T5 Should Be a Hit (for those meant to buy it)
I helped a friend buy a Tungsten T5 today. His Pocket PC Phone Edition died - again - and he figured it was time to move on to something else. We went through all the options, both convergent and two-body, and determined that his best option was to upgrade his T-Mobile cell phone to a nice Bluetooth and WiFi-enabled Motorola v600 and pair it with a Bluetooth PDA.
Now my friend isn't a power user. He uses his PDA constantly, but he uses it for work. He's in real estate, and he needs to keep track of clients and properties. He needs to figure out mortgages. Most importantly, he needs everything to work while he's mobile without having to tinker with it or think too hard about the technology. He just wants it to work.
It came down to the Tungsten T5 or the HP hx4705. While the iPAQ is definitely sexier, it's also more maintenance and HP has a track record of high-end devices that just don't work very well. Last weekend we watched as someone at a user group meeting showing off his new 4705 killed the screen. The screen went totally white, and not even a hard reset brought it back. The iPAQ 5000 series had the same kind of flakiness. Too much technology crammed into too small a space.
Which brings me back to the T5. The newest Tungsten has been almost universally reviled by the enthusiast community because it's not a compelling "upgrade" from the T3. It doesn't have WiFi, no voice recorder, no vibrating alarms, no charge LED, no slider. But these criticisms ignore what makes the T5 what it is.
Easy.
The T5 is a return to the "Zen of Palm." For example, it syncs with Outlook just as well as a Pocket PC, maybe even better. No effort required. Just about anything can be stored on the T5, just drag it to "File Transfer" or copy and paste into the drive letter that appears when the T5 is in "drive mode." Most office documents can be opened and edited without problems or file conversion, thanks to Documents To Go 7. If the T5 runs out of power, no problem: just charge it up and keep going. The flash memory means you don't lose your data just because you're out of town and forgot your charger. A business traveller can just drop a hodge-podge of files into the T5 and go, leaving the laptop in the office. Edit on the go, beam, Bluetooth, email or USB drive copy the results when you get where you're going.
Does the T5 have the bells and whistles of other devices? No. But it's a heck of a lot easier, and that's what PalmOne has been best at: getting the technology out of your way and letting you get things done.
Now my friend isn't a power user. He uses his PDA constantly, but he uses it for work. He's in real estate, and he needs to keep track of clients and properties. He needs to figure out mortgages. Most importantly, he needs everything to work while he's mobile without having to tinker with it or think too hard about the technology. He just wants it to work.
It came down to the Tungsten T5 or the HP hx4705. While the iPAQ is definitely sexier, it's also more maintenance and HP has a track record of high-end devices that just don't work very well. Last weekend we watched as someone at a user group meeting showing off his new 4705 killed the screen. The screen went totally white, and not even a hard reset brought it back. The iPAQ 5000 series had the same kind of flakiness. Too much technology crammed into too small a space.
Which brings me back to the T5. The newest Tungsten has been almost universally reviled by the enthusiast community because it's not a compelling "upgrade" from the T3. It doesn't have WiFi, no voice recorder, no vibrating alarms, no charge LED, no slider. But these criticisms ignore what makes the T5 what it is.
Easy.
The T5 is a return to the "Zen of Palm." For example, it syncs with Outlook just as well as a Pocket PC, maybe even better. No effort required. Just about anything can be stored on the T5, just drag it to "File Transfer" or copy and paste into the drive letter that appears when the T5 is in "drive mode." Most office documents can be opened and edited without problems or file conversion, thanks to Documents To Go 7. If the T5 runs out of power, no problem: just charge it up and keep going. The flash memory means you don't lose your data just because you're out of town and forgot your charger. A business traveller can just drop a hodge-podge of files into the T5 and go, leaving the laptop in the office. Edit on the go, beam, Bluetooth, email or USB drive copy the results when you get where you're going.
Does the T5 have the bells and whistles of other devices? No. But it's a heck of a lot easier, and that's what PalmOne has been best at: getting the technology out of your way and letting you get things done.
1 Comments:
At 12:12 AM, Antoine said…
I just want to say thank you for making such a balanced argument and looking at the T5 issue from a different vantage point. I have been saying the same thing to a degree, and think that the T5 will be well to those that need just an easy device. Great article to read before I get to sleep, thanks. Peace and blessings.
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