Tungsten T3 PDA (400MHz, 64MB, SD/MMC Card, Palm OS v5.2.1)

Manufacturer: Palmone
Model: P80870US
Installed Memory: 64
Operating System: Palm OS
Backlit Display: Yes
Average User RatingAverage User RatingAverage User Rating: Number of User Reviews: 20

Reviewed by: bt123 on Mar 24, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 2 Months

Strengths: Fast Processor, SD Card Slot, Bluetooth, Good Software Bundle

Weaknesses: No Wi-Fi

Summary: This is a excelent Palm. The processor is super fast and the whole thing is extremely responsive at all times. The bundled software package is excelent as well, it comes with Real Player for MP3s and many other programs. This is an excelent product and i would recomend it to anyone who wants a good quality palm. Good work Palm!!

Reviewed by: thermodynamic from MN on Sep 12, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 9 Days

Strengths: The screen is the sharpest I've seen. Much better than the much vanuted iPaq. This thing is a speed daemon. Vibrates as an optional alarm function!!! It extends out and its buttons are well placed.

Weaknesses: Had to buy 3rd party options to play WAV files and get a customizable GUI. Battery life could be better but is not bad given the energy-hungry LCD. No screen covers.

Summary: I have crossed over from PocketPC-land to Palmville.

And despite some initial quibbles, I do not regret doing so.

Palm's OS is far better laid out on its own and is snappier in performance. I knew it would be faster than my iPaq 3955, but the T3 FLIES. (The T3 and 3955 both have a Xscale 400MHz CPU and 64MB RAM)

I love the design, how the bottom extends backward. Also unique is the layout of the buttons and thumb-button. I'm sad to see the design go for the (currently) T5 vaporware product.

I had done my research beforehand so I did apply the SD card update. Works BEAUTIFULLY.

Of course, like PocketPC, PalmOS's calendar can't force a reminder alarm. So I shelled out $25 more and got Datebk5. Worth EVERY penny and more.

Speaking of alarms, the T3's bigger selling point for me was the vibrate silent alarm option. While it's not nearly as strong as my pager (sigh), it's just strong enough so I can feel it. (With my hearing problems, using the audio alarm - lovely and loud as it is - would drive my co-workers up the wall and back.)

I also shelled out some more for LightWAV 3, a program that plays WAV files for alarms and other functions. It needs some work to make it bug-free but it does what I want it to do. The sound quality from this device's speaker is quite reasonable, on par with the iPaq.

While not really needed, I wanted a customizable front-end GUI. As with PocketPC, PalmOS has its own GUI so a third party product has to be bought. I'd looked at many programs, but Zlauncher appeared to be the most customizable, and not expensive. And it was worth every penny as well. I now have my own screen with mini buttons, and removing the huge icons that block the background 'wallpaper'. And it's quite responsive. Indeed. PocketPC OS can be slow on its own at times. I shudder to think how a GUI replacement on it would slow it to a crawl and PocketPC OS, while based on Win98 code, hardly feels like Windows - it's cumbersome.

I couldn't find any screen covers made for the extended length of the T3. I kept the plastic that was on the new unit instead. Hopefully somebody will make these someday. Or maybe I haven't looked long enough. :-)

Speaking of the screen, it is of high quality. Unlike the much vaunted 3955's, the T3's screen is crisper and it's much more difficult to see the LCD's individual pixels, making the display look even more crisp. I haven't tried the T3 in daylight, but I never did with the iPaq either.

The landscape/portrait on-the-fly crossover mode is a blast. I LOVE landscape and use it whenever possible.

New to Palm, I found Grafitti 2 to be most acceptable, though not having read the manual I'm clueless as to how to draw a "T". I gathered that Grafitti 1 users hated the change, but overall G2 is responsive and remarkably accurate.

Get an extended warranty if you can. I do that for any PDA or scanner I purchase. (and, yes, I have had to use them.) PDA replacement screens are costly.

