Tungsten E

The looks of the $200 Tungsten E makes one nostalgic for the days when the Palm V came onto the scene as the first truly stylish PDA. While that device represented the high-end of its day, the Tungsten E, which is still a relatively powerful handheld by today's standards, is aimed at those who don't want to pay a premium.

With the Tungsten E, Palm has opted to run Palm OS 5.2 on a 126MHz TI OMAP processor with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. While not the fasted processor around, applications still ran smoothly during testing. The device also has a good amount of memory (32MB of RAM of which 28.3MB are available to the user) and like the other handhelds in the Tungsten series, Palm's 5-way navigator for one-handed operation. It also has the same excellent 320x320 resolution and 65,000 color display found in the Tungsten C and Zire 71.


Tungsten E

The thin and light weight Tungsten E weighs 4.6 ounces and measures 4.5 x 3.1 x 0.5 inches. It has a SDIO enabled Secure Digital slot for memory expansion and peripherals, the ability to play MP3s in stereo via headphones (not included), and play video via Kinoma Player just like the Tungsten T3. Like with the T3, MP3s must be played off of a memory card and not in RAM. Of course, SD cards currently go up to 512MB, which holds a lot of music.

The only wireless connectivity the Tungsten E has is infrared. This may be a limitation for some users, as Bluetooth is becoming more prevalent in other handhelds and peripherals. This is not the device to get if you want to use a Bluetooth-enabled phone to surf the Web and check your email with your handheld.

Two application buttons rest on either side of the 5-way navigation pad at the bottom of the unit just bellow the Graffiti area. These buttons are programmable like with the Tungsten T3. The SD slot is at the upper top left of the device, while the headphone jack is towards the right top and the power button and stylus silo are a little further over to the right. The built-in speaker is on the upper back of the Tungsten E.

Since no cradle is bundled with unit, an included USB sync cable gets plugged in at the bottom, along with a separate power cord. This also means the device lacks the Palm Universal Connector, so the plethora of Palm peripherals designed for the Universal Connector won't work with the Tungsten E. Palm has, however, released a Wireless Keyboard that works with the all Palm branded PDAs, including those without Universal Connectors.