Palm TX Handheld by Palm
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Digital camera reviews of Palm TX Handheld
Digital camera Review: A high end Handheld with nice features and price
Summary: 4 Stars
The Palm TX is Palm's new wireless handheld. It features a improved 320 x 480 pixel screen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless and 128MB of nonvolatile memory. The TX adds Wi-Fi at a very competitive price.
Palm has announced a new partnership with Microsoft, so the Palm TX may have the last Palm OS version that there will ever be. The Palm TX crams a lot of useful features into one tiny device that will many any gadget lover drool. In the Palm TX, they were able to fit Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity into one gadget, which is rare for Palm. It's a pretty well-rounded little PDA, but how does it all come together? Let's take a look...
At first glance, you may mistaken the Palm TX for PalmOne's earlier Tungsten T5 due to it's design. The traditional silver case is replaced with a sleek bluish-gray case. The Palm TX is quite compact too, measuring only 5 x 3 x 0.5-inches and weighs about 5 ounces, which is very pocket-friendly. Text and images are quite sharp and brilliant on the Palm TX's 4-inch diagonal LCD display. On the bottom of the display, there is a little toolbar for commonly used features, similar to what the Tungsten T5 has. At the top of the Palm TX, there is an SDIO/MMC slot for expansion,
stylus holder, power button, and a headphone jack.
Internally, the Palm TX features a 312-MHz processor, 128MB of memory, and wireless connectivity. The Palm TX's Wi-Fi capabilities are compatible with both WEP and WPA encrypted wireless networks. You can also access the Internet via using the TX's Bluetooth connection to connect via a Bluetooth cell phone. The SD memory slot can accept up to 4GB (I am not sure about the 8 GB Cards as I don't have one) of added memory, which makes storage for the TX almost unlimited. Also, DONOT use SDHC with the Palm TX as it will not work with it.
Software included with the Palm TX include the Palm OS 5.4, VersaMail 3.1, and Document To Go 7. There is also Pocket Tunes, which is a portable media player that will play your MP3, WMA, WAV, and Ogg Vorbis audio files. Palm also includes a few games and handy programs, like a nice calculator and world clock.
I have an iPod, and without a doubt, the Palm TX could never be compared to it for playing the music files. The iPod is easier and more flexible to use as a music player, So, your palm can play music files but don't expect too much.
The Palm TX performed pretty well too with me. It smoothly plays video, opens Word documents, and opens Web pages. The internet browser is not that good but it is still usable, don't expect the flexibility of the iphone's safari browser. The only weakness to the Palm TX is its battery life, which is just above 4 hours with the Wi-Fi antenna off. The average PDA gets at least above 5 hours and even up to 8 hours of battery life.
The main advantage of the Palm TX, its ability to run lots of medical and pharmaceutical software that can help medical students and professionals to make their job easily. I mainly bought it to run my favorite Pharmaceutical software such as Drug IX, Martindale, Medical directories and all of the nice pharmaceutical software library for the palm OS. It makes my life easier while working in research and in public pharmacies. It is a very good choice for medical students. Although, I think the iPhone will change these concepts when the same software is available for the iPhone.
Also, the palm TX freezes from time to time but it reboots after reset very quickly not as slow as the Palm LifeDrive.
In conclusion, the Palm TX is a welcomed addition to the Palm PDA family. It brings a lot to the table, including excellent Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity features as well as a lot of expansion opportunities, including large Secure-Digital memory cards. The included multimedia applications also make the Palm TX an excellent portable media player. The TX is great for the on-the-go
person who wants all their data in one place and the chance to listen to some music in between.
Finally,
Advantages:
* Excellent Screen
* Dual Wireless (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi)
* Rich Software, one handed operation
* Very good for medical software
DisAdvantages:
* not 100% stable
* Low battery life
* No Voice Rec, Vibrate, LED
* No included cradle
Finally,
It is a very good buy for the Price (259 $), Highly recommended for medical students.
Digital camera Review: A love/hate relationship
Summary: 3 Stars
I really love what I can do with this thing. It has a great deal more memory than my previous PDA, a Garmin 3600. Not that that's a fair comparison, since the 3600 is pretty old tech at this point. I love my internet access, the size, clarity and dual-format of the screen. On the otherhand it is the quirkiest of the three PDAs I've owned (the first was a Handspring Visor, also greatly loved and used constantly). One of the reviews mentioned having to tap the on button twice to access. Often true, or you can press the button a little longer and it comes on. A quirk I can live with. Someone else mentioned battery life, I've been impressed by the battery life. The one problem I have that has its rating so low is reliability. I had the first one just under a month when it refused to power on. Circuit City exchanged it. That was three months ago. I did a hotsynch the other day just before leaving town, and the computer didn't return to the menu, just sat on Palm logo screen. After nothing happened in five minutes, I did a soft reset. Same screen. A second level reset, same screen. A go ahead and trash my data, just let me get this running so I can leave town reset. Still nothing. I puttered around trying to decide whether to try anything else. Decided it would have to wait until I got back and put it in a drawer. Checked again, just before I left. No go. Agonized about it for four days. I knew Circuit City wouldn't take it back and I'd have to go to Palm, would their service be as good as Handspring (put it in the mail, we're sending you another one, hardly any down time) or as bad as Garmin (put it in the mail and we'll be in touch)? When I got back, it worked fine. That's great, but I'm just waiting for the next incident. Maybe it will be fine forever, maybe it'll die tomorrow (It's been working a week now). On another topic, I use it as a laptop. The internet is slow but it's there, and there always seems to be a question I want to check out on the internet. And I got the keyboard, Palm Wireless Keyboard (3169WW) which makes it very easy to use. (Sometimes the graffiti isn't as good on this as I'm used to.) What can I say, it isn't great, but the price was good and I don't want to get rid of it.Digital camera Review: A must have!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the Palm TX as a replacement to my bulky organizer. I was also interested in the Wi Fi functionality. I have had the Palm TX for about a month and love it. I wonder how I ever managed before it. The screen is large and affords crisp viewing. The ability to check e-mail at hotspots is great, and the traditional components of the Palm (organizer, contacts) are great!
I would recommend this product to anyone who uses a paper organizer.
Digital camera Review: A nice little PDA
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had the T/X for about 4 months now, and I'm really enjoying it. It's got great versatility, as it is compatible with both WiFi and Bluetooth. It also has plenty of storage capacity, which is very nice.
However, for the PDA-inept (such as myself), the T/X is not exactly user-friendly . The user guide, which must be down;oaded from the website, does not answer all my questions. I'm still figuring out how to use much of the T/X,as it seems that trial and error is the best method.
Digital camera Review: A piece of junk.
Summary: 1 Stars
I have been a long time user of tungsten2, and wanted to upgrade to wifi, so went out and got the t/x. What a piece of junk. The colors are horrible even when compared to tungsten2, wifi would simply not work in my house (full wifi), called Palm, they said that it's a problem with my network (my Ipaq works just fine). T/X's wifi would not hold, every time it was powered down would take another 5 min. to reconnect, an Ipaq holds wifi even when it's off. Also, streaming music off the web, forget about it, I was informed by Palm that "it does not do that". That's great and all, but it was a major reason for my upgrade. Needless to say T/X went right back to where it came from. Bought an Ipaq, could not be happier, colors are awesome, streaming works, wifi holds, what more can you ask for? Avoid like a plague.