Palm Tungsten E review

Ever since the Palm m515 departed this world, many have been in mourning, arguing that a classic design had been abandoned too soon. But the mourners need mourn no more. The Tungsten E may be finished with a glossy silver look rather than anodised aluminium, its bottom may be more flared, but anyone who's used a Palm m515 or its predecessors will feel right at home.

The side-mounted screen cover makes a welcome return, although - unlike the Palm m515 - the stylus and cover can't swap sides. Even with the cover on, the unit weighs just 146g. The only sacrifice for this is a smaller battery, which was reflected in the Tungsten E's relatively low four hours and 40 minutes result in our light-use battery test. Still, we suspect that few people will complain about this Palm's life in general use.

The Tungsten E also benefits from a much-improved screen compared to the old Palms. It's bright, has great viewing angles and is extremely easy to read both indoors and out. It also benefits from Palm OS 5 to take advantage of the 320 x 320 screen and to provide all the multimedia features we've come to expect with a modern PDA.

We were pleased to see Documents To Go Professional 6 bundled, and Palm makes a few tweaks to the organising software too. The most obvious improvement over previous Palms (apart from the T3, which shares the enhancements) is a new Agenda view that shows future appointments and daily tasks. You can also schedule events that last past midnight, include more contact information (such as multiple email addresses and birthdays) and set up repeating tasks and alarms. All this, and better matching of fields, means improved Outlook compatibility.

However, there are some changes that won't suit everyone. Graffiti 2 may provide more natural handwriting recognition than Graffiti, but it will take some time for experienced users to change their style of writing the letters T, I and K. Initially, we weren't too impressed by the feel of the stylus's tip against the writing area either - it didn't glide smoothly but jerked along. Fortunately, this improved with time, perhaps as the stylus tip wore down.

In the interest of balance, we should also point out that it doesn't have Bluetooth or a USB cradle (instead using a USB cable to synchronise). But who can complain about such omissions when paying £120? The Tungsten E is quite simply a bargain.