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PalmOne Tungsten C Handheld

PalmOne Tungsten C Handheld

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very nice but very expensive
Review: Would have gotten the extra star if it wasn't so expensive and hadn't shortchanged so much on the memory. The advertised ram is 64mb but it tops out at only 51 mb. That's a pretty significant drop in my book. It has all the bells and whistles for a power user as well as features (WiFi) for the business professionals. The screen is every bit the match of those from Sony. I was thrilled by the incredible brightness.
Size wise the new Tungsten is the same as the i705 without the hump on top. It weighs 6.3 ounces which is less than the old IIIc. Fit and finish was excellent but the case appears to be plastic to save weight. For the money you get a side mounted flip cover instead of a case. All in all it's a nice unit with an easy to learn interface for the new OS (5.2.1) but I would recommend waiting until the price comes down, which should happen fairly soon based on past experiences.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Review composed and submitted from a tungsten c
Review: I bought my Palm Tungsten C two days ago and am writing this review on it. Which shows its pluses and its limitations.

Its pluses? I've got a wireless network (apple airport) at home and at the office. I've been able to launch the web browser on the PDA, log onto amazon using my email and password, find this page and start writing my review.

I'm also typing this on a keyboard (well, kind of!), which is a huge improvement on the old grafitti system, which is of course still included for those who got the hang of it. I'm also able to surf and type on a colour screen that is as good as anything I have ever seen on a PDA.

Checking emails and going onto the internet is extremely straight forward - the only hitch I encountered is down to Apple not palm - you need to select network password equivalent in the airport configuration to get the letters and numbers that make up the key you need to log into an encrypted network.

And though I've seen the reviews questioning the wireless range of the tungsten c, I found that I was able to log onto my network at home and collect my emails two rooms and one hallway away from the airport base station. Not as good as my airport enabled ibook, but comparable to the cordless phone I have at home.

The downsides? Other reviewers have already questioned the lack of bluetooth and if I didn't have wi-fi at home I'd be taking this product back. When you spend this sort of money you really have to be sure you are getting the most out of it.

You also need to be realistic. Yes I've been able to connect and access every site I want but as with any PDA the experience is not anywhere near what you get on even the smallest of notebooks. Having to scroll backwards and forwards to read what is on the screen can be a pain in the backside. As is typing in several hundred words, something that I am doing now. Sure it can be done but it will take you twice as long as on your PC, though I suppose it does teach you to be brief!

I've not played around with the documents to go feature just yet, but I would think it's the same there as well. Use it to write or amend short presentations or documents, but don't write your board report on it.

In summary this is a great product, light years away from the psion and handspring I owned previously. Just be realistic what you are going to be using it for and the limitations of a tiny screen and keyboard.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Less than HOT PDA
Review: I am now on my third Tungsten C and even this one is not working right. To be fair, Palm customer service has been very helpful but this device is just plain no good. I'll keep it to play solitaire but I'm now getting a pocket pc for my PDA needs.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: great product....when it works.
Review: I received this as my 40th birthday present from my wife and loved it right away. It was great until six months later when the screen went haywire. Lost the picture but had vertical lines up and down, stuck on.

Palm sent me a refurbished unit that died within 2 months. Screen failed to come on.

Palm sent me another refurbished unit (that was pretty beat up) but I cannot use the keyboard to enter text into a DateBook line item. The cursor jumps to top everytime. Others have had this problem as I've read on a Palm Tungsten Forum.

Palm is sending me another refurbished unit. This will be my 4th and I'll sell this one and get another brand.

Pretty disappointed with Palm.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent for ebooks
Review: I use my Tungsten primarily to read ebooks, so my review is slanted towawrds that purpose. For that purpose, it is superb. The battery life is outstanding -- I'm getting about 9 hours, possibly more, with the backlight turned most of the way down. Even with the backlight all the way down, it's still very bright. Buy an aluminum case (pricey, but well worth the expense), a travel charger, and a decent-sized SD card (256MB should be fine) and you can carry a mind-boggling amount of literature in your pocket. If you like classics, you can get them for free on the web with the free pdaconverter program (you'll have to search for it - doesn't come with the Tungsten). I've read 3 books with it already, including David Copperfield (900+ pages), and the screen is great, being easily readable in all lighting conditions. In bright sunlight the screen won't be beautiful or colorful, it'll actually look almost monochrome, but it's still easily readable, which for me is the point. Indoors the screen looks very nice and bright. I've used the Wi-Fi once or twice and it's useful in a pinch, but not optimal. But if you're looking for a good ebook reader, this is the one to get. There is another Tungsten with a larger screen, but the C's built-in keyboard is great, much easier to use than stylus-based text entry. The Tungsten completely sold me on reading ebooks. Yes, I'd rather have the book with me, but you don't normally carry around the complete writings of Dickens, George Eliot, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, Joseph Conrad, the Bronte sisters, Herman Melville, Hawthorne, Edith Wharton, Henry James, multiple versions of the Bible, etc etc... but with a PDA you can have all of this with you, all the time, anywhere in the world, and this is the best PDA I've seen for reading ebooks.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tungsten Overview
Review: I've tested Tungsten E, Tungsten T3 and I own a Tungsten C. My favorite is the T|C model, due to following features:

1) The keyboard is excellent. The keys are very customizable and it supports accents thanks to its integration with the 5-way navigator.

