PalmOne Tungsten E2

While most of the PalmOne Tungsten range is aimed at business users, the new Tungsten E2 offers lots for the casual user too. It is cheaper than PalmOne's Zire 72, and includes nearly all its features, except for the camera and extended battery life.

The Tungsten E2 is slim for a handheld computer and comes with a flip over cover, which protects it when in a pocket. There are four shortcut buttons along the bottom to launch the diary, contacts, to-do list and notepad applications.

It's powered by Intel's 200MHz XScale processor and runs Palm's Garnet operating system. The 320 x 320 colour screen is very impressive - even small fonts are easy to read at arms length. The backlight is fantastic and is very bright.

The bottom third of the screen is taken up by the 'Graffiti' area for written text input. It's reasonably intuitive, although Pocket PC devices can recognise normal handwriting rather than PalmOne's Graffiti symbols. However, the E2 can also accept Graffiti when it's written on the main part of the screen. When doing this, the path of the stylus is
highlighted, which makes it easier for learning how the input system works. An on-screen keyboard is also at hand if the Graffiti proves too fiddly.

The interface is hard to fault as it's simple without being limiting. The E2 is supplied with a copy of Documents to Go that can read and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. It's also possible to play MP3s usingRealPlayer but as there's only 26Mb of storage memory, you'll need to use a memory card to store more music on.

Synchronisation with a computer is very simple, just plug in the USB cable and press a button to start the process. The Tungsten E2 is supplied with the PalmOne Desktop software and will share information with Microsoft Outlook.

Bluetooth is built in, which enables the Tunsgten E2 to connect to the internet via a mobile phone or synchronise with a computer without a cable. Pa lmOne claims it will run for eight days before needing a recharge, although this figure will be reduced if you play lots of music.

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