Still good, but a little "yester-year"
Written: Sep 03 '04 (Updated Oct 07 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Thumb keyboard, great screen,
Cons: Should have cellular....
The Bottom Line: It's a great device. Maybe not top of the line anymore, but I'll use it for at least another year, maybe more.
|
|
|
| tekkster's Full Review: Palm Tungsten C Handheld |
[NEW EDIT AT END BASED ON COMMENT ON 10/06/2004]
The Tungsten C is a great PDA for what I do...and a year ago, I thought there wasn't a better fit in any PDA. But much of that has changed recently.
First, about the Tungsten C.
It really is an amazing PDA.
Physical 1: It's a tad bulky, but a good size overall. I'm not a big fan of graffiti, so I don't mind not having it. And I've proven over and over again to many graffiti fans that typing on the thumb keyboard is much faster. Heck, I've even taken meeting notes on it and can type fast enough to keep up with multi-person meetings without frantically scribbling or looking too foolish. I've unintentionally caused a few people to buy the Tungsten C just because of this. The keyboard also comes in handy for chatting. Sure, a laptop is much better, but I go to several conferences/expos a year, and on the show floor there usually is wifi access and often for free. Chatting with partner companies, or with colleagues is quick and easy.
Physical 2: The screen has a good resolution, is very bright, and is easy to see in daylight (though glaring sun makes the screen difficult to read. in New York, this is never a problem for me, but in California, the sunlight can be so glaring that using it outside is difficult.
Physical 3: Overall, the device is sturdy. I've had few problems with it and though I usually prefer to purchase a hard case for my gadgets, for the Tungsten C, I got a leather one with a belt clip that works just fine. Have had it for almost a year and no problems yet.
Physical 4: The WiFi reception is good. better than some laptops, not as good as the latest crop of Windows-based PC laptops and Apple laptops. The device seems to have some trouble connecting to hotspots for certain kinds of WEP, even if the antenna is good. But most 128K and 64K WEP doesn't seem to be a problem. Don't let the "40K" and "104K" info confuse you....that's 64 and 128 respectively.
Physical 5: Okay...this is more of a "what's missing" comment. Back when I was looking at the Tungsten C or W, the W was what I wanted, but apart from the cell capability, all other specs were abysmal. So i went with the C. These days, though, cellular is critical for email and a web surfing. In an ideal world, a PDA should have cellular, wifi and bluetooth. Whether this is even possible, I don't know. The Treo 600 has cellular but no wifi. The Sony Clie's thumb keyboard version has wifi and bt, but no cellular. But there are different applications for each, so I definitely want all three in a PDA.
Physical 6: Memory....64MBs was awesome two years ago, great last year, and still good today. But PDA's are coming out with increasingly more memory, so I'd definitely like more. I bought a 512 SD card, but it's not the same....256 internal would be awesome today, great next year, and fairly good the year after....or so I predict (hahaha, my future foretelling skills have never been perfect).
Physical 7: Accuracy. okay, maybe this is more a digitzer software issue than a touch screen issue, but the left and top sides are very accurate, but the lower right side is very inaccurate (I'd say about 3 mm off). This isn't a big problem, but it's a little annoying. No matter how often I "re-digitize" in the prefs, the problems persists. Also, maybe this is just my Tungsten....
[EDIT: ADDED]
Physical 8: The earphone jack is mono, not stereo. This is probably because the "W" which is also based on the same form factor, had cellular, and no one really needs stereo for cellular. There could be other reasons, but unless you wanted the PDA for MP3 listening, this isn't really a problem. I think many people would rather have an ipod to store much more music, but if you're looking for an all-in-one, this may not be for you.
[END EDIT]
[EDIT: ADDED]
Physical 9: The cradle isn't too great for traveling, but Palm has a USB to Palm cable that skips the cradle that you can get online. It works fast and dependably. I wish they'd just skip the cradle because I never use it and just include the cable only version.
[END EDIT]
Software 1: Web browsing is fairly easy. I wish Palm's latest web browsers were available for the Tungsten C and not just the latest Tungsten series and Z series. I do have one problem. Since I use Japanese and version 5 was not localized, I had to use J-OS....This causes the web browser to crash....
Software 2: Email is very much the same. The email program that comes included does not have localization capabilities even when J-OS is installed, which meant switching to a third party email. I still haven't found one that works really well.
Software 3: I'm not much of a game fan, but I can admit it, solitaire for the Palm Tungsten C is a little addicting. I haven't tried any others so couldn't comment on them.
Software 4: The Calendar is pretty good. But it can't sync blocks of dates. This is a problem for me as I have lots of schedules in blocks. There are several ways around this, but it would be a nice feature to have.
