If you were considering buying a used or new Palm Tungsten W for use as a phone/pda, there are a few things you should know before you pony up the dough. First this model was discontinued by Palm/Tungsten a while back (about 2003 or so) for a few good reasons. This is not to say that it isn't a very good PDA. It is likely that it was discontinued as a PDA/PHONE because of the very poor design compared to modern PDA/Phones. Key features that it does not have are the following: SPEAKERPHONE, BUILT IN MICROPHONE & SPEAKER, and other great new things like BLUETOOTH and WIFI connectivity. If you were planning on using it as a phone it is a bit irritating to fiddle with the wire and earpeice every time you want to answer or make a call. As a PDA it is great. It keeps your contacts, calendar, and PALM powered programs in good order. It works great and the built in keyboard are very functional. In my experience using several different Tungsten W/ i710 units however, they don't seem to do a good job of keeping date and time accurately unless you are connected to a telephone network service provider. In conclusion, this model is a very inexpensive way to combine both PDA and Telephone as long as you don't mind dealing with a few slightly irritating design flaws. In its day it was leading edge and today it is still very functional and impressive to non-technical John Q. Public. If you have money to spend, I would suggest going with a newer PALM PDA/PHONE model, however if you want to do things on the cheap, it will do very well as long as you have AT&T/CINGULAR in your area.Read full review
I needed a PDA that would do all the normal stuff and that I could search scriptures on. I had three HP 690 Journadas. What I loved about them was the keyboards. The Palm Pilot Tungsten "W" has a built in keyboard. Smaller than my HP but at least it was real. It has a slot for an SD card so I can take memory up to like 8 Gig if I want too. The Palms have a well developed computer interface so syncing is a breeze. Plus for $30 you can get QuickOffice that has Word, Sheet, and Point to use my office files with. there are a host of programs for the W. It's a dated machine with email and phone built in, but I get all this and a color screen for $36 bucks. I've bought three now. One for my Dad, his friend, and finally me. I may pick up a few more so I have replacements at this price. It's almost lees tha paper and pen.Read full review
I have found this PDA to be acceptable, but pales in comparison to older versions Palm m500 series. There is no graffiti function on this Palm and if you are proficient in using graffiti it is very difficult to revert back to a regular keyboard entry. It also takes a little more thought to get back to main menus and other programs as there is no touch button on the screen like in the older models. There is a key on the keyboard that doubles as a hot key to navigate to various programs, but it much different approach than previous models. I don't use the cell phone function of it so can't comment on that. Does contain all the great Palm programs to get one organized easily however.
The Palm W is an excellent product. The functions are precisely what I wanted, no elaborate internet hooha. I just needed a pda that would permit me to make reminder notes for the zillions of details I need to remember as a returning college student, full time healthcare supervisor and full time wife / mother. The home screen is large enough to be crystal clear, the action when using the stylus is crisp and consistent. If you just need a hand with organizing a busy life, this is absolutely the pda for you!
I have bought 2 of this Palm models for my appointment and address book. I am a self-employed hairstylist who keeps my own appointments. Clients call me to schedule an appointment and although I have a smartphone, I don't want to put my phone on speaker mode while I access the datebook. AND, quite frankly, every single datebook app out there is inefficient. It takes 7 taps to get to pick the time, pick the date, enter the person's name, etc. The Palm turns on and goes to the current date with ONE button, you can then tap directly on a time and start typing. It is literally twice as fast, no matter how familiar I could ever get with my smartphone. I cannot believe Palm OS doesn't exist on even a Palm smartphone...