Platinum's been done, as has Titanium. In naming a product, what element sounds cool or mysterious? Manganese? Boron? How about Tungsten? That's what Palm chose for its latest line of handhelds. We just got our hands on the Tungsten T, and you can read all about it in our First Take.
Palm made a splash of sorts with the Zire, its entry-level handheld for the masses. But Palm aficionados were less than impressed and looked forward to the release of the company's next-generation, high-end devices. Well, we just got our hands on one of these babies, the Tungsten T, and we have some initial impressions to impart before we post our full review.
Let's talk design first. Anyone who has seen the pictures on the various PDA fan sites already knows about the new slider, which opens and closes to reveal and conceal the Graffiti area. Unfortunately, there's no keyboard like there is with Sharp's Zaurus. When the Tungsten T is closed, the unit is very compact and pocket-friendly, measuring just 10.16 by 7.62 by 1.52 centimeters. However, at 159 grams, this Palm is far from the lightest PDA out there.
The convertible design is not the only hardware innovation. On the slider itself--next to the usual Calendar, Contacts, To Do, and Notepad buttons--there's a new, five-way directional pad in place of the scroll buttons. The Tungsten's screen is also greatly improved; it's bigger, at 2.5 by 2.5 inches, and sports a Sony-like resolution of 320x320 pixels. Other Palm firsts include a record button, a built-in microphone, and a stereo headphone jack.
As part of the OS 5.0 launch, Palm has equipped the Tungsten with souped-up components for better performance. Running the show is a Texas Instruments OMAP1510 processor that runs at 174MHz. According to Palm, this new processor delivers a one-two combination of high performance and low power consumption. It's also optimized for the new OS and software. You still get just 16MB of RAM, but you have the option of adding plenty more via the unit's Secure Digital card slot.
Besides Palm OS 5.0, the other big story here is the inclusion of Bluetooth technology. In its road show, Palm has been showing how you can use the Tungsten T with Sony Ericsson's popular Bluetooth-enabled T68i phone to send and receive e-mail and surf the Web wirelessly. Bluetooth is on the verge of becoming a reality rather than a concept, and this technology's appearance in the new Palm suggests that it may finally achieve some sort of critical mass.
The software bundle is good but not great. There's Palm Desktop 4.1, Chapura Pocket Mirror 3.1 for syncing with Outlook, and Documents To Go 5.0 Professional for handling all of the various Microsoft Office files. You also get a bunch of other utilities, image viewers, games, and applications to help you get the most mileage out of the embedded Bluetooth. However, even though Palm OS 5.0 and the Tungsten both support MP3 playback, Palm doesn't include a player with the device, which is still a little bit of a mystery to us. Palm says that it plans to offer software support, but the company had yet to nail down a bundled program at launch time--a big mistake.
The big question is whether the Tungsten will have the same impact as the Palm V did when it was released. It's hard to argue that this isn't a slick-looking product, but it carries a sobering price tag of AU$1,099. With all of its features, a new OS, and copious software, hard-core Palm fans will certainly be tempted to upgrade to the Tungsten T. But Palm faces strong competition from attractive Pocket PCs that cost less, which leads us to believe that the Tungsten will have to come down to about AU$800 in order to gain serious traction. But we'll reserve final judgment until we write our full review.
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