Wednesday, April 13, 2005

 

Pocketfactory reviews the Tungsten E2

I think Pocketfactory is the first to review the Tungsten E2. The reviewer was suitably impressed with the E2's bright display. He also liked PalmOne's decision to put 32MB worth of non-volatile memory and the built-on bluetooth.

His gripes are that the E2 still doesn't have Wifi built-in and the paint finish attracts fingerprints just like its predecessor.

The review concludes:
The Tungsten E was originally designed for budget conscious business users and prosumers. During its lifecycle, it has sold nearly 2 million units. PalmOne seems to be taking a queue from Appleā€™s playbook by adding new features and goosing the price point a bit in order to squeeze out higher margins and cash in on a successful product. I expect the new $249 price tag to fall back down to $199 once demand settles. Still, even at $249, the product offers many key features found on the more expensive Tungsten T5 for nearly half the price.

I came away from this review surprisingly impressed with the product. PalmOne deserves high marks for fixing nearly every complaint levied against the original model, and integrating a pedigree of new functionality.

Read more at Pocketfactory.


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PalmOne releases new PDA

Contrary to my pronouncements, PalmOne hasn't given up on their PDA line yet.

On their website you can take a look at the new Tungsten E2. So, what's new?

Following after the Tungsten T5, the E2 also now sports a non-volatile, flash memory. Which means there won't be any worry when your battery dies. This is a good move for PalmOne since the main problem plaguing PDAs with built in batteries is that once it is competely drain all your files are gone.

What else is new?

Better, brighter screen.
Bluetooth.
Better battery life.

The unit is said to be compatible with their Wifi card. I hope this time they released a driver before selling the unit. As some of you might remember, PalmOne released and sold their T5 bundled with a wifi card but there was no driver for the card.

It also has the Intel 200MHz XScale ARM-based processor and multi-connector port.

Bundled with the unit are Documents To Go version 7, Versamail 2.7.1, and a multimedia application from PalmOne.

This is being sold for 249 USD or probably around 16,000 pesos here. I'm hoping we can have a unit to review soon.

This link to Mobile-review.com talks more about the Tungsten E2 and the other PDA PalmOne is said to release soon: the Palm LifeDrive. The specs are:

- Intel XScale PXA270 416 MHz with 32 MB of RAM
- Palm OS 5.4
- 4 GB hard disk drive
- Wi-Fi 802.11b
- Bluetooth version 1.1
- 320x480 pixels screen
- 5D joystick
- integrated microphone

I still consider the Palm LifeDrive as a rumor. But if the above specs are true, this is on sweet PDA. Price is rumored to be around 550 USD,

Go to Mobile-review.com for pictures of the Palm LifeDrive.

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