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First Review of the Treo 600 Smartphone
jlouderb writes "Handspring debuted the biggest product at last week's lCeBit show in New York. Lots of news articles were written about the Treo 600, but I actually got to borrow one of the few prototypes for a day." Looks like the only real negatives are that there's no protection for the screen, and no removable battery, otherwise it's a tight little device. It'll be interesting to see the release model in action.
One thing that highly annoys me about our current Treo 300, at least with Sprint, is that it's not an always on data device.
GRRRRRRRR. Why don't they know this is what we want?
You must log in to surf the web or do IP, and while you are surfing, your phone is busy -- people can't ring you! And yet people said the Treo was doing a good job of PDA/Phone integration -- just shows how low the bar is there.
The Danger/Sidekick does always on. Is this entirely the carrier's fault, and do some carriers do it right with the Treo 300? Is there hope they will do it right with the 600?
you mean 2nd post?
Cats: All your base are belong to us.
Captain: Take off every sig !!
Five-way navigation for optimal one-handed use Oh yeah, I need to get me one of these.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
damn too slow :(
new trade show huh?
Cats: All your base are belong to us.
Captain: Take off every sig !!
Yes, but how well does the file sharing work?
Am I the only one who finds the timing of this release to be a bit suspect. With Palm announcing the acquisition of Handspring, I don't trust purchasing anything else from them for the time being. But maybe that's just me.
Still, after about a day of using the device for Web browsing, e-mailing, making phone calls, and taking pictures, we came away impressed.
I'd be impressed to see a bill for how much that usage must cost.
I would imagine that the screen would be susceptible to scratching without some kind of cover. They probably would sell the screen cover separately. Otherwise, seems a pretty cool device.
We entered "Whassup!!!" in only a few keystrokes.
That's great, thanks for showing me how easy it is to scare off all my friends and coworkers.
For some reason I no longer have to have the latest and greatest. For the sheik in geek is now the trusted and reliable. My best PDA - Palm III, best mobile - Nokia 5110. After spending many years and lots of money to make sure that I have the latest and greatest, I now think "WHAT A FOOL" I was to have been taken in by the hype! Gosh I'm either getting old or starting a trend.
I REALLY want to get one of these, but the price is just not worth it. C'mon really, $599, $699, or $799?! I'm just sticking with my current setup: A Laptop, Samsung N400, Samsung USB Cable, and the extra $10 a month unlimited vision.
It seems to me that a phone/PDA device could really benefit from a slide out keyboard a la Tugnsten T or Sharp Zaurus. Save real estate while adding functionality.
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
Now if someone could just write a decent SSH client......TopGun SSH hasn't been updated in years.
I am really tired of seeing PDA's that are being crammed into a phone. It really doesn't work. The phone ends up being to big, and the PDA is barely usable.
Instead, put a phone into a PDA. Yes, thats right, take our best PDA's, the Zaurus, the IPAQ's, Palms's, etc...and add a phone into them.
Now I know that sounds odd at first. How does it differ.
First, get over the idea of holding a phone to your ear. Its simply not practical anymore. PDA's don't fit your head. And before you know it, most states will outlaw using a handheld phone in the car anyway.
Instead, use a headset that attaches to the PDA. For instance a Jabra , or Jabra-like device. Ideally, using Bluetooth built into the PDA for wireless headset convenience.
IMHO, the combo PDA with a built in phone and wireless headset would make the ideal solution.
In the meantime, I'm through with these so-called integrated devices that are barely usable.
Goals are deceptive - the unaimed arrow never misses.
What was the first thing that the geeks who beta tested this phone did? Input "Wassup" into the sms client...
Sorry Jim, but you can't really claim that this is the ''First Review of the Treo 600.''
It's not a review because it's a PROTOTYPE. It's a BETA. (Say it in your best Dr. Evil voice with me). Even the headline on the article in PC Magazine calls it a PREVIEW. So it's a hands-on preview at best.
Let's aim for some journalistic accuracy here, something that's woefully lacking in most of what passes for technology press.
That said, I like your stuff. Keep up the good work.
I'm getting kinda pissy about my sidekick.
I paid 300 bucks for the thing, then get told that the trade in for the color version is to pay another 300 bucks. "If I had just waited" (early adopter mantra, I know) a few months, I could have picked this thing up AND gotten java script support on the thing, AND had a real Palm OS device AND a color screen for the same amount.
I've gone from loving my sidekick to just thinking it's alright. After seeing this device, i'm thinking about a divorce.
The PowerPC is NOT a descendant of the 68000 from Motorola, they have NO common architecture and were not even similary laid out. The Dragonball IS a 68000 descendant and is NO WHERE close to the ARM processor that is in the Treo.
The AIM group certainly intended the PPC to be the replacement for the 68000. As such, from a business standpoint, it most certainly is the decendent.
I'm certainly glad Handspring has adopted it.
Excellent troll. You actually conned someone into giving you an "informative". I esp. like the PPC being a decendent (sic) of the 68000 series and decoding MPEG4 on the fly. Keep up the good work.
