheld models that I'm familiar with all run the Palm OS (Handspring had originally split from Palm, but now is concentrating on smartphones rather than PDAs and has reunited with its mother company as "Palm One") so when I compare features it will only be within the realm of this operating system. But I'll try to gear my review towards people who are not familiar with handhelds as well as those who already know they want a Palm but aren't sure which model to commit to.
I gotta warn you, although it is not full of techno-babble, nevertheless this review is rather dry and concentrates on the features of the product rather than on amusing anecdotes about it.
THE HARD FACTS
In no particular order, here are the details regarding the hardware & other general specs of the Tungsten E:
Price: $199. Currently there is no shipping charge if you buy it from the palm store at http://www.palmone.com, and there's often additional promotions. When I purchased mine I got the MP3 audio kit (a memory card, stereo earphones and a USB card reader) for $20 instead of $100; later the promotion included a free gold-plated stylus.
How does this price compare to other models? Of the color-enabled Palm handhelds this is the cheapest. The most expensive palm currently is the Tungsten C ($499, although there's a $100 rebate on Palm’s website at the moment for this model). This pricey C unit has a ridiculously fast processor (400MHz), a whole lot of memory (64MB), a built-in keyboard and wireless connectivity. On the lower end of both features and cost, if monochrome works for you and you're not all that interested in the multi-media aspect of a handheld (e.g., the ability to play movies or music) then you’d best look at the Zire 21, which has just as fast a processor and just as updated an operating system as the Tungsten E, but retails at $99. The cheapest model is the Zire ($79) but it has an outdated OS, almost no memory (2MB), and a slow processor. It seems silly to spend this much money and not cough up the extra $20 to get the increased usefulness of the Zire 21 model.
Processor: at 126 MHz the Tungsten E's processor seems fast enough. The next step-up models clock in at 144 MHz and above, but I doubt that will make much of a difference (these faster models are also equipped to do more, such as take photos, so real use speed will probably not differ by much). In any case, this is a HUGE increase in speed from the Visor Prism I was replacing, which had a 33 MHz processor (and that was in its day the FAST processor with a rather large increase in speed from the Visor Edge, my first handheld).
Size/weight: the Tungsten E's dimensions are 4.5" x 3.1" x 0.5"; it weighs only 4.6 oz with the stylus, which is a nice break from the bulky Visor Prism that weighed almost 7 oz. Of Palm's color-enabled handhelds the Tungsten E is the lightest. Only the monochrome Zire & Zire 21 models are lighter, at 3.8 oz.
Charging & Synching: this unit does not come with a cradle (which normally serves as a mechanism for both synchronizing the handheld with a PC and recharging the battery). The battery is, of course, rechargeable. Strangely enough the Palm site does not make this clear, but the battery appears to be rechargeable in one of two ways: either by connecting it to an A/C outlet, or via the USB connection that you would use to synchronize your handheld with your desktop software. When connected using the A/C plug the battery shows that it is being charged (there is a lightning sort-of indicator if you turn the unit on) but when connected to the USB (which is a separate connector on the unit) the charging is not indicated. But I assure you that I’ve left the unit with almost empty batteries connected to the USB overnight and woke up to a fully-charged unit. I have no idea whether it charges equally fast either way or not.
The worst part, and truly the only thing that constantly nags at me about this model, is that there is no LED indicator for when the battery is charging. My previous model, the Visor Prism, made it clear when batteries were charging (the LED flashed while charging and was continuously on when fully charged). I would like to be able to tell if my unit is fully charged without having to disconnect it from the charging cable and turn it on to get this information, but alas, that is not possible. I find this annoying, and it annoys me continuously. But I would still choose this model of all others available on the market, so obviously it is not a fatal annoyance.
As far as keeping its charge, it's pretty much comparable to any handheld I had before so I don't have anything specific to say about it.
Cover: the Tungsten E comes with a flimsy little "protective" flip cover. This thing is, as far as I can tell, made out of cardboard covered in vinyl. This is definitely on the "cons" side of the product, especially as real cases for this model are not cheap (all are priced pretty close to $30 and up). Furthermore, Palm does not make it clear which cases fit the Tungsten E model perfectly, and which require some sort of sticker device (e.g., Velcro) to hold the model in place. I would rather not glue Velcro pads to my unit… The Visor products always came with removable hard covers that could clip on the model and could be used as ways to attach a unit in its case. I know, that doesn't really make sense if you've never seen one, but Visor products aren't the focus here so I'll just let this point go.
Memory & Expansion: the Tungsten E comes with 32MB, which is sufficient for most users to keep quite a bit of data on their handhelds as well as loads of games and utilities. I'm quite the power user myself, and I'm finding this amount of storage space quite sufficient for the time being. But if I didn't…
There's the expansion angle: all the color-enabled models (but neither of the monochrome ones) come with an expansion slot for memory cards (MMC or SD). You can get all sorts of references (maps, dictionaries, etc.) and games on such cards, or you can use them for backups and archives. I received a memory card as part of the MP3 player promotion, and if I ever use my device as an MP3 player I will keep the music files on this card. And this brings me to the next item:
MP3 Player: the unit comes with sound playback capabilities which include a stereo jack (and, software-wise, a Realaudio player). I can't really say much more about this because this aspect of the model does not really interest me all that much. But the playback does seem to be quite nice using the earphones.
