PalmOne Tungsten E Handheld

Rating:
Summary: Great, except for the power management system
Review: I've been using an "E" for a year now. Just after purchase at Circuit City, the screen was smashed. Arranging for the repair by phone to Elbonia was excruciating but the turnaround time to/from the San Antonio repair facility was less than one week. I needed mine for an upcoming trip and so bought a replacement (with extended warranty). The returned unit is just a spare and I can't vouch for the durability of the repair.

I've never had the "alarm problem" and aside from an occasional high-pitched whine (which comes and goes) my unit functions well.
My only real gripe is the power management system; the battery won't withstand heavy use on a transatlantic flight; the charger is way too heavy, has a lousy form factor, and is 120V only. So the PDA is way too dependent on being near my laptop, since I am abroad a great deal.

The killer app for me is my Ultralingua dictionaries but I also do a fair amount of programming using CASL. The E has plenty of memory and its capacities have encouraged spending for various software. Softick is a good way to mount the unit's SD card as a PC drive ... Real gives a nice free MP3 player ... overall the use of memory cards is still something of a hack for the operating system. Its a bit like 70's computing.

Its been sad watching Palm blow its potential markets (wasn't it there in our hands first for things like mp3?) and stiff its customers in so many ways but I depend very heavily on my device.
For anyone still using, say, a IIIe, this thing will be revelatory.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic PDA
Review: Hello, and I've used a PDA for four years now. I was very fond of my B/W Handspring Visor with 8MB...but when I went to a color screen, I was in love. This is a great product. It is packed with all the requisite applications, has a tremendous amount of memory (and I use some big work-related applications on my Palm), and the other programs on this PDA are really value-adding. I am a heavy palm user, so I recharge mine about every 2 days. Big deal...you just plug it in for an hour or two in the evening when your're not using it.

Pluses: GREAT screen...very readable. A lot of built-in memory. If you want more, spend $20-30 extra to get an SD card. They're cheap. Good apps, and the newer handwriting recognition program is even better.

Negative: battery doesn't last as long as a black-and-white model....but what do you expect. Also, the battery is apparently not replaceable. What is this, a throw-away device? FYI, you can go to www.gethightech.com to buy a replacement battery...if you're not afraid to solder two wires together (It looks very easy.)


Rating:
Summary: Tungsten E- Battery Life is terrible
Review: I just wanted to put in my two cents about this unreliable product and the company who is ripping off customers. I bought mine from PalmOne.com and I am having the same problems that seem to be address by more than one person on this site. They do not back up their products at all. My product had problems the first week, and because I did not realize that I only had 30days warranty on an open box item, they would not fix the item without me paying another $75.00 which with a little arguing the drop to $50.00, but by that time I was in no mood to give them any more of my money. It is clear to me that this product has a defect that the company must address. I personally have lost trust in ordering any electronic devices on line, due the the bad experience I had with palmOne. I just want to add to the rest of the poor reviews by saying... do not buy this product.