Palm Tungsten W PDA

Keyboard, Jot and D-Pad

I am not a huge fan of thumb keyboards, but the W has an excellent keyboard! Palm has done an excellent job of competing with the Blackberry in this respect and the keyboard is similar to the Blackberry. The keys have good tactile feedback and are spaced far enough apart that you can type with the meat of your thumb rather than your thumbnails (I have thin fingers, so your mileage may vary). It's a standard QWERTY keyboard, with numbers on the top row of letters, and punctuation and common symbols on the remaining rows of letters. To enter letters, common symbols and punctuation, you'll press the blue button on the keyboard. To enter a single number or punctuation mark, you'll first press the blue button, then the key. If you want to enter a string of numbers, hit the blue button twice, then type away. You need not simultaneously press the blue button and your desired key— a great usability touch.

The Tungsten W doesn't have a dedicated Graffiti area. Instead it comes with Jot, an excellent character recognizer that allows you to write anywhere on the screen. You can use either standard Graffiti characters, or Jot's characters which are similar to natural print writing.

Since there's no Graffiti area, you won't have silkscreen buttons. Instead, you'll access the Find, and Menu functions usually found on the Graffiti area by hitting the blue button and the appropriate keyboard key. Another nice usability touch is that you need only press the Home key on the keyboard to return to the home screen: no blue key required for this oft-used function. There are four buttons below the keyboard to launch the Calendar, Contacts, VersaMail e-mail and the AT&T Wireless app.

Like the Tungsten T, the W has Palm's wonderful new 5 way directional pad that makes navigating and playing games a dream. It supports movement in 4 directions, and pressing the center of the pad functions as the action button. If you press and hold the D-pad for a few seconds, it'll return you to the home screen.

Conclusion

Pro: Many of us have been waiting a long time for a color wireless device from Palm. The Tungsten W gives us this plus a high res display. Battery life is truly excellent, and runs for several days on a charge even when using wireless data services. Good bundle of wireless apps such as browsers, e-mail, SMS and phone app. Supports web clippings, which help keep the bandwidth charges down. Can double as a mobile phone. Includes Documents To Go 5 for working with Word and Excel docs. Con: For the price, I'd like this unit to have an ARM compatible processor and OS 5. The 33 MHz Dragonball seems a bit slow in comparison. Like most wide area wireless solutions from cellular providers, your monthly bill won't be cheap if you intend to use the wireless features frequently. The battery is not user replaceable.