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Palm Tungsten vs Ipaq, sayonara Ipaq 10 of 10 Ciao Users found the following review helpful
Rating from thijsj 5 Stars ()

Advantages small, fast, sexy, best palm ever

Disadvantages relatively high price

I never thought I would make the case for a palm handheld from 3com. I used to be a dedicated Ipaq fan but got increasingly disappointed with it. So I decided to take a bold step and try out the new Palm Tungsten. In one word: AMAZING! I will compare, wherever possible the Tungsten with the Ipaq. Note that I am comparing the new Tungsten with my previously owned Ipaq 3850.

For exact specifications of both PDA's I refer you to the www.palm.com and www.compaq.com

Look and feel
I always found the Ipaq sexy, but it is still a bit bulky. The Palm is not much lighter (6.2 oz vs 5.6 oz for the palm), but much smaller (length 4'' vs 5'' for the Ipaq). This is due to the fact that the bottom slides open to reveal the grafiti writing area. The garfite colored aluminium casing feels much more sturdy than the aluminium looking, though plastic (!) casing of the Ipaq. I think overall the Ipaq used to be the sexiest PDA around, but the Tungsten has certainly taken that no.1 spot. I think the Tungsten also has a much more professional look. It lies very good in your palm and the stylus comfortably expands to reveal a pen sized stylus. Very easy to handle. The only minus is the plastic protection cover, which is quite handy but scrathes easily.

Speed
Much faster than the Ipaq! I think this is also due to the simpler operating system. You can switch applications with lightning speed without keeping previous applications in RAM. This is not the case with pocket PC software, where once opened applications keep running in the background. This means that once in a while you will have to reset the Ipaq to clear its memory completely. Very annoying. The Ipaq can sometimes slow down to a crawl.

Memory
The memory of the Palm is obviously much less than of the Ipaq (16mb vs 64mb!). However you don't need more given the different operating systems. Actually 16mb for a palm is relatively much more than 64mb for the Ipaq. Palm applications are so small that 16mb is more than enough. Moreover, both the palm and Ipaq have SSD/MMC expansion slots, so the storage possibilities are infinite

Display
I find the clor and brightness of the palm much nicer than of the Ipaq, although there is not much difference. However, if you view pictures on the palm, I found those to be much clearer than on the Ipaq.

Software
I still think there are more software applications for the palm than for the ipaq, although pocket pc software is catching up fast. Applications for pocktepc are sexier, ie better graphics, more functionality etc. The palm applications are simpler but that is perhaps also the beauty of it.

Functionality
Both the Ipaq and Palm have similar functionalities. The Tungsten has bluetooth connectivity, but all the newest Ipaqs have that as well. The only thing missing from the palm at this stage is MP3 functionality but apparently this is being developed by real networks and made available for free on the palm website.

hand writing recognition
This was actually my biggest surprise of all. I dreaded the fact that I had to go back to learning palm grafiti which is not that close to my actual handwriting.

Detailed Rating

Speed
Look & Feel
Memory / capacity
Comfort & Portability
Robustness & Durability
Ease of use
Range of Extra Features
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thijsj

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Comments

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Previous page Next page Page 1 of 2 | 1 - 5 out of 10 comments
  • Tricity 11/02/2004 17:06
    Rated this review as
    Helpful
  • runonthespot 28/07/2003 18:19
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful

    I agree. A Very Sexy piece of kit. Only thing I can think of that I want more is the Tungsten C, or perhaps the Tungsten T2... Beats the pants of the Ipaq at any rate!

  • Briz_Hatchings 08/05/2003 20:20
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful

    A very useful comparison. No need to worry about the length. Although more informative, long ops get really tedious. Conciseness is the key.

  • Bubba77 13/01/2003 13:10
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful
  • ponty 30/12/2002 21:15
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful

    Nice to see someone defecting from PocketPC to Palm :) Lovely comparative op, I'll post my own (comparative to existing Palms) when I've had it long enough to discover any bad features :)

Previous page Next page Page 1 of 2 | 1 - 5 out of 10 comments

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