Palm Tungsten T3

Reviews: Electronics

Digital Cameras | PDAs | Communications

Palm Tungsten T3

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Richard Poelling
Kurtis
Palm
Mar. 11, 2004

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User Interface

Besides the obvious expanding screen that is such a major feature of the T3, the user interface has also changed somewhat. When the unit is in the closed position, the standard graffiti writing area is not visible. Unlike most other PDA's that Palm produces, the interface region for the graffiti writing is not built into the unit. The writing area has been digitized. What this means is that the writing area can be hidden by way of a small icon along the bottom of the screen. By hiding the graffiti writing region, the T3 is able to open up more visible work space.

If the graffiti writing area just isn't your style, Palm has other options too... With a single tap, you will reveal a small digital keyboard that can be used to hunt-and-peck your way to blissful document writing. If this still is not to your satisfaction, yet another option exists. By clicking a small icon on the bottom of the navigation explorer, you can turn on "trails." This enables the ability to essentially write anywhere on the PDA screen. There is no need to confine yourself to the small area at the bottom of the screen to write your letters. You can write anywhere and actually see what your stylus is writing.

The T3 also has the ability to change the handedness. This will orient the menus and the writing style for either a left or right-handed person. Changing to the left-handed setup doesn't cause any noticeable difference in the standard portrait setup. I was able to write easily right-handed when the unit was set for left-handedness. The real difference comes when you change to the landscape mode. All of the menu items will appear such that your right hand is used for the scrolling and menu surfing while you would write with your left hand.

Like some of the other units Palm offers, the T3 comes equipped with a "5-way Navigator". What this means is real life is that it has a single button surrounded by a circular directional button, therefore, your 5-way navigation. This is also the same navigation structure as the Tungsten E that I previously reviewed. I didn't like this interface then, and I still don't like it now. I will give the T3 credit; it appears to have a crisper feel to the buttons, although I would still prefer to have separated directional buttons. Maybe I just have big thumbs, but I would frequently get the wrong direction when I used these keys. I would go out of my way to use the stylus rather than mess with those buttons.

Located around the 5-way navigation buttons are 4 buttons which are easily reprogrammable. These buttons out-of-the-box will get you to your contacts list, calendar, tasks list, or notepad. Pressing these buttons multiple times will actually scroll you through whatever functionality they are programmed with. For example, pressing the calendar button multiple times will go through day, week, or month views.

I would like to praise Palm on their placement of the voice recorder button. The size and location were perfectly matched to fit my hand and make it very easy to record a memo. The power button on the other hand was hard to use, although there is good reason to keep it from being accidentally hit. Still, I would have liked to a button which was much easier to use.

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Page 3 of 7

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Impressions & Getting Started
Page 3: User Interface
Page 4: Testing
Page 5: Quality Check
Page 6: Software
Page 7: Tungsten T3 Photos & Conclusion

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1 User Comment

1 - Posted by Guest on May 19, 2005 - 1:43 am

I would like to know if the T3 has the same memory as the T5. That is, will the memory be wiped if I run the battery down all the way? I have a bad habit of doing this to my electronics.

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