Did you buy one yet?

[riversen]

If you recently bought a T/E and have some thoughts on it, would you be so kind as to post your experiences here? I really would like to knw if the processor speed being slower is noticable, is it too shiny or slippery, how does the screen look, any software compatibility problems, etc.?

Thanks in advance.

[mikerab]

I just bought one two days ago. You can't tell any speed difference from the Zire. This thing is super fast. I put several pictures in albums on it and it retrieves them quickly. I love this thing! It does everything that I want it to do and it's quick.

[Telyx]

Mine just arrived in the mail today. Christmas in October!

[chris-cogan]

This is a sweet PDA. I'm upgrading from a Handspring Visor Deluxe. so the screen quality, speed, and extra memory are great! So far this thing does everything I want it to. The only problem I've run into so far is with a Hack Managing program- none of the versions of the 3 main ones available work on this latest Palm OS. (Not that there are that many hacks needed anyway with this thing.) Other than that, I had a couple of general faults requiring a reset when I was installing all my software (there was a pile of it), but I got everything installed and working just fine. This is a better option than the Zire 71 if you're into pictures, it has double the base memory, and you can buy a camera that plugs into the SD card expansion slot for around the same price as the difference between the 2 PDAs. It has MP3 support using RealOne (you need an SD card to use it, or the grossly overpriced Palm MP3 kit), and it comes with Documents to Go version 6.0 Pro (the Zire 71 comes with 5.5 for some strange reason). All in all, this model seems to hit that sweet spot- the most bang for the buck. Definitely worth buying.

[Telyx]

Hacks don't work at all with OS 5.

So far, of the programs I use with my m125 (I put the SD card in my E and played a little), FireViewer works but my grayscale pictures lock the E up, Astro Info seemed to work but after changing to a different screen it locked up, and the old MahJongg game I used to play on my PP Personal waaay back (didn't work on the Visor but worked on the m125) doesn't work. Sun Compass works but the dotted and solid circles around the North line are invisible--but the Sun pointer and North line are still visible, so it's useable.

Once I get home and install the new version of Palm Desktop and do a HotSync, I'll be able to give it a thorough shakedown. I'll have to remember to remove the various m125 OS updates from my backup folder before that first HotSync, though. I'm also going to try the trick for getting Graffiti 1 back--I've been using it so long that it's second nature. (I find myself starting to write on paper in Graffiti sometimes.)

Update 10/9: aTool! doesn't work, but FireViewer 6.3 does... now I just have to re-convert all my pictures to color for full enjoyment. The Palm Photos application is decent for pictures, though it forces them to fit the screen--which makes it lousy for maps. Also, you can't create categories on the card for Palm's Photos app like you can for FireViewer, and the process of getting pictures to the handheld or the card is kind of cumbersome. So, looks like I'll cough up the dough for FV. (I will keep the Photos app because I can put the SD card in my digital camera and take pictures, then copy them with Filez to the right folder so Palm Photos can see them.)

[dsf3g]

I've got my Tungsten E, and I've got to tell you: this is probably going to be Palm's hottest selling device ever. It deserves to be, in any case.

I've owned Palm OS devices ever since I traded my Apple Newton for a Palm 1000. I evetually traded the 1000 for a Palm V, and then traded the V for a Sony Clie 710.

I Loved Sony's hi-res screen, but was not overjoyed by its bulk. 8 megs of RAm, which, at first seemed spectacular in comparison with my Palm v's 2 megs, soon proved too little.

Now I've got the Tungsten E and it brings me the best of both worlds: it's got a beautiful hi-res screen, and 32 megs of RAM. I use my Palms for gaming, in addition to regular organizing functions, and the E probably has the best layout of any Palm OS machine so far. My Clie was bad enough with its tiny, awful, recessed "Up" and "Down" buttons, but now Palm has gone and completely screwed up the button layout on the T3. No way you're going to play Galax with a layout like that! But the Tungsten E retains the winning layout of the early Palms (and even adds the 5-way pointed pad that I haven't quite yet got the hang of).

Yeah, the Tungsten E hasn't got a Universal connecter: but I only ever used that for the Keyboard, and Palm's got an IR keyboard out already for the E.

The weight and feel of the machine itself is A-class solid.

It is *very* fast! There's no comparison between the E and my old Clie (even with the afterburner hack installed). Bump Attack pinball is a whole new game!

I agonized long and hard before choosing the Tungsten E over the T3. I'm confident I've made the right decision. If Palm had made the T3 identical to the Tungsten E, but with the larger screen (i.e. no silly sliding mechanism) then it might have been a more difficult choice. But I just don't see le larger screen, faster processor and more memory being a $200 advantage (especially given how Palm has messed up the the hard button layout.)

Basically, I *love* this machine!