Software 5: ToDo list is great. I use the "notes" feature constantly both in the ToDo list and the Calendar. it's much easier to copy and past emails into the notes section of my calendar or Todo program and then sync it over to have all the information I need for a meeting, business trip itinerary, or dinner/movie reservation.
Software 6: The address book is so-so. Really can't say that it's "great" as there are too many features that are missing. Mostly query searching is a pain. Maybe if I was more adept at it, this would be no problem. but I'd like more search criteria available. i.e. search by company, types, first name, area code, etc. With Filemaker Pro, apple mail, or my windows address books, these customized queries are very easy....haven't figured out how to do it with the Tungsten.
Software 7: Memo. Wow, this is a great program. okok, every PDA has a memo app, but with the thumb keyboard, it's so easy! And since I wasn't thinking about taking notes when purchasing the PDA, it was a really pleasant surprise.
Software 8: VPN Setup....don't need it, so haven't used it....
[ADD EDIT]
Software 9: Syncing....So syncing used to be such an issue because it didn't always work well. But I can tell you that it's very easy to use these days. Recently I've started using Macs for work, so the Palm has been particularly useful with it's easy syncing to Mac. For those of you who are wondering how it works, there are a few choices. The free version requires 3 pieces of software: Palm Desktop, Palm Sync, and iSync. Yes, that's three different pieces of software, not two. If you're looking for something easier, then check out Mark/Space. It's also very good but is not free. There's a few more out there too, but if you use a Mac, don't worry, syncing can be done and it's not difficult, and works dependably after install.
{END EDIT]
third party software: here's what I'd recommend: Oxford dictionary (nuff said), Acid Image (image viewer), AvantGo (news summary), Convert Calc (measurement and volume converter), VeriChat (Chat), Sol Free (Solitaire), Tide Tool (for ocean tides and moon phase, semi-useful, mostly fun app if near a beach), Palm Bio (biorhythm, purely fun), gCalculator (geometric calculator, useful in design), Minibar (cocktail drink app, critical app for parties), and of course, documents to go.
third party software: here's what doesn't work very well. FM Pro mobile 2.1. and Adobe acrobat reader. For FM Pro Mobile, it won't install easily if you have OS X 10.3. Anything before that seems to work okay. You can do it, but it's a real pain. For Adobe Acrobat, if anyone figures it out...let me know, it works occasionally but is not dependable and is not intuitive.
I'd recommend this device, but if you're looking for the "best" you can get today, there are other thumb keyboard PDA's that have higher specs. Look at the folding Sony Clies. The latest one, the Sony Clie PEG-UX50 is so very cool. My colleague has one and I never stop drooling over it. With built in camera and video, thumb keyboard, 320x480 screen, MPEG4 playback, it truly rocks. But it's double the price....The Palm Treo 600 is another ultra cool device. It only has celllular, but really, what else do you need? It's also double the price, but well worth the cost, I think. I'm waiting for the next Palm treo version to come out before buying.
All in all, of all the PDA's I've owned, the Palm Tungsten C is probably my favorite. I used a few different Zaurus PDA's and they were great, but syncing is critical, and Zaurus was never very good at syncing.
[NEW EDIT AT END BASED ON COMMENT ON 10/06/2004]
Regarding the comments received, they are valid and I should have addressed them previously, so I'd like to update.
The most important one is probably battery life. There should have been a piece about that....but I haven't really experienced it or felt it. I use the PDA a total of maybe...oh...0.5-2 hours a day depending on whether I use the WiFi function at, say an expo. Now, if it had cellular capability, I'd use it much more during the day, so battery life would probably be important to me. But as it is now, I've never run out of battery life on any given day, and I usually don't charge it over the weekend, so it gets at least 2-3 hours of life, I would guess.
As for localization...hahaha, it's true, most people wouldn't care. I do, and maybe a very few others do, what particularly bothers me is the lack of Japanese capability with web and email. 80-90% of the emails have Japanese charactors in them, so for me, and a few others, it cna be a big issue.
The SD card point is not a big issue in and of itself. The key point here is that the SD card slot can be used not for memory, but for added functionality. Unfortunately, the added functionality typically means....more data (i.e. bluetooth card to transfer files, gps that requires map data, tiny camera that takes pictures). If the 64MB internal memory is almost full, then you can't store any more because the SD card slot is taken up by the function adding device....As such, the more internal memory you have the better. I wouuld guess that's part of the reason the Palm T5 has 256MB of internal memory.
To me, it's a little (with little being a key word here) because many products have since emerged with much better specs. Multiple wireless technologies (i.e. bluetooth and WiFi or Cell and WiFi or even all three) would be ideal. More memory would be ideal, larger screen would be nice...etc.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300
Recommended for: Business Executives - Powerful and Professional
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
tekkster
|
|
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.