So what do you do with a PDA in 2006? Well for us to make use of one it now has to be a jack of all trades and its no longer good enough to wow your mates with the fact you have 500 phone numbers in your handheld, we can get that many in a watch!  To really justify carrying round a PDA it has to do more than a smartphone and to offer more chances of expansion, which is a tough call given the capability of the Symbian mobile operating system.

PalmOne may have used the outer shell of the T5 but inside there are a few notable changes, firstly the processor is actually a lesser model and a bit of a downgrade in horsepower, this 312 Mhz Intel XScale processor is backed up with 128mb of memory which is non volatile meaning your data is safe even when you do run out of power. After the essential operating system is taken into account there is about 112mb of free space for user data or other applications.

Loading up Pocket Tunes we were able to test 2 key features the first is our requirement to have an MP3 player on the move. Despite the tiny amount of onboard storage its easy to add memory via the SIDO slot and the 512mb of MP3 files we slipped in was soon able to be played via pocket tunes. Audio replay is smooth and fault free plus its rather good quality with reasonable bass and mid range reproduction making our Gorillaz album sound pretty cool. We still like pocket tunes as an application, it's simple and yet performs everything we need for MP3 playback. The second test is to try out the slightly larger battery fitted to the PalmOne TX, it managed around 8.5 hours of replay which isn't much compared to an iPod but for a PDA its respectable. Should you use the inbuilt WiFi you can expect the battery to drain rapidly.

On the subject of WiFi we are pleased to see it make the Pam TX as standard but it  is only 802.11b and not g? Not sure why you'd launch a WiFi product now that has the standard of yesterday, but at least it is onboard alongside Bluetooth 1.1 support meaning you can hook up to a mobile phone for data or even a Bluetooth headset for audio recording. One plus is that the WiFi connection now supports both WEP and WPA-PSK which meant it could join the secure office network for the first time and we didn't have to turn the security off just to review the TX.

The WiFi does work well and combined with the 3.8" screen its excellent for web browsing. You are able to flip to landscape mode and view pages easily even those that are not WAP optimised still work ok if you don't mind a bit of scrolling. The modified Palm OS Garnet 5.4.9 comes with all the PDA type applications we expect with PIM functions and Versa mail an old favourite of ours handling email, the there is Blazer for web surfing and To Go 7 for to handle the office documents.

Measuring 121 x 87 x 15mm the Palmone TX is about the size of many Smartphones and at nearly 150 grams it's a bit weightier than most, so you really do need to value the Palm's features over a device like the Treo 650 which also runs a Palm OS. The inclusion of WiFi and the SIDO expansion make the difference for us as does the ability to run programmes like Kirrio GPS. However you do need to have a secondary requirement to really justify a PDA and smartphone (or ordinary mobile) GPS is a good example but this may be under threat as mobiles start to appear with inbuilt GPS.

For now the PalmOne TX gets our vote for a stable and solid performer and one without the complications of the Windows mobile OS, priced at £186 its good value for money as well. Plus Amazon have a rather cool bundle with TomTom 5 Navigator our current winner in the PDA navigation stakes for just £299.

Either package will not disappoint.

Check out the TomTom 5 Bundle here 

Published - 05/02/2006

More PDA Reviews-

[ Up ] [ Sony Clie TH55 ] [ iMate Pocket PC and Phone ] [ HP 2210 Ipaq ] [ PalmOne Zire 72 PDA ] [ Palm Zire 31 ] [ Tungsten T5 Review ] [ Acer N30 PDA ] [ Tungsten E2 Review ] [ Dell Axim X50 ] [ Fossil Abacus Review ] [ PalmOne TX Review ] [ Nokia N800 Review ] [ Dell Axim X30 ] [ Sony Clie TJ35 ] [ Dell Axim X3i PDA ] [ Lifedrive Review ] [ HP 4150 PDA ] [ Palm Tungsten E ]