Battery
Like a lot of Palm handhelds, battery life is placed at a premium. The Zire 71 features a rechargeable 900 mAh lithium ion that specs out to give user a week of usage, the same as the Tungsten T, or five hours of continuous MP3 playing. Our usage of the both devices impressively approached these numbers. However, since the battery in both PDAs is not user-replaceable, as with Tungsten C, you'll either have to have a cradle or travel charger with you when you're on the road or plan to listen to more than five hours of MP3s, not very convenient on a long flight.

Software

The Zire 71 and the Tungsten C are the first Palm handhelds to ship with Palm OS 5.2.1, which adds Graffiti 2, based on CIC's Jot, instead of traditional Graffiti. Since the Tungsten T uses the original version of Palm OS 5, it has the old fashioned kind.

As to how you'll feel about Graffiti 2 depends on where you're coming from. New users, who've never experienced Graffiti, will be better off with Graffiti 2, as it requires strokes that are much closer to real letters for handwriting recognition. Those who are familiar with standard Graffiti will have to get used to something new.

Other applications bundled with the Zire 71 includes VersaMail version 2.5 for email, which has an improved feature set over version 2.0 found in the Tungsten T, and a Quick Install desktop application for more easily transferring files and software from the PC to the handheld, but no DataViz Documents To Go for syncing Microsoft Office documents, which the Tungsten T has. You would think that Palm's intended market for the Zire 71 would still like to have this ability.

Conclusions

Zire 71
Though the Zire 71 comes up short in a few areas, it still shines as Palm's first really successful multimedia PDA. The integrated camera is elegant as any we've seen and its audio capabilities are as good as most of the Sony's. Add in the terrific screen and a moderate price and you've got a PDA that will appeal to new users and Palm veterans alike.

Tungsten T
The wow factor for the Tungsten T has subsided a bit since its release last fall, especially with the better multimedia of the Zire 71 and dramatic increase in power and memory capacity of the Tungsten C, in addition to both devices much improved displays. However, the Tungsten T's compact size, solid design, integrated Bluetooth and stereo capabilities give it a feature set that is not offered by either of the other handhelds, making it an appealing option. Now all Palm needs to do is come out with a second version of the Tungsten T that has 64MB of RAM like the Tungsten C , the latest Palm display and a faster CPU, and then the Tungsten T will once again be on the cutting edge.

For more details on the specifications of the Zire 71 and its software bundle, visiit our Zire 71 Hardware Information Page.

For more details on the specifications of the Tungsten T and its software bundle, visiit our Tungsten T Hardware Information Page.

Click Here for the Introduction to Our Reviews of the Tungsten C, Zire 71 and Tungsten T

Click Here for Our Review of the Tungsten C - Palm's New Powerhouse