Palm TX Handheld

First of all, I had been, as of late, only sporadically using a Zaurus ZR-5000, itself, a neat piece of useful and easy to use electonics. With a huge, b/w screen you can write on, it had amazing capability for its time, including wi-fi capable -- and this was for an item from the early '90s! However, with its built-in mini-keyboard and large LCD screen, it is relatively large and cumbersome. I used it primarily for contacts and sometimes for tasks and appointments, but it was really too large and heavy for me to carry around all the time (I don't carry a briefcase and rarely use a shoulder bag.). Using it for appointments just really didn't make sense if I wasn't going to carry it around. It had synching capabilities with a desktop, but it was slow and the built-in software was only marginally compatible with Microsoft's products. My wife has a Psion and, while more up-to-date than the Zaurus, was still in that league. I had been eyeing Microsoft CE products and Palms, but I thought they were expensive for what they did, and I wasn't too thrilled with the Graffiti writing. But finally seeing how streamlined, fast and capable the new ones are, I wanted to investigate. There are the Microsoft versions such as those put out by HP and Dell, but those are still pretty expensive. Then there were the Palms that were either high-priced as well, or the less expensive ones which were pretty much good for appointments and contacts. Not bad, and the new Z22 is a great value for something like that, but the Palm TX seemed, from other online reviews, seemed to be more reliable in terms of build quality than some in the recent past. Moreover, I have read that the Microsoft-based products tended to crash alot (the computer software has an internal conflict and inadvertently shuts down.). I saw this unit on Amazon for $270 with a short-term offer of a free Palm wireless keyboard. That sold me, and I knew Amazon offered a 30-day trial anyway. Having used it for about 6 weeks, I can tell you that it's brilliant for the money. The built-in office programs seemlessly integrate with the real things (and I understand that the software used by Palm is better than Microsoft's own stripped down PDA versions.). The internet browsing software works very, very well. It's not as robust as the one on your computer, but you'll be surprised as to how good it is. Blazer, the browsing software, is selective as to the sophistication of content it will download. While it's as fast as broadband, for sure, it's faster than my dialup used to be. There is also an option for text only downloads which is extremely fast. The screen is extremely bright and resolution is quite good. I use a Sony CRT at home, so I'm used to great color and resolution, but this is quite good. In sunlight, it's not great. This is not a substitute for a laptop, but for checking email on the go, or doing a quick Google, it's pretty amazing. We were in a theater a few days ago, and we were trying to figure out the background of an actress. There happened to be a wireless connection in the house, so I was able to quickly get on the internet and Google the actress and got our answer. As for the memory and processor, it's plenty for most lay-users, unless you're going to download LOTS and LOTS of games. On the other hand, with the SD card slot, you could load LOTS and LOTS of games on a card or two or three. The processing speed? Palm has chosen well for this price range. The TX cannot multi-task. When you leave one thing, it will close down when you open up another. This means the processor does less work. Because of the uncanny methodology of the browser, the speed of going around the internet is usually good, and has been tested to be faster than the basic Dell model which has a faster processor. The reason why the Dell seems slower is because the Microsoft operating system is more cumbersome. It is capable of multi-tasking, but it's greater sophistication results in slower everyday tasks performed on the PDA. The top of the line Dell is supposed to be terrific and potentially worth it for someone who is doing a lot of sophisticated stuff on their PDA, but it's almost twice the cost of the TX. For those who must have an even faster processer, the Palm Mobile Manager, retailing for $100 more than the TX, has a 33% faster processor and 4gigs of built-in memory (as opposed to the 128megs built-into the TX). For me, the TX is extremely impressive and I don't need the Mobile and I didn't want to spend more money. Considering the deal I got (w/free keyboard), it was a no-brainer. I have also bought two games for it, Village Sim and Bejeweled 2, and the bright, rich screen is just the ticket for them. And by the way, the Palm wireless keyboard works flawlessly.

1st of all, The palm TX has alot of good features, I actually liked it, not having any problems for the first 4 months. After that though is when the nightmares started. The on off switch started going bad, the palm kept on crashing, and the 3.5 mm earphone jack went out. I called Palm support, the call is forwarded to a call center in India, after talking and argueing for 4 days, speaking to about 8 different people and 3 different supervisors, all telling me different things, I finally got the authorization to get my palm sent in. Well about 2 weeks later it came back... different device, all the programs i purchased for it didnt work on it... well about 3 weeks later the same problem occured with the palm. The earphone Jack went out. The same problem with both devices. Well i had to start the procedure over again, calling palm, by this time they are disgusted with me, because i dont back down. I want to know every detail, seeing i work in customer service, and i have to deal with alot of othe companies for my work. I got no help and they told me to call Corporate. Well this didnt go so hot either.... After about 5 hrs on the phone, i finally got hold of someone that well could kinda understand what i was saying, but offered no help, Amazon is awesome, they helped me very well in the situation, gave me a full refund. I would not recommend Palm to anyone, The company is going to fall apart if there customer service keeps this garbage up. Other than that.... It was an alright product, rated about 1/1100th out of a 1000.

I recently purchased the Palm TX (new) from Amazon. But before i did, i compared features and reviews of the Tx to the other brands on the market. After seeing it being listed in the top 5 PDAs, i eventually made it my choice. Everything about this gadget is great and being a systems engineer most of the software for it is compatible with my working environment. Using a palm vpn client along with PalmVNC, i can remote desktop connect to every system at work or home which runs standard VNCserver, via WiFi, bluetooth or using the hot sync cable connected to an internet connected computer. Accessing files remotely over vpn is a breeze (provided SMB signing is turned off on the server). From the mail client to the blazer browser is great although some websites with extremely large content generates a "page too large to be displayed" error, but that is a minor issue. I run my own email server and the blazer handles the SSL version of the webmail pretty well and also does a great job of displaying the pages. The Versa mail also sends and retrieves my emails using the imap protocol very well without any problems connecting to my server. As far as the battery life is concerned, it really does lasts long. When i first got the Tx, I had it powered on for more than 5 hours (with both wifi and bluetooth activated) experimenting with all it's features and testing it's interoperability with my home network (6 comps) and during that time the battery charge never fell below 97%, i even left it on for another 2 hours and it never changed. The hot sync feature also works well and keeps my items up to date. I even tried hot syncing over a VPN connection and it worked flawlessly The WiFi feature is excellent. It had detected some Wifi hotspots that my laptop could not even sniff furthermore detect. Even with a 1 bar signal the Tx connects with excellent speed while maintaining a stable connection. Overall this is an excellent device and what makes it better is that there are a lot of third party software for the Palm TX OS like Resco Explorer which supports SMB signing and Print Boy which allows printing of a wide range of document formats to a network, bluetooth or infared printer. This device has everything which suits my needs and more and it's far better than walking with a laptop since it cannot fit into my pocket. The Palm Tx defines the meaning of modern connectivity and since I've had it, i've never experienced any of those problems other users complain about especially with the battery life, the frequent reboots and the lockups even though i have a fair amount of third party apps installed. I now see why the TX is listed in the top 5. A formidable device when compared to some of the other more expensive "top dogs for it's price.

Much easier to stay organized with this than with anything else. The battery's also a lot better.

Good working condition. It is working well.

Good item. Thank you.

Bon produit, délai de livraison respecté. Tout est parfait.

A little disappointed as I had contacted the supplier to determine compatability with Windows 8 and Outlook 2013. It will sync via Bluetooth with Windows 8 but will not sync with Outlook 2013. Otherwise it seems to be a good product.