PalmOne Tungsten 'T5' turns up on web

Quick snaps of Wi-Fi PDA

PalmOne's first Palm OS 6-based PDA will be called the Tungsten T5, not the T4, web reports have claimed this weekend.

The T5 will be followed by a second-generation Tungsten E, which will also run the 'Cobalt' OS.

The news was accompanied by what could be the first photo of the upcoming device, which you can view here.

The information, posted on a 1src forum, maintains that the T5 will be based on a 520MHz Intel XScale PXA270 CPU and contain 128MB of RAM. The PDA will also sport both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Like the current top-end Tungsten T3, the T5 is said to feature a 320 x 480 display (switchable between landscape and portrait views) but this time minus the slider that has become a key feature of the Tungsten T line-up since the first model shipped almost two years ago.

Such a move was signalled earlier this year when the first details of the T3's successor began to emerge. Dropping the slider not only results in a device that looks more like a classic PDA, but should be cheaper to make and reveals the larger display in all its glory without overly increasing the overall size of the handheld.

The downside is the lack of a key differentiator: the T5 photos show a machine that's not unlike an iPaq.

The T5 is likely to ship in October, PalmOne's traditional time for Tungsten refreshes. The Tungsten E2, however, may not arrive until Spring 2005. It is said to sport a 312MHz PXA270, 64MB of RAM and Bluetooth. The anticipated 320 x 480 display appears to have been truncated to a 320 x 320 model, presumably to keep the price down and to further differentiate it from the T5. ®

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