Palm Tungsten E2 Handheld
by Palm
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Palm Tungsten E2 Handheld
Customer Review: Old features, higher price!
Summary: 2 Stars
Palmone had a best seller with the excellent T|E design/feature set at $199 price point in 2003. It took Palmone almost 2 yrs to finally release an update in T|E2. However after intial use for couple of days it has been a huge disappointment.
Pro's,
1. It was uses a stable and reliable version of Palm OS.
2. Very nice design, comes with solid stylus & decent flip.
3. Battery life is adequate for 3-4 das of work.
4. Software sync with computer is easy and works like a charm.
5. Screen is clear and bright with excellent fonts.
6. Finally includes Bluetooth for easy web access (GPRS) when coupled with a BT-enabled SonyEricsson cell phone.
Con's,
1. Higher price than T|E (as of April 05).
2. No major change in Palm OS. How many yrs will Palm take to release a new OS?
3. Poor bundle, bulky charger, poor packaging.
4. Below average reliability, see the battery/screen noise issues from T|E series.
5. Very poor warranty support from Palmone.
6. No Wifi or any other new feature.
7. Very old specs for a PDA in middle of 2005. Still has only a slow 200 Mhz processor and tiny RAM.
In short if you liked T|E and want to use a Palm OS based PDA you have no choice but to buy this overpriced old hardware. Software is excellent, hardware is pathetic.
PS: The poor hardware selection has put Palmone on a fast track to bankruptcy. They have literally stopped making new PDA models. One mistake on Treo and Palm would be history.
Customer Review: Screen stops working after warrantee expires
Summary: 1 Stars
DO NOT BUY
Palm was mediocre, but workable at first. Pros were that it had a nice screen (at first) and good battery life.
CONS-aside from the fact it resets itself several times per day, the screen stopped working shortly after buying it. It was unreadable, with multicolored stripes through the screen. They also will not ship you a replacement in advance unless you pay an extra $40 (if you bought a palm to manage your schedule, chances are you can't wait several weeks to mail it in, have it repaired, and get it back, right?).
After getting the repair, a few months passed, the warranty expired, and the screen broke again. This time it stopped working all together. Palm wanted over $100 to repair it (a month out of warranty). The repair was more than 1/2 the cost of just buying a new one!
Since I did not plan on buying a new version of a model that broke twice and had horrible customer service, I looked for help in the Palm online forums at their website.
Searching for help with "Tungsten E2 won't turn on" I found out many other users have the same problem. So far, around 90 other posts by people with the same problem.
BOTTOM LINE: Palm has a defect in its product, but has horrible customer support and will not acknowledge it. So a flaw in its production may cost you over $100 for a repair. True, most people won't have the same problem, but would you buy a car from a company that covered up it's defects and made the consumer pay for it rather than fixing it?
Customer Review: Hot Sync Issues
Summary: 3 Stars
Despite all the research/reviews and cross checks to make sure I made the best choice for my media needs, I missed the biggest issue of hot sync compatibility. Evidently, it's a problem that drives many owners nuts. I've gone to product support, user forums and done all the recommended fixes: drivers, rear ports, all the ports, com checks, etc. Tried it on 3 different systems of 2 different desktops with Win XP, home edition, svc pack 2, Win 2000, and still can't get the computer and the Palm to connect. (All requirements met but a small percentage of owners can't sync) Updated with the software CD provided, oneline version 4.1.4E and still can't fix the issue. This beautiful device is absolutely useless if the owner can't get the desktop to transfer information. This was my Christmas gift that is rapidly becoming a white elephant and I may ultimately have to swallow the loss in restock/shipping and cut my losses. I had 2 previous Palms, last one was V and it has provided a lot of happy usage as an electronic text storage for lessons/books and such at only 2MB. Thought upgrading would be a happy advance but it's just not connecting. So next time, I'm finding someone with a PDA first to test my computer before buying an upgrade. Amazon service was absolutely wonderful. Hot Sync issues are just flummoxing me and makes me sad that I can't get this tool to work. The desktop loaded new code, pictures, and PDFs and it was very exciting until the roadblock on the sync cable. No way to patch up with previous versions/tools. :+(Customer Review: Tungsten E2 is slow
Summary: 2 Stars
October 2006: My Tungsten E, which was very satisfactory, was showing signs of battery failure so I opted for the E2. I'm sorry I did not buy the TX which has a faster processor. The E2 has non-volitile memory and a different file system. It is so slow that it may take 4 seconds to turn on or to change programs. I often get an "out of memory" message. PalmOne did give me good tech support on this. I have to do a warm reset. The good news here is that the stylus that comes with the unit will work to do the reset on the back.
Today, the E2 failed to do a Hot Sync or to turn on. I finally tried the reset, and that solved the problem. The PalmOne site shows that getting close to the 500 number of files limit will create problems. Fortunately, I have less than 200 files.
Other than speed between programs and the need to reset about once a week, the E2 is doing everything my E did, and just as well. If you haven't tried the Palm Sudoku from Astraware, you're missing a most efficient way to play the game electronically.
Update 03-01-07: I got tired of how slow the E2 is to respond to simple tasks like turning off and on, changing programs, and syncing, so I bought a Palm TX. This led to difficulties in getting TX software to work on my Windows XP systems. I conquered the problems which you can read about in my review on the Palm TX. I'm giving my E2 to a 6th grader who likes Sudoku. I wish I had bought the TX in the first place!
Customer Review: Almost great, but dated and the quality is declining
Summary: 3 Stars
This was my fourth and fifth Palm. I started with the old Palm Pilot, upgraded to color with the M505, got a Tungsten E (eventually the speaker went), then two E2s. The first E2 the digitizer got off and could not be corrected. But I loved it so much that I got a new one. I loved the new one too until one night it would not turn on (and has not turned on since). It seems the reliability has gone down since they started making them in China.
Positives:
1) Open system (IR port, 3rd party software, memory cards etc.)
2) Audible sound at least as good as an IPOD (see my review of the Ipod Touch I replaced it with)
3) Real one player is more functional on the road than I-tunes
4) Personal productivity software (to do lists, note pads, spreadsheets, databases etc.)
5) Documents to Go syncing with Microsoft Office
Negatives
1) Availability (I did not get a third largely because no one stocked them locally and I was in a hurry)
2) Reliability
3) Dated hardware vs. the new touch screens; also some minor issues like only supports memory cards up to 1 Gigabyte.
4) No vibrating alarm (ahh for the M505 even with its dim screen)
5) Documents to Go screwed up my synchronization
It seems that Palm has given up on its PDAs (they may be on their way out). But even after having two of these die on me, I hope they come back and if they come out with an upgrade, I'll gladly buy it.