palm TX Handheld - 1047NA

If you are a fan of the Palm line, then you will really like the TX. Large screen, great colors, the wi-fi (that is really great!) and since I have been a user of palm products since a palm III, easy to use. Downside is that even though I am proficient in graffiti, this one does not seem to accept it well so it forces you to use the built in keyboard. But it pops in and out so it gives you the whole screen when you need it. I was able to add in all my old apps easily and add new ones. I transfered a lot of things from a smartphone which got just too clunky so I actually decided to go back to two devices for the large screen, lighter palm and wi-fi. I installed an IM software that works like a charm and where wifi is around - can chat easily like at home. I have my life in the calendar and the address book so keep it handy. Games are a must. Keeps good power too. Hope you enjoy yours as much as I enjoy mine.
 
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Overall not a bad PDA. The biggest problem with it is the WiFi doesn't work reliably if you use any encryption (WEP or WPA). Installing the Enterprise WiFi upgrade (which provides WPA-AES and WPA-Enterprise) doesn't help either. <p> I spent a year fighting with their entirely useless tech support to get them to fix the problem. I returned my TX 4 times. All of them had the same flaky secure WiFi. (WiFi does work fine when connecting to an unsecured WAP.) <p> If you plan on using WiFi with WEP or WPA, don't bother purchasing. After two years of cursing my TX, I'm replacing mine with a Nokia N800.
 
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This is my very first PDA and I am pretty satisfied with my purchase. I read multiple reviews from several websites - including Consumer Reports - and decided that this PDA was worth a try. I'm happy that I purchased it! I mainly use it for the calendar and task functions as I bought it to replace my old "pen and paper organizer" method. I love the ease of entering events and task - and especially love the [sound] alerts and organization [i.e., type of task: business, personal, create your own]. I also like the WiFi feature - use it to check email or the Internet either at home (we have wireless) or in a restaurant with free WiFi. I agree with all the other reviews regarding "first PDA" - the Palm TX is definitely a good purchase of a first-timer!
 
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Great product,at a great price.Only problem ive found,is that the battery life is not so great,but that's somthing i knew about before i ordered it.I would definetly reccomend this product :D
 
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This is my third palm and the best so far. The screen quality is exceptional and the colors brilliant. The battery appears to have a longer life between charges than my Tungsten E. I enjoy the ability to use wi-fi from my Palm.
 
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The device is well designed, with few drawbacks. I updated from a Sony Clie PEG T665C, which has been discontinued. Since it looks like Palm OS PDAs are being discontinued in favor of phones, the Palm TX is as sophisticated as a PDA will ever get. I have been wishing for device that would (1) function as a PDA, (2) be a good book reader, (3) allow me to browse the internet and check e-mails, and (4) substitute my mp3 player. The Palm TX excels at (1) and (2), is good for (3), and it is clearly bad for (4). As PDA and book reader, I could not ask for more. The PDA synchronizes wirelessly at excellent speed. The updates in the Palm Desktop software are marginal, which is not bad, as I could easily export all of the data (contacts, notes, to-do) from my Sony Clie. I am very satisfied with the compatibility with older versions of the Palm desktop. My wife could also synchronize her very old Palm m100. Thus, you can use you older Palm devices with the newer software; the software automatically recognizes the user and creates independent accounts on the same computer. As a book reader, I am happy with the screen size and the size of the available fonts. As a device to browse the internet it works well. I was pleasantly surprised of the amount of content for mobile devices. This is obviously driven by phone needs, but Palm TX benefits from the availability of such mobile sites. There are excellent mobile versions of Yahoo!, Hotmail, and Google. There is tons of good content on mobile format. With respect to the easiness of browsing, I have mixed feelings. You have to browse with the stylus. I wish there was a back button that could take you to the previously browsed page, or to the previously opened application. The Sony Clie had a browsing wheel with a back button that was so convenient. In the Palm TX, there are few buttons, which means you have to rely on the stylus more. It is a minor inconvenience that should not dissuade anyone from buying this product. Now the bad news ... the Palm TX is really bad as mp3 player due to hissing sound in the background. The hiss is relatively loud and makes very unpleasant to listen to music. The hiss is even more evident in good quality headphones. This problem appears common in Palm TX devices, as anyone can check in the discussion groups at the Palm support website. Some people in those discussion groups have argued that Palm used inexpensive and unshielded audio components to bring the price down. I have had a number of mp3 players over the years (RCA, Rio, Creative, and the Sony Clie) and I have never heard this kind of hiss in any of them. I bought an external cable with volume control to fix the problem. The external volume control does impose an extra impedance that filters the noise; however, I am sure it also filters some music frequencies as well. The hiss noise brings the value of the device a bit down. I am disappointed that Palm failed to get the sound right. Extra software is needed to complement the usefulness of the device. For example, no Palm software is available to browse the contents of the memory card. Fortunately, freeware is available such as FileZ (www.nosleep.net) and UniCMD (http://www.unicmd.de/en/index.html) that allow to delete, copy, rename files in the card and in the Palm device. Excellent freeware is available in the internet (e.g., http://www.freewarepalm.com/). Palm TX ships with Pocket Tunes to play mp3 files. A $30 upgrade is available to enable WMA files and internet radio. The idea of internet radio using the Wi-Fi is great. I did not go for the Pocket Tunes update. Instead, I purchased Kinoma (www.kinoma.com) which allows playing not only audio files (mp3, wma, aac) and internet radio, but also video files (e.g., mpg, mov), and internet video (e.g., YouTube). It comes with a browser with pre-defined internet radio stations and video sites. Kinoma communicates quite well with the Blazer web browser. For example, when clicking a link to stream audio or video, Kinoma opens automatically and closes after the stream ended, taking you back to the Blazer browser to the internet point you were. Kinoma is less expensive than Pocket Tunes; thus, you get much more bang for the buck with Kinoma. The only drawback of Kinoma is that it stops playing when opening another application (as opposed to Pocket Tunes that keeps on playing until manually stopped). For additional video formats besides those supported by Kinoma, older versions of The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP) are available as freeware. The