October 28 2002 - Palm today announced the release of Tungsten T, the long awaited Palm device running the new OS 5. And from the information posted at Palm's site (we are anxiously awaiting the delivery of own Tungsten) this new offering from Palm appears to hold a lot of promise.

Compact Design

The Tungsten T is the most compact Palm OS device ever. The sliding front panel on the Tungsten T is the most immediately noticeable innovation. A sliding panel covers the Graffiti area when closed and slides down revealing a standard, silk-screened Graffiti area. Weighing in at only 5.6 oz and with the closed dimensions of just 4" x 3" x 0.6" (with the "slider" open it's about the same length and width as a typical Palm device) it's clearly designed for the mobile professional demanding high performance in a truly portable size.

One Handed Navigation

Much of the time the user can leave the slider closed, and using Tungsten's 5-way Navigator button, one-handed data retrieval is a breeze. The new one-handed 5-way navigator activates up, down, left and right, and select. With the navigator, users can easily launch applications and view information. This should make accessing your favorite drug reference, while on the move a snap. Additionally the one-touch voice recording feature lets users easily capture and record voice memos, and later email them from their desktop computers.

 

 

High Resolution Screen

Palm has given the Tungsten T a high resolution 320x320 color screen (Palm's sharpest screen to date) which supports 65,000+ colors. Great news for the "aging eyes" of many a healthcare professional.

 

 

The OS and Processor

This is the first Palm handheld that runs the Palm OS 5 and utilizes Texas Instruments' OMAP1510 processor, (144 MHz). Palm says; "Users can now enjoy faster interaction with data-intensive documents, and use Palm's new updated fonts for better viewing."

 

Memory and Expansion

The Palm Tungsten T handheld comes with Palm's dual-expansion technology, which includes the Palm Expansion Slot for SD Cards, SDIO and MultiMediaCard. Onboard memory is 16 MB SDRAM (14MB usable storage capacity).

 

Battery

Rechargeable Lithium-Polymer: Palm's spec. sheet projects a one week life span for a fully charged battery under "normal use". It's worthy to note at this time that this is only 1/2 of the projected life span of two weeks for the fully charged HP iPAQ H3870! Hmmm --- what's up with that?

Wireless

Built-in Bluetooth gives Palm Tungsten T handheld users the freedom to wirelessly access email and the Internet via compatible Bluetooth-enabled phones (sold separately and for additional costs). Palm Tungsten T handhelds also can communicate with other Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as printers, PCs or other handhelds. The Palm Tungsten T handheld includes a suite of phone drivers for the most popular Bluetooth phones on the market, so wirelessly connecting to a Bluetooth-enabled phone now becomes much easier than before.

 

Software

The Palm Tungsten T handheld comes bundled with 19 productivity, communication and entertainment applications. A complete list and description of applications is available here.

 

Price

The Tungsten T retails for $499.00 (USD)