Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)There are a lot of reviews accumulating for the Tungsten E, and I agree with most of them.Palm (or now PalmOne) seems to have picked the right spot in the market and hit it pretty well.The Tungsten E is not too expensive, has all the basic functions I wanted in a PDA, and not a lot of frills (except the MP3 player, which was actually what I was looking for when I decided to upgrade my old Vx).
This accounts for the favorable ratings in reviews based on its feature set.While my Tungsten E worked, it worked quite well.Even features I hadn't really been looking for (high resolution color screen, Excel and Word compatibility) were proving pretty useful.It had enough memory to easily accomodate a full collegiate dictionary (I used one from PocketLingo).IR beaming to my Win2K laptop became smoother, which is really handy for transferring individual files without HotSyncing.(It's possible with the Vx, but seems to require tricking the Palm into revealing its presence first.)
Reliability problems started appearing even before the end of the dismally short 90 day warranty.
*The unit would emit an audible whine sometimes while on.Other users have apparently had similar problems with this and other Tungsten models.It seems to be an issue with the display electronics.One side of the display would also sometimes flicker.In my case the problem wasn't severe, and I didn't do anything about it.
*The speaker quit working within about a week, and would come and go intermittently.This was a big problem since it meant alarms didn't sound.Since Amazon's 30 day return period was still in effect and I'd had previous experience with Palm's customer support, I exchanged it through Amazon (whose service was faultless).The problem returned with the exchanged unit after about another week.A little inspection reveals that the speakeris mounted on the back cover of the Palm, and has bare contacts that press against traces on the motherboard when the cover is closed.Apparently the minor stresses of carrying the Palm in my pocket were enough to result in poor electrical contact.Opening and closing the case would restore sound temporarily.Sometimes I could just press on back of the case where the speaker was located, but the problem always came back.I decided to fix this one myself, and soldered a proper electrical connection in place.This fixed the problem and the unit operated well for another 3 months.Draw your own conclusions as to the wisdom of this repair.It was made with usual attention to ESD and thermal sensitivity of the electronics.
*Yesterday the unit died in its sleep.It worked fine when I checked some information in an e-mail.A couple of hours later it wouldn't turn on, respond to any buttons, re-insertion of my SD card, or soft or hard resets.It is now a month out of warranty.PalmOne lists charges of around $125 for service and $40 for an advance replacement unit, which are out of the question given its original price.
Unfortunately Palm has an established history of poor hardware reliability and intolerable customer service.The Vx was teriffic in my experience, except for a faulty power button.Three years ago I returned my Vx under warranty because of the power button, and the new unit developed the same problem, exactly the same dismaying pattern as with the speaker on my Tungsten E.
Despite the many great features of their products, it seems they just can't get everything right at once.The problem is, from reading reviews of their competitors, the other options may not be any better.My wife has had a Tungsten E for about 3 months and hasn't had the speaker problem (though her screen does whine).An extended warranty is a good thing to consider with this PDA.As of this writing, the extended warranty link on the PalmOne support website is broken, so I give up.
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Product Description:
Lot 10pcs Palm Tungsten E HandHeld Touch-Screen Palm OS 5.2.1 P80880US P80880US-10PACK. Product may differ from image shown.
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