Palm Tungsten T2

In movies, it's rare for a sequel to be better than the original, but with technology, it's the opposite. Take the Tungsten T2--while we liked the original Tungsten T, we thought Palm rushed it to market, and the product seemed a bit unpolished. But with an updated OS, better software, a great-looking screen, and twice the RAM, the Tungsten T2 comes out not half-baked but well done.

The only outward difference between the T2 and the original Tungsten is that the latter is silver and black rather than charcoal-colored. Like its predecessor, the T2 is compact and pocket-friendly, measuring just 4.0 by 3.0 by 0.6 inches, but it's a tad heavy at 5.6 ounces.

Compact companion: Short in stature, the Tungsten T2 demands little pocket space.

The device has a slim profile, though it's a rather heavy 5.6 ounces.

Along the top of the unit are the IR port, a Secure Digital/MultiMedia Card slot, a power button, and a stylus silo. We liked the heft of the spring-loaded stylus compared to some of the other lightweight styli around. A record button and a headphone jack are in the left-hand thumb region.

Below the screen is the familiar slider, which has a five-way directional pad and application buttons. It opens to reveal the traditional silk-screen Graffiti area and a few more shortcut buttons. The new Tungsten's screen, like the original's, is 320x320 pixels and can display 65,536 colors. But now it's transflective, making it much brighter. Our only gripe is the lack of a Back button; without it, you'll have a hard time backing out of applications using the one-handed navigation that Palm touts.

The see-through cover protects the screen but has a hole through which you can access the directional pad.

With a Bluetooth-enabled PC, you can sync (but not recharge) without the cradle.

The cradle has improved a bit, but it still has flaws. The AC adapter now plugs into the cradle itself instead of the end of the USB cord, alleviating a bit of the jumble. On the downside, there's still no way to charge up without the cradle--a pain if you like to travel light. A snap-on plastic cover protects the screen and includes a small hole so that you can access the navigation buttons without removing the wrapper.

Palm has spent some time under the hood tuning up the T2's hardware and software. The processor is the same 144MHz Texas Instruments OMAP1510 found in the old T, but there's now 32MB of RAM, 29MB of which are user-accessible. You can also add storage space or devices via the unit's SDIO-compliant SD/MMC slot. As we mentioned earlier, while we had no complaints about the old Tungsten's screen, the new transflective display offers a better, brighter image. We would have liked a replaceable battery, but it's hard to include, given the slider's design.

Though the T2 has 32MB of RAM, there's no law against adding an extra SD card full of MP3s (unless you stole them).

Slip-sliding away: The slider will turn on the Tungsten when you open it.

Palm OS 5.2.1 offers a few enhancements, such as changeable color themes for your fonts and background, but we have mixed feelings about some of the changes. The new Graffiti 2 handwriting-recognition software is supposed to be more natural and easier for novices to learn. But the updated version is bound to frustrate current Graffiti pros, who'll have to relearn how to write "naturally." There's no way to switch to standard Graffiti, either.

Another gripe with the new OS is that all of the tweaks and hacks that third-party developers made to earlier Palm operating systems can't be used with OS 5.0 or higher. We wish that PalmSource had integrated them--especially the battery hack--into the OS so that developers don't have to do it all over again.

Another significant feature is the T2's integrated Bluetooth, which lets you communicate with other Palm users and a growing number of Bluetooth-enabled devices such as cell phones, handhelds, printers, laptops, and desktops. Palm's BlueBoard and BlueChat apps let you chat or collaborate with other Tungsten T users. You can also use a Bluetooth-enabled wireless phone as a modem for Internet access; Palm includes drivers for a few phones with the device and offers more on its site. You may also trade business cards with Bluetooth Palms and Pocket PCs and even HotSync with a Bluetooth-packing desktop or notebook.

Palm includes a number of homegrown applications to do everything from syncing to e-mailing to browsing the Web. The Pictures app lets you view images or slide shows on your Palm, and it supports JPEGs without conversion. VersaMail 2.5 is a solid e-mail client, and Palm Web Browser Pro is a lean, fast browser also found on the Tungsten C, but both of these have limited appeal if you lack the Bluetooth phone and a data plan to access the Web. You also get the staples, such as Palm Desktop 4.1, Chapura Pocket Mirror 3.1 for syncing with Outlook, and Documents To Go 5.0 Professional for handling all of the various Microsoft Office files. RealOne Mobile Player is included for listening to MP3s or RealMedia files, and the T2 also has voice-recording applet for taping memos on the go.

But the best included software is Palm's Quick Install and Kinoma's Player and Producer. Quick Install is an improvement over the software installer supplied with Palm Desktop. It uses a Windows-like interface where you drag and drop software into a screen for installation. It can even unzip files automatically, and you don't need Palm Desktop running to use it. Kinoma Video Producer converts movie files (with sound) to a Kinoma Player-compatible version that you can watch on your Palm. Of course, support for MPEG and MPEG-4 files without conversion would be better, but it's a start.

The Tungsten T2 offered good overall performance. With its 144MHz Texas Instruments OMAP1510 processor and 32MB of RAM, the unit has no shortage of resources. We found that videos and games played smoothly. Music sounded full and clear, but the maximum volume was not loud enough, and we noticed that the track skipped every time we opened or shut the slider during a song. The voice recorder captured relatively clear and intelligible voice memos.

We liked the original Tungsten's screen, but the T2's is better. The display has a high, 320x320-pixel resolution and can produce 65,536 colors, on a par with the best handhelds'. Because the new screen is transflective, it looks good in both bright and dim environments. Images appeared well saturated, and colors were accurate; large text was bold, while the smallest fonts were well defined and legible.

The Tungsten's weak spot is in its battery. Though it wasn't abysmal, we were disappointed by the rechargeable lithium-polymer cell's performance, which was average for a handheld but couldn't compare to the Tungsten C's marathon numbers. With the brightness set to half, we played a video in Kinoma Player for 3 hours, 39 minutes. Keep in mind that the backlight is the biggest energy drain, so battery mileage would improve dramatically for tasks such as playing MP3s with the backlight off.

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