Palm Tungsten E2 Handheld
by Palm
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Palm Tungsten E2 Handheld
Customer Review: If upgrading from an old Palm, you'll be disappointed.
Summary: 3 Stars
If the Tungsten E2 is going to be your first Palm device, you'll probably be very pleased with it. If you are upgrading from a previous Palm, you'll probably be very disappointed with the reduced/missing/changed functionality.
Most of my complaints (except for the connectors) are due to the operating system (Palm OS v5.40017) and therefore would apply to any Palm running the v5.4 OS.
I bought the E2 to replace my Zire 71 (due to digitizer problems that have gotten worse over time). I knew the bottom connectors (hotsync and power) would be different than the 71, but I was hoping they would be standard connectors like that on the E. They are not. They are proprietary. That means you will pay a premium for extra cables.
The 5-way navigator's function has changed. Now it does nothing in most of my 3rd party apps. Before I could navigate with the 5-way with screen taps kept to a minimum, now it is practically useless. Why the change when it worked so well before?
On older Palms, the center button on the 5-way, when pressed with the unit off, would bring up the World Clock app. for a few seconds. Now the center button does nothing with the unit off. Progress would have been to allow one to select the app. that is launched with the button and even allow one to set the seconds before power down. Instead, someone decide an improvement was to remove the feature entirely.
Graffiti 2. A lot has been written about this. If it was just learning new key strokes, I wouldn't complain. First, it takes more key strokes to write certain characters. More key strokes means taking more time and having more chances of making an error. This is a step backwards.
The second issues with G2 is timing. You can't write at a set cadence because you have to wait for multi stroke characters to be drawn to the screen or else your strokes will be misinterpreted. Another step backwards.
I realize one can buy Teal Script and regain G1 functionality, but shouldn't the unit come with state of the art pen entry software? I put G1 on my Zire, but that same trick doesn't work on the E2. There are modified Graffiti files that enable you to put G1 on the E2, but I've heard they don't allow punctuation. If that is true, I don't see the value of them. Remember that G2 was developed due to a law suit against G1 and not driven by innovation. The kicker is that the law suit doesn't even apply now and G1 could be included on new Palms.
The E2 feels slower than my Zire 71. I've read that the non-volatile E2 memory access is the cause of this. I am not sure if this is true or not, but whatever, I expected the E2 to be as quick or quicker than the 71 and not slower. Granted the difference is slight but very perceptible especial in side by side comparisons.
I would return the E2 for another model Palm, but the only one currently out there that has a different operating system is the Zire 72 and I don't want the camera or the extra size of that unit.
All in all I am keeping the E2 because there are no other Palm choices and I want to stick with my Palm apps ... but I am not happy about it. My first Palm was a Palm III. Each subsequent Palm purchase has always been a pleasant experience with the excitement of discovering the advances of the new unit. This unfortunately has not been the case with the E2.
Customer Review: Functional but shares quality issues with original Tungsten E
Summary: 2 Stars
Last year, I purchased an E2 to replace my Tungsten E - which had become increasingly difficult to turn on and impossible to turn off: the power switch died within months of purchasing it and I had to use the function buttons (e.g. the address book / date book buttons) to get it to come on. When even those became iffy, I purchased the E2. However, I bought the extended warranty for that unit because of the power button issues.
Sure enough, the power button failed within 2 months. I haven't had a chance to return it for service yet because the warranty (even the extended third-party warranty) requires that I ship it off somewhere, potentially being without it for up to two weeks. This is unacceptable from a service standpoint - if you have a PDA, chances are you rely pretty heavily on it and cannot be without it that long!! If you do purchase such a thing, find out if the retailer has any sort of local replacement service!!
It has the same very annoying screen hum the Tungsten E had. I mostly just tune that out.
It locks up and must be reset fairly often when I try to use Adobe Reader. It also locks up at other, random times - all seem to be when I use third-party software. I've got a game card (PopCap) that ran fine on the Tungsten E, but on the E2, about half the games come up saying "need x amount of memory, you only have xxx amount free". Since the available amount is considerably more than the needed amount, the games *should* run. Must be an OS conflict.
The screen display is great indoors but very, very hard to read outdoors in the sun. I think that's a problem with pretty much any PDA though.
On the plus side: Nice looks. Screen display is decent. Lots of applications available. Battery life usually serves nicely for a full day of out-and-about (I tend to pop the thing out whenever I'm waiting anywhere, to play games or read ebooks, so it gets used heavily).
