Writing On Your Palm

Palm Tungsten C

16 June 2003

Palm's Tungsten C is the fastest, most powerful PalmOS device to date. Coupled with built-in WiFi and an integrated thumbboard, is this the perfect writer's PDA?

At first glance, the Tungsten C doesn't look like much. Other than the color (titanium instead of steel gray) and the lack of an external antenna, it doesn't look all that different from the Tungsten W. Unassuming appearances aside, the Tungsten C is a groundbreaking device, and a harbinger of what the next generation devices based on PalmOS 6 might provide. For now, it's the most powerful PDA on the market.

First off, the Tungsten C is the first Palm Powered handheld to break the 16MB barrier in RAM. It sports 64MB, of which 51MB is user-accessible. This is effectively more than any Pocket PC -- which have to split 64MB between program memory and a RAM-disk-like storage area, leaving 32MB on average for running programs -- and given the lower memory requirements of most PalmOS programs, it's a wondrous thing. On my 8MB Clié and 16MB Zire 71, the first things I install are apps like PowerRun and ZLauncher to allow me to store as many apps as possible (basically, anything that neither has a sync conduit nor sets alarms) on the card. On the Tungsten C, this just isn't necessary. You can install just about anything you want into RAM and still leave room to spare. Not having to wait to read apps off the card significantly speeds up the user interface.

Not that the Tungsten C needs the speed boost. It's also the only Palm Powered device on the market to sport a 400MHz Intel XScale processor. This is the PXA255 variant that has only made it into the most recent Pocket PC models like the Toshiba e755 and the forthcoming iPAQ 2215 and 5555. It's the fastest CPU on the market for palmtop devices, with a 200MHz data bus that just begs for multimedia. As fast as Kinoma Player videos are on my Zire 71, they're faster on the Tungsten C. Again, Palm has put hardware equal to the top-of-the-line Pocket PCs in a device with a leaner operating system. The net result is the fastest handheld on the market.

And it looks good, too. The Tungsten C uses the same incredibly bright 320x320 transflective screen as the Zire 71, making it the equal of anything out there. Some of my readers have questioned my assertion that the new Palm screens top the transflective screens of Pocket PCs like the iPAQ 1910. Working at the CompUSA PDA counter, I have ample opportunity to study both devices side by side, and they have pros and cons. The iPAQ 1910 screen at full brightness is brighter than the Zire 71/Tungsten C screen at full brightness when viewed perfectly straight on. However, the iPAQ screen dims significantly when tilted up or down, while the Palm screens remain bright at nearly any viewing angle. And it goes without saying that the 150 pixels per inch (PPI) screens on the Palm devices are sharper than the 120PPI screens on the Pocket PCs. The Pocket PC screens are good, no question, but the Palm has raised the bar. Pocket PCs really need to move up to 320x480 or a full VGA 480x640 to stay competitive.

Like the Tungsten W, the Tungsten C lacks a dedicated Graffiti area. Instead it sports a Blackberry-like thumbboard beneath the square screen. The keys on this thumbboard are hard plastic rather than rubber and respond with a satisfying tactile click when pressed. While they can be a bit slippery if you don't keep your thumbnails well-trimmed, they work far better in use than any of the Clié thumbboards. The Command and Shortcut keys are easily accessible and in applications that provide Command mnemonics for every menu command, it's entirely possible to use the Tungsten C entirely sans stylus. Navigation is handled by a five-way directional pad mounted under the keyboard, similar in design ot the one on the Tungsten T but smaller. I'd've preferred a mini-joystick like the one on the Zire 71, but I have to admit that the d-pad looks more businesslike and the Tungsten line is aimed squarely at business users.

If you don't feel like using the thumbboard -- and the reasons to use one are pretty compelling¹ -- there are other options. If you need massive speed the Tungsten C is just as compatible with aftermarket foldable keyboards as any other Palm. If you want to scrawl with a stylus, the TC offers Graffiti 2. Since the TC lacks a dedicated Graffiti area, Graffiti 2 defaults to allowing you to write on the screen itself. This works about as well as Transcriber on the Pocket PC, meaning that it works most of the time but odds are about fifty/fifty whether you'll get a period or tap on something with a single tap of the stylus. More vexing to me is that Graffiti 2 lacks the flexibility and elegance (not to mention lefty-friendliness) of Graffiti 1, but fortunately, TealScript works just as well on the TC as it does on the Zire 71.

Of course, the speed, memory and thumbboard are only part of the TC's appeal. The TC also sports an internal WiFi (802.11b) radio. WiFi is pretty easy to set up, and the Tungsten C does an excellent job of scanning for new networks. Once connected, the Tungsten C can surf at pretty much full WiFi speed, the top speed usually limted more by the cable modem of DSL line providing the network feed than the wireless connection itself. The Tungsten C provides a built-in web browser based on NetFront, which supports HTML 4.01, XHTML, CSS and just about any other web standard you could want. While Pocket PC 2003 is rumored to have an updated version of Pocket Internet Explorer, for now the Tungsten C provides the best out-of-the-box browsing experience in a handheld.