Overall? I'm happy to make the switch. PalmOS uses clearer, crisper looking fonts without the need of anti-aliasing that would be stupid to use on smaller size fonts (what was MS thinking when they used ClearType on their PDAs?! The text looks blurry, yuck.) and was designed for specific purposes, not a portable do-all-wannabe in typical Microsoft fashion (meaning it tries to do everything to some level but does nothing ideally).

PalmOS has clearly aged well and, even with 3rd party enhancements, still seems far snappier than PocketPC and, so far, more stable. But I still wanted my enhancements because I love having things look the way I want them to.

The T3 is a winner in every way that counts and more. Let's hope that its successor will have a battery life that pleases all and has a stronger vibration mechanism.

Reviewed by: shrike424242 from MO on Sep 20, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 50 Weeks

Strengths: Beautiful screen, portrait and landscape mode make it very versitile, fast processor, lots of RAM, comes with Docs to Go, good Bluetooth performance

Weaknesses: No WiFi, occasional software glitches with Docs to Go, no camera, customer service is lacking of recent

Summary: For a Palm unit that covers almost all the bases, even after almost a year, it's still a very impressive device.

The 400MHz PXA255 processor has never lagged in any application thrown at, games, image manipulation, or MP3 playback. The speaker does well enough in playing audio, though a pair of headphones for serious MP3 playback is a necessity. The voice recorder works for the occasional meeting, and it does the job decently enough.

The screen deserves commentary all on its own. After comparing many PDA screens, this one still ranks at the top of the list. The colors are vibrant, the brightness is top-notch, the screen is crisp, and being able to flip it from portrait to landscape makes it even more well done in execution. Some apps don't take full advantage of the screen, though I'm sure a future OS update will add in the software patches to add better compatibility. When an app does work well with it, it's definately worth the price of admission.

64MB of RAM has 51MB available to the user, and it's difficult to fill it up, though not impossible, especially with numerous pictures and AvantGo. Having the SD slot with a high-speed SD card takes care of any issues with not enough memory.

Bluetooth does well on the T3, though having both Bluetooth and WiFi would make this the perfect PDA. Perhaps on the T5? Syncing with Bluetooth is almost as fast as USB, and with WebPro and a Bluetooth cellphone makes for a decent enough web surfing device.

Once in a while, I've noticed a lockup on the Palm when syncing to Docs To Go 6.008, then a soft reset and a second sync works past the problem.

There's no camera, which seems a small omission, though with all of the items packed into the case makes it impossible for one to be added in.

Calling Palm has definately been a more irritating situation of recent, as to get them to replace my defective unit (dead battery) was far more trouble than it should have been.

Overall, for the "perfect" Palm, the T3 should be on the short list, until the "rumored" successor, the T5, arrives.

Reviewed by: alcstein from TN on Sep 13, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 10 Days

Strengths: Compact,bright and expandable screen,expansion card slot, decent sound, abundance of programs available

Weaknesses: I originally owned a Palm VIIx which was wireless, but the T3 has to have other components to perform wireless functions. Those other components will have to be new enough to integrate with the T3.

Summary: You have to be sort of a techie to be able to sort thru Bluetooth, Versamail, and other addons. If someone is really up-to-snuff in those areas, they really have a leg up with this model. I'll have to migrate while I learn the ins and outs of all the options available. A regular manual would have been nice also vs. the Palm Desktop version. All in all, it's like a car with all the options. Some you love, while others you might never use.

Reviewed by: dmaxwell from FL on Jun 19, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 7 Days

Strengths: Most powerful Palm, Landscape/Portrait mode, Bluetooth

Weaknesses: Lack of WiFi, Customer service is questionable

Summary: So I've had my Tungsten T3 for a full week now and I am very pleased! First of all the casing, screen, and design is perfect. If feels great in my hand and the screen is beautiful inside and outside. Some people have complained about the slider mechanism, but I think it's wonderful. Not only have I found a lot of uses for the 320x480 portrait mode and the 480x320 landscape mode, but also for the collapsed 320x320 design. It's great for when you don't need the graffiti area for a program; it just makes the PDA so small! I've also found more uses for Bluetooth than I thought I would, so that's a plus.

