Tuesday 13 December 2005, 10:29 AM

Good attempt, but fails in the execution

Having upgraded from a Palm VX, and with my wife very happily using a Tungsten E, I feel let down by this device.

The basic PIM services remain, albeit with their new names. The display is good, displaying photos well and making reading documents a real possibility on the device (especially with the full screen and portrait/landscape options).

WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity are intuitive, easy to set up and fast. the web browser is very usable.

However, this device really fails on it "Email management". Despite the claims for Versamail 3.1c, it does not appear to deliver usable email management. After extensive dialogue with Palm, they have confirmed that there are several known issues with the way mail is handled:

-Email synchronisation between desktop and device is not possible, where the email account is set up to connect directly to a POP/IMAP server (e.g. WiFi, GPRS via Phone). The mail is downloaded to each location, and only when changes are made to the server are they then cascaded to each location. There is no direct dialogue between the TX and a mail client inbox.

-Gmail cannot synchronise via the desktop at all (SSL not supported via desktop connection).

-Gmail downloads only once, to your device or PC. The mail will not then download to a 2nd device (mailbox ends up split)

This is a real shame. I consider Email to be a core part of PIM, and to have some flaws of this nature a large oversight.

Visiting the Palm forums, this is a common problem to many users. However, Palm do not have any plans to address the issue, and are not contributing to the forum debates at all.

5.0

This Member's Rating

Average