From T|T to T|T2I recently upgraded from a Tungsten T to a T2. The review for the former can be found
here. To simplify things – and avoid repetition – I will talk about the differences.
To look at, there is little to tell them apart. The T2 is a lighter colour than its predecessor. Personally I think that is a retrograde step – the silver-grey of the T2 looks cheaper than the gunmetal of the TT. The only other difference is the T2 legend. Picking up the machine, the new beast feels slightly heavier in the hand, and the slider mechanism feels a little stiffer – but that may be particular to this pair of machines.
Switch it on and… WOW! The brightest screen that I have ever seen on a PDA. This is the same screen used on the
Zire 71, and is almost insanely bright – so much so that I usually have it turned down to the minimum setting. This is a sharp contrast to the TT, which I used at max screen brightness almost all the time.
Another difference: Holding down the power button brings up the brightness setting. On the TT it would switch the backlight off, but on this machine there appears to be no way to do that, I suspect by design. When I found a way to turn it off in software, the screen was so muddy it was unusable - unlike the TT screen which actually looked better in direct sunlight with the backlight off.
Surprisingly, in spite of the brighter screen, battery life is actually improved. I don’t know how they did this, since the two machines use the same battery. Later models (T3 and T5) have larger (320x480) screens and shorter battery life, so with this machine, Palm reached the zenith of Tungsten battery frugality.
The main Launcher screen has a couple more icons – Dialer and Phone Link – but otherwise no change. This machine has 32MB total internal memory, twice as much as its predecessor. The software bundle is virtually identical to its predecessor.
In use, there is no discernable difference in speed, which is borne out by the specs – both use a 144MHz OMAP processor.
The Tungsten T had distinction of being the only OS5 Palm to have Graffiti 1. Thanks to Xerox and their Lawyers, the T2, like all others, has Graffiti 2 (AKA Jot), which is a mixed blessing. G2 is less efficient but more intuitive than G1. Some letters, like “e” are easier to write, while others such as “t”, “k” and “i” require two strokes, which is a bit of a pain. Hopefully this is a learning curve thing that will go away with time. If not, it is technically possible to “downgrade” G2 to G1, using system files taken from the TT (This is unsupported, but I believe that it is legal if you own both machines). The new machine also supports on-screen writing, which means that the slider is rarely opened – entire days go by without my needing to open it.
One thing I need to watch for is that the voice recorder has a tendency to chop off the last second or so of a recorded message – but it’s not a problem once you know to hold the button that little bit longer.
All thing considered, it meets my needs in a small elegant and pocketable package.
