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Positioned as a business model, Tungsten T5 supports Bluetooth. It's a pity that there is no WiFi, but you couldn't expect any different solution at the price, which palmOne wants to get for this new model.
So, it has a Bluetooth module, which operates perfectly. Convenient configuration wizard, profiles for the majority of mobile handsets, wide opportunities to connect to desktop computers, and even LAN via an access point. Everything Pocket PC could do a year ago is now available in Palm OS. Developers were smart to reuse the code written for Zire 72, to which they added simple configuration procedures. Bluetooth implementation in Tungsten T5 is the best among the existing ones in Palm OS devices.
HotSync with a desktop computer required minimum configuration. Connection speed is low due to the limitations of COM-port emulation via Bluetooth (characteristic feature of all Palm OS devices).
Connection to Internet is possible via a mobile phone or a wireless Bluetooth access point. We had no problems with this function. Tungsten T5 uses Blazer as a preinstalled browser.
The distance of stable operation is from 6 (with SonyEricsson T630) to 14 meters (MSI Bluetooth Dongle). Handsfree, headset and audio gateway profiles are not supported. You can hardly call it a drawback: you will hardly want to listen to music via the Bluetooth headset or to use T5 in this capacity.
The top side of the handheld houses an infrared port. Its radiation power is obviously not enough: maximum distance for data exchange does not exceed 1.5 m. It goes without saying that CIR specification is not supported. The port speed is limited by the serial interface throughput (SIR is not faster than standard COM port).
Tungsten T5 operates under Palm OS 5.4 (Garnet). A couple of useful utilities and a new version of Documents To Go (very convenient package, which allows to work with Microsoft Office files without any conversion) are added to the usually bundled set of software. But more does not mean better: operating stability is compromised. The first deliveries of Tungsten T5 had a bug in Calendar, which required reset after you set the view to "day", "week" or "month". The patch is available on the palmOne web site together with installation instructions (not a trivial process, I should say).
We also had problems with third-party software. Almost half of the programs written for old OS versions won't work. Part of them won't start referring to the wrong display resolution, the others happily require reboot. Developers are in a hurry to release patches and new versions of their products for T5 compatibility.
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