Palm Tungsten T2 Review

Overall Rating

Nice and compact
It looks so good with it's metal case
Very good screen
Sorts out my life
Good software

Needs a memory card to handle most media files
Side button gets accidentally pressed now and again
Writing anyone on the screen causes recognition problems
Had a very strange problem that has now stopped happening
No USB

I really love this little Palm Tungsten T2 PDA, it's such a cool device, small, funky and has a great screen to boot. My experience thus far:

After a while of getting used to it I now have to-do lists on top of to-do lists, while the memos have everything from recipies to how to write bits of javascript code. It's great for noting down ideas when travelling on the train. Now, that can be done on other palms, but the benefits of having the T2 are that it's slidy screen means it fits in my pocket with the mobile phone and my wallet, while the colour screen is great for displaying the tube map, London streetmap.

I just bought a bluetooth phone, and it's great being able to check my email while sitting in front of the TV with my mobile in another room, or not having to take the phone out my pocket to send an SMS or browse the web.

It's taken a bit of setting up, getting the phone to work via bluetooth meant having to download drivers, then use ones for a different phone type, but it works. The internet connection also was a bit fidly to set up, a dial up account seems to be good enough though, and the calls come under the free minutes on my mobile tariff (unlike GPRS calls).

Finally, some problems. These may not be unique to the T2, but this is what I've experienced. Firstly I would wake up in the morning to the machine not starting, not even when I pressed the power button or put it in it's cradle. I had to press the reset button to bring it back to life. After a while of this I tried removing applications and then tried hard resets, which removes all the data. Eventually, for some unknown reason it stopped shutting down and it hasn't done it since.

Next problem has been that the ability to write anywhere on the screen is lovely, but it doesn't work well with writing memos or notes for to-do list items. The machine gets confused with selecting text and writing text.

A recent wierd thing is that visiting argos.co.uk through the palm web browser crashes the T2. Maybe not all, but I tried it 3 times, and each time it just reset halfway through loading. Very strange.

Besides it's flaws though I really do love the T2, it's organised my life a real treat, and I just wish it had a USB port so it could take over from my PC in the office.

Members' Comments onjetster's Review

• digitalcal on 3rd May 2004

  Great assessment! Very helpful as I move to a T2/v600 bluetooth pairing

• Red23 on 26th Jun 2005

  "no USB"? what about the "USB HotSync Cradle" listed?