And to think Sharp disagreed with their own innovation! Ala Zaurus 5600 vs Zaurus 5500
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
In short yes it is the "fault" of the carrier. Sprint is CDMA however when you are not actually sending or receiving data you can receive calls. Ex. If you are sending you pass word to check you email you can not receive calls however once you receive email to you phone and are simply reading it you can. It's the same with GSM providers like t-mobile. When packet data is being sent you can not receive call. Data is beingsent in bursts. When data is not being sent calls can be received.
First of all, the first guys post was a troll, a PPC970 in the Treo, yeah right. Secondly, the PPC has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE 68K. It was NEVER "designed to replace it". PPC is primarily derived from the IBM POWER chips. It uses some bus logic from the failed Motorola 88K RISC chips, and that is about as close as it comes to having ANYTHING to do with the 68K. Hell, SGI, HP, and DEC all originally used the 68K in their workstations, does that make the MIPS, PA/RISC, and Alpha chips "descendants" as well?
MMMMM...yeah. Good thing you didn't post by name either troll.
The former.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Is this Treo 600 small enough to fit in my ass in case I'm held in a seedy communist North Korean or Iranian concentration camp? I have no need to wear a watch and tell time using my cell-phone.
Plus, I have trips to Tehran and Pyong Yang coming up...
Which is an example of something that really bothers me: U.S. cell companies do not like phones that talk to other devices. When I got my first cell, I would have liked one with IRDA, to talk to my Vx and my laptop. No way. I'm guessing that they don't want users to put together their own solutions -- they make too much money selling them hardware. Maybe I'm paranoid.
What's up with that low-res screen? I'd take a high-res grayscale over low-res any day. It's all about the TEXT, man.
Also, after carting around a Danger Hiptop for a while, it's completely changed my expectations of a phone/PDA. Without always-available wireless web, you might as well be carrying around a notepad and a pencil.
// I will show you fear in a handful of jellybeans.
That's just standard in the cell phone industry (witness the wide selection of replacement batteries on eBay). I know they say it will just make the phone larger, but I'm not buying it. Take the Ericsson T28 phones, for example. The battery is removable, just it is shaped precisely to the phone and takes up almost no space.
Another thing that bothers me is the Treo's poor battery life. We already know that Palm devices last for weeks, so that can't be the problem... natural assumption would be that the phone side of it is sucking up all the juice, except that there are plenty of phones that get 1 week or more, and the batteries are not large.
The PPC, OTOH, was, and Moto did intend to phase out the 68k and replace it entirely with PPC based CPUs. The major 68k-based computer manufacturers that didn't design an entire new CPU architecture for their own personal use also intended to switch to the PPC.
Someone needs to learn a little history.
I'm on T-Mobile in NYC. I bought a Sony Ericsson p800 (the best PDA/phone on the market today, BTW) and put my SIM into it and it works...no problem. T-Mobile even helped me configure the WAP and GPRS service. You do realize that you can buy almost any GSM phone and use it, right?
Are there are good games for small colour Palms?
All I really want now is a someone to port rdesktop to PalmOS then everything would be sweet
Cheers
VikingBrad
That is correct, sir.
Unless you are one of the lucky blessed developers.
There is also still no two-way sync.
*I* am really tired of people spewing who have never even used what they're bitching about.
I'm sure you can plug a little corded earphone into the Treo.
I actually use an old Visor with a Sprint phone module (got mine for $12. I don't mind holding it up to talk, but 90% of the time I use the corded earphone, talking during my daily commute. That said, I would prefer the smaller footprint of a Treo.
The lack of bluetooth is a deal breaker for me....really dumb decision...as even if you don't wanna use the phone as a wireless modem a wireless headset can come in awfully handy...
I would have loved to have had WiFi....but that's a pipe dream in a cell phone for now.
The low res screen and lack of removable battery are also big minuses,
I don't really understand the advantage of the slide-out, especially the one in Tungsten T. Yes it makes the device shorter, but at the same time it is thicker too, so it doesn't really save real estate. I would rather prefer a flip cover, as it protects both the screen and the keyboard.
Americans complain about being locked into contracts or the limited selection of telco-provided phones, but OTOH they aren't willing to pay the real (unsubsidized) cost of phones. If people accept the fact that the phone has to be paid for one way or the other maybe they'll stop complaining. It would also help if there were higher-profile ways to buy unlocked, unsubsidized phones.
Everything but wifi and GPS....
Which lends itself to a tough choice..
The new palm/Garmin iQue 3600 has palm os, integrated GPS, mp3 player, etc... And should be able to chew on an sd-wifi card
And Amazon is taking pre-orders now!
What a fantastic year, just to have choices like that though.
Kremvax
--- Little Atomo - The Amazing Thinking Robot from Atomocom! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIP9KisHi4k
I'm surprised though they've fit all that into such a small unit. There must be some remarkable engineering going on, or else IBM is packaging the 970 into a much smaller unit.