Now for the weaknesses. It seems the PocketPC has a ton of handhelds equipped with WiFi, yet Palm still lacks this in all but one of their lineup. Next is PalmOne's customer service. It really stinks. The very few times I've called, I've been treated as a nuisance for asking for help or using my warranty (on a previous PDA). Fortunately, the T3 is very well built and I shouldn't have any other reason to contact them.

In conclusion, I couldn't be happier with the Tungsten T3, so if it is within your price range and has the feature set you're looking for, then I highly recommend it!

Reviewed by: t2technology from IL on Jul 7, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 3 Months

Strengths: Processor Speed, Amount of Memory, Display, software package

Weaknesses: Battery life

Summary: I have owned a lot of PDAs over the years; starting with a Visor Deluxe, Visor Edge, Dell Axim x5, HP 1910, HP 1945, and now the T3. When I switched to the Dell I swore I would never use a palm based PDA again. The T3 wooed me back. It is the smallest PDA on the market that accepts a full size keyboard (non IrDA). The Hi-res screen is absolutely stunning. I can view 17 times the area of a spreadsheet on this device (192 cells as opposed to only 12 on a Pocket PC). The processor speed is amazing and I never have to wait for the palm to do anything. With the Palm folding keyboard I use my T3 as a laptop replacement. I usually change PDAs at least once a year, but I plan on keeping this on for a long time to come.

Reviewed by: dai2050 from FL on Jul 26, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 8 Months

Strengths: HiRes LCD, Multimedia support, 64M Memory

Weaknesses: Battery life, SD card support, Software support

Summary: My first Palm is a Vx. After that, a M515. Compared with there predecessors, TT3 supports a whole bunch of applications due to its larger memory, high resolution display, and multimedia support.

I have used this TT3 to play MP3 music (pTune), watch movie (MMPlayer), cartoon (ComicGuru) and JPEG files (Photos), tune my guitar (AeroTuner), control my TV, VCR, and DVD (NoviiRemote, with the powerful infra sender of TT3), play a lot of HiRes games, and read e-books.

Since I don't have a BlueTooth cell phone, the BlueTooth capability of TT3 is useless to me. I hardly use any of the SMS, Web, and email utilities. I really believe that they should put a Wi-Fi there instead of BlueTooth. TC has Wi-Fi but also an ugly keyboard: what a shame!

I have a Magellan GPS Companion for M515, which still works with TT3. But the orginal software can't run on TT3, which means that I had to buy a new GPS software. The new software (Mapopolis) works fine, though.

Here's the problem part. First of all, the battery life is about 4-6 hours, which is a real problem when I was travelling. I used to take a USB sync/charge cable with me. But that means I had to take a notebook with me or ask some one that is willing to charge my battery for me.

The VersaMail coming with TT3 caused me a lot of problems, including block the entire synchronization process. I re-installed the Palm destop, Outlook Express, and the entire Windoes several times before I figured out what's wrong with my configuration. The Software CD is very hard to use. My Palm serial number is not recognized during registration. There is also a secure lock on the CD so that you can't copy the the Palm Desktop installer to a hard driver and run it. I'm just wondering who's going to stole the Palm Desktop software if he doesn't have a Palm?

I bought a SanDisk Ultra II 256M SD card, which caused me enormous trouble. Files and sometimes the entire file system on the SD card keep crash and lose data. Finally, I found out that I must upgrade the ROM of TT3 in order to avoid SD r/w errors -- after 6 months of struggle. Would it be nice if PalmOne could send a notice to everybody so that we can save the painful experience?

Reviewed by: jcoltrane from NY on Oct 30, 2003
Rating:

Experience: 8 Days

Strengths: Lightening Speed, Large bright and sharp screen, small size, 64 mb ram... In short, everything I was looking for.

