The trend for PDAs at the moment seems to be for smaller, lighter and more feature-rich devices to appear at ever lower prices. Palm is certainly getting in on this act, with the Tungsten T running the most advanced Palm operating system yet, and coming in at a very attractive price.

What will probably grab your attention first, though, is the slider. This is a portion of the casing which slides up and down to hide and reveal the Graffiti area. It's a clever wheeze that allows the overall size of the hardware, with the slider up, to be very small indeed--a mere 102 mm tall, in fact, which makes the Tungsten T very pocketable. Even better, you don't actually have to pull the slider down unless you want to use Graffiti thanks to the five way cursor on the front of the casing, which can be used to navigate most applications.

The Tungsten T runs Palm OS version 5 which includes several advances over version 4. It allows for a 320 x 320 pixel resolution screen without any software enhancements being required, and there is a voice recorder with its own record button on the left side of the device. MP3 playback is also catered for and there is a headphones jack – though sadly Palm has not included a player so you'll have to choose one of the third party players currently available. Importantly for anyone into communications the Tungsten T has Bluetooth built in, and Palm OS 5 supports 802.11b which you could add at a later date via the SD card slot.

For all the new features, Palm has not made any attempt to change the general look, feel or functions of it PDA software suite. You still get the standard software – Date Book, Address Book, To Do List, Memo Pad, Not Pad, Clock, Calculator. The RAM remains at Palm's consistent 16MB too. This means the Tungsten T offers a great deal that is familiar, but also the very latest of what Palm has to offer. --Sandra Vogel

Manufacturer's Description
The Palm Tungsten T compact handheld combines a Texas Instruments ARM-based OMAP1510 processor with a new operating system, Palm OS 5, that is specially optimized for a wide range of multimedia and BlueTooth wireless capabilities. It features a new color screen, a built-in voice recorder, a 5-way navigator button for one-hand operation, plus dual expansion for added functionality.

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