2) The battery lasts forever, even when I am online (unlike T3).

3) It supports DHCP with 802.11b wifi, detects SSID and all the necessary configuration automagically. Connecting to the Internet has never being so easy!

4) The 320x320 transflective display is the best of its kind.

5) It is small and lightweight comparing to the competition (like Ipaq and Zaurus equivalent models)

However, it has its disadvantages. The lack of stereo support is the most remarkable one. I find the design very poor (the plastic feel to it), but it's a problem with all Palm models. The software is very outdated, it's easy to update it but for a cost. The wifi range is very short. Some acessories don't work with it for some strange reason, like some USB sync cables and the VEO camera that works specially slowly on this device.

If cost is not a big problem this is the Palm for you, as it is the most powerfull of all Palm models. If you must consider cost-benefit, I'd recommend T|E.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome performance
Review: I've owned several PDAs over the years and had abandoned the Palm platform for Sony Clies - the Clies were faster, more stylish, had more features and fantastic screens. I was intrigued by the features of the Tungsten C and tried one out at a local store and immediately purchased one online. In short, the C is a power user's dream PDA. My impressions after 3 weeks of use:

Screen: incredible, very bright, robust colors - rivals the Clie NX70V, maybe even a bit brighter

WiFi: immediately connected to my home Airport network - range is about 70-80ft - I have been able to connect effortlessly to T-mobile hotspots in several Starbucks

Speed: nothing like it on any PDA - the C truly flies - the browser speed is next to incredible - much faster than browsing on a PocketPC

Keyboard: I have never liked thumbpads, but the one on the C has the keys spaced so they can be accessed via thumb typing - I rarely need to use the new Graffiti 2

Memory: you will not run out!

Battery: very good, I'm getting 10-15 hours

The mono sound issue doesn't bother me at all - I have an iPod for mp3 listening - the C is fine for Audible content - the mono/stereo doesn't make much difference with the spoken word

It would have been nice to have built-in Bluetooth - the only limitation I have found so far.

I would also would have liked to have a travel charger included - it's a pain to have to carry the cradle around.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Wireless quit working after one week!
Review: Received this PDA after much research, and initially it worked great. Set it up quickly, and it immediately recognized and connected to my NetGear wireless router. However, it required hard re-boots frequently, and would just lock up for no apparent reason. Then, after approx one week, it failed to recognize any signal from the wireless router. (Yes, I upgraded the firmware as per the instructions on the Palm website) Would not purchase this product until Palm works out the bugs, since this appears to be a Beta product that was released prematurely. Returned to Amazon.com for a refund.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: so far so good....
Review: I have read many posts on websites complaining about this PDA, but I am nothing but pleased so far! I had a Toshiba E740 a couple years back and it really turned me off of the PDA market (Pocket PC not for me), but now that I have a real need for one I bought a refurbished unit direct from Palm - I received it in 2 days and it is in perfect condition. You can't beat the built in keyboard and WiFi. It has everything I need. I don't care that there is no MP3 player or voice memo without a headset, I don't need or want those options anyway. Get an iPod if you want an MP3 player. I have read some posts that the screen cracks, but come on now, how hard are these people pushing on the screen??? I have found that a light tap does the job. The color of the screen is amazing. The cover it comes with is rather skimpy, but beyond that, this is quite possibly the perfect PDA especially at the refurbished price!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great device, appply the ROM patch and avoid the fatal bug
Review: This is a brilliant idea to put wifi in a palm! I use it on a corporate as well as a home wifi network, and saves a ton of time and really easy to setup. Extremely happy with it, even elated.

About 5 days after purchase, the device specific MAC address became corrupted, so no longer works on my corporate network (which uses host filtering). If you just run this on a home wifi network or your corporate network doesn't authenticate each device trying to connect to wifi network using a specific, unique MAC host address, this problem won't trip you up.

After lots of sleuthing (no real help on the palm website), I came across several posts about this problem in various user groups from spring/summer of 2003. Apparently this problem has happened, out of the blue, to a few other people. Apparently there is a ROM fix that should prevent this from happening (although Palm is cryptic in its description), but once it does happen, that fix can no longer be applied. I was surprised that the ROM upgrade had not been applied to a device I purchased new from Amazon nearly 9 months later, and there was no word from Palm about the need to apply the upgrade either in the box or via email.

Bottom line - I have returned the device to Amazon (on Palm tech support's advice), and am eagerly awaiting a 2nd NEW one. The Palm tech support person told me if I returned it to Palm, I'd likely get a refurbished model...

So if you use wifi a lot, and don't want to pay for a separate wireless/cellphone account (eg as with all the other wireless models out there - blackberry charges run $70 a month around here), this is a great device. Buy it, and apply the ROM upgrade available on Palm's site right away!


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