Reviews
palmOne
Tungsten T5
We love the 256MB of non-volatile memory and the cool design,
but why no WiFi?
If
you follow the handheld computing scene in general, and Palm devices
specifically, your first question might be, ãThe T5 is out? Ummm....
what happened to the Tungsten T4? Did I miss anything here?ä We
had the same question, Our resident expert in Asian affairs speculates
that Asian markets might avoid anything with the number 4 in it,
as in Chinese it sounds similar to ãto die.ä That would explain
why Canon made a G3 and a G5 digital camera, but not a G4. Apple
apparently doesn't believe in superstition as evidenced by its
G4 line of PowerMacs.
With that
little puzzle out of the way, let's see what palmOne brought us
with the new Tungsten T5. It's clearly a very handsome device
that reminds, in its simplicity and elegance, of the original
Palm V and m500 models. Gone is the sliding case design of the
Tungsten 3 and I, for one, don't miss it. Sure, you saved half
an inch in length or so, but I never really understood why that
was important enough to construct a relatively complicated and
potentially trouble-prone sliding mechanism. And if the new shape
looks familiar beyond its obvious Palm V heritage, that's because
it looks almost like the good old Tungsten E, palmOne's least
expensive Tungsten model. The button and control arrangement is
the same as that of the Tungsten E, although the icons on the
application buttons are different. The other thing that's different,
of course, is the T5's impressive 320 x 480 display that's now
visible in all its high res glory rather than hiding 1/3 of its
real estate as the T3 does.
In palmOne's
lineup, the T5 fills the role as the business-oriented premium
handheld whose primary task it is to manage documents and data.
Horsepower is supplied by the 416MHz version of Intel's powerful
and efficient PXA270 processor. Some might argue palmOne should
have gone all the way and picked the 624MHz version instead so
as to reach parity with the top Pocket PCs from HP and Dell, but
the T5 is definitely fast enough and palm-One's moderation might
result in a bit of extra battery life.
In any case,
the big news with the T5 is not its new processor or even the
return to the fixed housing. It is the addition of a massive amount
of flash memory. 256MB of it! Who'd have thought that a Palm would
ever have that much? Now before you start skipping and dancing
down the hall, let me explain that of the 256MB, only 215MB is
actually available to the user, and that is divided into 55MB
program memory and a 160MB internal flash drive. Flash means you
never have to worry about losing your data, and drive, in this
instance, means you can use the T5 like a removable drive on another
computer. That's right, in a new ãDrive Modeä you can plug the
T5 into a USB port and use it like an external drive. You can
then transfer data without having to sync. Pocket PC users, of
course, have been able to bring up their device as a window on
their desktop for years, but they did, and do, need ActiveSync
to do so. The Pocket PC doesn't just pop up as a drive.
The
idea behind all this is to make the T5 a more serious partner
in a user's overall computer lineup. With this much memory, the
considerable power of Documents to Go, and a reasonable amount
of screen real estate, it is suddenly possible to use a Palm to
do real work, the kind that you usually do on a notebook. The
Tungsten, of course, is still no notebook replacement, but there
may well be times when its small size makes it a better traveling
companion than a big old laptop.
Old Palm users
may or may not like the Favorites and Files applications that
quickly let you view important information, browse files and folders,
and access whatever it is you need right now.
With its big
display and powerful processor you'd expect the T5 to do multimedia
duty, and it does. You can listen to MP3s and RealAudio without
any expansion cards. No built-in camera, though. Truth be told,
until cameras built into PDAs get a lot better, we don't miss
it.
What we do
miss is WiFi. The Tungsten T5 has Bluetooth like the T3, but in
this day and age a top-of-the-line model must have WiFi. There
is no excuse for that.
Except for
this one omission, the Tungsten T5 is a marvelous machine with
a great display, plenty of power, plenty of memory, great looks,
and greatly improved connectivity. öKirk Linsky
ö Kirk Linsky
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