to biuy or not

[fkheng]

fromwat i've read here, it seems to me that i should not buy Tungsten E namely becoz of the battery life problem, which runs out quick, could anyone advise? has this problem been adressed?

or for now, there's no alternative to this problem?

[dsf3g]

The battery problem seems to affect only some Tungsten E's. Mine is great. There's no battery problem whatsoever. I do charge it every night, because in all honesty, battery life is not as good as an old, monochrome Palm V. But as long as you don't get one of the defective units that loses 80% of its charge over-night when it's not even turned on, I think you'll be happy with the battery life.

I really think this is Palm's best handheld to date.

[rick417]

I haven't had mine (or I should say my wife's upcoming present) on the charger since Sunday. The battery was down about 1/8 this morning (7/8 power left). It stays off mostly, except for about 3 hot syncs since Sunday, and every day at 4 am it comes on to perform a backup. Sometimes a reminder that is in the Outlook calendar will turn it on too. I've installed Energy Dimmer, which I have set to dim the screen to 10% after 5 minutes and then turn off after 15 minutes. I do not have any big complaint about battery life.

I used it almost all day Saturday--morning installing things and a game (Lemonade Tycoon) most of the afternoon Saturday until it warned me the battery was getting low. So I put it on the charger until Sunday and it seems to be holding up, although with little use, since then.

[Telyx]

I'm VERY happy with the T/E I ended up with. I'd recommend that, if you do buy one, you buy it from a retail store rather than from Palm's online store--in case you do have to exchange it because of the battery problem.

Sure, I miss the one-month battery life of my m125 (or the 3-month battery life of my Pilot 1000!), but the hi-res color screen and really fast processor make it worth the sacrifice.

[fkheng]

okay, but is there anyway of telling if a Tungsten E has a defect in terms of battery life? anyway to tell? e.g. thru batch number? or sign?

[Telyx]

Not that I know of--and now that you mention it, I wish I'd have written down the serial number of the one I returned in case anyone starts compiling a list and looking for a pattern.