Top 10 PDAs
PalmOne's Tungsten T5
Four of the five products in our Microsoft Windows Mobile category are new since we published our last chart in December 2004, and they pack some interesting entertainment options. The top-ranked Dell Axim X50v comes with a dedicated graphics chip and Windows Media Player Mobile 10, which plays music from select subscription services. The second-ranked Asus MyPal A730W includes a 1.3-megapixel camera. Hewlett-Packard's fourth-place IPaq Rx3715 can wirelessly access music and some video stored on a networked PC; and Garmin's IQue M5, on the chart at number five, doubles as a GPS device.
Three PDAs debut on the Palm OS side. The Palm Tungsten T5 came in first and earned our Best Buy for its brilliant screen and whopping 256MB of nonvolatile flash memory, which ensures you'll never lose your data as a result of battery failure. The T5 also works as a USB 2.0-connected 160MB storage device. Marketed as a laptop alternative, Palm's LifeDrive (second on the list) offers a 4GB drive, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a nifty application for downloading photos straight from a camera. And in third place is the Tungsten E2, which lacks the bells and whistles of the T5 and the LifeDrive but is a good value for users who still consider a PDA first and foremost a contact-management tool.
Off the Chart
Two other models we reviewed this month failed to rank: