Audio/Visual/Expansion
The Zire 71's 320x320 display is among the best we've seen on a PDA, rivaling the ones found on Pocket PCs, such as HP's iPAQ 5400. That's no surprise, as Palm has finally decided to go with the transreflective technology used in the iPAQ rather than the reflective type found on the Tungsten T, whose 320x320 literally pales in comparison. Both the Tungsten T's and Zire 71's screen delivers 16-bit/65,000 colors. To be fair to the Tungsten T, its display is a dramatic improvement over Palm's previous high-end handheld, the m515, which is still available for $299..

The Zire 71 has the same 144MHz Texas Instruments OMAP310 processor and 5-way navigation found in the Tungsten T, except it adds an all-new joystick-like button for one-handed operation. The new joystick is designed to make the Zire 71 more games friendly. Like the Tungsten T, it has 16MB of RAM, of which 13MB are usable. The Tungsten T has close to 14MB available.

One Handed Operation of the Tungsten T

For listening to music files and playing movie trailers, the Zire 71 handheld ships with RealNetworks' RealOne Mobile Player and Kinoma video Player and Producer. The Tungsten T doesn't ship with an MP3 player, so you need to download one from Palm. MP3 or RealAudio files stored on an expansion card can be heard adequately through the Zire 71's built-in speaker, or via the 3.5mm stereo headphone jack located at the top right of the device, which the Tungsten T also has, except on its upper left side just above a button to quickly take voice memos via its built-in microphone, which when pressed, automatically launches a voice memo application. The Zire 71 does not have this feature.

The stereo jack for both devices accepts standard headphone plugs and provides excellent stereo sound quality. With RealNetworks' RealOne Mobile Player software, users can create and manage play lists, as well as run music in the background while using most other built-in Palm applications.

The Zire 71's power button is just in front of its headphone jack and a little further to the right rear is the stylus silo. The SecureDigital (SD) slot, which supports both memory and peripherals, sits on the top left side of the unit. The Tungsten T's SD slot is located at the center top of the handheld with the power button and stylus silo on either side. The Tungsten T features a nifty method for holding and accessing its stylus. To get the stylus out of the Tungsten T all you need to do is push down on it and it pops up, a nice feature that's similar to what's found in HP's iPAQ series.

Like all Palm models since the m500, the Zire 71, Tungsten T and Tungsten C all include a Universal Connector, which should make them compatible with any number of Palm accessories, such as keyboards and modems, already on the market.

Wireless

In terms of communication, while the Tungsten line features Bluetooth in the Tungsten T, WiFi in the Tungsten C and GSM/GPRS in the Tungsten W. The Zire 71, like its predecessor, the m150, comes up short. We think the convenience of Bluetooth should start to become standard once a handheld reaches a cedrtian price range. Integrated Bluetooth would allow the user to more easily connect to the Internet, for instance, with a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone to download email. While IR can be used for this purpose, there is no comparison in the experience for the end-user.