Perhaps more useful for businesspeople (and writers) on the go is email, and the Tungsten C doesn't disappoint. Versamail 2.5 is built into ROM, and is one of the better email clients I've seen in a mobile device. It fully supports synchronization with Outlook, including as many sub-folders as you like. Long-time readers may recall that the lack of such an email client was one of the things that drove me to the Pocket PC in the first place back in 2000. More than just an offline client, Versamail 2.5 also supports pulling email directly from POP3 and IMAP mail servers, and this is where the WiFi radio really shines. Anywhere you have WiFi access² you can write up an email on the Tungsten C using the thumbboard and send it off high speed. No more missed deadlines just because you couldn't get to the office to sync your email!

Of course, submitting writing assignments while on the go works better if you can send them in standard word processing formats. The Tungsten C comes with DataViz's Documents to Go, as do all the models in Palm's Tungsten line. The difference in the Tungsten C is that Documents to Go is preloaded in ROM and doesn't take up any additional RAM. This is the closest Palm has come yet to integrating an office suite directly into the core OS, Pocket PC-style. While I'm not all that fond of Documents to Go personally -- I think Blue Nomad's Wordsmith is still the better word processor -- it works seamlessly with Versamail and allows you to send standard Microsoft Word documents as mail attachments directly from the handheld, something WordSmith won't do.

The Tungsten C also comes with Bachmann Software's PrintBoy, allowing you to print by using the Tungsten C's infrared port to "beam" documents and emails to any IR-capable printer. Supposedly, PrintBoy also allows you to print over a WiFi network to any network printer, but I was not able to get this feature to work reliably. Most networks these days, especially wireless networks, use DHCP to dynamically assign numeric IP addresses to nodes on the network. PrintBoy requires you to know both the IP address and port number of the printer before you can send a document, and most of time this information simply isn't available. If anyone knows how to sidestep this, please let me know.

Any computer is useful only if it works when you need it to. I'm not really sure what to say about the stability of the Tungsten C. I've sold quite a few at CompUSA since they came out, but I've also seen a lot of them come back³. I don't know if the returns are due to physical problems with the unit or if people just don't like it, but I do know our demo unit has to be reset several times a day. To be fair, computer store demos get horribly abused, and probably age ten times faster than personally-owned devices, but it's something to consider. The iPAQ 5455 also has the same problem, and I'm starting to wonder if it might be a case of simply trying to cram too much technology into too small a package too soon.

Stability isn't the only potential downside to the Tungsten C. For many, the Tungsten C's audio capabilities aren't up to par. The Tungsten C provides a 2.5mm headphone jack, the same cell phone-style jack that adorns the Tungsten W. And for largely the same reason. The Tungsten C's jack supports both a microphone and monoaural audio. For music afficianados, this lack of stereo sound might be a deal-breaker. It doesn't really matter to me, since most of the audio I listen to on the go consists of mono audiobooks, but there's no question that the Tungsten C isn't designed with music in mind. What it is designed for is Voice Over IP (VOIP). VOIP allows you to use the Tungsten C's WiFi connection to place phone calls over the Internet without incurring any per-minute cell charges. The Tungsten C doesn't ship with VOIP software, but several companies are working on it, and the choice to put a universal cell phone headset jack into the Tungsten C instead of a more traditional 3.5mm audio jack should make cell phone companies very, very nervous if both the Tungsten C and WiFi hotspots take off. New Yorkers with Tungsten Cs will be able to yak wirelessly all day long in Manhattan's Bryant Park without paying a dime to anyone.

Compared to the HP iPAQ H5455, the Tungsten is a better deal. At only $499, the Tungsten C is the least expensive active handheld with built-in WiFi (the Toshiba e740 is cheaper, but it's also discontinued). It's significantly more expensive than the $299 Zire 71, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue for the corporate IT types that make up the Tungsten C's target market.

So is the Tungsten C the ideal writer's PDA?

It's close, but not definitively ahead of the competition. Oddly enough, shortly after both of the new Palm models came out, I reread a column I wrote last year, "The Perfect Writer's PDA." Based on my baker's dozen criterions, the Zire 71 arguably comes closer to writing perfection than the Tungsten C. While you can add WiFi via a card to the Zire 71 and add a camera to the Tungsten C via a card, the Zire is $200 cheaper and provides more flexibility in data input. I can write accurately in a dark theater with Graffiti, but the Tungsten C's thumbboard would be useless and on-screen Graffiti is problematic. The Tungsten C is compelling, but it still needs a camera and an internal GSM/GPRS radio for data fallback outside WiFi range to be truly ideal for the mobile writer.

Of course, for the gadget freaks among us, nothing tops it. It's the fastest PDA on the market, with a CPU equalling any Pocket PC and a smaller, leaner OS to power. The integrated WiFi works well given the restrictions of a handheld form factor, and 51MB of user-accessible RAM makes kludge apps like PowerRun virtually unnecessary. If you really need the fastest handheld on the block, get the Tungsten C. For most writers, a $299 Zire 71 or $349 Tungsten T might be better, and cheaper, options.

And yet...

There's something compelling about the Tungsten C. I'm happy with my Zire 71, but something about the Tungsten C calls to me. I'd probably have one by now if I had WiFi in my apartment -- something I've so far successfully put off, and my wallet thanks me -- but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to hold out.

Jeff Kirvin
Jeff@writingonyourpalm.net
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Jeff Kirvin is available for consulting on mobile technology. Email me today!