Excellent for high-powered students, and AWESOME with Bluetooth!

For several years in college I carried a Palm V -- one cool-looking handheld. At the time it was state-of-the-art, but I hardly ever used it for a couple of reasons: the screen was hard to read, the apps were not so great, and the processor and memory were too puny to expand them. After putting away that Palm, I thought I would never use a PDA again -- until I saw this unit at my local computer store. The Tungsten T2 is the Palm of my dreams: it beats out every handheld I've ever spent time with, even the more high-powered PocketPCs.

The Tungsten T2 is small, with an amazingly clear color screen and enough horsepower to really be useful. I use mine for a couple tasks:

Notetaking
I use the Palm ultra-slim keyboard with the Tungsten T2 to take notes -- meaning that I hardly ever have to carry my laptop. The Palm and keyboard together weigh nothing and fit easily in a bag or a large coat-pocket. Using a program called MacNoteTaker, my notes are automatically synchronized with my Mac when I get home.

Organization
The Palm's built-in applications are pretty acceptable for my (grad student) needs, and I've put the Splash suite of applications (ID, Photo, and Shopper) on mine to keep track of my various other organizational tasks.

Email
This is the killer app for the T2, which is one of the cheapest Bluetooth-enabled PDAs available. Using my Sony Ericsson T68i and T-Mobile GRPS service, I can check my email from my Palm anywhere that I have cell phone service. This means that I am always in touch and allows me to substitute the Palm for my laptop about 70% of the time! Using the WebPro browser you can use the web too -- though if you're going to do serious web surfing, you're almost certainly better off with the Tungsten T3, which has a bigger (landscape) screen.

If you're looking into PDAs, you might also be looking at the PocketPCs. For what it's worth, I decided to go with Palm because, on the Mac, Palm is the only platform actively working with Apple to make the experience seamless (which it is). I use my Palm with iCal and iSync and it works great. I also went with Palm because of battery life. Some other reviews here have talked about the battery life being short, and it's true that I need to recharge my Palm about every other day. This is a small price to pay, however, for nearly seven hours of uninterrupted use with a portable keyboard. The Tungsten T3 has shorter battery life than the T2, probably because of its larger screen; the HP iPAQ PocketPC units have short battery lives as well. If the T2 is sufficient for me -- and I sit down and use it as a laptop, typing constantly for hours on end, with a power-hungry external keyboard attached -- then it will probably be fine for you as well. And if you get the USB sync cable, you can charge from your laptop on the road without the cradle.

Downsides
There are a few things I don't like about the T2:

- It has no included case; I had to buy one from Surplus for $30. The included plastic cover only protects the screen, not the unit.
- Some of the built-in apps are pretty limp: the Expenses app, for instance, which looks like it could be great, doesn't let you define your own expense categories. I spent some cash on SplashMoney, and now use it instead of Quicken it's so good.
- Graffiti 2. It really is as bad as everyone makes it out to be -- install TealScript.

Really, these are minor quibbles. Perhaps this unit is a little underpowered for businesspeople, but for people like me -- professionals who work mostly with text, not with Excel or PowerPoint -- it is a perfect combination of power, price, and convenience. Plus, it looks great and is available online for much lower than its list price. With a Bluetooth phone it is a huge winner!