Product Reviews

Palm tends to launch a new handheld every six months or so, which can be a little galling when a new model appears that's both better and cheaper than the one you bought recently. Lately, however, Palm owners have had little cause for concern - new models of late have been a bit of a disappointment. Not so with the new Palm TX - it's the best new Palm for ages.

The TX is the same shape and size as the old Tungsten T5 and T3 models, and looks more than a little similar to the classic Palm V.

The dark blue case is very fetching and while it's made from plastic rather than metal,

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it feels solid and should be able to withstand the casual rough treatment that pocket-size gadgets tend to receive.

A sturdy fake leather screen protector is also supplied, and this folds neatly out of the way around the back of the handheld. There's no catch to keep the protector closed, but you can you remove it if you want to use one of the many third-party cases that are already available for the T3 and T5 models.

In terms of specification, the TX is a bit of a step down from its T5 predecessor. The crisp 320x480 screen is the same, but the processor is 100MHz slower and the memory is down from 256MB to 128MB, with around 100MB available to the user. Unless you use a multitude of power-hungry programs though, this won't matter much - it still feels nippy and responsive, and plays full-screen, high-quality video smoothly.

The TX also has what Palm users have been clamouring for - built-in Wi-Fi. This allows the handheld to be used more like a laptop, connecting to wireless hotspots to browse the Web and check e-mail using the built-in applications. The TX has Bluetooth too, so you can also get online with a Bluetooth mobile phone, if need be.