Palm Tungsten T3

Performance of Palm Tungsten T3

Design: 8 Features: 7 Performance: 7

Thanks to the Palm Tungsten T3's fast Intel XScale 400MHz processor and ample system memory, overall system performance was impressive. Some notoriously resource-hungry J2ME Java applications exhibited slight sluggishness but still performed well within acceptable limits. Smooth, sharp-looking playback of Kinoma videos and MP3 files makes the T3 a decent multimedia device, though headphone volume won't overcome particularly noisy environments. Voice recordings were clear enough, but we would have preferred the sort of user-configurable quality settings available on many MP3 players.

The unique screen is the Tungsten T3's best selling point; it is highly readable and easy on the eyes, even in daylight. One look at a wide-screen movie trailer instantly proves that the collapsible Graffiti area is long overdue, and the ability to pivot the handheld's screen to landscape mode is the icing on the cake. Combine the bright, high-resolution wide screen with Palm's new IR keyboard, and creating, editing, and viewing Word and Excel documents becomes a viable option. Road warriors may opt to leave the laptop at home.

Probably thanks to a more power-hungry processor, battery life was slightly less than that of the Tungsten T2. In CNET Labs' tests, a looping Kinoma video played for 3 hours before exhausting the rechargeable lithium-ion battery in Compact mode, but with the slider opened to show the full screen, playback time was a much shorter 1 hour, 45 minutes. Palm estimates the T3 can go for about a week without a recharge under normal conditions--somewhat shorter with frequent Bluetooth use. As always, we would have preferred a user-replaceable battery.