Palm keeps namesake OS on new handhelds

Enterprise model boasts all the features you might ever need in a PDA

Palm has added two new devices to its range of handhelds - one a wireless device extending the vendor's business-oriented range, and the other a traditional organiser-style PDA with a budget price tag.

The new models, available from October 2005, drop the Tungsten and Zire names of its business and consumer lines and will instead be known as the Palm TX and the Palm z22.

Both models are based on the Palm OS platform. Palm said that it has no plans to introduce handhelds running Windows Mobile, despite the announcement in September of a new Treo smartphone running Microsoft's software. The business-focused TX supports both 802.11b and Bluetooth wireless standards, and has a high-resolution 320x480 screen. Like last year's Tungsten T5, the TX comes with non-volatile Flash memory, which means no user information is lost if the batteries run flat.

Ken Wirt, Palm's senior vice-president of marketing, said the TX has all the features needed in a PDA. "We've tried to take all the features users want - Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, colour screen - and put them in a product at a price that is really good value," he said.

With its 312MHz processor and 128MB Flash, the TX has a lower specification than the Tungsten T5, but this is offset by its lower price of £229, despite its added 802.11b wireless support.

Palm's new entry-level model is the z22, which resembles the original Zire, but is smaller and weighs just 96g. It is a basic model without memory slots or wireless support (other than infrared), and costs about £79. It too has non-volatile memory and a colour display. "We couldn't do colour at an entry-level price two years ago, but the cost has come down now," Wirt said.