The Tungsten T5 brings together the best of palmOne's lineup of the past 2 years with new features. Larry Garfield looks to see how well it does it.
Design
The Tungsten T5, despite the name, has more in common with the Tungsten E than the previous T-series devices slider designs. Its case is built along the same lines as the Tungsten E, but a bit longer at 121 x 78.2 x 15.4 mm and weighing 144 grams. The case itself is plastic but colored and treated to feel almost like metal.
 | The T5 offers a mixture of old and new
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The screen is essentially the same as the Tungsten T3, with a bright 320 x 480 pixel 16-bit TFT display with virtual handwriting area, the same design as the T3 that we so liked. Below the screen are the now-common 5-way navigator (square, like on the Tungsten E), and four collinear application buttons. Those have now been remapped, however, to Favorites/Home, Calendar, Contacts, and Files. More on those programs later. The power button is on top of the device, sunken a bit too far, as are the headphone jack, IR port, and SDIO-capable Secure Digital card slot. With the exception of the power button, all buttons have a good feel to them. Absent is the voice recorder button and application, which palmOne claims its studies show are rarely used anyway.
The stylus is a well-weighted metal barrel, and sits on the right side in a partially-exposed silo. A leather flip cover attaches on the left, and folds back behind the device when not in use. The speaker, reasonably loud and clear, is situated in back where it is actually more difficult for the user to hear, especially with the leather cover over it, but easier for the person across the room. At the bottom of the device is the new Multi-Connector serial port. Absent from the T5 is a vibrating alarm, a seemingly obvious feature for a device in this bracket.
The T5 ships without a cradle, very unusual for a high-end device, but the included cable lets the user plug in either power or sync or both (the power cord plugs into the sync cable), and includes a HotSync trigger button on the connector.
Connectivity
The first notable connectivity change of the T5 is the new Multi-Connector, palmOne's new serial port design. While compatible with a new cradle that is available separately, it ships only with a cable. The new design, however, does allow the user to use only the sync or only the power cable, a boon for travelers. It also allows for multimedia-out, so the T5 can use external speakers via the connector. Sadly, the included power cable still has the ridiculous brick-on-plug AC adapter.
The T5 also includes Bluetooth support using the new wizard first seen on the Zire 72. That includes utilities to connect to a phone, access point, or PC. There is no included Wi-Fi support, although palmOne says a new driver for the palmOne Wi-Fi SD card, coming soon, will allow it to connect to Wi-Fi hardware. It also includes the now ubiquitous SDIO slot and IR port previously mentioned.
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