Customer Reviews
So far It's a paper wieght 
2008-06-13
I didn't make a good buy on this but I'm slowly getting to learn how to use it.
No vista compatibility 
2008-03-11
The fact that it doesn't work with Vista is annoying. I purchased it three years ago. It has survived multiple drops, so I think it is pretty durable. Palm does not keep its software up to date. I still use it daily. I has great applications. Eporates, TCPMP media player, password keeper, and keeps me synced with outlook 2003. I will be replacing it with an iPhone when my verizon contract is up.
Reliable eyery-day companion 
2008-03-04
I've had my T5 now for nearly two and a half years and I am very happy with it. I use it nearly every day for various things (PIM, mp3 player, Sudoku, etc.) and it never really let me down. There are a few more resets than I was used to from my Palm V, but apart from that it's a very reliable and well-designed device which I can fully recommend.
$440 for two years - doesn't make sense 
2007-10-03
I bought my T5 in October 2004 as a birthday present to me. I had a IIIxe which worked great (before that a PalmPilot Pro). I didn't NEED the T5 but I sure wanted it and I loved it. It was my portable mini-laptop. With the wifi card I checked my business email at hotspots (and did light web browsing). With the fold-up keyboard I created and modified Word and Excel documents. With software upgrades I used Brainforest outliner and J-File database. With bluetooth I did wireless hotsyncs with my PowerBook and Palm Desktop. I also added addresses via bluetooth to my Motorola V551 phone. I bought the 512MB memory card for backup and storage of large document. And, it was fun having photos, music and teleseminars I could listen to via earphones. Everything worked like it should, I was happy and life was good. Then, after 14 months, it died. Lucky for me I'd bought the extended warranty. Palm exchanged my unit with a refurbished one (their right under the warranty). Everything transferred over and life was good again. Then, 15 months later, it died again. Now it's out of warranty, and Palm expects me to pay nearly $200 for a repair with a joke of a warranty. With the unit, upgrades and accessories, this was nearly a $600 investment. I'd probably pay the $200 if I reasonably expected it would last another year, but I no longer feel lucky with Palm products. And my IIIxe is not backwards compatible. This is a long story I know, but be aware if you are thinking about buying one. Although the T5 is pretty much the ultimate PDA, and SHOULD be reliable, unfortunately it isn't. But hey, if you have money to burn, buy a couple and that way you'll always have a spare. :)
good pda.......... but a disappointment... 
2007-08-16
I purchased the T5 for $450 including original PALMONE leather case when it was released on the market on 2005. everything was Ok and exactly as they said except for some frequent fatal errors that you have no choice but to reset, etc. etc. I've encountered them a few months after. The casing itself is cheap it got easily scratched with its OWN removable front cover AND leather case!! Now, it made a permanent mark on the faceplate. The Power button is probably picked up from some garbage dump near their factory and they managed to assemble it with the Four-hundred Dollar PDA... I hate it! You have to press really deep to just turn it on/off and a couple of times it doesn't turn on/off! Other than that, its pretty fast and the screen is excellent bright and large enough compared to other PDAs
someone must stand up for this machine!!! 2007-06-08
With 256MB (215MB available) of storage, the Tungsten T5 handheld from palmOne lets you carry more and do more. Word documents. Spreadsheets. PowerPoint presentations. Photos. MP3s. The works. And because it's flash memory, information stays protected, even when you're on the move and don't have time to recharge. Better yet, the stunning 320 x 480 color display lets you see more in both landscape and portrait modes. But the real beauty of the Tungsten T5 handheld is you can transfer files back and forth to your desktop, and even use it as a flash drive with another computer. Just when you're thinking there couldn't be room for anything more, we also built in Bluetooth wireless technology so you can check email and connect to the Internet on the go. All this and the Tungsten T5 handheld still fits right in your pocket. Transfer files and folders quickly and easily Web capable (Web access requires a compatible Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone and ISP, sold separately) Play MP3 files, digital photos, and video clips Favorites view and Files application to quickly access your most important information The Intel 416 MHz XScale processor
It will let you down 2007-03-18
There are many aspects of the T5 people want to count as negatives. For me I consider them annoyances but not killers. I would like to have WiFi with my PDA but I am not dead with out it. More memory is always good but the T5 isn't on the hurting side. It's not a good mp3 player with the memory it has. And even if you have a 2G card with mp3's it's not like this is what you would buy for MP3s. But as far as contact information, on the go applications etc.. I would consider this as good as any other. The problem as I have just found out is these are known to die. I haven't heard of this issue till it happened to me but it seems the T5 will at some point Die. It will lock up and even after all the resets listed from Palm it will not come back to even a factory state. You will have a Palm Powered logo screen with a small black line flashing on the top.
There are a couple of fixes. If you are under warranty you can send it back to Palm for them to make it better. Or you can remove the battery and solder it back. This is a serious design issue that Palm is more than happy to charge you for.
Until I ran into this I would have rated this a 4/5. Until this happened the device did what I expected it to do. I read the box before buying it and knew it had some lack of cool factor with the no WiFi. But it has one of the fastest processors (available at that time) in a PDA. Which was a different type of cool. The bluetooth
works well enough I haven't had any issues with it. You can surf the net with bluetooth so wifi isn't really that big of a deal.
But if you can't trust your device is going to be working the next day it really
doesn't matter what cool feature it has. This has been a very expensive let down.
I don't want to buy another Palm after this experience but I am not sure what to
switch to....
poor reliability 2006-09-08
First T5 lasted 6 months, then just refused to start - was replaced under warranty. This one locked up after about 3 months - was replaced again under warranty. The third T5 lasted about 5 months. It's now out of warranty and won't start or reset. No - I'm not rough on my PDAs. None of them got even as much as a scratch. Each one looked like new when it "broke". The first 2 times, Palm told me the ROM had failed. I guess it's the same problem again, but I'm not spending $169 to get it swapped for another faulty T5. Good bye Palm.
Out of the box I think it's a good PDA, so check those 4 and 5 star reviews to see how long the users have had their PDAs before you buy.
I am enjoying the T5 2006-08-08
Other than having to re-set a bit more than I would expect I think this PDA is great. I would definitely recommend it!!
I hate this Palm 2006-05-07
I have been using a Palm for the past 6 years and this is by far the worst. It is constantly crashing. I had to get rid of all my fun custom programs which is why I used to love the Palm so much. The touchscreen is SLOW! (I'm guessing because of the Flash memory) It is hard to really get good use out of it. Even the most trivial things are wrong with this Palm, like there is no power light. This means you can't tell whether or not it is charging. I'm so angry about that. It often takes several nights of me plugging it in, thinking it is charging all night only to wake up and realize that the cable (mind you, they got rid of the cradle) was loose. It is a good thing that it uses Flash memory because I have drained the battery several times with this circus act. I don't like the new big size. It doesn't fit into my old reliable case which I had for 6 years and was very secure. I like to clip the palm to my belt. This thing is so big that it is constantly hitting my leg when I sit down and falling off. So, I keep it in my bag now and don't use it nearly as much as I used to.
I loved the old Palms so much, they were quick, adaptable, portable and decently reliable. But this thing is a clunking pain in the butt. I am really ready to at least investigate the Pocket PC's.