The included sync cable is an improvement over the Tungsten E, in that it's got a button to sync. You can plug in your powered-off unit, and hit the button on the cable, rather than having to power up the unit to do it from the screen, or having to reserve one of the function buttons for the purpose.
I'd consider going with a Pocket PC device next time around except my spouse uses a Palm also and we want to stay on the same platform.
One really major, Major, MAJOR omission on the part of the Palm OS: They really need to include tools to help multi-PDA households share databases - the whole family uses the date and address capability and it's a pain to manually keep them up to date. We've tried two third-party alternatives: GroupSync, which ran in the background with every sync but was very, very wonky - duplicated entries constantly - and didn't work when we moved to a Tungsten platform; and SyncUs, which requires us to manually bring up the application, which compares differences in the two users and suggests things we should copy from one to the other (and makes that easy by providing appropriate onscreen buttons). Although that requires manual intervention, it works flawlessly.
Customer Review: The longer I have it, the MORE I love it!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased my Tungsten E2 as an upgrade from a IIIxe. I LOVE the color screen and graphics! The software is soooooo easy to use using WinXP . . . interfaces wonderfully. Can't say enough about the contacts, task lists, Calendar, alarm reminders, etc. . . . they more than meet my needs! The simplicity of hotsync-ing with the Palm Desktop is great!
I use Documents to Go (Word) for keeping up to date on a book that I am writing. With the wireless folding keyboard that Palm makes (for only $70), why would anyone want a laptop? It's very easy to use and weighs a lot less!! Whenever I have much editing to do, I just whip out my keyboard and go at it! When I get home, I just put my Palm in it's cradle and hit the hotsync button - - and everything is updated to correlate (PC and Palm). I have an older version of Docs to Go, but even with the new version, I suppose the big screen on a laptop would be much better for spreadsheets. Since I don't really utilize xcel on my Palm, I'm not bothered about that. Haven't used Powerpoint either.
I use my Palm with RealPlayer as my MP3 player with no problem (and have for over a year now). It's so nice to just drag and drop my MP3's to either the Palm install or directly to a SD card (using a card reader)and have RealPlayer play them! You can also make playlists on the SD card using the cardreader, by creating folders and dragging songs to them. I really enjoy being able to make the playlists using my Palm (which even some of the BIG name MP3 players cannot do).
I also use the SD cards to view and edit (add and delete) photos that I take using my digital cameras (saves the camera batteries - the Palm is rechargable). I love being able to use different photos as backgrounds on my Palm, too!
I've used it from the beginning to load simple games (ie. solitaire, majong, hangman, and word scramble). I have a DS and still end up using my Palm just because it's so much easier to carry. There are Many software games out there for the E2.
I recently discovered that I can play videos on my Tungsten E2. It took awhile, but with the help of Catalyst 3 (for multiple device conversions) and TCPMP, I can watch full length movies, or anything converted from a DVD at my convenience! I understand that the E2 is also capable of displaying podcasts and such, but I haven't gone there yet! Just another wonderful thing that this little Palm can do!
I will certainly admit that it would be nice to have the E2 be able to recognize a larger that 1Gig SD card, be able to "plug and play" videos (like an IPod), an many more "would be nice" things. . . but for the price, it's REALLY hard to beat!! I mean sure, my sons have 30Gig Ipod and Zune, but they cannot carry their worksheets, spreadsheets, or Pdf files (not to mention the option of phone and email services that the E2 is capable of). All they get is video and jpegs! Sure, I could wish it would do everything . . . but I haven't found anything on the market that I would trade it for yet! What else fits in your pocket and does all these things????
Customer Review: perfect for an absent minded professor
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my first organizer ever. I'm totally impressed. After reading some of the reviews here I was scared to put my money on any of these things. Seems like someone had complained about every model out there. This one had at least above average reviews, and I liked the fact that fewer people complain about the soft boot issue.
Now it's two months later and I can't imagine living without it. I'm a college teacher, with lots of faculty meetings to track, plus a freelance business, and the usual dentist and car appointments. I used to keep a paper "to do" list in my shirt pocket, but it doesn't ring if I forget to scan it several times a day. In short, my life is so busy that I was beginning to drop appointments.
