Another PDA question, opinions of Tungstan E?

I'm looking to buy a basic fool around Palm PDA. Doesn't have to be fancy but a good screen is a must. I don't care about using it to surf the web and a camera isn't really necessary as I saw samples from the Palm Zire72 and my old one meg digicam would blow away the quality of the one meg camera that's included in that model. It seems like the Palm Tungstan E for $200 might fit the bill but are there any others in the same ballpark price, maybe from Sony I should consider? Also is the processor in the Tungstan E good enough to fool around with the tons of apps and palm games I see out there? Definitely want a Palm OS one, use MS enough at work and home.

Try to register at Palminfocenter to ask the same question but it never sent the registration link to my email address that I posted.

Re: Another PDA question, opinions of Tungsten E?

I've got one, it is kind of nice, but way too limited for expansion. SDIO support is very limited, so most of the new goodies coming out probably won't work on it.

Screen is good. I use Kinoma Producer to "rip" movies to play on it and I'm pleased with the results, and it displays my color still photos moderately well.

I'd spend the extra and buy a Tungsten T3 if I could have a do-over though and had to stick with a Palm OS.

But what I really wish I had bought is a Dell Axim 5 Pocket PC. They are incredibly expandable (SD & CF slots) and only a hundred dollars more.

For basic "pocket organizer" tasks though, the E is pretty highly rated as a price bargain on just about every review I have read, except for those people who were expecting more than just the very basic tasks.

Battery only lasts me about 2 hours per charge though. And on mine the navigation buttons often "bounce" and go in the opposite direction from what is wanted. Don't know if that is all of them or just mine.

Haven't played any games on it except blackjack, that was OK, but boring. Mostly what I use mine for is reading E-books, listening to Audible books, listening to MP3s occasionally and watching Kinoma movies (Got a bunch of old B&W public domain feature movies, and can fit up to about 1.5 hours of "watchable" size and frame rate on a 256 MB SD card.. Works fine for that, except the speaker is in back and only mediocre sound quality, so you really need headphones or ear buds.

Re: Another PDA question, opinions of Tungsten E?

I have one and its a good basic PDA. My main complaint is there's no cradle available - something I had grown accustomed to with my old PDA. If I would have thought about it at the time, I would have spent more on a different model just to get a cradle.

My SO uses it to listen to E-books. With compression, about 4 hrs on a 128 SD card.

Re: Another PDA question, opinions of Tungsten E?

The E is a good basic PDA. Getting a bigger memory card will let you put movies and pictures on it...but I'm not sure if you can run games from the memory card.
Games, I have the original Tungsten T, and frankly I haven't found any games that knock my socks off...I use this mainly for calendar and contacts.
If you really want good games, get a $100 gameboy.
If you want games for mild diversion+movies+calendar+contacts, the Tungsten E will do well.

IMHO.

T.

Re: Another PDA question, opinions of Tungsten E?

It seems like you get more power and memory with a pocket pc then with a palm os pda. Notable I was looking at the Dell Axim X30 which is only $250 but comes with 64 meg ram and a 312mhz processor with speed step technology. Also both bluetooth and wi-fi. But it seems looking at software sites for pda shareware and freeware, there's a lot more available for the palm os then the windows pocket pc version. Is this true? Also I have read that the palm os is more stable then the windows pocket pc. This should come as no surprise. Is there a good site(s) that do direct comparison of the pros and cons of palm vs pocket pc?

Re: Another PDA question, opinions of Tungsten E?

The E with its decent build quality, great screen and amount of memory is a great bang for your buck. The CPU is sufficiently powerful that I haven't yet encountered a Palm app I couldn't smoothly run or multimedia file that would make it stutter. Throw in a 128 or 256 memory card and a decent set of earbuds and it will easily accomplish pretty much 95% of what you would want a Palm for (Remaining 5% consisting of more esoteric stuff like bluetooth and wi fi networking) It also comes with a pretty nice software suite of utilities.

I had previously spent the big bucks on a Tungsten T when it first came out. The wandering digitizer bug hit me hard and since then I've sworn off sliders as prone to causing problems with only a small size benefit as compensation.

The lack of a cradle hasn't been an issue for me as plugging in a power cord takes little effort and saves the space my cradles have taken up. The battery will definitely send you back to your desk every couple of days if you use it much. Lowering the brightness to 50% helps quite a bit with a barely noticeable effect on visibility.

It is not flawless however, many of them have a "whine" that emits from the screen. Its very directional, variable among units, and may not even be noticed by less sensitive ears. Mine has it, I would prefer that it didn't but it doesn't really interfere with my use, and it's lights years less annoying than the T|T's digitizer bug was.

Re: Another PDA question, opinions of Tungsten E?

I have used PDA's from Sony, Compaq, & Palm and the Garmin IQue has replaced them all.

For under $400, you get a palm os 5.1 system with all the usual programs, a great screen, and an incredibly intuitive gps waas navigation program that included voiced turn-by-turn directions.

The only downside is lousy battery life.

Re: Another PDA question, opinions of Tungsten E?

I've used the original Palm Pilot, Palm V, Palm Vx and am now "dual booting" between a Palm Vx at work and a Tungsten T for personal use. I love the Tungsten screen and the 16 MB memory is plenty when coupled with a good SD card for MP3's, documents, etc.
I got the TT for $160 as a refurb or repack from one of the internet clearance places.
Cheers,
Bob

Re: Another PDA question, opinions of Tungsten E?

HI
I own a palm 3e and a ipaq 3630
the palm OS is very stable (unless you run heaps of hacks) and has heaps more software than Pocket PC
i only use the ipaq because of the colour screen and because it will play Mp3s
for use at work i use my old 3e - becuase it works well.
i am also thinking about upgrading
when i do it will be to a new PDA running the palm os
(looking at Sony, palm and Now that i know about it - the IQue)

Re: Another PDA question, opinions of Tungsten E?

I looked at the Garmin, but it did not seem to have much memory - has this changed ? I have a Garmin emap gps, which is a nice unit, but the same problem - had to add a lot of expensive memory, and the screen on the emap is - well - crappy. I cannot imagine a more useless concept than to have very tiny dark lines on a backlit screen. Imagine, trying to read the lettering on a lightbulb while driving at night.

Re: Another PDA question, opinions of Tungsten E?

I'm still running my Handera 330. Great screen (first with the "big" 320x240 one which allows use of the Graffiti area for program/text display and can do horizontal orientation). I don't need color as I don't do games. It has two expansion slots for CF, SD, and MMC cards, and runs Palm OS 4.1. I use a 128Mb CF card. I also like the virtual keyboard you can place in the Graffiti area. Does voice etc., but not WiFi.

Yes it's discontinued but can be found NIB or used inexpensively and still acquits itself quite well with its 33MHz Motorola DragonBall-VZ™ processor.

I haven't felt compelled to upgrade yet.

--Bob