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Today I received a Palm Tungsten W. It is the Palm Tungsten cellphone that features Blackberry-like keys on its thumb-board. The interesting thing about this particular one is that a former owner has replaced the bezel with one from a Tungsten C. Thus, the logo on the top is all wrong. The battery on this unit is also near its end of life and will need replaced. I am typing this phost tethered to a USB charge cable.
The screen on this device is gorgeous. High-res, sharp, and clear. Compared to my beloved Treo 90, it is night and day. The Treo 90 has a 160x160 color screen, the T|W has a 320x320 color screen. The Treo wins in the form factor department, however, it is significantly smaller in all dimensions. I did learn not to use the T|W to format Chinese SD cards... It nuked the card into no longer being recognized. Hopefully I can bring it back on my laptop.
The T|W has a lot in common with the Treo 90. Both are Palm OS 4.1 devices. Both are running 33MHz Dragonball processors, both have 16MB of RAM/ storage. This is not the case with the other device I have coming...
The other one is a Palm Tungsten C. The T|C is a 400MHz arm (X-Scale) with Palm OS 5.2.1 and 802.11b. The T|W only offers GSM/GPRS and IRDA connectivity natively. The T|C I have coming also features a new battery installed by the seller on eBay. This was the reason I felt good about the $50 pricetag on that one. Plus the screen, while lower in resolution than the Sony Clie PEG UX50, will display PVTerm larger and make it easier to see and use for telnet. As an aside - this seller has quite a few of these Tungsten C's. So if you want one you'll find it with a quick eBay search.
I also have a new old stock, still in the blisterpack Palm OEM leather case coming for the T|C. It'll take a bit to get here as it is coming from NSW, AU. Southern hemisphere, Y U so far?
The C model device may end up being my daily driver, especially after it is protected in the case. The extra bulk over the svelt Handspring Treo 90 will be made up for by sheer horsepower. The WiFi connectivity is something that I find indispensible on my UX50. I also am a huge fan of thumb-boards. This is why the Palm T|X and the Palm LifeDrive both failed to click with me. The Treo 90 that preceded them spoilt me for input devices.
The main reason I bought the T|W was the cheap price I found it for, and having both the phone and nonphone versions appealed to the collector in me. Also, I did not previously have a Palm OS 4 device with a high res screen. That may come in handy down the road. I do truly wish the United States had not shutdown the 2G network as I would use this as my primary phone in a heartbeat. I have fond memories of my Treo 270 back in 2002 (tragically lost in 2003). The web back then felt peppy on such a device. Pages did not weigh in at a hundred meg.
Semirelated plea: Cameron Kaiser - if you read this, I know you don't consider it ready for prime time, but please do reconsider releasing your Palm OS gopher client!!