[erw]

I want to replace my old zire with something with a little more oomph.

The Tung.E looks good but is slower and has a shorter battery life than the Zire71.

The zire71 looks great but I am conserned with it only having 16mb of internal memory. I know it is expandable but if it works like my nokia 3650 you then end up with two different memories which can make running large apps problematic (the only use the internal so you can have lots of memory on the phone but only a little of it available to the app).

Also is the joystick compatible with apps that have been designed for the standard button layout on other palms? There are a few apps I can't use on my zire because it doesn't have enough buttons??

Finally is there any problems with one or the other when it comes to syncing with the mac???

[SupahCoolX]

The Zire 71 has a standard button layout, so compatibility should not be an issue (it's just physically shaped like a stick instead of a 4-way pad). Problems arise with the regular Zire and Zire 21's because they only have 2 buttons.

Mac syncing will be the same for both devices. No issues with iSync, etc.

Finally, I would go for the TE over the 71 because it's slimmer, more memory, and I don't need to pay extra for a camera on my PDA (I already have a small digital camera that's good enough). Your needs may vary. Also, I would recommend waiting a few weeks if possible. New Palms should be out by this time next month.

[erw]

Thanks for that. I am swaying towards the T-E but people keep mentioning new models so I guess I may wait for that.

Saying that I waited 2 years to upgrade my mac till they finally released one with the spec I wanted and could afford (DP533). Don't want to have to wait that long again tho for many things there is no obvious speed differance btween my machine and my brother G5 DP2GHz Ha ha! So I guess it was worth the wait...

[maxintosh]

The Tungsten|E2 is coming out soon. It's rumored to have a 320x480 screen (like the Tungsten|T3) so I would hold out. I have a Tungsten|E and it's OK, but the case scratches as easily as an iPod which really annoys me. My ideal new Palm would be the Sony Clie TH55, which has a 320x480 screen, built-in WiFi, and a camera in a slim little package for under $400, but that's almost twice as much as a T|E.

[robby818]

i exchanged a zire71 for a tungsten e. i just didn't need the camera and the zire71 w/ case was a bit bulky. the tungsten e is perfect for my limited needs. i love the cover that comes w it. also audio through a pair of headphones is much better on the tungsten e than on the zire71. my only real complaint is the short battery life.

[snct]

I just upgraded to a Tungsten E from the m515. I considered the Zire 71, but as been said, I didn't need the camera and wanted the extra memory.

This is my first PalmOS 5 machine, and I am having a problem with syncing... The calendar won't sync for some reason . I'm still playing around with my conduit settings to try to fix this, but I'm not having any success so far ( <edit> I'm using Palm Desktop with MacOS X Jaguar). I haven't noticed any difference between battery life from the m515 (also has a color screen), but I do have to make sure the unit is charging overnight (once again; no different from the m515). My previous PalmOS machines (Palm III, and Visor Edge) would easily go for a week without a charge.

The screen on the T|E is amazing, and with the 126MHz processor, it's much faster than the m515. I'm no longer waiting for any apps to start .

[Dimitri]

I liked the Tungsten E, but no cradle or bluetooth possibility was the nail in the coffin for me. I picked up the Sony Clie TJ37 for about $100 more and love it. Wifi is much more useful for me than BT anyway.