Palm Tungsten E2

I am a third generation Palm user. I received a Tungsten E2 for Christmas last December 2005. I was very impressed with the added functions, the slick design and the long lasting rechargeable battery. I wrote a glowing review of the product on Amazon. The only complaint I had was the 90 days warranty period. I thought it was too short. Four month later, I encountered a problem trying to power up the palm. It just won’t power up. I tried various “reset” modes and none worked. I finally contacted Palm support and they informed me that the warranty period had expired and that it would cost me $149 to repair it. The original cost of the Palm Tungsten E2 was only $199. Obviously I declined. I started searching on the web and I found out there are many others with the same problem. It turns out to be a defect of this particular device. I am positive Palm knew about this and yet they choose to deny any problem and cover it up. What a sad position for a Corporation to take. I later discovered that the battery is defective in my case and I was able to buy a replacement part from ebay for $20 and a special tool (TORX T5) screw driver. I replaced the battery my self and it is working now.
I am writing this follow up review to warn other customers of Palm. They are not playing fair. They will make you pay for their mistakes. This new culture is very disturbing. They have made the financial calculation that it is cheaper to ignore and deny a problem than to offer a recall and an apology. This is clearly a defect of one of their products which they knew from the start. Why else would they only offer a short warranty period? As opposed to 1 year on the other model T2. I will not buy another product from Palm and I would not recommend this to others. Buyers beware!!! It is a shame that an otherwise excellent product should suffer because of bad judgments on the part of their Corp. Executives. I have written a formal complaint to the head office and have not received any reply. I guess it was too much to expect.

-Jack Lee
Yorktown Hts. NY
May 12, 2006

I have used a Palm m130 for about the last 6 or 8 years, but lately only to manage my calendar and address book. It has served me well but is worn out, and some buttons no longer work. I upgraded to the E2 when I won an eBay auction, and I really love this device. I chose the E2 for its long rated battery life and fast processor.

The E2 is very fast, and very bright, and does a lot more than my ancient m130. I have now added a hard case, cradle, and wireless keyboard, all purchased on eBay. I synch daily and use AvantGo to keep up with news, etc when on the run and away from my computer. I also use the E2 as a Bible reader with the free software available on the web. The bonus software for this model is far superior to the earlier versions for the m130, especially Documents to Go. The ability to view smaller text on this unit makes the spreadsheet so much more useful and practical. I was able to transfer some of the compatible software from my m130 by beaming it to the E2, but some cannot transfer because it's incompatible with the newer Palm operating system. Overall, this is a great unit and so far I am really enjoying it.

Another thing I like about the E2 is the battery is user replaceable, and available for around $20. I wondered if I would need a new battery when I purchased the E2 used, but so far, the battery seems to last forever. After one day's typical use, the battery only drops down to about 90% to 95% full. I took this unit on vacation for 12 days, and didn't need to recharge it at all while I was away. If you charge it in the cradle for a half hour or so, often you can use it continuously for 20 minutes and it still registers 100% full.

I have also beamed some phone numbers from the E2 to the cell phones of some family members and that was pretty convenient. I'm a photographer, and I have a depth of field calculator program loaded on the E2. That program works much faster than it did on the m130.

The only negative I know of is that it occasionally comes up with a fatal error and needs to be reset. But I suspect that it's probably caused by some old software I've loaded on it. My device was purchased used, but is in pristine condition, and I got it for less than half the cost of a new one.

With the arrival of smartphones,I know these type of electronics will de-value but I use a good no frills phone and my PalmPilot. I see this as advantage as the smartphones seem to be a bit problematic(my experience) and you risk losing all your data if your phone has problems.

Fast shipment. Item better than described. . .the Palm pilot holds battery power just fine. It has a nice leather case ....................................................................................

BEWARE ... do NOT buy this or any palm handheld. I have had both an E2 and this LifeDrive and both have had loving care but both have died within a year . Palm will "graciously" repair it for $150 (plus shipping). so beware ... there is NO quality to be found here ... I suggest you look at a pocket pc or some OTHER device.

I am glad I got this PDA. It will replace my old one that has a scratched display. I will write another review later once I get the item.

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The buyer was unwilling to work with me. When I went to make the purchase, I was notified at the time of trying to purchase the Palm that my accounts had been locked due to a third party accessing my paypal account. I had explained my situation with him regarding my credit being stolen and my paypal account being frozen, but he was unwilling to accept any other payment form. I asked him to retract my bid but he demanded a payment via paypal and then threw a strike against me when I was unable to do so instead of retracting my bid.

