Palm Tungsten T > Reviews (10)

To be fair, I don’t really need one of these; I could probably get by with one of the far cheaper models that supply only the basic services such as an address book and a diary. But I like my gadgets and despite my not using all the functions available there are a few unique to this model that made it stand out from the rest of the Palm range.

I bought mine in Dixons at the start of the year (2003) and it set me back around £370 plus an extra £40 for three years fully comp insurance. I know a lot of people see these policies as a bit of a rip off but I figured seeing as it probably wasn’t covered for loss or damage (only theft) on my home contents insurance and I was going to be carrying it around everywhere it was a worthwhile investment. I see now that they’ve come down to under £300 which was well within my price range. But why would I recommend shelling out this much over a mere £80 or so for one of the lesser functional ones.

Bluetooth is the main one. I do a lot of emailing and it’s really nice to be able to check my mail when I’m sitting on a train or waiting for a bus. One of the main downers with using a mobile phone handset is the size of the screen. With the Palm I can read the mail easily and reply using the stylus rather than my phone keypad. Bluetooth tops this whole experience off by allowing me to do it all without the phone leaving my pocket or having to line up a pair of infrared ports. It’s a convenience thing mostly. You can also send and check SMS on your phone using the Bluetooth connection although I’ve yet to find some really decent software to do this with as when I download the SMS to my Palm not only do the names of the senders not appear but I have to delete every SMS separately from the memory. Sometimes I find its just better to leave them on the phone.

Synchronisation is another. I used to use a Psion Revo which backed up fine on my Dad’s PC at work. I’m a Mac user though and Psion connectivity support for the Mac was pretty lame. Fortunately Palm have really won through on this one. Not only can I transfer contacts over from my old Psion but the Tungsten also syncs almost effortlessly with my Mac keeping the address book and diary on my computer as up to date of that on my Palm. Therefore if I’ve been to a conference and collected a load of email addresses they are there ready for use by my email application that evening. Certainly if you’re a Mac user this is, I reckon, the best supported PDA for use with Mac OS X. It works best with iSync, a free application from Apple, and OS X 10.2)

If you’re not an OS X user the Tungsten T’s obvious advantage over its rivals is its size. I’m not a fan of carrying large things and this slips neatly into a top shirt pocket. The graffiti text input system (see the Palm website for full details) may not be to everyone’s taste either and if this is the case then the iPaq is definitely worth a look in because it can understand real handwriting rather than a specific alphabet of strokes specified by the operating system.

I won’t deny there are more powerful PDAs out there but the Palm simply provided me with the right balance of technology, power and portability.

I’ve yet to find some really good software to sync the Palm to my Ericsson T68i. This was something the Psion did very well allowing me to edit and update my address book on the PDA rather than the fiddly phone. I’m actually considering buying a Bluetooth adaptor for my Mac so I can sync the phone via the computer to the PDA and I’ll be sure to update this article with my experience. There are also many websites, along with Palm’s own, where I can download software and updates. I check these regularly for programs that I might find fun or useful. (try www.tucows.com)

Two important things I feel I should mention and that is of course battery life and memory. battery life is fine unless I really hammer it with the alarm sounds and Bluetoothing. On average there's enought in there to last me two days without a charge. It can last up to a week though with careful use. Memory hasn't been a problem yet. I've got a fair bit of extra software on there along with about 300 contacts and a far few diary entries. I'm not even near max capacity.

Overall the improved synchronisation is a big improvement on the Psion and Palm and Mac are really onto a winner with this one. The lack of good software to sync with the T68i is a bit of a downer but I’m hoping this won’t be a problem for much longer.