The Tungsten T3 takes its place as the flagship among Palm's PDAs. With its 400-MHz Intel XScale CPU and 64MB of RAM (52MB available to users), the T3 is easily the most powerful Palm-branded PDA yet. It's a bit larger and heavier than the T2, measuring 4.3 by 2.9 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighing 5.4 ounces.
Most physical features carry over from the earlier models, although the application launch and five-way navigation buttons have changed. They are now bigger and hence easier to use. The T3 uses the same slider design as the earlier T models. But in this instance, instead of exposing a Graffiti area, the case opens up to show more screen (for a total of 2.1 by 2.9 inches).
That bright, transflective TFT display has 320- by 480-dpi resolution (half VGA). This increased screen resolution is stunning: The display seems to pop right out at you. And by tapping one button, you can switch from traditional portrait orientation to landscape.
The company positions the T3 for professional and enterprise users, in part because of its Bluetooth wireless capability and support for SD I/O. A new Socket SD Wi-Fi card will also be supported, but it was not ready for our testing. The lack of integrated Wi-Fi holds back the T3 somewhat, although the Tungsten C is available with Wi-Fi built in.
The closest Sony model that corresponds to the T3 is the Clié TG50 ($350 street), which lacks Bluetooth and has a smaller display with lower resolution. In the Windows Mobile world, the closest competing model would be the HP iPAQ h2215 ($400 street), which has a similarly rated CPU and RAM amount, integrated Bluetooth, and a CF II slot as well as an SD slot.
The h2215 is about the same weight and just a bit larger than the T3, but it has a lower-resolution display. Unlike any current Palm OS models, however, the h2215 can keep multiple applications running—still a Palm shortcoming. The T3 and the h2215 are equally impressive. Your choice should be dictated by your OS preference.
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