My New Palm: Tungsten E2
I have had my new Tungsten E2 for several days now and I think it was worth the upgrade. The main reason I bought it was so Aliciana could have my old Tungsten E. That way she can keep her work calendar and contacts on it. Plus, I wanted a new toy.
The first thing you will notice about the Tungsten E2 when compared to the older Tungsten E is how much more responsive it is. The E has a 126 MHz Texas Instruments OMAP311 processor while the new E2 has a 200 MHz Intel XScale processor. Don’t let the similar sized numbers fool you, a 200 MHz XScale is much faster feeling than the 126 MHz OMAP.
A lot of reviews on the E2 make a big deal about the new screen, which is brighter than the older one found on the E. But, in my opinion and having the 2 devices side by side, I can’t tell much of a difference. I think that the biggest improvement in the screen is that it doesn’t suffer from the high pitched buzzing sound of the older screen.
The Palm OS is the newer 5.4.1 version of Garnet, which includes newer versions of the PIM apps. It also adds a “focus” highlight around the current control in the application that has the navigator focus, which I didn’t like at first but have been getting use to. My main complaints with the new focus feature is that it gets cut-off around many of the buttons where it doesn’t fit and it’s color scheme doesn’t change with the selected theme. Hopefully, they will fix both and make the fix available to current owners.
My biggest complaint is the new “Universal Connector” on the bottom of the device that replaces standard the mini-B usb plug. This is a typical move to a proprietary interface instead of an industry standard. While I like that the cable now has a ‘hotsync’ button on it, I hate that I can’t use the same cable with between my digital camera and PDA. Until I see some useful devices come out that take advantage of the proprietary that couldn’t have been implemented using standard USB I will remain convinced that this change is just a scheme to sell additional expensive cables.
The E2 includes some other new features, such as the integrated bluetooth, which is totally insecure and will remain turn off. It also has better photo integration which allows you to finally place a photo of a contact with his info. Still no WIFI, which is sad and makes the included web browser pretty useless.
Overall, buy an E2 over the E because of the much faster processor. It is still a great device, relatively inexpensive (around $250), and does information management very well. If Palm PalmOne Palm ever combines it with built-in WIFI it will be a killer device. We can only hope that happens at some point.
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