Toshiba e335 Pocket PC

• Lightweight, thin Pocket PC with 64 MB RAM and 32 MB ROM and 300 MHz XScale processor
• Secure Digital memory card slot for transferring and storing music, picture and more
• 240 x 320 pixel, 3.5-inch TFT LCD screen displays more than 65,000 colors
• Features the Pocket PC 2002 operating system, with improved handwriting recognition and versions of Pocket Outlook, Word, and Excel
• What's in the box: Toshiba e335, USB cradle, AC adapter, Stylus, Soft slip case, Quick-start card, User manual, Warranty card

This review is submitted for people who demand more than basic PIM functions out of their PDAs. If you are looking for a simple PDA with only a calendar, an address book and a memo pad, you should really go and get Zire or m105. They are really good.

However, I wanted to upgrade my PDA (m100) and was looking for a device with at least 16 MB memory, good resolution color screen and preferably mp3/wma playing capability. I initially considered Palm m500 series but had to give them up because of their bad reputation (which I personally experienced) for screen freezing that was not amenable to a soft reset. The worst part is that you have to send them to Palm to get them fixed that takes about 2 weeks in which time you are left Palmless. I could not accept my PDA freezing anytime because I really depend on it every instant. So as a demanding PDA user who wanted more memory and functions than my Palm m100 could offer, I had no choice to convert to a Pocket PC.

Pocket PCs inherently provide mp3 playback capability and word/excel document access in addition to basic PIM functions that are great.

E335 stood out among others with its 64 MB memory, 300 MHz processor, good color screen, lightness and sleekness. What I have also noticed is that it does not freeze and when it did a couple of times, it always responded to soft resets. The stereo quality is really very good and I enjoy listening to music (a dream with Palm OS for the moment).

ArcBase photo program is really cool and for those who demand photo viewing, it makes the Pocket Pc much more enjoyable.

The two drawbacks of e335 were that the Graffiti recognition was about 40% worse when compared to Palm (screen protectors help the recognition and I strongly recommend them for graffiti) and that when you transfer your memos from Palm, they are not automatically categorized. I had about 400 individual memo items and spent a great deal to organize them. By the way, unless you have Pocket mirror, there is no easy "free" way to transfer your info from Palm to Pocket PC.

One last thing, with Pocket PCs you cannot individually hide items as private (unlike Palm OS devices). You need to pay to get additional software for security. The device offers an optional initial security code for access to device, though.

The battery performance is predictably poor (needs once in very 2 days charging with optimum usage; mp3, bright screen etc) when compared to 2 months performance by a gray scale m100 on 2 AAAs but I come home everyday so that is not an issue for me. If you are going to get any high-res color screen PDA, you will inevitably sacrifice the battery no matter what.

I have to admit I still favor Palm OS over Windows CE because of its simplicity but the recent Palm models were not reliable enough for me to commit to. Now I can work on my Word documents with any of the 4 brightness-adjustable high-res color screen options and listen to a crisp sounding stereo mp3 tracks or just view my photo album in my spare time.

The manual does not involve the type of troubleshooting that is necessary. It is very important that you do not remove the synchronized files (Word, mp3, etc) from the PocketPC My Documents desktop folder without first deleting them from the Pocket PC. If you do remove them, the sync. Manager will give resolving conflict messages which are not solvable. This is the only important message that I can convey.

Overall, I believe that e335 is one of the best Pocket PCs around and it has completely satisfied my expectations except for the Graffiti recognition. I got the device at Amazon.com at an incredible price, which was much cheaper than M515! Incredible...

Buy Toshiba e335 Pocket PC Now

Toshiba is known for their excellent notebook/laptop, but not for their PDA. My first PDA was the Apple Newton and Toshiba e335 is my current and last one (currently looking at the IPAQ 6315/6365).

My overall experience with the e335 is not too good. Hardware quality is very poor (cracked adaptor socket, creaking case). I am not at all a "heavy" user, but I still find this e335 to be inadequate and below average in everything. Battery life is average; plus it cannot be replaced when the battery is at the end of its lifetime. The processor is so slow and buggy, it requires "soft" reset several times a day.

The worst of all is the poor support from Toshiba itself as the maker of this PDA. The last rumor I heard was, Toshiba stops making and selling PDA (its a reality by now in 2005). So my suggestion is: don't even consider buying a used one or new ones advertised as clearance model, because you'll be stuck with less than average PDA that you can only use as a shiny toy to impress a 4 year old....

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba e335 Pocket PC Here

I recently replaced my 1st generation Palm Pilot (6+ years old and a delight) with the Toshiba E335 Pocket PC. There have been quite a few pluses and minuses as I will explain. I love the power and available memory (and I also got a 256MB SD card which is great to load PICTURES). I've loaded books on it and I don't bring the paperback or hardcopy on my commute anymore. Games are nice too. Word and Excel I haven't had much use for yet, but I'm certain I'll have no problem loading huge spreadsheets and documents.

Now for some of the minuses...

The screen has frozen on me a couple of times and I had to do a "hard" reset and then go through the initialization process and restore everything from my PC. I was told this is a Windows bug. Uggghhh.

After 2 months, I lost the screen/machine for good (blank screen with a black bar down the middle) and had to send it back to Toshiba. I got it back in a few days at no cost. I was told, however, that the "screen" is not covered by any warranty. Luckily, it wasn't the screen that broke, so no charge.

I have a new Dell P4 2.4 Mz using XP and the syncronization software was not compatible. I had to download it from Microsoft. Frustrating when it comes with instructions to load the software on an XP machine. Also, the "quick reference" card's instructions were different than the instructions in the book for loading. I used neither.

I'm still having trouble setting it up to syncronize on 2 machines. It's not cut and dry like Pilot software is.

My work machine is running NT (not commpatible with USB) and I can't find anyone selling a serial cable for this Pocket PC, therefore I can't sync up at work until we upgrade.

Anyway, some pluses and lot's of minuses, but it is much nicer than a Palm style PDA when it is working. I warily recommend it and wish you better luck than me.

Want Toshiba e335 Pocket PC Discount?

I have had this PDA for a couple of weeks and I would say that for the money its great. Sure there are better PDA's but this one does what I need at a low price.

I had a little trouble getting it to "Activesync" the first time but thats becuase I didnt bother to read the quick start guide. Since then it has worked 100% of the time. (Running Windows XP)

I actually have a second one on order for my wife.

It does take some getting used to and has a learning curve. I was a heavy PalmOS guy and it was a change but now.. "I get it".

Someday I would love to get the IPAQ but until I can shell out $500-$600... for the price this is perfect.

this is probably one of the best Pocket PC's I have bought. And this is coming from someone who goes through PDA's like I go through underwear.... lightweight, fast and well made. I would recommend this unit to anyone... Its so slim I can put it in my jeans back pocket and carry it with me. So much easier to transport than the bulkier iPaqs or Dells. GET ONE OF THESE, you wont be sorry.