PalmOne Tungsten T3 Handheld

Rating:
Summary: Dead machine *bad* support
Review: I've been a long time fan of Palm products and my T3 would have been my third machine. Started with a CIII which was rock solid. I finally had to retire it after thatback plate cracked and I couldn't charge/synch it any more. Moved up to the Zire71 which was wonderful. I'm still bummed about it getting stolen.
I figured that I'd go ahead and splurge and get myself a really nice one as I had a really nice quarterly bonus come in and needed a pick me up.
Ordered online from PalmOne and after waiting more than two weeks for it to show up I charged it up and played withit a bit and was very pleased with what I saw.
INstalled the new software on my machine and checked my synch preferences to make sure that I was loading up my contact/note info from the machine to the T3 and hit synch.. and the PDA locked. not even a hard re-set was able to 'unstick it'. I was a bit concerned but let it drain completely (which took only an hour and a half) re-charged it overnight and tried it again the next day. Same issue.
After calling the non-800 number for Tungsten support (and getting cut off by the voice maze twice) I finally managed to get to talk to a *very* rude young man who laboriously went through his 'script' even after my explaining what had happened.
He seemed to relish annoying me and became more and more amused as he went on until I'd finally had enough. Hung up. sent in an email requesting a return ticket for the device.
Shame on Palm.
They've managed to turn a decent company that supplied a great product into a nightmare that has driven a supporter to PPC's.

I've read plenty of good reviews on the device itself (if you get one that works or doesn't come 'unscrewed') but the level of support I received after getting a lemon device has made it impossible for me to recommend them at all.

Buyer beware!
If you *must* have one?
Buy local (and not from PalmStore) so that you can take it back and get an exchange or your money back without having to deal with the morons that do 'Support'.

Rating:
Summary: Beware of limitations!
Review: This is a wonderful device for a typical Palm user, and I highly recommend it in this case - Calendar, Contacts, Memos, Tasks, etc. are excellent. But if, however, you are a PC desktop user and planning to work a lot with documents, read my comments first before making a final decision.

I've finally decided to retire my ancient Handheld Cassiopeia of 1997. I thought that I would jump from the Stone Age to Atomic regardless of which PDA I would buy. But the reality appeared to be less straightforward...

I decided to try this new Palm device. The first overall impression was highly positive: design, screen, colors - all above any expectations! Then I installed Palm Desktop and Documents ToGo software on my desktop PC (I was a bit bewildered why these were separate pieces and not just one) and transferred to Palm some documents and spreadsheets from my Cassiopeia (via PC).

When I opened a spreadsheet on Palm, I was a bit disappointed. There are no scrollbars for sheets, so the global navigation, vertical in particular, is somewhat difficult. Also, the columns widths are not, obviously, been transferred from the originals, and you have to set up them from scratch. Fortunately, there is a convenient option Fit for this. Unfortunately, for some reason it is limited to the current screen data. If the next page contains a wider value, then you must re-Fit the column width again. Rather strange approach.

But the above complains are nothing compared to that, when I finally reached the bottom of my spreadsheet (using the Navigator button on the PDA - it pages up/down, somewhat that you can't do with the stylus), I discovered nothing on the place where all my totals reside in the original. Just empty cells! The problem, as I understand, is the unsupported spreadsheet feature Name - it's used in some of my formulas. Instead of giving a warning or something like that, the software just stops processing the document leaving you with just a part of the sheet. Incredible!

As appeared there are two formats for documents: ToGo (the default one) and Microsoft. The last one is slower, and the files are larger. After I explicitly set up this format at the software, the resulting documents on Palm started to show all the original data and formulas, but became locked at the same time - you can't do anything with them apart from browsing. Also, you have to set the column widths each time you open the sheet - the original widths are not stored, the new ones you set on the Palm not stored either as the document is locked. And the last active cell position within a sheet is not stored either in the case - you have to page all the way down to see the totals.

I also was rather disappointed by Palm Photos - no zooming and panning. Amazingly weak for our time when any cheap digicam has these! One more comment. While screen rotation (from portrait to landscape and back) works fine, the screen "stretching" looks somewhat artificial. At least when you are working on a stretched screen with input area hidden, and you select some option and then return back to the main screen, the input area shows up for a fracture of second and then hides back.

Altogether the above forces me to return the device back and to switch to Pocket PC's. They are much better in terms of compatibility with desktop. However, the previous generation of the devices has a very weak screen - 240x320. Twice less than Tungsten T3! As I learned, this is a limitation of the 1st edition of Windows Mobile OS. The recent 2nd edition offers both landscape and portrait orientations and support for VGA resolution 640x480! Wow! Unfortunately, there are still very few devices with such a screen and they are rather expensive. So, I personally decided to stay a bit more with my good old Cassiopeia (apropos, it has 640x480 screen, though monochrome) waiting for selection increases and prices drop.

Rating:
Summary: Great machine but why Bluetooth?????
Review: The software is great with documents to go and Kinoma. The hardware is great, thoughtfully designed and ergonomically sublime.

The major drawback is Bluetooth. WHY? Who has a Bluetooth network in their house, everyone has 802.11b. They should have installed a built in 802.11b system and then offered a Bluetooth accessory to plug into the SD slot.

I returned it and will buy the Tungsten C even though it is a year old.

Rating:
Summary: Best Palm EVER yes better than the t5
Review: I will post a second review in a few weeks after I recieve the product. I did tons of reasearch before choosing this item. Statistically this palm is WOW. So small when folded/unslided or what ever. Yet the second you slide it out it is the size of texas. the only thing is that it should have flash memory like the t5.PalmOne has really out done themselves I have a large knowledge of software and hardware. I have tried Pocket Pcs, Dells, Sonys, and I have also tried palms and statistically I would recomend this product to ANYONE. The only downsider is that in my opinion it is slightly overpriced for a handheld.
Its price should be $280.00 at a maximum. But that didnt stop me fro buing one. Its 52 Mb user available internal memory isnt bad. I think the bluetooth is pretty handy to conect to other pdas and pcs.