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Palm T|X and Z22 Reviewed

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the more-hardware-to-lose dept.

robf writes "The eagerly awaited Palm T|X and Z22 have been officially announced. Palminfocenter has reviews posted for both the Palm T|X and the Palm Z22." From the article: "The T|X and Z22 are the first new models to return to the Palm name, after the company reacquired the rights to the Palm name. Palm has decided to drop the Tungsten sub brand, in order to highlight the strong Palm name brand."

11 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Camera functionality is a problem for some... by kc01 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you ever have the need to go into any kind of secure facility, you'll want a pilot (and phone) without a built-in camera. It'd be a drag to go in for a meeting only to have them require you leave your tools in your car.

  2. Re:yawn... by adrianmonk · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Why Palm still developing handhelds based on PalmOS? I thought they entered an agreement with M$ to use Windows CE on Palms.

    Yes, they did have an agreement to use Windows Mobile on Palms. But obviously not on all Palms. It would seem that their strategy (for now, at least) is to continue releasing both kinds of devices. They may have plans to ditch Palm OS in the future, but they haven't announced that, and really nobody outside Palm knows whether they are going to do that. (And it might even be the case that nobody inside Palm knows the answer to that question yet.)

    Is Palm planning to continue developing a next-gen OS alternative to Windows CE?

    Palm spun off operating system development into a separate company, PalmSource, some years back. Palm hasn't been developing a next-generation OS; instead, PalmSource has been working on that. PalmSource will probably continue to do so, but whether Palm will adopt the new version remains to be seen.

  3. Irrelevant with today's topics. by Enzo1977 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does the T|X or the Z22 play at least two gigs of music or have instant messaging? Otherwise it is completely irrelevant to the buzz today.

    But honestly, I was so jacked up a couple years ago when the Zire first came out. I had to have it. The Zire is/was affordable and met all of my needs at the time. Then I discovered I could have SMS messages sent to my cellular phone as a reminder for my appointments (free incoming messages on my plan). Likewise I was rarely ever away from home or work and needed to know someone's work or home address; so I kept all my contacts on my phone, and kept up with my appointments via SMS messages and effectively made my Zire obsolete.

    I'm certain others will find a spectacular value in the T|X with all of its functions especially being able to edit word and excel files on their handheld and transmitting those files wirelessly. But I tend to save those kinds of functions to be done at work place. My time is just that, my time.

    --
    I hate all sigs, even this one.
  4. Re:Someone help... need question answered. by adrianmonk · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Also, are there any users out there who would vouch for today's screen quality? I would be upgrading from the Palm m5xx which has a color screen, but that screen is of less than great quality and is quite anemic. I've seen other newer devices with screens that scream -- is Palm doing the same?

    The visual quality of the screen should be way better than your m505 or m515. Both the m505 and m515 have 160x160 displays, and the T|X is supposed to be 320x480. Also, the contrast and general readability will be much better.

    As for screaming, I'm not sure what you mean by that. If you mean making a whining noise, it is the case that some Palm devices do have screens that make a whining noise. How loud it is seems to vary from one individual unit to another. It also varies from one model to another. I've heard lots of reports that the Zire 72 does have issues with screen noise. I haven't, however, heard any reports about the same problem with the Tungsten|T5, which is the model that's most similar to the T|X.

  5. Batteries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Sorry Palm, without user replaceable batteries, your products are dead.

  6. Surely I'm not alone... by nine-times · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I imagine I'm not the only one who finds Palms woefully inadequate? I've owned a couple Palms, and found them buggy and ever-crashing, filled with neat gimmicky software that's more or less unusable for real tasks. I guess the address book and calendar were fine, and maybe there were a couple games worth playing, but that seemed to be it for me. Music and photos were slow to transfer, and required using Palm's horrible hotsync utility, and even once they were on the device, the interface for viewing/listening was pretty frustrating.

    Really, I've always thought palms were the epitome of the cool-but-useless-gadget phenomenon. I thought the Lifedrive, at least, was getting on to the right track. Bluetooth and Wifi, a 4GB drive, an actual file browser and the ability to transfer files like it was a normal external hard drive... I might, in theory, be able to use something like that. A couple revisions and a new (stable) operating system, and I might actually buy one. The current model however, when I tried one out, the included web browser kept crashing and the connection to an otherwise stable Wifi access point kept dropping.

    At this rate, I think we'll see an iPod with an input device and wireless networking before Palm gets their act together and makes a device worth carrying around.

    1. Re:Surely I'm not alone... by TwinkieStix · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm not sure that you've used them the in the best mannor. The hotsync isn't a good way to get data onto the palm. The SD card slot is. Just put whatever media you want to listen to or play and use TCPMP to listen/watch. The same goes for documents such as .doc, .xls, and .ppt files. Photos can be stored in the card just like any camera.

    2. Re:Surely I'm not alone... by lidocaineus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Clearly what you want is NOT a PDA - you want a portable drive. A PDA is supposed to be small, fit in your pocket, and do basic PIM stuff (at least, that's what they were originally for). Photos are a nice bonus, but really, who wants to sit and thumb through photos on a PDA more than a few times? And music? Well most PDAs handle them fine, though you do have to get some flash memory to up the storage to decent levels. Games? Please. Aside from the quick jaunt of Bejeweled or whatever, most people use them for you know... work? Appointments? Storing and retrieving documents on the move?

      Let me give you an example. My PDA stores my appointments, to do stuff, random notes I leave myself everyday, driving directions, email, voice memos, shopping lists, PDFs and other documents, a password database (encrypted), and random files that I store on the 1GB SD card (this is a Palm Tungsten T|3). It rarely crashes. I use it constantly for reference. This is what most people use a PDA for.

      But web browsing? Well it works fine for me (PDA->bluetooth->BT phone), but it's not something I do often enough to complain about. And who surfs the internet seriously on a PDA? Again, you do it to look things up quickly or to bookmark a site for future reference. While PDA capabilities and the uses of the hardware continue to expand (phone integration, GPS, etc), they aren't meant as a replacement to your laptop (yet) or portable storage device (yet). Don't try and shoehorn fringe functionality into what it's meant to do (unless the machine is designed for it, ie, that weird ass Lifedrive).

      I'll close on the fact that while I used to love Palm, they are in such a "what kind of company are we now?" mode that it's disheartening. The T|5 here doesn't do much that my T|3 doesn't, and nothing has impressed me as much when I first used the old Palm Vx.

    3. Re:Surely I'm not alone... by lidocaineus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      One more time: do not shoehorn what you want on a device that isn't designed that way. You want a mass storage device. Fine. Go get one. You don't think Palm is innovating anymore? I completely agree. However, don't go around saying that Palm's suck because you want a large amount of space to carry around (4GB) with file management and a good web browsing experience; Palm never claimed that's what their goals were with 99% of their devices (the Lifedrive being the exception). What you find gimicky, many people can't seem to function properly without. And stability? Palm's may be a little pokey, but stability is not one of their problems.

  7. Why not Palm Pilot by b0bby · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I had one of the original Palm Pilots, and I've never understood why they lost the Pilot name. Most (non-techie) people I know still talk about "pilots" when they are referring to any PDA. Is it too generic or something?

  8. I missed the Palm era but I love my Nokia 770 by mibh · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's very hard to understand why a non-Linux PDA is of any interest to this crowd. My Nokia 770 came in last week.