Palm Tungsten E2 Navigation Companion review

A Tungsten E2 on its own is £169, so at £265, this bundle is a bargain, giving you GPS and a PDA for less than the cost of the TomTom Go 300.

As you might expect though, it's not quite so fully featured as a dedicated sat-nav device. The maps are less detailed and the Via Michelin software isn't nearly so polished. Icons are small and there are no buttons for controlling things like volume and brightness.

The software was also sulky when we deviated from its carefully planned routes. We took it down the A12 and left 20 miles before our turning, at which point it swiftly shut up, mapping our progress on-screen, but giving no spoken hints about where we should turn to get back on track. We were running CoPilot on the T-Mobile MDA at the same time and it stepped in and talked us back to the motorway, at which point the Tungsten sprang back to life.

When we stuck to the Tungsten's instructions, they were clear and timely, but a little too comprehensive for our liking. You don't need to be told to 'turn slightly right' when the only alternative would be to run yourself into a ditch. We were often told to leave a roundabout moments after we had just done so.

It also talked us off a roundabout one exit too early, despite the on-screen image showing a different - but correct - route. It did nothing to put things right, leaving us to work things out for ourselves. Elsewhere, it showed the sweeping Orwell Bridge crossing land rather than a substantial estuary.

The cradle is clumsy and heavy, and didn't fix well to our windscreen, but as it contains the GPS reciever it's sadly not an optional extra.

There's an exceptionally good night mode that dims the screen and defining a route is easy, but this elegant two-in-one solution can't cut it when up against dedicated navigators. Buy it if you want a PDA, but otherwise, take the TomTom Go 300 (p26) out on the road instead