With a high-resolution colour screen, a sleek design, an expansion card slot, and a low price tag, the Tungsten E will hit the handheld sweet spot for many mobile professionals and consumers.Palm's Tungsten E is aimed at budget-minded mobile professionals, especially those still tapping away on a trusty Palm V or Palm Vx. But it's sure to have even broader appeal when consumers consider that this lightweight, slick-looking handheld comes with a great screen, an expansion slot and multimedia capabilities for less than AU$400. It doesn't have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a built-in camera or a mini-keyboard. However, a lot of people neither want those extras nor care to pay for them.
The Tungsten E's silver and black design is reminiscent of that of Palm's earlier M500-series handhelds. But while those units suffered from lacklustre displays, the E's sharp, high-resolution 320 by 320-pixel screen is the same version found on the Zire 71, and it's on a par with Sony's best efforts. A sturdy, detachable flip cover serves as a screen protector.
The 7.9cm wide by 11.4cm deep by 1.2cm high device is powered by a zippy 126MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 311 ARM processor, has 32MB of internal memory (28.3MB of which is free for storage), and runs Palm OS 5.2.1. The expansion slot is SDIO compatible, opening the door to forthcoming accessories such as cameras and wireless adapters. An AC adapter is included for recharging the internal lithium-ion battery. Additionally, a USB cable (there's no cradle) and Palm Desktop Software are provided to synchronise the Tungsten E with your Mac or PC.
The Tungsten E, which costs an affordable AU$399 uses a 126MHz TI OMAP processor and has a standard 320-by-320-pixel display with a Graffiti area beneath.
The robust software package includes the standard organiser applications, plus updated Contact and Calendar applications, which provide enhanced features and improved Outlook synchronisation support. You'll also find separate programs for creating small databases, reading Acrobat files and e-books, and viewing digital photos. A world clock, Real One Mobile player (for listening to MP3 and RealAudio files) and Kinoma Player and Producer (for converting and viewing movie clips) ship with the unit, and the Tungsten E can even run J2ME Java applications. Last but not least, Palm throws in Documents To Go Professional Edition, which allows you to view, edit and create Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on the device.
As for performance, our review unit worked well with Kinoma video files, and MP3s played smoothly. Battery life was decent; in our standard test, we were able to run an MPEG-4 file in a loop for 3 hours and 30 minutes. With normal usage patterns, Palm says the Tungsten E should go for about a week before having to recharge.
To take advantage of the multimedia features, you'll need to buy 128MB of SD or MMC media (for two hours of music files). It's also worth noting that Palm is serving up several new accessories for all its handhelds, including a wireless keyboard that smartly interfaces with the IR port. Whether you choose this Palm over a similarly priced Pocket PC handheld is a matter of operating system preference. This handheld's lack of a built-in camera, keyboard or wireless module keeps it just shy of an Editors' Choice, but any way you look at it, the Tungsten E is an excellent bargain.
Palm Tungsten E
Company: Palm Australia
Price: AU$399
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 302 959
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I bought my Tungsten E in April this year, and frankly it has been somewhat of a disappointment. The fact that you can't store MP3's without a SD card is frustrating, Kinoma video files take up more space than their original counterparts despite greatly reduced picture and audio quality, I never treat it harshly yet the unprotected back of the body is covered in scratches, the interface is plain boring, and 28 MB memory is not nearly enough. Once you start loading in the files and applications, the overall speed really drops off (with 24 MB of files diagnostic testing shows the processor to be working at only 85MHz).
With "average" usage, I am lucky to get two days out of the battery, maybe two hours total.
My point being, buy a Zire 72 or a HP H1930. I have tried both (a couple of my friends have them) and they are vastly better products.