PalmOne Tungsten T5
November 4, 2004 | Bige OZLER
Reg review Back in 2002, the Tungsten T's unique slider mechanism, which tucked the PDA's text-entry area behind a slide-up five-way navigation control, seemed a radical step forward from the tablet form-factor of old.
PalmOne was pitching the device at executives and, it reckoned, executives spend more time looking at their information than typing it in. The slider allowed the T to become a compact data display device without sacrificing the ability to enter new information.
Come the era of big-screen devices, however, and the slider started to seem redundant. The Tungsten T3's 320 x 480 display is magnificent, but it defeats the object of having one if you need to open the slider every time you want to see it at its best, especially if you didn't use your PDA for data-entry. If you did, the slider just got in the way each time, as the Tungsten E showed.
Enter the T3's successor, the T5, and it's immediately clear PalmOne has learned from both the T3 and the E, ditching the former's slider and adopting the latter's case design to produce what is not only its best PDA to date, but one that doesn't hide its glory.
Yes, the 320 x 480 display is back, augmented by Palm OS 5.4's much-improved and alpha channel-blended graphics. The screen's resolution is the same as previous Tungstens, but the colour is visibly better.
more: theregister.co.uk/2004/11/04/review_tungsten_t5/ (104)
156 impressions - 39,087 clicks
