New Palm Lineup Reviewed: Tungsten T3 & E, Zire 21

Geartest.com writes "PalmOne (AKA Palm) launched three new handhelds today: The Tungsten T3, Tungsten E and Zire 21. Without going on at length about the features of every model, the T3 has 64 MB RAM, a 320x480 display that rotates from portrait to landscape mode, a software writing area that slides out of the way when you aren't using it, built-in Bluetooth, a voice recorder, and Palm OS 5.2.1 that runs on an Intel XScale 400 MHz processor, which Sony dropped from the top-end CLIE in favor of its own silicon. InfoSyncWorld reviews the Tungsten T3, Tungsten E and Zire 21. PalmInfocenter also has a T3 review. ZDNet UK has a Tungsten T3 preview. And the Detroit Free Press has an overview of all three devices."

Comments

Where's the 802.11 B?

[Schlemphfer]

I've been on the sidelines ever since PDA's came out. They always seemed like a nice thing to have, but they've either been too expensive or too toylike to be worth buying. The original Zire caught my eye, but with a 33 Mhz processor and 2 megs RAM, it just seemed like a pathetically underpowered unit.

The 21 seems to rectify those problems with being underpowered. I'm sure that in a month or so, you'll be able to buy refurbished 21's for $80 or so. At that point I might finally cave in and get one.

What surprises me, and the thing that's kept me on the sidelines so long, is that none of the units offer 802.11 B. A friend of mine has a Handspring with an 802.11 B card, and speaks the world of it. I bet a lot of folks would jump in and start using PDA's, when 802.11 B becomes a standard feature.

Re:But the big question is:

[theridersofrohan]

For whom is this a big question? Who would want to run a cross compiler on a handheld? Would that be more than 5 people?

And actually there is a compiler (not cross though) for the palmos. OnboardC. Open source too!

I'm very eager to get my hands on the T3 :-)