I like the weight and size, It has several compact things it can do. I also like availability of using keyboard.

It is a good pda, useful for everyday use. It was recommended by someone and I can confirm it's usefulness.

This item was great! Excellent, just like new! I thought I would give it a try for the medical software on it, and the software is great! This should be a big help in my nursing program.
Thank you so much!

This Palm Tungsten E2 is very solid, good quality PDA, the OS interface is very clean and easy to use, synchronization is also easy, screen is bright, text is super clear, a perfect easy to use PDA to organize your daily life, plus, the battery life is super long, I charged once, and it last two weeks! But as a ex-pocketPC owner, I have found if you are familiar with Microsoft windows, you would probably like PocketPC better, since the windows CE interface is similar like regular windows, and the most important factor for users to choose pocketPC is, you can find tons of softwares for pocketPC, but only a few for Palm. So, if you are not going to use the PDA for multitasking purposes, you only need a good quality organizer to schedule your daily life, then, this is a good choice, other than that, you should buy a PocketPC.

Excellent product. Exactly as promised. Would buy again from this seller. Delivery was prompt also. I got a great item at a great price.

Recently Palm has been integrating Windows Mobile into their devices rather then the Palm OS, when seeing devices like this it's rather to see why. This now being the 3rd palm based device I have owned is the most disappointing.

Pros: Sturdy metal construction that feels solid, functional IRDA, A very nice chrome stylus, came with a full size keyboard.

Cons:No support for SD cards over 1GB, No WiFi (without expensive upgrade), Free memory is not user accessible, absolutely nothing is free for this device and the software included is closer to bloat ware then functional software.

Upon opening the package and charging the unit I am greeted with the annoying tutorial page, upon deletion of this waste of desktop space I decide to utilize one of my sd cards and a great media program called TCPMP but much to my surprise the Palm doesn't even acknowledge there is a card in the slot, turns out palm never tested the device completely for any cards let alone cards over 1GB. The included software is feature stunted by only offering normally included features such as spell check in premium versions only. The included wireless keyboard would be great if the palm supported landscape mode so the palm needs to stand under its own weight instead of resting securely in the keyboards carrier. Battery life is superior but this is probably attributed to the inferior (and outdated) 200Mhz Intel Xscale Processor. The extreme lack of open source support for the Palm os shows why the OS failed in general and choosing from an equivalent PDA catagory the ipaq 1945 wifi is far superior.

I agree with at least part of almost every review so far - in other words, this unit has extreme good points and extreme bad points. It's a good device (feature-wise) but it is definitely fraught with problems, and Palm's service has gone from bad to worst possible scenario (which will eventually catch up with them, so the future of their products is in doubt). I've had several palm units over the years, mostly good, but the Tungsten E2 is perplexing. I agree with the person who wrote "Although the Windows Mobile based PDAs are more elaborate and powerful, I think their features distract from the real use of a PDA, that being a personal assistant." That statement hit the nail on the head, but I might still have to switch to a "Winette" (programmer's term for a Windows version PDA) one of these days because Palm's customer service is quickly approaching that of the airlines (willing to kick their own customers in the teeth). Anyway, the Tungsten E2 is great when it works, but the last couple months this thing has been developing many problems (it's two years old). One I've learned to live with is that the power button on top works only occasionally (I have to push it several times to get it to turn on or off), so I usually turn it on with the one of the four buttons at the bottom of the screen, and just let it turn off by itself (I keep it set to power itself off after 30 seconds, for that very reason). Another is that the alarm sound works when it wants to - sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't (make a sound), so that feature simply can not be trusted. Once in a while it will not power on, but so far I've been lucky because pushing the reset button did the trick. All in all, though, it seems as if the unit is withering away fast. I had a Tungsten E1 before this one and it was too horrid to mention (due to near PTSD). The best one was the M515 I had several years ago, but I accidentally went swimming with it and it's been toast ever since (my own fault, of course). Anyway, they've gone downhill ever since, and judging by the trend, I can not rely on this type of track record for the important issues I use it for (business apps). Five years ago I was Mr. PalmOS and vigorously discouraged people from getting a Winette but now my attitude is changing rapidly because of where Palm (the corporation) seems to be heading. They had the market as far as true effectiveness in a PDA, but due to their brazen greed and belligerence they're losing it fast. I predict it will be all over with them in a few years at most. Ultimately, the options seem to be either (A) switching to a Winette, or (B) buying used Palms frequently and keeping a few backups in stock - the latter option being a pathetic way to keep serviceable equipment in operation.

i bought this because its the only palm pda that is used with the banks diesel tuner. the software that banks provides allows the pda to be used as a monitoring gage.

