Tungsten T3

The Tungsten T3 measures a very compact 4.25 x 2.99 x 1.6 inches when closed (5.1 inches tall when open) and weighs 5.4 ounces, and includes a Secure Digital expansion slot for memory and peripheral expansion. The best part of the T3, however, is a new feature that adds the unique ability to switch between portrait (traditional handheld viewing mode) and landscape modes.

Unlike previous Tungsten's the T3 also has a terrific 320x480 pixel and 65,000 color screen and a Virtual Graffiti area, which you can choose to have disappear to view the whole display. The Graffiti area on the older Tungstens was fixed. The applications that come with the T3 all support landscape mode. Like all recent Palm screens, this one is quite usable in both indoor and outdoor conditions. The display, pixel wise, is 50% larger than any earlier Palm handheld

The $400 T3 ties the Wi-Fi enabled Tungsten C for the most amount of RAM found in a Palm with 64MB of memory (52MB available to the user), and the fastest processor with a 400MHz Intel XScale CPU. Like all Palms of the last few years, except for the original Zire and new Zire 21 and Tungsten E, the T3 features Palm's Universal Connector for connectivity to a large number of existing and future peripherals, such as cameras, keyboards, presentation solutions, modems and more.

The application buttons, which can all be programmed to launch whatever application you want, have been rearranged on the T3, so they are around the five-way navigation pad, making them easier to use. On the left-side of the device is a button to launch the voice memo application, also programmable, and the headphone jack for listening to MP3s. Unfortunately the device doesn't come with headphones, so you need to get your own.

The device is also missing a digital camera, which is found in many other high-end PDAs. While this isn't a deal breaker, as the Tungsten T3 offers so much more in the way of features, those who want a camera integrated in there Palm OS handheld will have to look elsewhere, such as at one of the higher-end Sony CLIE PDAs or the less powerful Palm Zire 71.

The Tungsten T3 is much improved over earlier Tungsten T models by enabling users to perform many more functions on the device with it in compact mode. This is done via a new toolbar at the bottom of the display with icons that can be preset to a user's favorite applications. The toolbar moves to the side of the device when it is in landscape mode. With the Tungsten T and T2, you needed to open the device too often to perform certain functions, negating their compact nature.

Like the other Tungsten Ts, this one integrates Bluetooth wireless connectivity for hooking up with other Bluetooth enabled devices, such as phones and PCs. An icon rests on the toolbar for easy access to Bluetooth functions.

To connect to the Internet, the device includes the Palm Web Pro browser, which can reformat pages to fit the PDA's display by going through a proxy service, which isn't very secure. In Normal View, the pages show up like they would on a PC, but you have to scroll back and forward to view and read them. Like with all the applications that come with the T3, Web pages can be viewed in portrait and landscape modes with or without Virtual Graffiti. This is advantageous when surfing the Web on a handheld.

Applications

Significantly, Palm has improved the T3's and the Tungsten E's core applications and Personal information management software. There is now a new agenda view that shows future appointments and daily tasks, as well as color-coded calendar options, similar to what third party applications, such as Agendas, have been offering for years with icons.

As for scheduling, users can now beam multiple appointments with a single command, schedule events that last past midnight and view location details. Additional contact data includes support for more multiple contact addresses, more phone numbers and email addresses, instant-messaging IDs, Web site addresses and birthdays.

Other features include repeating tasks and alarms for easier scheduling of Tasks for recurring assignments and chores, as well as larger memos and notes, something Palm users have long waited for.

The bundled Documents to Go 6 Professional Edition from DataViz delivers native Excel and Word document support, which means you can directly view and edit those types of files on your handheld, such as those that arrive in email as attachments and are transferred from a PC.

Other preloaded applications include the latest version of Kinoma Video and Palm Photos. The handhelds also feature IBM's WebSphere Micro Environment for running J2ME applications. Kinoma Producer lets you convert AVI, DV, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, and Quicktime video for viewing with the Kinoma Player on the handhelds.

Battery life on the device is fair, but could have been better. We found that the T3 delivered about 3.5 hours of usage out of a charge. It must be the extra large and bright display, 64MB of RAM and powerful processor that keeps it from performing better. This is the weakest part of an otherwise top flight PDA.