palmOne Tungsten E2

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/handhelds/0,39030065,39188371,00.htm

Reviewed 13 April 2005

Reviewed by Bonnie Cha

The rumour mill kicks into overdrive whenever a new handheld gears up to hit the market, grinding the grist of blog-based guesswork into speculation. So while everyone knew that the palmOne Tungsten E2 was imminent, this PDA is finally out of the oven, and we've got all the final details.

As the successor to and the replacement for the popular Tungsten E (according to the company, the top-selling PDA across all price points for the past 17 months), the Tungsten E2 boasts the same sleek and compact form factor as its older sibling, but ups the ante with performance-enhancing features, such as an updated OS and a brighter colour screen. Factor in impressive battery life and an affordable £145 price tag, and palmOne has another winner on its hands. Unless you need a powerhouse PDA with integrated Wi-Fi and a faster processor, the Tungsten E2 should do the trick for any home user or mobile pro.

Design
We're glad to see that palmOne didn't mess with the Tungsten E2's design. Like its predecessor, the Tungsten E2 sports a sleek and compact form factor, though it adds just a hair more weight and depth (79 by 115 by 15mm; 133g). An attractive dark-silver finish wraps up the package, although you'll need to keep a chamois on hand with this machine; it tends to hold fingerprints and smudges. Still, the E2 is a sophisticated beast and appropriate for any boardroom -- a far cry from its similarly priced and featured cousin, the Zire 72, which has a more colourful and playful look.

Like the Tungsten T3, the E2 has a classic executive look

The E2's improved 94mm (3.7-inch) TFT colour screen shines brightly, taking centre stage. While it keeps the 320x320-pixel resolution of the Tungsten E, everything looks sharper, a little brighter and a little more vivid, and it's readable even in direct sunlight. Just below the screen is a virtual input area with one-touch access to the Home page, with Menu on the left side, while Favourites and a search function sit on the right.

Unlike the Tungsten T5, however, there's no handy taskbar along the bottom to launch other applications or to switch the screen to Landscape mode. You do, however, get four standard customisable shortcut keys (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Notepad, by default) and a five-way navigation toggle. The keys are spacious, though set deeper within the case, rather than slightly raised above the surface, so they require a little effort to press -- not a deal-breaker, but something to be aware of.

In sync: the palmOne Tungsten E2 now features the multiconnector USB cable with one-touch HotSync operation

On top of the device, you'll find an SDIO/MMC expansion slot, a power button, a 3.5mm headphone jack that accepts Walkman-style headphones, and an infrared port. There's a stylus holder on the right and, as with the T5, the stylus is elegant and sturdy like a fine fountain pen, as opposed to the dinky, plastic variety.

Like all the new palmOne devices, the Tungsten E2 now uses a multiconnector USB cable with one-button HotSync operation. Extras are sparse; there is no desktop cradle included in the box, but it comes with a faux leather flip cover, which slides into a slot on the left side, and a power adapter. With the added Bluetooth technology, you can take advantage of other accessories, such as keyboards and GPS receivers.

Features
palmOne wasn't shy when it dished out the upgrades to last year's Tungsten E. Building on that solid foundation, the Tungsten E2 is powered by a faster 200MHz Intel XScale processor and comes with 32MB of nonvolatile flash memory, 26MB of which is user-accessible. The latter is important: it preserves your precious data if your PDA decides to call it quits, and it increases the battery life in the same breath. This amount of memory will provide you plenty of storage for your PIM needs, but you'd better stock up on a memory card or two for storing music and videos.

Load up a memory card with music and video to get your entertainment fix

Integrated Bluetooth also makes a debut with the palmOne Tungsten E2, letting Web cruisers, email addicts and mobile professionals make the most of their time on the road. There's a Bluetooth utility to turn on the radio and set up compatible devices. We were able to connect to a Bluetooth-enabled Pocket PC and wirelessly beam contact information with no problem.

Alas, there's no built-in Wi-Fi on the E2, but we're not quick to criticise this omission. Although there's no excuse for the lack of Wi-Fi on the Tungsten T5, the E2 is more of an entry to midlevel gadget. If you still crave Wi-Fi, palmOne says it will update the driver to its Wi-Fi card in May to support the E2. Another item worth noting: the E2 battery isn't user-replaceable. And once again, we're disappointed by the E2's lack of a voice recorder -- generally a must-have in a business-friendly device.

On the software front, the E2 gets an upgrade to Palm OS 5.4, which includes DataViz's Documents To Go 7.0, though there's still no sign of Palm OS 6.0. The latest edition supports native Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint (view-only on Macs) so that you can view and edit documents on the go. In addition, the program boasts an improved user interface and supports active Web links in Word documents.

Also new to the E2 is the Favourites view, first introduced in the Tungsten T5. This gives you quick access to your most frequently used applications and files (up to 32), including Web links, while the traditional Applications view displays all the programs on your handheld. Other software goodies include Acrobat Reader, SplashMoney, Web Blazer 4.0 and Memos. And when you feel like a little break, you have RealPlayer for MP3 playback, Kinoma Player for videos, PalmReader for e-books and, of course, Solitaire for amusement.

Performance
Overall, the palmOne Tungsten E2 provided outstanding, though not perfect, performance in our tests. We'll get the bad news out of the way first. Although the company ramped up the device with a 200MHz Intel XScale processor, we experienced small but noticeable delays when switching screens and programs. On the other hand, video performance was smooth and MP3s sounded loud and clear, with and without headphones and even in noisy environments.

The big news here is the outstanding battery life. For our test, we looped a video clip using Kinoma Video player and set the screen at 50 percent brightness. As a result, the new, larger cell ran out of steam after an impressive 5 hours, 30 minutes -- 2 hours longer than the Tungsten E. But we were most anxious to test out the company's claim of 10 to 12 hours of MP3 playback -- and the E2 delivered, with an astounding 11 hours. This is in tune with some of today's top MP3 players and almost on a par with the Apple iPod. It's certainly the best time we've seen to date on a PDA, leaving one CNET editor wondering when she would be relieved of battery-watching duty.

Edited by William O'Neal
Additional editing by Nick Hide