Tungsten E2

Last year’s Tungsten E was a big hit among handheld buyers. For less than $200, the E delivered all of the PalmOne basics (such as the latest operating system, a fast processor, a generous amount of memory, and a rich color screen) all wrapped in a diminutive frame that slipped easily into a pocket. PalmOne has updated that model, raised the price, and christened it the E2 to make a PDA that’s well worth the extra $50.

The attractive silver E2 looks about the same as the old Tungsten E. It still has a 320 x 320-pixel color display, silk-screened Graffiti handwriting area, four application buttons, and a five-way navigation control. Looks can be deceiving, since the E2 sports many improvements. For starters, the E2 features an improved TFT color screen. It’s noticeably brighter, easier to read outdoors, and more colorful. It doesn’t sound like much, but we saw a difference when comparing the two models side by side.

The E2 boasts a speedier 200-MHz XScale processor (the Tungsten E’s chip was 126 MHz). More importantly, the traditional memory has been replaced by 32MB of non-volatile flash RAM. If the Tungsten E2’s battery dies, charge it back up and the memory will be the way you left it. The 32MB of memory (26MB is user-accessible) isn’t a lot these days if you want to listen to music (it includes a headphone jack), so the SD Card slot for adding additional memory is appreciated.

It’s not clear if users were clamoring for it, but the E2 includes Bluetooth. We’d prefer to have Wi-Fi (which is available only in PalmOne’s other new model, the LifeDrive), but Bluetooth allows you to connect the E2 to your mobile phone, GPS antenna, keyboard, and any other Bluetooth accessories you might have. PalmOne offers the most user-friendly Bluetooth wizard around, with effortless setup for connecting to your mobile phone and service provider.

When it comes to software, the E2 includes everything plus the kitchen sink. You get DataViz Documents To Go (which is significantly more capable than the built-in Pocket Office apps on any Pocket PC), Adobe Acrobat Reader, RealPlayer, Audible Media Player, eReader, and more. The E2 even reads and writes native Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files without losing any formatting in the process. If you pair this PDA with a Bluetooth mobile phone for grabbing e-mail and a fold-up keyboard, you’ll have a phenomenal mobile office solution.

We found the battery life to be very respectable, in the neighborhood of six hours (and an astounding ten hours when playing back MP3s). On the other hand, we continue to be disappointed that PalmOne has abandoned docking cradles. The E2 comes with a USB connection cable, which looks clumsy next to a Pocket PC sitting in an elegant cradle. When the PDA isn’t sitting on your desk soaking up a charge, it’s a top-notch device.

If you aren’t shopping for a Wi-Fi device or a PDA with a VGA display, the E2 offers almost everything you could ask for in a handheld.