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 Let's be fair about this: the palmOne Tungsten E2 is not an el cheapo handheld. At $250, it's relatively inexpensive compared to some personal digital assistants, but still in the mid-range. The amazingly bright screen outshines previous Palms by a mile, and the non-volatile memory is nice if you need to transport files between Macs. (You can copy files to the E2's 32MB of internal storage--files that won't, incidentally, go kaboom if you drain the battery.) Positioned between the Zire entry-level PDAs and the more business-minded Tungsten ueber-models, the E2 runs at a zippy 200MHz and even provides built-in Bluetooth for cable-free data swapping. It's a good bread-and-butter PDA, but pricier Tungsten and Zire models might be better choices.
The E2 of course includes the typical schedule and contact management functions, as well as Documents To Go, for creating and editing Microsoft Word and Excel docs. After we made a wireless Bluetooth connection with our PowerBook G4, we checked email from across the room and even surfed the Internet using our Mac's broadband connection. Configuring the E2 for this kind of use does take some effort, though. For example, you have to make a PC data connection and learn terms like "trusted device," but because the E2 does not provide 802.11 wireless capabilities or (at the time of this writing) a driver that works with Palm's own SD Wi-Fi card, Bluetooth is the only wireless game in town.
The E2 also supports MP3 files, so you can pop in your own SecureDigital card and turn the E2 into an MP3 player with lots of space for Moby and Mudvayne. The screen is too small for movies, although the E2 does support the MPEG format. The smallish speaker on the back of the device sounded like a tin can, but playback using good quality headphones was beefy enough.
What impressed us most about the E2 was its long battery life. We're not sure why the E2 lasts longer than other Palms, but it does use an improved version of Palm OS 5 (5.4 "Garnet") that presumably manages battery life better. Combined with the bright display, the E2 seems like a stand-out PDA for just about any user, home or business, right?
Well, we do have a few gripes, some fairly major. For starters, the E2 uses only a 320x320 display. The palmOne Tungsten T5 ($400; www. palmone.com) screen is 480 pixels tall, so you get a lot more screen real estate. It also means the T5 works as a mini-movie player, a la the Sony PSP ($300; www.sony.com), whereas the Tungsten E2 screen is just too dainty for anything but simple games and PIM functions. The T5 holds 250 MB of data compared to the E2's 32MB, runs in "drive mode" so that an icon pops up on your Mac desktop, and plays music on a larger speaker. The palmOne Zire 72 ($300) runs games faster and includes a camera. Then there's the competition from Pocket PC devices, palmOne Treo smartphones and gaming handhelds. Yes, the E2 could get easily lost in a vast ocean of toosimilar PDAs.
Overall, we recommend the E2 for those who want to spend no more than $250 and need one of the longest-lasting handhelds around. For a little more dough, we recommend the Tungsten T5 for its larger screen or the Zire 71 for its faster processor. For a little less, you can still get all the PIM and music playback functions on lesser Zire models, and stay just as organized.
In the end, the bright screen and long battery life are not enough to overly impress us, given its small screen size that will make movies look like animated postage stamps. The E2 is not quite a powerhouse PDA and not quite a multimedia machine. -JOHN BRANDON
Tungsten E2: 
palmOne | www.palmone.com | 408-503-7000 | $250
Pros: Built-in Bluetooth, bright screen, long battery life.
Cons: Small screen, not as fast as the Zire 72, no Wi-Fi. Requires: OS 9.1 (OS 9.2.2 recommended) or OS 10.1.5 or higher
Requires: OS 9.1 (OS 9.2.2 recommended) or OS 10.1.5 or higher
macHOME recommends: OS 10.2 or higher
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