Rating: 
Summary: Great piece of gear...on paper
Review: Most every other reviewer has lauded the virtues and negatives of a brand-new 'E,' so I won't rehash the specs here. I purchased mine in October of '03, and for four months, it worked flawlessly. Not a single lockup, sync error, screen crack, etc. It did everything that a PDA is supposed to do.Now flash forward to the third week of January '04, when the unit has just come off of the extremely short and stingy PalmOne ninety-day factory warranty. By the way, did you know that every other Tungsten in the PalmOne line is warranteed for one year? Palm doesn't seem to have much faith in the 'E,' however, and in my case, the reasoning seems justified. I went to turn on the device one morning at work. No good. I had charged it the night before, so I decided that it couldn't be a battery problem. A soft reset failed. A warm reset finally turned the unit on, but it locked up within minutes. This irritating boot sequence of rest -> lockup -> reset continued ad nauseum, but at least I was able to perform one last sync. After that lifesaver, the unit displayed "Error: 69xx: Database Corruption" and refused to turn on. Later that evening, when I was back home, even under AC power, the device failed to turn on. I performed a hard reset, wiping everything, and it managed to turn on...once. It then locked up again (you could set your watch to this thing by now) and then refused to turn off. I eventually unplugged it from AC power and basically let it run itself to death. Next comes the dreaded call to customer support. These days, whether it's cell phones, credit cards, or flowers, calling customer support is essentially a joke. Did you know that PalmOne has outsourced (like many American companies struggling to maintain solvency) its customer support operations to India? My first clue was the grave amount of hiss on the phone line. My second clue was my CSR's introduction, in which he identified himself as Prakesh (my apologies if the spelling is incorrect). My third clue was when he stated that the CPU was the "central professing unit." After bearing with his standard teleprompted repair process (in which I was told to perform, among other things, a soft, warm, and cold reset), he cheerfully informed me that the unit was indeed dead, and delineated my repair options. $125 + shipping for the unit to be mailed, serviced, and returned. I balked. "I paid $200 for the thing, and you want me to pay 60% of the cost of a new one to replace it? Do I have any other options?" Of course I did. If I wanted to receive a refurbished unit instead, I could get one for the low low price of $165.99. Plus shipping. Oh, and by the way, could I get your credit card number, because this tech support call is going to cost $25, because you are not calling during the warranty period. Thankfully, I managed to convince him to waive that last fee, since everything he told me was information readily available at the PalmOne website. During the time that it worked, I'll concede, my 'E' performed as advertised. Despite this, however, I can only give it one star, based on its extremely poor reliability. After browsing the Brighthand PDA forums, it seems that even the Cadillac-priced 'C' has, among other things, issues with the display cracking under myserious circumstances. I won't be buying another Palm product in the forseeable future. Maybe this is why Palm keeps losing market share to the Pocket PC.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost Perfect, but watch out for the new shorter warrantee
Review: As a Palm user since March of 1999, the Tungsten E is my third unit. The screen is great, the new Graffiti system takes some getting used to, and the speed is FAST. However,the warrantee and service behind the unit has been severely downgraded. For instance, it is now only 90 days for a NEW unit, with 30 days return for a defective unit. (one can debate the merits of Palm's $50 buyer protection plan). A stingy warrantee would not normally be an issue, but many of the Tungsten E's have a problem with the 5-way navigator button--it clicks without making contact. Very frustrating. It used to be that Palm would ship you a new one (or refurbished) BEFORE you sent in the old one, so that your service was uninterupted. Now, they want $39.95 to do the same swap. The alternative is to either send in the old one and wait two weeks or buy a second and then send in the old one (which I did this morning). In sum, the new features are worth the trade off,but if you do discover a defect, don't dally or you'll have to eat the costs. And Palm, if you're reading, why not increase the warrantee to a year and put the old higher QA back into your production facilities? Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Great PDA for the price
Review: Had mine since Christmas 2003, it replaces a Vx that I've had since they came out. Wonderful product, lots of memory, great color screen, expandable memory via SD or MMC cards, and faster than my Vx.
I didn't want a PDA that could play music, or connect wirelessly, or take pictures, and I got exactly what I wanted. However I did purchase a 128mb SD card, transferred a some mp3s to it and have listened to them with headphones I already had, I did it more to see if it could be done, and doubt if I'll use it like that.
It could have been better. I don't know what Palm was thinking when they didn't use their own universal connector on this one, & I miss the cradle my Vx had.
When I come to work in the morning I plug the TE into it's USB cable and it happily charges all day long. I leave the charger at home, or take it when I travel, so far it's not been an issue. I will be picking up another USB to mini-USB cable as per other's suggestions for home, although I rarely sync from home.
I have had No problems with this Palm since I got it, and it was relatively easy to sync my data over from the Vx. I did have some conflicts with all shareware products not compatible with Palm OS5.
I'm still shopping around for a decent case for it.
A last comment on Palm support, yes it does suck, but I have dealt with worse companies. Try getting any help from MDM sometime, they sale cards for the Palm.
Rating: 
Summary: Great unit - screen "whine" annoying.
