Palm Tungsten E2 Handheld
by Palm
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Palm Tungsten E2 Handheld
Customer Review: Solid, affordable, useful
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this to replace an old Handspring Visor Platinum that I used (it is still in use by my wife). I wasn't interested in bells and whistles like multimedia players and I don't need huge storage because that old visor with 8MB of ram was large enough. After looking at all the Palms, the E2 seemed to be the current sweet-spot for the cheap price (maybe $150 USD after rebates) and useful features.
The upsides: After about a month of use, I like it. The screen is really great and very easy on the eyes. The build is solid feeling and the stylus is excellent. The battery life seems good (still wish it just used user replaceable batteries like the Handspring did). The included PIM apps are more than adequate and the fact that I won't lose my data if I forget to recharge it is great. The bluetooth works as advertised, with a bit of finagling, and I have it syncing over BT to Mac OS X addressbook (really great) via isync and everything else to palm desktop (don't like iCal). I've tried the mp3 player and it does, indeed, play mp3's. Hooray. Basically, it does everything I needed and some extra neat tricks too. I especially like the writing notes on the screen (I'm a chemist, so that means I can jot ideas for reactions down when I think of them).
The downsides (or, why 4 stars and not 5): Graffiti 2 takes some getting used to and I still think graffiti 1 was more accurate, if less intuitive. The Mac OS support just isn't as good as it should be (palm desktop just barely works in OS 10.4) and I feel that Palm has been neglecting software ever since palmsource was spun off. That said, I got it to work with some help from the interweb (macosxhints, mostly).
Customer Review: My Tungsten E2 is... pretty good actually
Summary: 4 Stars
I just received my palm a few days ago. Ok actually last night. Just thought that I'd pop in here, the place that I ordered it from (I ordered it new from amazon. I recommend it) and give a short and concise review.
First of all, know that I really do like this palm. Once you get past the installing process and get comfortable with it. To any newbies out there, there's a few things that I recommend you doing BEFORE you get your palm.
1. order an expansion card with it, or go to the store and get one. You're going to need it if you'll be working with any extra applications like Documents to Go, Music, etc.
2. Get a wireless keyboard!! If you are going to be typing anything out on your palm like I do (I ordered it so that I could work; I type long stories and need a REAL keyboard)
3. get a cover to go with. Either a leather case or hard case, just go with how much you're going to be handling your pda and how much money you've got to spend. The palm does come with a case, but of course, as usual, its a cheapie so I would say that you should order a new one!
4. Enjoy it! Don't let yourself get stressed out when you get the palm. It will probably not live up to your standards for easy to set up and install, sync, etc. But don't worry, if you're at all techie, then you'll get used to it and work out all the kinks. If you're having problems with something, tell someone! Don't just suffer through it. Leave me a comment or go to the palm website. There is a special website that you will be able to find in your installation CD or on the box that is especially for your tungsten E2.
So go live life, and take the other bits of life with you, in your palm!
Customer Review: Connectors are poorly designed - a minor annoyance
Summary: 4 Stars
Unfortunately, the E2 comes with a transformer, which makes it unworthy of travel (unless you buy an aftermarket switching power supply).
They designed the E2 to have seperate data/power connectors, which has its advantages, but then they put a proprietary non-standard data connector on the chassis when they could have gone with a USB connector. They also used a proprietary non-standard power connector, when they could have gone with a barrel connector that any universal power supply could plug into. I find it irritating that they did not take advantage of the data/power seperation and use standardized connectors to do away with proprietary cables. This was a poor design choice; it was probably a choice made by marketing.
The audio is too hissy to tolerate. It's a shame, because it's a slick interface, and quite convenient to stash a gig of tunes on an MMC card. If you don't want to carry a seperate mp3 player, you should pass on this this PDA. It's too hissy even when the signal is not amplified and you're using quality headphones.
Palm OS 5 is not 100% backward compatible with Palm OS 4. Some legacy applications will run on the E2 in a degraded state, and other apps will completely crash the device, and force a reset. Maybe rightly so, but something to be aware of.
They imposed Graffiti 2 on users that are accustomed to the legacy Graffiti. There's no reason this could not have been made a selectable option for Graffiti version.
Those are just minor annoyances, and the E2 also has some strong points, but I don't care to take the time to go into it. Overall I find the E2 satisfactory, hence my 4 star rating.
Customer Review: A total disaster!
Summary: 1 Stars
I have been using Palm for 7 years by now, and Tungsten E2 is the 3rd Palm I have bought. Unfortunately, this Palm is a total disaster because:-
1) The screen starts to scream like crazy after several days of use. Their technical hotline people confirms they found it a common problem of their new generation of Palm devices BUT REFUSED TO DO ANYTHING TO HELP! They refused to replace it because they claimed that the creaming screen problem will come back sooner or later. Ironically they recommended a third-party software that they claim it reduce the annoying noise, but at my cost!
2) I have accumulated nearly 1200 of contacts in my Palm, and it became IMPOSSIBLE for me to search for a person's contact because the global find function CAN ONLY DISPLAY THE FIRST 8 MATCHES. That means if I have 20 contacts with first name "Peter", and I use the Find function to locate "Peter"... I will never see the 9th to 20th "Peter"s. Unlike previous Palms that if I click on "Find more" it returns the next batch of matches, this Tungsten_E2_piece_of_junk will return you the same 1st to 8th matches even I click on "Find more". I email their support, they admitted it and refused to help any further than recommending another 3rd-party software that will again cost me extra money!
THUS... I believe that NOBODY SHOULD SPEND THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY ON A CRAPPY THING LIKE THIS!
I do want to want you to be aware of these problems, and Palm has known it for some time and has done nothing to fix them. (Apparently, according to other Internet newsgroup discussion, their newer models such as T5 also has same problems.) Do the search and you will find...
Customer Review: Just like the T5
Summary: 1 Stars
OK
Palm is no longer the leader in easy to use PDAs.
I love my Tungsten E. Its simple. It does what I want it to do - keep me organized. I bought it after I returned the "paper weight" called the T5
So I bought the E2 thinking it can only get better. Well, no. Its seems that they repackaged the T5 as the E2.
I bought the E2 with the WiFi card that Palmone's website promotes as the best thing since sliced bread.
I couldn't get the E2 to synchronize with my old Outlook info without doing some technological acrobatics. Deleting here and there and adding files here and there.
I go to install the WiFi card and the installation software tells me its incompatible with the E2. Must I point out that Palmone's website specifically says that the card is compatible.
Now I am popping antipsychotics to keep from flushing it down the toilet. I try to sync its new Bluetooth capability with my phone. I found out there are only a limited set of phones that can be easily connected. I proceed to manually connect the phone...the PDA will not recognize the phone either!
Arrrrgh!
Time spent = 7 hours trying to get it to sync,30 minutes fooling with the WiFi card, and 30 minutes fooling with the Bluetooth. This includes waiting time for outsourced tech support that was of absolutely no use.
The only thing good to say is, the screen is brighter.
Do not buy the Tungsten E2. Palm is no longer the leader in easy to use PDAs.
Matter of fact I'm going out to buy another Tungsten E, just in case the one I have breaks.