With the Tungsten T5, palmOne's new top model in its line of business handhelds, the company makes a bold guess about what power users do and do not want in a PDA.

As a result, the T5 includes lots of storage with 215MB available to the user, more than any other PDA. There is also Bluetooth, a large—although not vivid—screen, and a speedy processor.

What PalmOne thinks they don't want is built-in Wi-Fi, a voice recorder, or an all-in-one cradle. The company has even omitted the light that lets you know when the T5 is charging.

The T5 is undeniably sleek, but have the developers left out too much?

Front View

Rear View

What's Outside
T5's gentle curving shape is typical of recent Tungsten models, although the one it most resembles is the Tungsten E, not the T3. In fact, it probably should have been called the Tungsten E2.

Its color is darker than the E's and it has a longer screen that supports a higher 320 x 480 pixel resolution—the E's resolution is 320 x 320 pixels. The display is clear and sharp, but not as vivid as we've seen in many other handhelds. That could be intentional, to save on battery life.
The input area is now on the screen and can be removed to give you a larger
work area. You can also select from three different input options, including one
that gives you an on-screen keyboard.

The T5 has five buttons along the bottom, for home, agenda view, contacts, and files, with the directional pad and chooser button in the center. Press the home button twice and you'll get the new favorites view; press the agenda button repeatedly to get different calendar views.


The new Favorites view.

The T5 has a speaker on the back and a Secure Digital card slot and headphone jack on the top, with nothing else to mar its elegant exterior. We're surprised at the lack of a voice recorde—a handheld standard for years now. Perhaps palmOne's market research showed that no one was actually using them. We wouldn't be surprised. At any rate, it's not a major loss.

The T5 comes with two cords—one for power and one for synching—instead of a cradle that allows both. This is probably done to make carrying the T5 around and using its new storage options easier (more on that below).

Unfortunately, palmOne replaced the old Universal Connector with a new Multi-Connector, so old cradles and cords won't work. (palmOne plans to make the Multi-Connector universal going forward.) The T5 also comes with a leather-like flip cover that attaches to one side and protects the front when closed.


Front view with leather-like flip cover.

What's Inside
A 416MHz Intel XScale processor, the fastest in any Palm OS device, drives the T5. It performed well for us when viewing videos or complicated Office documents.

The big news with the T5, though, is its huge amount of memory. The advertisements trumpet 256MB, although that's a little misleading. It has 215MB of usable memory and that's broken up into two areas: 160MB of internal flash memory and 55MB of program memory.

The flash memory works as an external storage drive, where you can store any files or documents and access them from other computers, even ones that don't have Palm software loaded. You can store things in the program memory too, of course, but they won't be accessible on other computers.

A limitation in the Palm OS is the reason for the division: it can only address 64MB of device memory, so the rest has to be separate. The T5 views that 160MB as if it is an SD card.

With all T5's storage, you can save two CDs worth of music and scores of document and pictures. Best of all, your files won't disappear even if your T5 loses power completely.

The T5 runs off the Palm OS 5.4.5, a new version making its debut with this handheld. Palm OS 5.4.5 includes two noteworthy additions, both of which help the T5 play catch-up to Pocket PC devices. You now get a file browser view, which quickly shows you all your folders and documents, plus Drive Mode for using the T5 as an external storage drive.


The new File Browser view.

To use Drive Mode, connect the T5 to your computer, tap the Drive Mode icon on your handheld, and turn it on. The T5 will mount on your computer like an external drive, letting you drag and drop files. With Drive Mode you can connect your T5 to any USB-enabled computer, even ones without Palm software, so you can easily carry files to and from work.


The Drive Mode application lets you
use your Tungsten T5 as an external
storage drive.

(If you're waiting for Palm OS 6, also known as Cobalt, you'll have to wait a little longer. Next time, for sure.)

For software, the T5 has Documents to Go 7.0, which lets you view and edit Office Word and Excel files and view PowerPoint presentations. The T5 supports both portrait and landscape views, so you can fit your documents whichever way works best.


You can view and edit Microsoft Word
documents, even ones with tables,
with Documents to Go.

You also get a pocket version of the RealPlayer for enjoying your music (in MP3 format only) and an app called Media for viewing photos or short videos. There's no built-in camera—PalmOne saves that for its Zire line—but at least copying photos to the handheld is now easier.


The mini RealPlayer can play MP3s
stored on your T5.

Left Behind
While the T5 is a pleasure to use, we think the lack of built-in Wi-Fi will turn many buyers off. Users have the option of using Bluetooth to connect to a cell phone and then opening a dial-up connection, or adding a Wi-Fi SD card, but neither of those is as convenient as built-in Wi-Fi.

The $399 T5 makes the Dell Axim X30, whose top model is now $314 and has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in, look all the more impressive.