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Familiar scenario:

Battery running low but can't get back to the cradle in time to charge your handheld or don't have an extra battery with you. (That is, if your device's battery is even swappable.) You might as well kiss your precious data goodbye.

Forget the operating system and CPU; the heart of a PDA is its memory. Yet that is exactly the area of mobile computing most vulnerable to the dreaded power drain.

How palmOne addresses memory stability with its new Tungsten T5 sets the new handheld apart from all the PDA competition. (The company skipped the designation T4 because four is an unlucky number in some Asian cultures.) It is not only a breakthrough product for palmOne but for the PDA industry in general.

Thanks for the Memory
With the T5, palmOne doubles the amount of memory from that available in the previous generation Tungsten T3 to a whopping 256 megabytes, tops among handhelds.

55MB of the RAM works just like traditional Palm internal RAM, while 41MB of ROM is reserved for the operating system and bundled applications. What sets the T5 apart is an additional 160MB of Flash memory that can be used just like a Secure Digital (SD) card, except the "card" is inside the PDA.

Since the 160MB is non-volatile, its contents will survive an accidental power drain. Should your T5 run out of juice, simply charge the PDA when you can and you're back in business. Of course, you can only store but not run files and applications in this Flash memory, so "storage" is probably more accurate than "memory.". As with software from an external memory card, applications from the 160MB are launched into RAM to do their business.

Anther cool feature of the T5's 160MB Flash memory is called Drive Mode. In this mode, you can plug the T5 into the USB port of a PC to drag and drop files between the handheld and the computer. The 160MB shows up as an external drive on the PC as a USB key would, for example. With the T5, you can carry around any type of file or application, even those that are not compatible with the Palm OS.

OS/Software
Speaking of the Palm OS, the Tungsten T5 runs Palm OS 5.4, also known as Garnet, and not the newer Cobalt. Despite PalmSource delivering Cobalt to licensees over ten months ago, not one handheld or smartphone built on the platform has yet appeared. PalmSource even reintroduced Cobalt—with an even greater emphasis on smartphones—last week at its European Developer Conference (see PalmSource Intros Next-Gen Palm Platform … Again).

When we asked a palmOne representative about Cobalt, he told us that—to offset delays in the release of true Cobalt devices—the company has been able to port many of the features of the next-generation platform to Palm OS 5 for its latest devices with proprietary software (eg. Support for landscape viewing and 256MB of RAM). This gives palmOne users a shot at experiencing some of the advantages of the new OS without having to wait for Cobalt smartphones and PDAs to ship—whenever that might turn out to be.

To help T5 users better manage their files, palmOne bundles a new Win Explorer-like file manager. With it, you can even launch applications by selecting an associated file. There is also DataViz Documents To Go for Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) compatibility, palmOne's own VersaMail e-mail application and a Web browser.


palmOne's New Win Explorer-Like File Manager

The company also added a new "favorites view" to the traditional Palm OS launcher and the handheld integrates the same multimedia suite available with the Zire 72 for audio and visual (still and video) playback. It also delivers a mobile version of RealPlayer.

Specifications
Although a part of the Tungsten T series, the T5 uses a similar design to the popular Tungsten E, a mid-level PDA that accounts for over 20 percent of palmOne sales. That would explain why the T5 nixes the slider found in previous Tungsten T handhelds. It does feature the same high-resolution 320x480 pixel and 65,536 color screen and virtual graffiti area found in those devices, however.

The T5 is a little larger than the Tungsten E at 4.76 x 3.1 x 0.6 inches (121 x 96.5 x 15.5 mm). It weighs 5.1 ounces (145 g). There is a Secure Digital (SDIO-enabled) slot for memory and peripheral expansion.

You can use this slot for palmOne's new Wi-Fi SD card, as the T5 doesn't integrate that wireless technology. This means only one palmOne handheld bundles Wi-Fi out of the box, the year-and-a-half old Tungsten C. As with previous Tungsten T PDAs, the T5 implements Bluetooth as standard.

While the T5 users the newer Intel XScale Bulverde CPU, at 416 MHz it is not the fastest processor available. There is a 3.5 mm headphone jack but no voice recorder button as with other Tungsten T PDAs. Excluding the voice recorder seems an odd decision for a handheld aimed at business users.

With palmOne integrating its Universal Connector in fewer and fewer handhelds, it was only a matter of time before the company did away with the connector altogether. And that is exactly what it does with the T5, which features a new Multi-Connector.

The Multi-Connector advances over the Universal Connector by using two ports, one for power and the other for data. That way, a USB sync cable is all you need when going away on business, for example. The T5's powerful 1100 mAh battery can trickle-charge through this cable. Multi-Connector also supports audio output for a future palmOne cradle that will be able to link to speakers.

All palmOne handhelds going forward will feature the Multi-Connector.

Cost
The T5 will be available as of November 3rd at a retail price of $399. To make way for the device, the company will lower the price of the T3 to $349, a drop of $50.