Palm's sleek and affordable Tungsten E2 is a great PDA for the casual business user. With a street price of around $200 (MSRP $249), the E2 offers good power and some great features, and it is small enough to slip into a pocket and barely be noticed.

Measuring 4-1/2X3-1/10 inches and just over 1/2-inch thick, the E2 PDA weighs in at 4.7 ounces, or about the same size as its Palm Tungsten E predecessor. Where you'll start to notice a difference, however, is on the 320X320-pixel screen. The 3-7/10-inch TFT display is much brighter than the previous iteration, boasting more colors as well (up to 65,536 from 64,000). It's very easy on the eyes, even when you're outside. There's an included flip cover that will protect the screen when it's not in use.

Palm powers the E2 by a 200MHz Intel processor, the E2 comes with 32MB of memory (26MB actual storage capacity) that can be expanded with either an SD card or a MultiMediaCard. The memory is nonvolatile, meaning that even if the PDA runs out of battery power before it can resync with your desktop, any changes you've made to documents will be safe.

With integrated Bluetooth compatibility, the E2 easily connects to wireless devices such as GPS receivers, printers, or other PDAs. There is no Wi-Fi built into the PDA, but at this price point, that's not a serious omission.

The Palm OS 5.4 with Documents to Go supports Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, letting you use your PDA to view office documents on the road. The system includes RealPlayer for handling MP3 playback (from a memory card); just plug a set of headphones into the E2's headphone jack and it doubles as an MP3 player. In addition, Palm's Media lets you play video and view photos on the E2.

Palm's Tungsten E2 is a great PDA for business users on a budget or consumers who want to play music and do some work with the same package.

Pro:  Good price, MP3 playback, long battery life.
Con:  No Wi-Fi.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Palm
950 West Maude Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94085
408-617-7000
http://www.palm.com

Warranty
90 days limited