Having lifted the lid on Palm's new Tungsten C handheld last month, we have now had time to give the device a thorough road test, and the results are impressive. At first glance the C looks virtually identical to Palm's mobile phone hybrid the Tungsten W, but inside the case lurks the biggest Palm upgrade to date. In the past, Palm has advanced one cautious step at a time: wireless access in the Palm VII, colour in the IIIC, an expansion slot with the Tungsten T. But this time, we get three major improvements in one go. First, Palm has dropped its 16-bit Dragonball processors in favour of a 32-bit 400 megahertz XScale chip from Intel. This allows Palm to make the most of its new Palm OS 5.2.1 operating system and makes this undoubtedly the fastest PDA on the market, whatever the platform. Next comes the memory. At long last, we get a reasonable amount of storage space - in this case, 64 megabytes, or 51MB when pre-installed software is discounted. Finally, and best of all, is the built-in Wi-Fi, fulfilling the wireless vision that the Palm VII promised but so completely failed to deliver. These upgrades enabled several other, less dramatic improvements. Along with the arrival of Palm 5 comes the all-new Graffiti 2 handwriting recognition system, which is very close to the old Graffiti but speeds up entry via the onboard keyboard. The faster processor and new transflective display allow for much better image rendering, and for the first time gives Palm an imaging advantage over partner and rival Sony. For many buyers, the deciding factor will not be the speed but the Wi-Fi. PalmSource has made Internet access a breeze, and the new system can support both virtual private networking and 128-bit encryption. Signal strength is reasonable, though it gobbles up batteries quickly. There are other weaknesses. Although the C comes with great applications for reading Adobe and Microsoft documents, playing videos, making longhand notes and synchronising with Outlook, among other things, there is still little third-party support for the new platform. Installing older applications virtually guarantees a system freeze. The biggest weakness though, is the C's weak mono audio. Stereo sound and a mike input for voice recording should be a given on any decent handheld, but unfortunately, the only way to record audio is through a small phone headset jack, which Palm was too cheap to even include. Palm Tungsten C Specifications Pros: Big memory, high-speed processor, built-in Wi-Fi and a crisp display Cons: Poor mono audio, no microphone Price: HK$3,890