I'm happy to report that this tungsten e2 syncs perfectly with Microsoft Outlook 2002. There are a few minor anomalies, but nothing that is a deal breaker. I was disturbed at first to discover that the thing is never really off. I would have liked to be able to totally turn it off when I had no appointments coming up, to save juice. However I've found that this is a none issue. It runs for at least 4 days, sometimes a week and a half before needing a charge.
The operating system seems quite solid. It locks up maybe once every 2 to 3 weeks, but that requires just a tap of a pen on the reset button on the back, and it comes back all happy in a couple seconds. When I was installing third party software every couple days it would lock up more frequently, but I've got everything I need now, and things have settled down.
I don't use it for email, or for surfing the net. I have a laptop for that, and I didn't want to pay an extra hundred for the wifi card.
The coolest thing about this e2 is the calendar and alarm, the tasks list, and the contacts. With the hot buttons on the front to access these vital functions, this thing never leaves my person. I even take it climbing in my backpack. Never know when I might want to make a note about something, or meet a new friend and exchange phone numbers.
After I bought it and realized how useful it was, I was tempted to exchange it for the treo, which has all this, plus a phone...until I found out that you have to pay at least $50 a month to the phone service to make the internet stuff work. Scratch that! I love this thing. It's perfect for my needs. I did buy the 2 year replacement policy from circuit city. $30 seemed like a small price to pay for peace of mind.
The software you can get for Palms is amazing. Here is my list of essential software:
Uninstall Manager - Northglide
BDicty 5.9 Pro - dictionary, thesaurus and conjugator
Pocket Tunes from Normsoft (it is compatible with the "plays for sure" windows media player files. I can play free downloadable audio books from the library.)
Tide Tool 2.2 - toolworks dot com (if you live near saltwater, a must have)
MessageEase V.5 - faster than graffiti for entering text, and it's free!
AvantGo - captures websites off the net when synced, view them on the commute later. - free!
Customer Review: It is great for many things, and not so great for a few
Summary: 4 Stars
Ignore most of the complaints about this model and Palm in general. Remember what you want a Palm for: storing information in an easy-to-access manner. For most people, it isn't supposed to be a mini laptop. It doesn't matter if the specs haven't changed much over the years. How much has a DayRunner improved in the past couple of decades? Some innovations make sense, sure. I've had several PDAs over the past few years because of specific things I wanted (rechargable battery, color screen, wireless access, etc.). Now I have a E2 (for the Bluetooth, screen, design, and ease of use). But at the end of the day, my usage has stayed pretty constant. I want good PIM applications (personal information management) on a small device with a good screen and battery life and the ability to check my email. That's all I want, and the E2 gives me that. Sure, Palm could wow us with innovations, but I really can't figure out what they could introduce that would be a "must-have" feature. Competing Windows Mobile devices don't offer anything particularly better either (unless you want a jack of all trades device that isn't particularly good at anything. In other words, if you want a PDA, this one is great. Here's why:
1. For most of the things that anyone does with a Palm, it works great. In other words, the PIM features work great, and the direct synchronization with Outlook is fantastic (and a new feature only on the past few Palm devices).
2. The hardware and "fit" of the device is great. This is the latest in the "Palm V" model and it shows. No gimmicks, just a good device fit and design wise.
3. The Bluetooth feature is great, if you need/want it. Setting up PC Bluetooth sync is easy if you follow the manual and the wizard on the device. Using it with a phone is a much greater challenge due to the few phones supported directly by Palm. Check first to see if yours is. If not, there might be a work-around, but prepare yourself for a few hours on the internet trying to find one.
4. The fact that the memory doesn't get erased when the power runs out will be really helpful if you're prone to forgetting to charge your devices.
The bad:
1. Versamail is incredibly difficult to work with. By far it has taken me the longest time to find out that I can't use it to sync with Outlook as planned (this is because you can't directly Hotsync IMAP accounts with SSL security, nor can you sync an IMAP account to Outlook, points buried in Palm's website).
2. As mentioned, getting Bluetooth to work with an unsupported phone is a real pain and not the most reliable connection ever invented.
3. Yeah, yeah, it shows fingerprints, should have a power indicator light, and a cradle would have been nice. A little too much cost-cutting, I think.
Overall, I'm very happy with the E2. It does what I want and probably more than what most people desire (most people probably don't need Bluetooth on a PDA). If you don't care about Bluetooth or the non-volatile memory on the E2, get the Tungsten E and save yourself $50.