Palm’s new Tungstens: a first look

The Tungsten T3 has a 320-by-480-pixel display that can be flipped into landscape mode when the slider is open and the device held sideways on.
Palm seems shy of prescribing an audience for this device: the Tungsten T3’s 16MB of ROM contains professional-level tools like Documents To Go 6, along with more leisure-orientated applications such as the RealOne media player and Kinoma video player. The ROM also contains Palm’s VersaMail, which should prove useful in conjunction with the device’s built-in Bluetooth. However, Palm’s Web browser will have to be installed to RAM -- of the 64MB complement that Palm provides, 52MB is available to the user. The battery should last for around five days of average use, according to Palm. Anyone who has recently bought a Tungsten T2 will be disappointed that this new model offers so much more -- and Palm may have compounded that issue by refusing to offer a ROM upgrade to owners of older handhelds.

Tungsten E
The Tungsten E (Palm says there’s no particular reason for this choice of letter) is more of an entry-level device. The processor is a Texas Instruments OMAP running at 126MHz, and the Tungsten E’s display measures 320 by 320 pixels. Because the screen is pretty much square, the Tungsten E doesn’t support the switch to landscape mode offered on the T3. Nor does it have the new Status Bar. A number of tweaks to the core PIM applications are implemented in both new Tungstens, though. These are covered in a separate story.