PalmOne Tungsten E2 review

The original Tungsten E has been a successful model for PalmOne, selling more than 1.5 million units and accounting for 21% of all US PDA sales in the first year of its launch.

However, a revamp was long overdue - so step forward the Tungsten E2.

The headline feature in this new model is Bluetooth, and it's a welcome addition. Bluetooth allows you to connect the PDA wirelessly to other devices that support the technology, such as some mobile phones and computers.

It allows you to synchronise your desktop computer and PDA wirelessly (assuming the computer is also Bluetooth-capable), which can be useful if you're travelling and have forgotten to take your HotSync cable.

You can also use Bluetooth to connect between your PDA and a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone to access the Internet. Setting this up is easy, and although the list of phones supported in the setup application isn't exhaustive, we were up and running in less than a minute.

Creating this connection to the Internet allows you to browse the web and send and receive email using the bundled applications, and provided you're connected using GPRS (the newer, data-centric mobile phone network) both tasks are acceptably fast and cheap.

Although the screen itself is beautifully bright and crisp, the bundled Blazer web browser is a little unsatisfying to use. It makes a brave attempt to condense wide web pages down to a PDA-friendly size, but is hamstrung by the relatively low screen resolution (320 x 320 pixels) and by the chunkiness of the Palm OS fonts.

The email client, however, is excellent. A helpful wizard walks you through the configuration process; there are lots of presets for various POP, IMAP, APOP, and ESMTP email accounts, including Apple's own .Mac service. With a nod to BlackBerry, this email client can be set to retrieve mail automatically based on your settings, and boasts an excellent list of features designed to manage email retrieval. Thanks to bundled applications, you can view most attachments, including photos and Microsoft Office files.

The bundled Documents to Go Professional Edition 7 allows you to synchronise Word, Excel and PowerPoint, AppleWorks, ClarisWorks, RTF and text documents from your desktop to your PDA for viewing and editing. New in this version is the ability to view native PowerPoint files as well as Word and Excel; unlike on Windows, however, PowerPoint documents can only be viewed, not edited.

All the standard PIM applications (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Note Pad, Memos) are included, and these can be made to sync with iCal and Address Book using the iSync conduit, or with Entourage.

The Tungsten E2 shares a couple of features with its recently-released sibling the Tungsten T5. Both contain non-volatile flash memory (26MB useable with the E2), which protects your data even if you forget to recharge, and both feature PalmOne's new Multi-connector on the base.

Bluetooth is a blessing in a device that is so cheap, and it's now a compelling budget PDA. Handhelds in general require a little discipline to use well, but if you're willing to put in the effort, the Tungsten E2 will heap rewards on you.