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I upgraded from a Palm Zire 22, I have had one other Palm before the Zire. I needed one with more memory space or a memory card slot and the E2 was a great investment for what I was looking for. I am currently working full-time and going to school full-time, and I have a family which is involve in different activities. On the E2 I was able to download a drug reference book and some other things related to nursing.

Was a pleasure to buy this from this very nice person. Item works great just as described. Seller was very quick to send item to me and I like that when I purchase something from EBay. Thank you very much.

I decided to get this for my husband, he had an old Palm Zire, and everytime he would sync his, it would try to add some of my new features. It would discourage him so much. So when I seen this come up I could not pass up the chance to get if for him. He absolutely loves it, in fact he is using it now as we speak.

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I am in love with my purchase! It is a needed work tool and the price was better than retail. I am excited about using my PDA to look up medical info in a fast and efficient manner.

I bought the Palm Tunsten E2 because I had lost my device. Like the previous model this one is fraught with problems regarding synchronization. It hangs at best and I have to customize to get it to synch anything. Recently it updated my laptop and completed wiped out my palm pilot. After much trial and error I did a hard reset and got my life back. I have also discovered that if I updated from the laptop to the palm pilot everything works ok. If updating from the palm pilot to the laptop, while it updates, the pilot hangs on the cleaning up message until I do a soft reset.

What's the problem with Palm in general?

I didn't get my E2 on eBay, but since they are sold here I will tell you my story. I've bought two of these and I bought extended warranties on both too (thank goodness!). The first one I had to replace because something happened to the display screen...after the 90 day warranty ran out of course. The second one decided not to turn on after I had it for about 6 months. Since it was under the extended warranty I purchased, it got sent off to be fixed. I had no problems with it for a couple of months...then a couple of days ago it does it again. Again I contact the people who I needed to contact under the warranty. They decided to send me a card with the amount of the purchase price to buy another one. So...I go shopping around for a replacement as I wait for the card. Guess what!!! Not only is this a chronic problem with the E2...but it's also a chronic problem with all the other Palm pdas!!!!

I have no idea what I'm going to do about this. I need the pda for my job (EMS). The E2 was great while it lasted; very easy for me to work with. Just be warned that it does have this problem and they haven't been able to fix it yet.

After a little over a month of ownership I'd say I like my Palm enough to use it practically everyday. I like the MP3 features. I also like watching videos from my Palm. Documents to Go is a nice feature. Somethings took me a while to figure out but that's because I didn't read everything in the manual. Dislikes - During my first month I kept getting fatal error/reset a lot. Then finally it would go away. I kind of panicked, but playing around with it I found out that if you push the on/off button and tap the reset button simultaneously that you can do a cold reboot and start from scratch. It wasn't too hard to get everything back on. I did loose some of my games, but they were just trial games that one that was registered came back. Since then though the number of fatal errors and messages have decreased dramatically so perhaps it's something I did. If though I were to need another, I may decide to upgrade to one with more capabilities and more space so that I can view all internet pages. This one doesn't display internet pages very good. Aside from that this a good little tool.

I bought the Tungten E2 because the *&%*$#*& Microsoft Vista rendered my beautiful Palm Tungsten T into an expensive paperweight. The E2 works well and is a slight improvement over the Tungsten T in a couple of areas. The downside is my Tungsten T accesories do not work with the E2 because Palm decided to change the bottom connector which makes my current keyboard, synch cable and charger useless. All of this because I bought a computer with Vista.
My suggestion to potential buyers. DO NOT GET A VISTA BASED COMPUTER!!! I cannot stress enough my hatred for Microsoft and the troubles I have encounted with the MS Vista OS. My Tungsten T worked great with the Microsoft XP OS. The VISTA program is a POS, figure it out. I suggest buying an XP equipped computer even if you have to buy it used. Then you can use virtually any Palm device you want without problems.

Jeff
maloney1@pacbell.net