Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Customer Service???
Review: If you are looking for a PDA with quality in every aspect-I would not recommend a Palm product. Although the product is fine when it is working, their Customer Service, should you have need to contact them, makes purchasing any Palm product a poor decision. Great products are only as good as the ability of the company would provide service/repair satisfaction to the purchaser. I had been a Palm user for six years now--which is what prompted me to purchase the Tungsten C. Now, having dealt with Palm Customer Service, I will say that I will no longer be recommending, nor using any Palm product. The product itself is great, the features are wonderful, when they are working--ie. brand new, straight out of the box from the stores. The main issue I have with regards to my Tungsten C resides with the customer care given if there is a problem--after having the screen on my Tungsten break, Palm set up a repair/exchange order. I received a refurbished model back, which was in a complete state of disrepair. The case was scratched was extremely loose--nothing like the Palm I sent off to repair. In total, I have been sent four replacement Tungsten C's, each with the promise of having been hand-pick/inspected by a Palm Engineer, each with its own host of problems--the sound is permanently on, datebook does not run (which is the primary tool used by most PDA users), and the latest is that the battery can neither hold a charge, nor be charged. With most companies-customer satisfaction is the foundation of their success-yet, all Palm can offer is yet another Palm replacement (they have had four opportunities to send a functioning Palm). They have neither compensated me for my two months of time spent waiting for a working Palm, nor have they done anything to maintain my satisfaction as a customer of Palm. Thoroughly disenchanted with my Tungsten C-once it needed to be fixed.
Rating:
Summary: Run don't walk.... AWAY FROM PALM!!!
Review: To the ones of use who now own Palm this is going to bring back nightmares... sorry. But for those of you who I am about to save... your welcome. Lets start with the sad stuff. I bought a Treo 90 (My first one ever mind you... I miss it :'() back when it was owned by Handspring :-D (Great Company). Then they SOLD OUT to Palm. Now most would think.. cool bigger company more help right... WRONG!!! The week my Treo went down, (So I thought it was just a little soft reset needed... no biggie) I called for help and they said I had the thing for more then 90 days... So I am like "Yeah... and?" "Well sir... your out of warranty." Now mind you... they are talking about after 90 days your warranty doesn't exist anymore, (unless you buy there rip off plan... I mean "Extended" warranty). So they wanted me to pay 25 dollars to begin trouble shooting... Keep in mind if they mess up and it didnt take I got to pay 25 dollars again to get the right answer. So I said nevermind and hopped online and got the fix in 2 minutes and for FREE :-D. Now I have a Tungsten C now Right... Well Again it is after 90 days but this time I was told there was a year warranty on phone call support, (Apprently that is different then Repairs nowadays)... But come on this is Palm... I called and you guessed it... I was told I had to pay 25 dollars for a Yes or No question... NO JOKE. Even after PALM lied to me... not some Vendor... PALM THEM SELVES!!! RUN... if you don't listen to me on this... START SAVING YOUR MONEY NOW and make sure you have a backup ready to go at anymoment, BELIEVE ME... YOU ARE GOING TO NEED IT. :'( Good luck. :-D
Rating: 
Summary: Great design, poor construction, little quality control
Review: I have had my T/C for 8 months now. It has been a great handheld, but I wouldn't buy another, and wouldn't recommend anyone else buy one. The Good: Excellent thumb-board has led me to largely abandon use of the stylus. Fast processor, great screen, and WIFI mean you can actually surf the internet if you are near a hotspot (but only if you buy WebProV, the included web browser is poor). I always synch with my wireless LAN rather then the cradle, because it is just as fast. The battery is huge; I usually only charge the unit once a week, and I am a power user; using it for hours every single day. The bad: construction quality is poor, and there is little quality control (a "refurbished unit" I was sent arrived nonfunctional, with the case not snapped completely together). There is a class problem with LCD screens breaking with little or no torture to the unit (this is my 4th PDA, and the first I have broken a screen on). The PLASTIC case creaks when you push it and the palm flexes; the halves are not well fastened together (which might cause the screen breakage). There is a gap at the bottom of the screen where the case does not touch the screen. The screen emits a high pitched 400 Hz hum, which has got steadily noisier the longer I have owned the product (to the point where I can hear it at arms length). About 40% of all palms developed a software glitch which caused the bottom 20-30 pixels of the digitizer to fail after a few months of use (possibly corrected with a new firmwear upgrade this month). The silver paint on the case scratches and wears off easily. The headphone jack is a 2.5 mm mono jack for use with a headset to allow for future VOIP, unfortunately, standard cell phone headsets will not work, as they swapped the connection terminal order on the jack. The Ugly: Palm customer service. I paid $40 for an advanced exchange to fix the problem with my digitizer (covered under warranty). It was very painful: 1 defective advanced exchange, 1 promised advanced exchange that never happened, 1 advanced exchange shipped to the wrong address, 2 more promises of advanced exchanges that did not occur, 1 attempt to charge me an additional $40 for another advanced exchange, 3 emails threatening charges to my credit card of $550 weeks after tracking info on airborne express website indicated Palm had received the returned handhelds at least 7 days prior, 2 promises (not fulfilled) to charge back my credit card the $40 due to poor service, 7 long distance phone calls totalling 129 minutes. Every call to Palm was the start of a brand new conversation: their system of keeping track of customers does not work. And 2 weeks after I finally got a functional T/C, the screen broke (and I hadn't even dropped it). My advice? As a user of both palmOS and PPC, I prefer the palmOS (as long as it has a high-res screen and a fast processor). I am not a fan of their construction quality or customer service process. If you need a keyboard (and I do), buy a Sony UX. If you want a good screen, buy a sony TH55. Stay away from Palm T3 and T/C.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent User design, poor overall design
