Yes, it is only a few months since Palm last launched a handheld computer under the Tungsten brand but it seems that the T2 (reviewed in issue 144) was simply a stopgap. What Palm was really planning was a handheld that can compete with the plenitude of Pocket PCs and that handheld goes by the name of the Tungsten T3.

First, the bad news. If you rushed out to buy a T2 when it first appeared, you'll really be kicking yourself. Your pride and joy may have been the bee's knees back in July but the T3 improves upon it in almost every way. Even worse, the T3 costs no more than the T2 did. As a result, the T2 has had £20 lopped off its price but as you'll see, you'd be pretty foolish not to cough up an extra score for the T3.

So what do you get for your £349? From the outside, not much more or so it seems. The T3 is the same general size, shape and colour as the T2 but it's a touch taller and thinner, so existing hard and soft cases won't fit.

Even if they did, the new button arrangement wouldn't work with most of them. The four application buttons are now clustered around a wide four-way pad, breaking a Palm button tradition that's been in place since the first Palm Pilot appeared back in 1996.

It all sounds very average so far, particularly when faced with the fact that the T3 uses the same love-it-or-loathe-it slider that covers the bottom third of the case. Pull the slider open, however, and all is revealed - the T3 has a screen that fills the whole of the unit and opening the slider exposes the rest of it. The screen is the same bright, crisp type used on the T2 and Zire 71 but has a resolution of 320 x 480 - long and thin, in other words, and larger than on any other Pocket PC.

Hiding a third of the screen under the slider may seem like a daft move on Palm's part but cleverly, the extra bit of screen is only used when T3's slider is open. Slide it shut and the screen reverts to 320 x 320 mode, so you only get the extra screen space when you really need it. Cleverer still, the T3 now has a 'virtual' Graffiti area for handwriting recognition. This pops into view at the bottom of the screen as required but it's optional, since you can use Graffiti anywhere on the screen.

The Palm OS operating system has been updated to take advantage of the bigger screen and the supplied applications can all capitalise on the extra space. The screen can also be rotated by 90 degrees to give a landscape view, which is great for editing documents or working with spreadsheets. Most existing third-party applications won't make use of the extra screen space though, and instead, will run at 320 x 320, with the virtual Graffiti area occupying the rest of the screen if the slider is open.

The applications themselves have changed little. The address book gets a minor polish and the calendar gets a new 'Today' view but it still lacks a usable week view, which is so overdue it makes Virgin Trains look punctual.

These two applications can now talk to each other too, so that birthdays stored in a contact details now appear in the calendar, which is handy. Otherwise, little else has changed with the T2, except that a few other applications are now built-in, rather than needing to be installed from the CD-ROM.

There's still no Wi-Fi but you do get Bluetooth for wireless work. We have, however, saved the very best news for last. The T3 not only has a blistering 400Mhz processor but there's a generous 64Mb of memory to go with it, which is upgradeable via the SD Card slot. Few current Palm applications will benefit from these increased specifications but video playback is now super-smooth, making the T3 a great choice for watching videos on the move.

Contact: Palm 0118 974 2700
www.palm.com/uk