Weaknesses: A couple of bugs to be worked out (search for T3 Optimizer and the controversy over its SD Drive)

Summary: I've owned a number of palms over the years. When my Sony NR70 finally broke down I had to get a new palm with a large screen that I had gotten used to. The T3 does not disappoint. Quick and agile, stylish and compact, the T3 is one mean pda. Beautiful large screen is equal to if not better than most of Sony's Hires+ offerings. It has muscle and beauty and is durable to boot, but it is not without its flaws.

The battery is one. Would be great if it had one with a longer life. I was used to short battery life with my nr70, but with the addition of bluetooth web surfing, my battery is draining faster than ever. I now average 2-3 charges per day. There are many ways to extend battery life (underclocking, limiting bluetooth use, etc.) that I have not used yet, so I know that this is a fixable problem, but every T3 owner wishes it had a bigger battery. Also, there are a couple of bugs to be worked out. One is a down-stepping in the processor power that is caused by a design or software flaw. This can easily be overcome with the installation of a small program (T3 optimizer) and I'm sure will be patched by Palm in the future. The other is a problem with it messing up SD cards. Personally, I don't think it's a problem with the palm, but a problem with the SD cards being used. These problems have cropped up on other handhelds as well. Seems to be a case of bad quality SD Cards, not bad palms. So buy a good Japanese made SD card (ie. Panasonic) and all is good.

Reviewed by: lastdec from IA on Jun 18, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 4 Months

Strengths: the streghts are obvious screen,cpu,color,storage in short my laptop is at home crying for attention and my cel can hardly keepup

Weaknesses: BATTERY but that hardly matters because most of my other bt devices drain faster any way

Summary: this palm is what i was dreaming of when i got my lllc and with a m130 i still had to lug around a laptop but with this and my cell i have everything i need all the time just get a car charger it charges fast even if you forget to put it on the cradle by the time you get to work it will be full of couse if you dont need bluetooth a fast cpu or a 320x480 screen and you just have to have 4 days on a charge get a tungston e $200 my brother has one and he loves it (of course he likes mine better)

Reviewed by: issc1000 from AZ on May 7, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 10 Days

Strengths: nice display, excellent resolution,

Weaknesses: Support from palm is bad at the best, 12 hours via email, their web site is marginally, if you have problems and need support expect to pay dearly for phone help.

Summary: To pay $400 to get telephone support in order to the the unit working is ridiculous. Doesnt matter how nice the features are if they will not provide reasonable support.

Reviewed by: auzziplace from FL on Jun 10, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 7 Months

Strengths: Fast processor, plenty of base storage.

Weaknesses: Needs a longer life battery.

Summary: This is my fifth Palm PDA that I have owned and is the best yet. I hope they can keep the production going for maintaining the best PDA on the market.

Reviewed by: aymar from CA on Apr 20, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 6 Months

Strengths: Useability, Bluetooth, Screen (480x320px), Good for internet surfing, fantastic for SMS (with bluetooth phone)

Weaknesses: Slow to process an itinerary when a very large map is on the MMC (Michelin GPS program)

Summary: The best PDA I ever had. a pleasure to use. Much better and serviceable than my previous HP iPaq.
Compatible with my Sony-Ericsson T610 bluetooth phone (including phonebook and calendar)
Sending and receiving SMS is now so simple and easy !
Internet surfing is OK with screen set to horizontal (480px wide).
Useful color bars for scheduled events.
Michelin GPS software well suited for this model.
Backup and service programs are OK but could be improved

Reviewed by: longhorn81 from TX on Oct 12, 2003
Rating:

Experience: 1 Weeks

Strengths: fast processor, bright sharp and large screen, 64 mb ram..

Weaknesses: none

Summary: I've owned the m125, m505, m515, tg50,nx70, tungsten c, tungsten T, and ux50 prior to getting the Tungsten T3. This is the best PDA I've had yet!

Reviewed by: jjessie from GA on Jul 1, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 6 Months

Strengths: size and memory

Weaknesses: The griffiti on this Palm version is terrible. Wish I had the original.

Summary: I like everything about it except the griffiti, the new version is very hard to use espcially if you have upgraded from an older Palm. I like the size of the Palm and the fact that I can extend the screen for spread sheets.

