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View Full Version : Is the T5 a good upgrade from an M100?


indigenous
10-19-2004, 01:22 PM
I was originally going to post this in Lance's "My New T5" thread, but since this is longish I didn't want to detract from the focus of his efforts.
First, thanks Lance and others for all the great and useful information on the T5. You are performing a real service for all of us Palm fans out here in lurker land :-)
I know asking if the T5 is a good upgrade from an M100 might be a silly question, but I am quite fond of my M100. It's been a good pal for quite a while.
Some background:
I use the M100 mainly to read ebooks, take short notes in meetings, keep a moderate set of contact info and play simple games and jot down writing snippets. In fact at night I use it to read in bed with the lights off because the soft green backlight is easy on the eyes and doesn't bug my wife ;-)
Batteries last for weeks, but they do have to be changed, since the M100 can't charge the batteries through the connector. I always have my M100 in my pocket. I also have a cell phone that I have to recharge daily, so recharging the Palm wouldn't be a big deal to me.
My main reason for wanting to upgrade is for the larger, higher res color screen and the much larger memory - the M100 only has about 2MB. I often finding myself having to choose which applications or documents to delete to fit something new in the memory. The screen of the M100 is often difficult to read in low lighting -- the kind of situation where the lighting is low enough to make the screen hard to see but the backlighting doesn't help.
Also lately I find I need to recalibrate the digitizer several times a day. It's getting annoying enough that I am ready to move on.
I don't really want a PPC. I use Windows 2000 at work (I'm an engineer with Boeing) and have a homebrew PC at home that I built for running PC specific apps while I was working on my Masters degree. But I also have a Mac dual 2GHZ G5 and an iBook that I much prefer to use. I like Palm's simpler interface.
I mentioned my job because I can't bring a PDA with a built-in camera, WiFi or voice recorder into the classified area where I work. I have considered a TE, but I was hoping they'd come out with a new model with the larger color screen of the T3 - which I also considered. It really looks like the T5 is that model. Thankfully the price isn't really a big issue with me.
So, should I go for it? Sorry for the longish post, but I am trying a make a rational decision ... because my gut just says go for it, but I don't want to miss any obvious alternatives.
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Indi

StoneRyno
10-19-2004, 07:52 PM
If price is no object I'd say go for it. I have a T E and it is a nice device aside from the delicate power button that broke about 5-6 months after I bought it. Chances are some sort of support behind it will help prevent a new one from breaking. If the 320x480 is a must have this definately narrows down to the newer more expensive model palm devices. And the reason i went with the T E. I didn't want to spend $400 on a palm. However I will likely be more willing to spend around $300 for a new one down the road. I'm holding out for an OS6 device otherwise I would be inclined to buy the T5 if it were on sale or something for $300.

My previous palm was an m130 so i had some similar reasoning to yours for upgrading. The nice color display (m130 had color but its not as nice as the color on the newer devices), better cpu, more internal memory (but with SD card capacity and reasonable prices this isn't as big a deal now).

I'm not sure if this is helps much.

WuWei
10-19-2004, 09:23 PM
I say "Go for it". I upgraded from an m125 to a T3, and never looked back or regretted it. My favorite was an m105 which was used for a long time but got broken. So I liked the m1xx devices, but once I upgraded I wish I had done it sooner.

indigenous
10-20-2004, 02:00 AM
Thanks for sharing your experiences. That certainly does help. After seeing the T|E on sale at Fry's today for $178.00 I almost went for it. I think I'll wait a bit longer to be able to actually get my hands on a T5 before making my final choice.

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Indi

bryus
10-20-2004, 10:23 AM
Getting at T5 (if it's in your budget) would be a monumental upgrade. Kind of like trading in my 1990 Plymouth Colt hatchback for a Ferrari.

However, if you just want to have a new Palm for basic functions then a TE is the most cost effective one available.

You will find the T5 a great improvement for your eBook reading because of both the over 50% increase in screen size and the 500% increase in resolution. The color is also much better for your eyes for reading. I do turn the brightness to minimum on my T3 in the dark because it doesn't need to be that bright in the dark.