But what about the battery?

[Stardust]

I wish I could rave like many people over the Tungsten T. But I keep wondering how long the battery will last and if replacement batteries will be accessible. I presume there is no off-the-shelf battery you can buy and fit into the unit if the original battery conks out.

Can anyone shed light on this basic issue?

[djmangen]

At the moment there is no off the shelf battery, and probably will not be.

The battery will probably last about 2 years before it begins to show marked signs of failing to hold a charge.

A single charge will last approximately 8-10 hours of use, assuming that you do not have the backlight cranked all the way on high.

[Stardust]

I know li-ions last only two years. I don't know about the lithium polymer.

$500-plus for a high-end PDA like Tungsten and two years of use. Expensive throw-away toy, I think.

[djmangen]

Then don't buy it, or any other one for that matter. Name 1 that has an expected life cycle beyond 2-3 years.

[pdagranny]

How long the battery lasts depends on how you use it. As djmangen said, the charge will last longer if you don't have the back light on high. The TT has a sliding backlight setting so you can fine tune it to your needs, unlike the 515 that had a low and high setting.

That said, a friend at work is still using her Vx and the battery is only now showing signs of wear. She needed to reset the battery once this year by pushing the reset button while the handheld is in the cradle and turned on. That solved the problem she had. She probably uses the handheld an hour each day.

I remain optomistic that replacement batteries will be available in the future. In fact I seem to remember something about sites that sell replacement parts for palms. I don't recall the names of the sites, but a Google search should turn them up.

pdagranny

[Larken]

********hightech.com has a lot of PDA parts and accessories. I would be very surprised if they don't have replacement batteries for the Tungsten within six months or so. As for battery life, I use mine frequently during the day for scheduling, ebooks, games, etc. and I don't notice much battery drain at all with the backlight at about 25%. I would definitely say it's comparable to my m515.