Palm Releases New Tungsten T2

securitas writes "Palm has released its latest PDA, the Tungsten T2. The T2 features a Texas Instruments 144MHz OMAP 1510 ARM processor, 32MB SDRAM (29.5 available), 320 x 320 transflective TFT display, wireless communications including Bluetooth, email client, SMS, and web browser, Palm OS v5.2.1, and MP3, video playback, and photo software. It will set you back $399. You can read more about the Palm Tungsten T2 and get tech specs (PDF) at the Palm site. Press release here. More at CNet, PC World, Infosync, the Register and the Inquirer. I'm not sure how many people will buy this product instead of waiting for its newly acquired Handspring Treo 600."

Comments

Stereo Headphone Jack

[kitsook]

They finally include something that is really usefully...

Handspring Treo

[Surak]

Yeah, I expect the Treo to retail somewhere in the high $400s, about for an extra $100, it's a cell phone too, which this doesn't appear to be.

The only thing is I gotta wonder how long the Treo will last after finalizing the merger with Palm. Will Palm provide support? For how long? Palm will most likely kill off the entire Handspring line of products, this will include the Treo 600, which will no doubt be short-lived.

Re:Handspring Treo

[NDPTAL85]

The Treo 600 is WHY Palm bought Handspring. They aren't going to kill it, they want to take it and support it and come out with better future models.

Re:Handspring Treo

[hey!]

We develop for the palm platform and have both Treos and Tungsten Ts in house, as well as a pretty wide variety of Wince devices.

A lot depends on how you feel about phone-PDA convergence. As a pure PDA, I prefer the T to the treo. It's smaller and much more rugged feeling. The Treo feels plastic-y. The treo is larger, but has the advantage that you don't have to carry a separate phone. However, with the T you can have the benefits of phone integration with certain phone models via Bluetooth. Carrying the second device is no big deal in my book, because the Tungsten-T is small and light enough that it is comfortable in the pocket. I personally haven't used the T for this purpose, but if you wanted to send SMS or browse the web, you probably wouldn't even have to take your phone out of your briefcase.

The bottom line is that both devices are nice and which you prefer depends on your usage. For people who use their PDA and phones lightly, I'd recommend the Treo, because the inevitable compromises of shoehorning a PDA and phone into the same small package won't matter to you. If you're a heavy user of the phone or PDA, I'd go with a Tungsten/Bluetooth Phone combo.

Re:Handspring Treo

[GarfBond]

You my friend have absolutely no insight into Palm's business strategy. I'm not going to profess that I know all, but it's fairly obvious why Palm bought Handspring.

Handspring has transitioned themselves into a smartphone provider after moving away from the typical PDAs, and only now are they starting to catch on. palm has met only mild success with their smartphone/blackberry type device, the Tungsten W. If palm wanted to kill off handspring, why would they buy a company that makes nothing but smartphones? Handspring certainly isn't going after palm's core business, straight-up PDAs.

Furthermore, earlier reports of the Handspring buyout mentioned that Palm was particularly intrigued by the Treo 600, and that device is pretty much what clinched the deal (in other words, Handspring didn't just stop dead in their tracks). Why kill off the product that caused you to buy the company?

It's fairly apparent that Palm is planning to attack all markets. If I were a betting man, I would be expecting the Tungsten W to quietly go away, while the Treo will become Palm's super new smartphone. While it's true that the Tungsten W is more business oriented, it doesn't seem such a stretch for them to make a device and call it Tungsten Treo or something. The T|C is only offered in conjunction with AT&T. Handspring has agreements with Tmobile, Cingular, and Sprint. These are resources palm would enjoy to have.

The tungsten T isn't designed to have a builtin phone, or a builtin camera, or anything fancy. It's palm's business workhorse, and is priced accordingly.

Tungsten T2 vs Treo 600

[cesarcardoso]

I'm not sure how many people will buy this product [the Tungsten T2] instead of waiting for its newly acquired Handspring Treo 600.

They're very different beasts, appealing to very different people. I can't imagine people in doubt between the T2 and the Tréo 600.

The expansion slot

[waltmarkers]

Why does palm insist on using a lower capacity, less adaptable expansion slot?
Seriously, compact flash is cheaper for memory:

SD costs 232 USD for 512 MB - http://www.pricewatch.com/1/226/5642-1.htm

CF costs 96 USD for 512 MB - http://www.pricewatch.com/1/226/4003-1.htm

1 Gigabyte is only available in CF, and the SD/ MMC format can only be used for memory whereas CF can do almost anything PCMCIA can. Is the space saved really that important? Or could the unit not afford the slight extra power drain? Why does palm insist on the clearly inferior expansion slot?

Syncronizing with desktop/bluetooth

[tcdk]

Anybody know if it's possible to get it to syncronize with the desktop over the bluetooth connection?

