Palm Tungsten T > Reviews (10)

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.

However, enetering in grafity proved to be significantly faster and more accurate than the so-called real handwriting software of the pocket pc. I became much more productive writing into my PDA

Installation
This was my biggest fear. To switch from a pockte pc platform to a palm platform. At home (windows XP) these fears seemed warranted. It took me a while to get the system completely clean and hotsync the palm without trouble. But with fast and excellent e-mail support by Palm (3 months free after purchase) the problem was solved within a day. At the office (Windows NT) it was not a problem at all. I think installing new applications on the palm is much more intuitive than on the pocket pc

Price
The Tungsten is pretty expensive but not much more than the Ipaq. I think it is great value for money, but if you can wait, do so, as the price will certainly drop after X-mas.

I realise that this review is far from exhaustive, but the purpose was to give you my feel of my surprise with the superiority of the Palm compared to the Ipaq.

Conclusion, buy the Palm Tungsten, sell your Ipaq on Ebay!!!