Review: This is my first PDA. I am very impressed with using this product. I already don't know how I got along without it. The reason that I am rating it so low is that Palm designed this product not allowing the user to change there own battery. Batteries that are used in the Palm can last for up to 18 to 24 months or less. If a battery does go out it is around $56 dollars to get a new one and a few hundred to have an authorized Palm engineer replace it. If you try changing it yourself you void warranty. This is really a dirty deal. If I knew of this before I bought it I would have made a different choice.
Rating:
Summary: Not Impressed
Review: I was excited to find a pda with a keyboard that didnt need a phone plan (like the blackberry). I was disappointed when it took 2 days to set everything up and then even more outraged that I needed to buy additional software to get basic things (like the enhanced web-brower and games). I also found the battery life to be poor and was disappointed when I couldn't check email from hotmail/yahoo accounts. In addition, the Wi-Fi hotspots aren't as common as one might think (even in NYC), so email and web browsing wasn't accessible most of the time. I wouldn't have minded paying the $500 if its features functioned with ease. Some of the good features: powerpoint, word, excel and the ability to open attachments (was not an option with the older blackberry models), great screen and resolution, small size, and user friendly keyboard. I recommend one of the newer blackberry's if you are a keyboard person and like that functionality.
Rating:
Summary: Lousy product, even worse customer service - rebate problems
Review: I've had my Tungsten for a month now. I've done at least 10 hard resets, downloaded a few patches, and had to reinstall my Palm Desktop. This morning I woke up to find none of my to dos that are set to repeat are repeating. After another frustrating call to Palm tech support - where they don't speak English all that well and every supposed solution they give me causes me three hours of follow-up work - I am going through all 2,299 of my to dos, looking for those that are supposed to repeat so I can edit them to, yes, repeat. The notes that were attached to those to dos, however, are gone for good, as are any contacts that they were attached to. I don't think it's me - I've had a Palm IIIe, Vx, and a Handspring Treo. None of them gave me any problems. My operating system is the same as I used with those models. The software I'm using on the Palm is the same. The only explanation for my problems is that it's the Tungsten. The unit also has a few design flaws - notably a mono headset jack that needs an adapter to work with normal headphones. The Tungsten C also doesn't fit into the cradle as securely as some other PDAs I've owned. Also, the keys get inadvertently pressed when the Tungsten is not in use. For example, if the last application I used was the memo pad, when I start my Tugnsten C again, their will be a new memo titled something like "qqqq." The cover is also flimsy (the top part of it sticks out a bit). On top of what you spent on the unit, be prepared to spend another $20 for a case. Also, the web access ire pretty lousy. It won't load a lot of pages (I'm not talking Java scripts either - NY Times Op-Ed articles in html won't load). Switching from one PDA to the Tungsten was a huge pain. When I upgraded from a Palm IIIe to the Handspring Treo 90, all I had to do was plug in the cradle and hit sync. Upgrading to the Tungsten, however, required reinstalling the Palm desktop (which cause me to lose the customizations), as well as re-registering the third-party applications (some of which required different registration codes from what I originally received; other programs no longer worked at all). Finally, if you bought your Tungsten C with the $100 rebate, get ready to wait. While the information says six to eight weeks, that's actually how long it takes for them to process it. It can take several weeks from when Palm receives it to when it starts to process it.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice, but inconvenient and expensive to upgrade software
Review: I received my tungsten c two days ago. I followed the instruction to install the software on my win xp laptop. But I could not get the handheld to sync with my laptop. So I uninstalled everything, rebooted, and then reinstalled everything. This time around, I did a successful first sync. This palm has been a joy to have. The web browser that comes with it is version 2.0 and the docs to go v5. Palmone charges $35 to upgrade the browser to version 3.0 and $30 to upgrade docs to go to v6. In fact, most of the included software titles are not the lasted. If you would like to upgrade them, you will likely use all the rebate that you may receive weeks or even months later. I like Tungsten C. But find it inconvenient and expensive to upgrade the applications. Hence the 3 stars. It would have been much easier for user if Palmone would simply package the handheld with the latest software package and reduce the rebate.