A bit slow, but if you just want to update a few minor things it would be great (and it would save you a cradle, if you do it with secondary computers).

Re:I miss the K.I.S.S. Palms

[tcdk]

Kind of agree with you.

I've a palm Vx and the only reason that I use 7 of the 8mb it has, is that I've a 6½mb dictionary installed. I don't need anything that the new machines can give me. Lot's of the new features would be "nice" and "cool", but I don't need them.

What I really don't need is a gadget bigger or heavier than the Vx, as it's just at the limit of what you can have, relativly, unseen in a pant/shirt pocket.

But then again... I also have a mp3 player (MPIO) and a mobilephone (nokia 6210) and if i could get something that did everything that these gadgets do, but still keep the size of the Palm Vx...

Re:I miss the K.I.S.S. Palms

[jht]

I'm on my fourth Palm since the early days, a Tungsten T (My previous ones were a Pilot 5000, a Palm III, and a Vx). My wife has an M100. I've also owned and used several other handhelds over the years - at various points I've had a Newton, an iPaq, a Jornada (but that one came free with an HP 4000 switch - I gave it away to one of my staff), and a Zaurus 5500. I still have and use the Zaurus, which stays in my briefcase with an Ethernet card and a wireless card. But I never really thought of the Zaurus as an organizer or even as a Palm competitor. The Zaurus is more like a laptop substitute.

Thinking of these different systems makes me speculate on what an organizer should have for a feature set. I basically see three good categories that handhelds can go after, with this for basic feature sets:

Basic/Economy - first off, a black & white (or at most, 4-bit) screen. It should also have a reasonably speedy processor, rugged design, small size, and it only needs minimal expansion, if any. It needs 8-16MB of RAM if it's a Palm (and Palms come closest to this), and ideally it should have user-replaceable batteries that could be charged when in the cradle, like if you used NiMh AAA batteries instead of alkaline. Standard Grafitti should be good enough for HWR. The battery life needs to be good enough that you could use it heavily for a few days on the road without draining it, and with light use it should last a month or more - like the original Palms did. The cost for one of these should be $150 or less - $199 at the very most.

The midrange handheld can be a little bigger in form factor. Add a color screen, faster processor, and some sort of internal expansion - probably an SD slot. A little less battery life is an acceptable trade-off here. It also should have 32-64MB of RAM - less if it's a Palm and more if it's running CE or Linux. The docking connector on one of these should be able to serve as a USB port to allow for some peripherals to be taken advantage of. At the higher end of this range, Bluetooth and/or 802.11 could make an appearance. Handhelds in this range could cost as much as $400. I think this is the logical ending point for the PalmOS as we currently know it.

Finally, at the high end you get handhelds that are more like little laptops. Slightly bigger screens, at least able to do a resolution like 600x400. A fold-out keyboard is a must, as is wireless networking. It needs at least two expansion slots - some combo of SD and/or CF. Processor power should be equivalent to a decent desktop from a few years ago. It'll run either CE or Linux, and be able to execute software from flash. Battery life should be at least 6 hours of heavy use, untethered - 8 would be better because it represents the mythical "full workday" charge. Size isn't that important, nor is weight. Heck, these could be the size of a Newton 2100 for all it matters. They'll never go in a pocket anyways. And the price for one of them is whatever the market will bear. Only a handful of wealthy geeks will buy them as individuals - most of them will go to big companies who use them as laptop substitutes.

The only problem with those three market models is that the low-end handhelds will sell to the point of market saturation and that's pretty much the end of it. There's not going to be much of a compelling reason to upgrade a nice, solid, cheap handheld that's rugged enough to not break every year. Ergo, no significant growth. Heck, look at what processor stagnation helped do to Apple in the desktop market! Without compellingly "mo-betta-fasta" Macs to go to, a lot of the upgrade/replacement market dried up for quite awhile. It really has cost them in the high-margin Pro desktop line. Palm would get hit much the same way playing in the entry level space. So I think they have to focus elsewhere - and the midrange is a better target for most of their energy.

That said, I love the KISS principle when it comes to a handheld - it's what first attracted me to Palm, and what's driven me to own several of them. I just don't think that alone is enough for Palm, but it is a key advantage they have against the other players and one they should exploit better.

Re:yep, kind of

[Nogami_Saeko]

It's much smaller when you hold it than it appears when people see photos of it. I've had one for a couple months now, and I could never imagine going back to a seperate phone or PDA. It's not perfect, but it's close.

My only P800 gripes:

- 12 bit colour screen
- low res camera, fairly poor lens (webcam quality)

Other than that, it's great. Both of those gripes are addressed in the new P810 which may be released by next year.

Any company making PDA-style devices without having a GSM phone in it has missed the boat IMHO.

N.