Palm Tungsten C vs. Tungsten T3 Opinions Welcome

Hi.

I'm considering purchasing a new palm - one with color, more memory and that is wireless. What is your favorite thing about the C? Do you find the keyboard helpful? What is your opinion of the wirless 802.1 vs. the Bluetooth. Is wireless bluetooth widely available?

Any opinion helps!
Thanks
bn

 

Tungsten C, without a doubt.

Seriously though, TC for me. I've never been able to get on with graffiti. Thumboard is very easy to use with a little practice, and not much slower than a full size keyboard.

WiFi is only useful if you have a WiFi router, or can surf at a public WiFi hotspot (via subscription). I have a router, and I can connect to the internet or pick up emails anywhere in my house (which is small by American standards). Another thing I like is the ability to hotsync with my laptop (or PC) wirelessly via WiFi. I have a WiFi card in my laptop, but no Bluetooth.

My usual mobile phone doesn't have Bluetooth, nor my laptop, so it was a no-brainer for me.

WiFi has a greater range than Bluetooth. I don't think there are public Bluetooth hotspots.

Hope this helps.

Colin.

 

ROFL (You know what I mean!)

 

Had to be done!

I took the link out of the TT thread, will the TT'ers notice?

Good question, by the way NuttHouse. I don't know much about the T3, so it will be interesting to see the comparisons. What's the difference in price?

Colin.

 

There's no actual difference in price unless you start buying open box ones. They each have their pros and cons. T3 will go to a wide view with the stretch which I imagine would be nice for excel spreadsheet (which I use infrequently).

I just love this technology far to much. I'll be sad to eventually part with my m500. Its such a solid handheld.

 

If you have the m500, and don't have a preference between wifi/bluetooth, you probably want the T|C. The big advantage the C has over the T3 (and the thing it's similar to the m500 relative to its peers in) is battery life. The keyboard is great. I didn't expect to use it, but now I don't use grafiti. Sound is just mono so if you want to listen to mp3's that's one point for the T3.

 

I believe the T3 beats the TC in everything except the Wifi.

For the op, Internet connection isn't a WiFi vs Bluetooth thing. Bluetooth is designed for talking with other really nearby devices (like a phone or gps), not for connecting to internet hot spots or access points, this is what WIFI is for. If you have a bluetooth enabled phone and are paying the extra for internet access, then it might be useful..otherwise........

The TC keyboard I thought would be more useful than it really is. The T3's viewable keyboard on screen, is just almost as easy to input and can be viewed in the dark (unlike the T|C).

IMHO Palm has goofed in not coming out with a T3 type with Wifi yet.....a widescreen and built-in Wifi would be the best of both worlds for me.

 

mmmm... You are missing some important points for the TC...
What about battery life? The TC's battery is much bigger than the T3's. Don't overlook the keyboard... actually it's pretty useful... (i've written several posts here with my TC). Some time ago there was a competition to show who writes faster on his pda... The winner used a treo (with a keyboard that's almost identical to the TC's). The second place was won by another built in keyboard and the third place was won by a guy who used an special kind of on-screen keyboard (fitaly). The ones who used normal (qwerty) on screen keyboards where the last ones in the competition... even graffiti did better. Bluetooth for the TC might come very soon. Remember that there's a bluetooth sd card that already works on palm's... The only problem is that therte's no os5 driver. The lack of wi-fi on the T3 is another problem. The T3 has some hardware issues that make wi-fi something very difficult, and that's why wifi on the T3 has been delayed so much (it should've come last year)... Wifi for T3 requires a new hardware and driver (that are almost ready), bluetooth for the TC only requires a new driver, and that driver would probably work on all palm pdas at once.

 

Well TheNutthouse, which Tungsten is winning your vote so far?

 

Well...everyone has had really great opinions. Very insightful.

I'm hung up on a couple of things

Tungsten T - bluetooth isn't as feasible. We have a wireless network at home and my husband and I live on a college campus (he's a working professional and we just get a nice apartment there) So the Wi-Fi is a litel better for me. But the T has the mp3 function which is a plus too.

Tungsten C - No mp3 fun. Battery life is nice, Wi-Fi is awesome, still not 100% sure on the keyboard.

Maybe I'll wait till Christmas and see if something new comes out. But that doesn't make me want one any less right now.

But man I love Palm.

 

TC will play MP3s with the right software, but only with Mono sound. All you need is a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter (do a search on TC forums for MP3), or you can use some Nokia headsets.

You'll like the WiFi.

Christmas is so far away!

 

I know it is far away..but my dumb luck right now is every time I buy technology something better comes out like 2 months later. (Digital Camera - hello? I bougth a 3 megapixel in december and it was the best in the market and then in February they had one with like 300 megapixels. It sucks!)

bn

 

Also, Im a bit confused. Can someone explain the "mono" on the TC vs. The Stereo on the T3

 

We are all expecting a new superversion from palm, but it seems that the TC will continue to be the most powerful palmone model for a while (palm has just started marketing a new movie where the TC is very important).