[Telyx]

My only problem so far is terrible battery life--I might have to exchange my E. I took it off the charger shortly before bedtime and the battery was at 100% according to FileZ and LauncherX, and the battery icon at the top read full too. After 8 hours of non-use (beam receive off, etc.), it was down to 40%. Today, I did the "in-cradle reset" Handspring recommends for the Visor PDAs to restore proper charge parameters, and after 8 hours of mostly non-use (but about half an hour of picture viewing toward the end) it was down to 23% already. I'm beginning to think this particular one has a bad battery.

Aside from that, I'm blown away. This thing is great!

[aliff]

To get accurate and objective statistics of the battery, I use an app called BatteryGraph. For personal use the app is freeware.

Among things that it can do :

* Displays battery percentage and voltage level in a graph
* Displays device on time per day
* Displays total time, device on-time and device off-time since last charge

http://palm.jeroenwitteman.com/BatteryGraph/

[Telyx]

I'm using BatteryGraph now, but I was using Runtime, which does pretty much the same stuff. It didn't seem to update the voltage graph properly, though.

I seem to have gotten my problem resolved... I swapped units with my brother, who will exchange the defective one at a local retail store. This one is at 100% after 11 hours; the defective one would have been below 20% by now. Whew!

[aliff]

This one is at 100% after 11 hours
That's a very good battery performance.. Can you confirm that 11 hours is "Time On" and not "Total Time" ?

Time On = total aggregate time from the last battery recharge that the PDA is actually turned on and used. This is the actual measure of battery performance, but it depends on many variables (brightness level, type of application, etc)

Total Time = total time starting from the last battery recharge.

[Telyx]

No, that's total time; just comparing to the defective one which would have run down to 20% after 11 hours of NON-use.

I may have to go back to Runtime to see what the on-time for a particular period was. BatteryGraph just tells me the on-time for the present charge and the total time--I can't go back and see the on-time for a past interval like I could with Runtime.

As long as the thing will get me through from morning until I get home from work without needing a charge with my normal usage, I'm content. It did yesterday, and it didn't drop until I'd played several games of Freecell and Patience and ran a couple of video clips. At 81%, it took less than half an hour to get back to 100% with the wall-wart cooling down (i.e. the T/E wasn't drawing any more juice). I'm not going to complain about that.

[knightsog]

Mine came in the mail yesterday. After the 3hr charge I synced over the M500 stuff. Same battery problem. Left it on charge all night, have had it on for a total of maybe 30min today and am down to 28%. To top it off, I get "(Sys 0505) (0,746) error code and the thing goes nutsy. This pops up when the auto shutdown kicks in and the E stays on until you acknowledge the alarm. And no where in the PDF can I find what that error code is or means. Starting to act like Microsoft products! Probably the old stuff from the old PDA doing that. I have been using Intellisync (before we had outlook conduits) and that has prevented a good sync all over.

I want to get these bugs worked out but I dont' want to spend a lot of time if the thing has to be returned for battery failure. I have 29 days left on the free return (bought from an Amazon partner).

Other than the above, I concur with a review I read: the only thing keeping this from getting five out of six stars is the lack of docking station with the integrated charger. But who needs it?

[dsf3g]

Those who are having battery problems: have you tried testing the unit without any of your 3rd party software installed? It is not outside the realm of possiblity that something you've got installed is doing this. I'd try that before returning the machine.

OTOH, it could simply be a bad batch of batteries or Tungstens.

(My battery performance is fine.)

[Telyx]

My guess is a bad batch of batteries. The second one I got works great with the same programs installed as the one I returned. It seemed like something was shorted internally--the wall wart never cooled down like it does when the unit is fully charged and accepting no more juice.

knightsog, you would want to make sure you've removed any Palm OS updates/patches for the m500 along with any Hacks and Hack controllers from your m500's backup folder before you HotSync (assuming you're giving the E your m500's user name)--any pre-Palm OS 5 patches will give you problems, and Hacks don't work on OS 5.

Any other app conflicts I've had usually result in a freeze when trying to exit the program, in which case a soft reset puts things back to normal.

[knightsog]

Roger all. I figured the m500 stuff was the root of all evil and I'm just going to start all over. Just wanted to see what happens. Again, looks Gates-ish to me...I want to upgrade but the new OS won't handle the old stuff I've been using for the past four or five years. Bummer.

As for the batteries, I've been in E&E for over 30 years and have experience with them. I would really like to accept the "bad batch" theory I find it hard to believe that Palm QA would let something like this happen. Haven't done much research on lithiums and am definitely far from expert. I'm gonna keep chargin' 'em and see if maybe they just might need a little breaking in because I have seen that. In the meantime I've sent out some emails of concern to appropriate authorities...not Palm.

Thanks for the responses!

[Palmopedia]

Your sys 0505 error was being caused by the backlight.prc update that were for the m500 series. They remember the status of your backlight. Causes this error on OS5 devices when powering.

[45semi]

I went from a Zire to a T|E...

Of course it's a hellacious lot better :)



But you should get a bottle of windex and a roll of paper towels with a T|E,
cause you could take police-quality fingerprints off of it with scotch tape!

See the glare? lol!
http://home.nc.rr.com/skybluesea/tungsten.jpg