Palm Tungsten C Review

There are three different Palm Tungsten models. The Tungsten T, Tungsten C, and Tungsten W. This review is for the Palm Tungsten C. The Tungsten T and Tungsten W are addressed in separate reviews.

There are a few significant differences between the Tungsten T and Tungsten C. For one, the Tungsten C has built-in Wi-Fi. But because Wi-Fi is still of limited availability, this feature is of limited value.

One other immediately noticeable difference is that the Tungsten C has a built-in mini keyboard. How useful this is depends on the user. You might think that this would either make the Tungsten C too big or make the screen too small. But in fact, neither of these is true. The Tungsten C uses the new Graffiti 2. And this allows you to write anywhere on the screen, which means that there is no need for a graffiti area.

The Tungsten C also has 64 MB of memory, in contrast to 16 MB for the Tungsten T.

The Palm Tungsten C comes with a photo viewer as well as a video viewer. To use the email and web browsing, you need to have an ISP subscription. The Tungsten C also has a voice recorder, but this is an all but worthless feature. There is no microphone, so you can only use the voice recorder if you have a headset plugged in. This takes away all the convenience and spontaneity of voice memos.

Like it's cousin, the Tungsten T, the Tungsten C has received very good reviews from professional reviewers as well as people who have bought one. But because the Tungsten C is a newer model, there is not as much feedback available. Of 376 votes on one web site, 91% recommended the Palm Tungsten C. That's very good.

Professional Ratings: 8.3 out of 10 (3 reviews)

User Ratings: 8.3 out of 10 (30 reviews)

Despite the high ratings, there are several important issues with the Tungsten C that you need to take into consideration before buying. As mentioned, there is no microphone, so you can only record voice memos with a headset. Furthermore, there is no stereo sound, and no MP3 support included. And if wireless functionality is important to you, then know that the Tungsten C is not Bluetooth compatible.

Memory

64 MB SDRAM
Expansion card slot

Display

320 X 320 pixels
Color

Processor

Intel PXA255 400 MHz

Operating System

Palm OS 5.2.1

Audio

Built-in speaker
Headset jack
No MP3 support
Voice recorder (requires headset)

Dimensions

3.1 X 4.8 X .7 inches
6.3 ounces

Software

Documents To Go
VersaMail
PalmSource Web Browser
VPN client
Palm Photos
Kinoma Player (video)
Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm