Palm Tungsten E

Palm's Tungsten E might fall into the budget handheld category, but the tag does little for it, as the only real budget part about this PDA is its price tag.

Flip open the protective cover and you'll see that the sleek metal case houses the same excellent 320 x 320 colour screen used in Palm's T2. It displays a razor-sharp image and is one of the best handheld screens we've seen.

It's powered by a 126MHz ARM processor, which might not sound like a lot, but the Palm OS (5.2.1 in this case) is more efficient than its Pocket PC competition. For the Tungsten E it's more than enough for day-to-day tasks or even for playing videos.

Palm has installed 32MB of memory of which 29.5MB is available for user data and applications. It's generous for the price and should suit most people's needs, while more storage can be added via the SD (Secure Digital) card slot.

Palm supplies an excellent bundle of software including Dataviz Documentstogo, for working with Microsoft Office documents, and Real One Mobile Player, for playing videos and MP3s - but playback requires an SD card to hold your music.

The Tungsten E connects to a PC via its USB slot on the bottom of the case rather than by the standard cradle. This keeps the cost down but does mean that the Tungsten E is not compatible with any peripherals using the standard Palm interface. There's also no Bluetooth or Wifi onboard, although these are minor points against an otherwise excellent handheld. If you don't need the full bells and whistles, not to mention expense, of the more feature-packed handhelds, then this is the best £150 you can spend.

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

Specifications:

• Palm OS 5.1.2
• ARM 126MHz
• 32MB of Ram
• 8MB of Rom
• 320 x 320 display
• SD card slot
• 131g
• 114 x 74 x 12mm (h x w x d)
• Documentstogo, Real One Player, Acrobat Reader
• USB