About the mono sound: the TC has a hands free like output. You can coonnect a nokia hands free adapter, but unless you buy an adapter, you won't be able to plug a normal headphone. So without an adapter you will only be able to listen on one ear using your TC. This output was put because there's an voip application made for the TC ( www.vliusa.com ). The T3 has a normal output, so you can directly connect a normal headset. Even if you buy the adapter for the TC so you can plug any headphone, you will hear exactly the same on both ears (that's mono, while stereo means that you can hear different things on each ear, and that gives you better sound quality). The T3 is also stereo.

 

My Nokia cell phone headset has two ear "buds", and I hear the same sound through both. Ideal for use with both my cell phone and TC.

A quick Google got me this http://cellphones-accessories.com/cell-accessories/hdhdorno2236.html at $15.99 but I'm sure you could get them cheaper elsewhere. Another benefit is they work very well with the built-in voice memo app. Just press the speak button on the cord twice and you're recording, once more to stop recording. Go on, someone tell me that the T3 has a microphone built in for this purpose

Yes, mono means the same sound in both ears. Stereo is, well, stereo.

 

Do you think that the mono sounds all that different. We already own an mp3 player so its not terribly important for the mp3 player to be extremely high quality. It could be nice everyonce in awhile to listen to a couple of mp3s.

 

No, mono sound is not that different. If you can, save an MP3 track in mono and compare it.

I think you're right when you say you'll use the Palm for MP3s once in a while, especially if you have an MP3 player.

 

I bought the C because I wanted to be able to get e-mail while on the road without lugging my laptop around. After a couple of false starts, I now get e-mail easily (web pages too, but it's not something I do much).

I assumed that I wouldn't like the keyboard since I was pretty quick with Graffiti. Like many others have noted, I got used to the keyboard very quickly and now I find having to use Graffiti to be a pain (and I've had Palms for years now).

Also, the screen is beautiful and the battery lasts MUCH longer than the one on my m515.

I recommend the C highly if you'll use the WiFi.

 

If you can wait..you may want to wait for the next model. I'm sure they will incorporate lessons learned from the T3 and TC.

The thing about hoping for a SD card for bluetooth to arrive for the TC, is that (a) it may never come out, and/or (b) when using it you will be occupying the only SD slot. This is a problem if you expect to run apps of the card or use it for GPS navigation (with maps on the SD).

I expect the next model will have 2 sd slots, wifi, bluetooth, T3 size screen, Palm OS6

Of course...if you see a real good deal for the TC you can always buy it now, and then sell it on Ebay to get a couple hundred back for your next palm purchase. It's always tough to sit on the sidelines and just wait.

 

I will insist. I think that you should look much closer to the tapwave zodiac. Zodiac 1 (with 32 MB and all of the other features) costs $299. Add dataviz docs to go 6 and it costs $338 for a great handheld with bluetooth, and it plays movies and games. If having bluetooth or wifi isn't important, then check the zodiac. Also note that the zodiac has a great battery... I'll post the specs here (actually I was going to buy the zodiac, but I don't have any bluetooth enabled phone or device while I have a wifi accesspoint on my house, and because I didn't know if the zodiac had infrared... later i found that it has... ... try giving the zodiac a try... It's much more than a game machine). The zodiac also comes with a built-in launcher, 2 sd slots, and some games...
Here are the specs (directly from www.tapwave.com (go there to buy) and other sites):
Software:
-Stunt car extreme (car game)
-Acid solitaire
-MP3 player (don't know which, but supports background playing)
-Kinoma (Change it for mmplayer to watch long videos)
-Photos (...)
-Palm reader (...)
-Alarm clock (supports mp3)
-Wordsmith (You may want to change it for docs to go)
-Inkstorm (chat between zodiacs)
-(palm apps... datebook, memopad, address book...)
-Web browser
-SMS app.
-chapurra pocket mirror (sync outlook)
I may be forgetting some software.
Hardware:
-32 or 128 MB of memory (minus 12 MB for the zodiac)
-ARM9 processor running at 200MHz (according to speedy it runs at 294Mhz and speedy is quite accurate)
-Graphic accelerator (I think that this is the first palm pda to have this... it is still unused)
-3.8 inch display (320x480) - Portrait or landscape
-Sound chip (yamaha) Of course it is stereo
-Vibrates
-ANALOG CONTROLLER
-two expansion slots (one is sdio, that means that on one of them you can not only use memory card, but cameras or other peripherals)
-Bluetooth
-Infrared
-1540 mah battery

-PALM OS 5.2 enhanced by tapwave (has a great launcher...)

I love my TC, but if you won't use wifi, or if you will buy a wifi or bluetooth access point according to the device you get, then i reccommend the zodiac with a bluetooth access point.

I think that i forgot to note that it also plays games and that there's a gameboy advance emulator almost ready.