by Larry Becker

Posted November 20, 2003

Frequently it's the little things that make the handheld experience fun. Take the stylus for instance. I thought that Palm Solutions Group did a great job with the spring-loaded Tungsten T stylus. Compared to the handheld itself, it's not amazingly high-tech but it was a decided departure from the typical plastic or metal/plastic stick. Very cool. Leave it to the after-market vendors to make a good stylus even better. I bought a stylus from Stylus Central where they call it a "Tungsten T 3 in 1 Stylus Pen with spring." And though it looks identical to the original Palm stylus, it has a ballpoint pen inside it. Just unscrew the writing end to reveal a nice little black ballpoint pen. Holding an original stylus next to the 3 in 1 version, I'd challenge anyone to tell which is which. However, after you use it for a little while you may notice a very slight difference. When in the collapsed state, the after-market stylus is just slightly longer than the original and therefore it protrudes an extra couple of millimeters. That might not seem like much, but it is something I noticed at first. The good news is that, in several weeks of use I've never lost it and the extra little bit of length hasn't given me any difficulty at all. I even forgot about it until I pulled out my original stylus to compare them for this review. As somebody who takes all things Palm very seriously, a good stylus is really important to me. Don't take it lightly when I tell you that StylusCentral's Tungsten T 3-in-1 Stylus Pen with spring is my favorite stylus and worth more than the US$12.99 sale price. http://www.styluscentral.com

-Larry Becker

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