Review: I've had this thing for just about a month. It was fantastic for the first two weeks. Screen looked great, everything was fine. Then my contacts button started acting up... i have to press it twice as hard as the others for it to register. This wouldn't be too bad, but the screen has started this high-pitched whine that's driving me nuts! I've read that lots of other people are having the same problem. I can hardly use this thing sometimes 'cause it's so loud. look into the problem before you buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Sync-Cable News
Review: To solve the problem of an extra sync-cable, go to any office supply store or electronic store and purchase an A plug/5-pin mini-B plug. I purchased mine at Best Buy in California. It will work very well to sync. After several calls to Palm, and numerous inquiries on the net, I finally discovered this simple solution with the help of a compassionate palm tech, who listened to my frustration of not being to easily obtain an extra sync-cable. Sure one comes with the "E", but I wanted one for my office use. I hope this helps some of you out there. The "E" is fantastic otherwise.
Rating:
Summary: MAC USERS using Panther
Review: Palm's desktop software is NOT yet compatible on Panther (OS X v.10.3) as of this writing. Great product and I want to buy it, but I don't want to risk buying it without the proper compatibility. I'm assuming they're working on it, but I'm waiting until an update is available or until Palm comes out with the Tungsten E with the updated software., before purchasing. If you know of a fix, please pass it on. Otherwise, you can go to palm.com and read the fine print: only compatible up to OS X v. 10.2
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: I am tired of all these people giving this little guy bad reviews because of it's lack of bluetooth and other special features. That is not what a review is for, you are supposed to rate the product as it is, not for what it isn't. This palm is sweet. It is my first handheld and I am totally sold for life. The screen is off the hook, awesome brightness in any condiditon, and the color is as good as any laptop I've seen. It almost looks like they took a section of a laptop screen and put it in this, that's how good it is. It displays pictures, and plays videos, the video playback is not exceptional, but luckily it is smooth. The MP3 player is as good as it gets as far as I'm concerned. I have a 128mb expansion card and can fit plenty of music on it. The quality is perfect through headphones, and if it is quiet, the speaker built in sounds good too. Battery life is ok, but nothing great. I can usually get 1.5 days on it, 2 if I conserve battery. The mp3 player uses hardly no battery, but if you try to play a game while listening to music, the battery will drain quickly. If you need a solid palm for work, and play... I say look no further than the Tungsten E.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing Palm for a Veteran User
Review: As a veteran user of just about every kind of handheld there has been (Palm OS, Pocket PC, etc.) I have mixed reviews of this latest handheld by Palm. If you have never had a PDA before, this one would probably work for you. If on the other hand you are a veteran user- BEWARE OF THIS BUDGET PDA. Pros include: a beautiful screen, solid stylus and easy-to-use OS Cons include: body prone to scratches, cheap cable syncing, initial setup, Graffiti area takes up too much of screen While the screen is absolutely terrific and the stylus is very solid, the cons outweigh these otherwise nice features. As the graffiti area takes up nearly 30% of the screen and the two (that's right 2!) cables need to be attached to sync and recharge the unit, this Palm gets a 2 thumbs down from this user. Wouldn't you think that Palm could provide the same kind of elegant hideaway writing area as the Pocket PC platform? As for the cables, if you want to be using twisty ties and duck tape to keep track of two cables, this just might be your Palm. My recommendations: spend the extra bucks for an HP Pocket PC or one of the higher end Palms- you'll be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: REPLACEMENT CHARGER FOR TUNGSTEN E
Review: The 5-Stars is definitely a rating of the Tungsten E. I'd reluctantly give Palm Support a single star. I just modified this review on 1/17/04 because Palm has apparently added a "travel charger" for the Tungsten E to their online store at http://store.palmone.com/. It sells for $30, has a 6ft cord and automatically adjusting voltage for world-wide use, plus multiple wall jack connectors. What follows below is the part of that review which indicates the only Palm alternative I could find on the internet. It may be of interest to some of you. ------------------------------------------------ In my quest to find a solution, I ran into a company on the net called BOXWAVE (www.boxwave.com) that clearly advertises two Tungsten E solutions. They have pictures which clearly show they apply to the Tungsten E model. They are: miniSynch with Charger - this is an adapter which has a USB connection at one end and two connections at the other. These two connections are for the power input and the mini-USB input. So, it can be used to both put a slow charge on the Tungsten E and/or hot-synch it to the PC software. Their price is $15.50. Wall Charger for miniSynch - this is a charger that connects to your electrical outlet and comes in 2 flavors: US and European. The charger box itself has what appears to be a USB connection which is intended to connect to the first product (above) and claims to put a fast charge onto the connected Palm. Its voltage specification is 5.0V +/- .25V. While this doesn't quite meet the 5.5V specification it's close and my guess is that would not toast the Tungsten. It likely will work since my Tungsten will actually charge slowly from the PC USB port using the supplied USB to mini-USB cable, and I doubt that it is as powerful as a dedicated charger, although the port does power 500mA. The price for this charger is $14.95. You're on your own here since I did not buy it and try it, but it appears bonafide for the Tungsten E. Hope this helps someone ... Sam
Rating:
Summary: Question: How to Backup
Review: "Erased info on both the PALM AND my PC. Phone numbers, calendar, tasks, all gone." How do I prevent this? It was really hard to set this PALM up to Outlook, but our tech guy finally did it. Once its up its good as a PALM for address and calendar, but there really is no manual and the website doesn't help you either. They really skimped on the support and I don't know how to use half the programs it came with.
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