Infrared: as far as I know all handhelds come with infrared capabilities. I use this to communicate with my laptop, and more importantly, with my phone (I still love my infrared enabled phone! You can read my review of my Nokia 3650 at
http://www.epinions.com/content_108705779332). Just an example: I can connect between my Tungsten E and my phone via infrared and use my phone as a modem for the handheld! OK, so the connection speeds are not at their fastest when using this method of getting on the internet, but it definitely works in an emergency (or for fun). I also use the infrared to send applications and information to other handheld devices (I like to download and try out new games, and if I like them I share them with friends who have PDAs).
Screen: this is an amazing feat in colors and clarity (high resolution display at 65,000+ colors). I cannot say enough about how clear and just pretty this is! The Prism had a much lower resolution screen, and you could not view it in direct, or semi-direct, sunlight. So far there is not one place where I cannot read my Tungsten E's screen clearly. The screen dimmer is also easily accessible (I regularly dim the screen if using the unit in complete darkness both for clarity and to save power).
Missing: you'll notice that many of the reviews point out that the
universal connector is missing. When I read reviews before buying the Tungsten E I also noticed this, but I didn't know what it meant or how important it would be to me, so I'll try to clarify: pretty much all Palm handhelds, apparently, come with a connector that can be used to attach a large number of hardware accessories (e.g., keyboards, modems, cradles, GPS, etc.) but the Tungsten E comes without this connector. This is why if you shop for accessories at Palm's site you’ll see that many of them are not compatible with the Tungsten E. Apparently omitting the universal connector made it possible to offer this unit at a much more reasonable price, or at least that's the impression I get from my own pre-purchase research. For me this is really a non-issue: most of the accessories that one would connect to this universal, um, connector are fluff that I would find amusing to read about but not anything I would spend actual money (or purse space) on.
Speaking of fluff, this unit does not have a
camera; if you want a camera get the Zire 7.1 (for $50 more you'll get a camera but only half the memory and an extra 0.7 oz. in weight). A friend of mine has this Zire 7.1 and, although I find the photos he takes pretty good in comparison to the eye-module (that was the little springboard attachment camera in my Visor Prism… cute but not really functional), my friend says he isn't all that impressed with the camera and would rather have gotten the Tungsten E.
The only other thing I can think of is
bluethooth connectivity which is also missing from this model (actually, few models have this feature). Bluethooth, if you don't know, is basically like a slightly more powerful infrared: it's wireless connectivity but only at a short distance, although this distance is much larger than what is required of infrared. If I had it I would be able to form a slightly stronger connection with my cell phone that would probably allow me to connect to the internet at a slightly higher speed. But this is not really something I would ever use except to show off my unit's capabilities. If you need wireless connection go with real wi-fi (which, I believe, would limit you to either a smartphone or the most expensive of Palm’s units, the Tungsten C).
Overall look: overall this is a stylish unit that does not take up too much space. It's light without appearing flimsy (except for the cover, as I mention above). The navigational buttons are easy to reach and use, the stylus is easy to get to and locks well in place on the side of the unit, and the new (new to me, that is) 5-way navigational button is convenient.
THE SOFT(WARE) FACTS
Most of this section discusses features that are pretty much standard for any Palm unit (except the cheapest monochrome model that has a slower processor and older OS) so it won't help you choose a model among Palm's selection but it will help you decide if you want to upgrade from an older unit (as I did from the Visor Prism).
Desktop: this is the software you use to synchronize files with your PC (Windows or Mac, although the Mac version has fewer capabilities) and it is the same for all Palm products regardless of the model. I love the improvements to this software from the older versions I've been using for some 3 years now (e.g., color coded categories for events). This package lets you access on your PC the PIM (Personal Information Manager) applications that you have on your handheld. In case you’ve never owned a handheld before, this means that you can edit your calendar (or notes, or contacts, etc.) both on your handheld and on your PC and then sync them. Another new improvement (again, for all Palm models but not on a Mac) is that you can sync your data with outlook. I don't use outlook (ugh, too many viruses) but most people who do will find this quite beneficial.
PIM (Personal Information Manager): as before, this includes an address book, a calendar, a memo pad, and a to-do list; now there is also a memo pad that you can draw on (that is, you can handwrite directly on the screen and save the memo as a sort of image, and view the same on your desktop). In general there are a lot of improvements in these applications from previous versions.
Operating System: Palm OS 5.2.1 is nice and speedy. It now comes with Graffiti 2 which is an improvement on the original Graffiti system (a way to write characters and numbers on your handheld so you can enter data into it). I found the original Graffiti to be quite intuitive and learned to use it quickly and easily. Moving to Graffiti 2 was a breeze and I am able to enter information very quickly. Also, and I'm not sure if this goes under the heading of PIM or OS, now there's ways to enter alarms for pretty much any entry in the handheld, and a nice shortcut to view the clock without having to exit out of an application.
Included Apps: Docs To Go and Realaudio player are included with the unit, as well as a number of new utilities (an email reader, a pdf viewer, a photo album which can also be viewed on the desktop, and a movie player).
Overall: the improvements to the OS, PIM, and the desktop software alone made my upgrade to this model worthwhile!