Reviewed by: llevites from IL on Jul 21, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 15 Days

Strengths: Very fast, great colors

Weaknesses: some older applications don't work

Summary: Bought it about 2 weeks ago. No problems so far. Some older applications that worked with my old Palm 500 were not compatible. Otherwise, works great

Reviewed by: ashleyandchong from MD on May 22, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 7 Days

Strengths: Crisp colour screen, stereo speakers, dual MMC and SD card capabilities, 64MB memory, fast processor, extendable screen, rotating screen format, left/right handedness

Weaknesses: Flimsy cradle/unit construction, battery life, MMC is not as well read as SD cards for MP3, lack of universal software support for RealOne Player

Summary: Just upgraded from Handspring Visor Edge to T3... the difference is heaven and earth! Amazed by the processor speed and ease of use. Not much different from my old Pilot so absolutely no worries with adaptability. MP3 playability is an absolute plus... difficult though to use MPEG files on the Pilot... haven't figured it out yet! It would have been nice to re-design the softwares (e.g. World Clock would be nice with picture of global map, contacts could be displayed with pictures...etc) In the end, definately easier than Pocket PCs (when compared to my friends)!! Go to it!

Reviewed by: shahanf from AZ on Feb 19, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 2 Weeks

Strengths: Incredible speed and versatility. Beautiful color screen, especially when in stretch-landscape mode. More than enough memory space.

Weaknesses: None so far.

Summary: I previously owned the Palm m515, which was very good to me. I looked carefully at the current Tungsten models before upgrading, and the T3 is by far the best out there! I highly recommend spending the extra money over the T2. Like for most people, the screen appealed to me first, with its brilliant colors and high resolution. With its blistering speed, large storage capacity, and other unique features, the T3 is without a doubt one of the top PDAs on the market.

Reviewed by: lealmeida2 from IL on Jun 20, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 2 Weeks

Strengths: small huge screen

Weaknesses: bulky ac adaptor no wi-gi

Summary: it is the top of plams nowadays!! it is very intuitive, has a very nice screen, which rotate 90degrees, has a bluetooth in. Only falut is the lack of a wi-fi capacity. Hope to see in a very close future a T3 with a wi-fi.

Reviewed by: snickersmd from TX on Dec 24, 2003
Rating:

Experience: 2 Months

Strengths: Excellent display, performance, capacity. Sleek design, convenient and functional form factor. Limitless expansion possibilities. Wireless capability through Bluetooth.

Weaknesses: Bugs in initial release, all fixed in recent patch. Battery life moderate but still sufficient.

Summary: My experience with Palm OS devices dates back to the classic Palm III. Over the past 6 years over which the Palm economy has bloomed and matured, I have worked with many handhelds and coud readily point out their design flaws versus their strengths. With the Tungsten T3, I have yet to point out any single major shortcoming. In this device virtually every past concern with Palm handhelds has been answered, from processor speed to display to onboard capacity to expansion capability. It is quite simply the best unit yet and meets every foreseeable need in the coming future. Sure this unit will be surpassed as technology continues to improve, but the Tungsten T3 has opened the door and set the standard for handhelds to come. If you are considering buying one, I strongly suggest you stop reading reviews and buy one without hesitation; this handheld's strengths become evident without words once you hold it in your hands for the first time.

Reviewed by: joelfranco from CA on Nov 5, 2003
Rating:

Experience: 6 Months

Strengths: Fast, GREAT Colors, Monitor, easy to write...

Weaknesses: Tendency to reboot itself, and occasionally freeze, battery life on the short side, like all PDAs.

Summary: (Edited June 02nd by joelfranco) I only had it for a couple of days, but I can already tell this is one of the fastest PDAs I have seen! I have had a 100, 105, 500 series...this is by far the best of the bunch...

I now have had this PDA for a few months...it's amazing still. It's fast, easy to network with Cell phone (haven't done it with PC yet), light, great display, excellent synching with Word, Excell files, Pix display also very good.