Rating: 
Summary: Tungsten C good, but support issues a major drawback
Review: I have owned the Palm Vxe, 515 and now have had a Tungsten C for a month. The Tungsten upgrade was easy from my 515 and my files were on the new unit with no problem. Here are some of the pros and cons of the unit: 1. WiFi range is OK, but not stellar. It is comparable to my laptop with built in WiFi, but not as good as an external WiFi card. Good for most "hot spots", but may not work all over your house. 2. The supplied Web Browser is not Palm's best. The T|C has Web Browser 2.0. For extra cash, you can buy Web Browser Pro 3.0... now why (except for greed) should you have to spend extra money for the upgrade software, when you've just spent 400+ for the Tungsten? 3. Battery life is excellent. I used a Sony UX-50 for awhile and the battery life on the Sony is very short (less than 2 hours). The Palm beats this hands down. 4. Display is clean and crisp. Photos and web pages display nicely. The sony has a bigger display (320x480) and can display a bit more of a web page (plus it has different zoom levels), but I find the Palm easier to read. 5. The standard Palm applications are mainly unchanged from prior versions. The desktop software quickly syncs with the T|C and is much faster, given the speedier processor of the T|C. 6. There have been prior users warn about cracked screens with the T|C. The suggestions are that no abuse was given to the unit, but just normal use of the keyboard flexed the circuit board, cracking the screen. Check the forums on the site: http://www.brighthand.com to see if this worries you. It is of concern that Palm has given its customers such a hassle for repair, and may or may not replace a cracked screen. (You can buy an extended warranty that will provide replacement of one display for the extent of the warranty.) 7. Palm's customer support is via their toll free 800 number to India. I had one question which arose when the web broswer quit working and would always crash with a message of FATAL ERROR...LINE 3965. Calling the help number gave me the chance to give my name address etc... to four different people before I got an unhelpful response of "try to reset your unit". Gosh... I should have saved myself 30 minutes and done that in the first place if that's the only "fix" they can offer. I rate the support UNSATISFACTORY. Plus, after the first 90 days, you get to pay $25 for your phone call to India. 8. I have not used the voice memo or audio feature at all, so I won't attempt to rate them. With only mono sound, it's not worth much to me, but I have a good MP3 player, and really didn't need the Palm to function as an audio device. 9. Web Browser seems more stable than the Sony UX-50 Net Broswer. In my use of the Sony, the browser would frequently hit a page and crash, resetting the Sony. The Palm seems more stable in this respect. But please note #2 above. The 2.0 web browser does not support pop up windows if your particular application needs them. 10. The new Graffiti 2 is a downgrade from the old Graffiti. I used to get about a 95% writing recognition rate on my 515. Now, the recognition rate for letters is about 50%. Even making the space character generates spurious letters like "m" and "W"... who knows how a straight line gets interpreted as those characters. At least the T|C has the keyboard and an on-screen keyboard as alternatives. Bottom line: Good functionality, size good, plastic case probably part of the design issue with screen stability. I'm satisified, but I've had my unit for only a month, and if it breaks, given Palm support -- this is going to be an expensive $400 paperweight.
Rating:
Summary: Geat Palm Handheld Except For One Thing
Review: Great unit. I really like the WiFi and built in keyboard. The other reviews did a good job describing how good this unit is. The only negative? A mono headphne jack. Mono. I couldn't believe it. That basically eliminates any mp3 listening. Mono. What were they thinking? As far as media support, this unit can play videos after they are converted. Also, the same goes for MS Office documents. Mono headphone jack. I still love the unit, but really, what were they thinking?
Rating:
Summary: Nice, but worth the price?
Review: Work provided me with a T-Mobile Smartphone Pocket PC. Yeah, it sounds nice, but is more of an extended leash. they are nice. but I decided to buy my own so I can load what I choose. I picked up the fanciest and most expensive on the block - The "C". It was nice, well built, with an impresive screen. I got it connected to my wireless (flawless effort) and started surfing. Man, the pages loaded in blazing speed. I did some yahoo checks and other foreign language lookups. it worked like a charm. I played a lot with the built-in apps for a week. I jst got my refund this afternoon. In the end, it wasn't worth the price for me. It may be for you, but the $500 snaps could be best spent on other items (my opinion). p.s. the keyboard was a nusiance.
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