u l t r a m o o k i e

I saw and played with the two new Palm handhelds yesterday. I haven’t had enough time on one to write a review, but I do have some initial thoughts about the machines. One of them I really like. The other I’m in the air about.

The [url=http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/tungsten-c/]Tungsten C[/url] I’m in the air about. On paper this high end machine sounds like a dream PDA. It has the built-in thumbboard, a beautiful transreflective screen, built-in 802.11b connectivity, 400Mhz XScale processor and a whopping 64MB of RAM. But, the thing just does not have the “[i]Oh I gotta have it[/i]” appeal of the [url=http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/tungsten-t/]Tungsten T[/url]. With the older brother in the Tungsten family (TT), when one picks it up the metal case and the slider along with the screen make it a desireable PDA from the get go. I think the Tungsten C (TC)maybe one of those that a person has to grow into, and that is not good news for Palm.

The TC just feels cheap and big in my hands. The plastic case that Palm chose to use with the TC is the same one that they employeed in the Tungsten W. But being as the TC is now the flagship, high-end Palm, I would think that they would have done something more appealling with a metal case – much like all the other high-end Palms have had (think about the Palm V, Vx, m505, m515, and TT). It’s too bad that Palm traded off the appeal of the metal case for the lightness of the plastic case. But does the trade off really work? No. The TT weighs in at 5.6oz. The TC weighs in a 6.3oz.

As for the size, it feels big in my hands, much bigger than the TT, but it’s really not that much bigger on paper. The width of the TC is only 0.07” wider than the TT and the height is the same as the TT extended. But it’s the feel that makes a difference and the TC just feels bigger.

The good thing about the TC is the thumbboard and screen. The screen is brighter and better that the TT. The inclusion of the thumbboard is welcome since I really liked using the thumbboard on the Treo 90. The 802.11b is kind of questionable, but is a cool idea. Yes, it’d be nice to have 11Mbit/sec access everywhere, but it’s really not that widespread yet. I like the GSM/GPRS access of the TW better since there is more coverage for that.

The new Palm that I think is really cool is the [url=http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/zire71/]Palm Zire 71[/url] (Z71). This thing has the same beautiful screen as the TC. The Z71 has instant appeal with it’s shape (much like the original Zire) and it’s color (this time not shiny white, but shiny dark blue). It’s a consumer machine that has mass consumer appeal. The biggest thing about the machine is that the top and bottom half slide apart a bits and a camera is exposed. The camera is nothing special, it takes pictures up to 640×480, but is still pretty neat. The OS on the machine is now 5.2.1 (like the TC). Unlike the original Zire there are little to no cost-corner cutting here. This machine is built well. The inside has an OMAP processor much like the TT, but this OMAP does not come with the DSP that is built into the TT, but runs at the same speed. There is now a full collection of the four Palm keys on the front of the machine along with the addition of a five-way navigation nubbing. Audio is supported on the Z71. This is one cool machine! The only drawback is that there is no way to flash upgrade the Z71, but that’s OK, the machine is cool enough already.

I like how Palm is pacing their machine releases. This gives the hardware some flair and something to remember. It also lets the consumers get used to a piece of hardware and find reviews on it. I’m glad that Palm is not doing like Sony and dumping a new piece of PDA hardware on the market every month. I can’t seem to keep track of all the Sony Clies, but the Palm stuff is easy.