How hard is it to go to expansis.com and buy a kickass european market phone (that even ships with a US power adapter)? It's easy. I love the fact that I can buy the best phones and use them so easily, and even get support for these phones from T-Mobile's help desk.
The previous treos are more focused on PDA functionalities. But Handspring figured out the phone market is much bigger, so this time around they designed a smaller, more phone-centric device. I believe they could only fit a low-res screen there, and by the way the low-res is more energy efficient.
What history are you talking about, yours or realities? The PPC was to fill in for the failed 88000 series. Moto never intended to fully replace 68k, since they sell 68k to this day, yet you don't see any 88k based ANYTHING running around. Moto was backed into a corner by the fact that they dropped the ball on RISC, and every major 68k user they had had bailed. Apple certainly was NOT going to go with the 88k, as they realized even back then that it would pidgeon hole them and make them completely dependant on Moto. So PPC was Moto's last shot at keeping their premiere customer. PPC was PRIMARLY designed by IBM. ONCE AGAIN, PPC is a single chip POWER (less a few instructions) with 88K bus logic. What other major 68K customers were left. Atari and Commodore, yeah right, real major. The ST's never went anywhere, and by the time all this was transpiring, Amiga was limping along, hardly MAJOR. Now one could consider NeXT, they used the 88k in their NeXT Dimension boards, and rumour was they had dual processor PPC units before Stevie nixed the hardware sales. But even then, calling NeXT a major player was dubious. SGI and DEC didn't design the MIPS for their own personal use (DEC did go on to design Alpha to replace MIPS though, but this was after they ditched 68k and had already switched to MIPS), so that theory holds no water as well.
While the 180 did have a small battery (Handspring claimed 2.5 hours talktime, I got a bit less), the 600 will have a 1800 mAh battery which is supposed to give 6 hours. Compares well with many phones...
There will also be a 1200 mAh battery sled released at/around the same time as the Treo 600, which does the same job as a replaceable battery for those who need one.
Why do you contend otherwise? Just go to attws.com or t-mobile.com and buy a Bluetooth phone.
I would accept a bigger device to have a better screen. 160 x 160 doesn't cut it on a hand-held device anymore. The Palm Tungsten W looks like a better choice, even though it is less phone-like. What is up with HandSpring anyway?
We had a mini-review of the Treo 600 at: www.palmzone.net
1 .h tm
The phone is much more narrow and sleek than the current Treo line. It runs Palm OS 5.2.1 and has a built-in digital camera and a Secure Digital slot that is capable of both memory expansion and SDIO. The Treo 600 will have 32 MB of memory. The screen is brighter and smaller than the screen of the current Treo with better visibility outdoors. It will have a large capacity battery that can run the phone for up to four hours, although the battery is not user-replaceable. The Treo 600 will be able to use the CDMA or GSM/GPRS standards.
Handspring showed a prototype of its next generation Treo 600 smartphone at a Sprint PCS show recently:
Handspring earlier this month demonstrated the Treo 600 at a Sprint PCS User forum in Dallas:
http://www.treocentral.com/content/Stories/229-
This is the last handheld from Handspring before it was acquired from Palm, Inc. I believe that Palm saw its potential, and instantly bought it off. Quite impressive I would say. Jeff Hawkins was originally Palm's CEO, but left to open up Handspring during 1998. It's nice to see him going back. =)
Anthony
http://www.palmzone.net
have you actually tried a treo? how can you make statements about usability if you haven't? i own a 270 and i think moving to a more phone centric device is great.
with the sd/io card slot you'll be able to even use a geek chic jabra headset dummy.
i'll be the 1st person buying one of these suckers. BRING IT ON.
The SD slot in the Treo 600 is SDIO-compliant, which means you can put a bluetooth card, a wifi card, a GPS or whatever you want in there.
I agree that it's not as nice as having the bluetooth antenna built in, but the damn thing is already being priced out at $600, and you gotta keep the aftermarket companies happy somehow.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
...it was called the VisorPhone, and it sucked rocks.
The concept works great in theory, but breaks down badly in practice when it comes time to actually talk on the damn thing. Holding a PDA up to your face is awkward and stupid-looking. A wired earpiece gets tangled, broken and lost with clockwork regularity. A wireless earpiece is even easier to lose, and additionally will drain the hell out of the phone's batteries (usually already pushed to the max in order to support PDA functions on top of phone functions), and will require its own power source as well.
So far, the flip-phone form of the Treo and the Samsung palmos phones has really come closest to nailing the perfect design for one of these things in the real world. I'm a little dubious about the Treo 600, but I'm willing to try it out.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
ALL PalmOS Smartphones are capable of PDA operation during phone calls. The Kyocera 6035 and 7135 (www.kyocerasmartphone.com), all Handspring Treos, the Samsung PalmOS phones and even the asian PalmOS Smartphones have this capability.
Just what model did you use that was unable to be used as a PDA when a phone call was going on? And how could you idiotically paint EVERY Smartphone with the same incorrect assumption?
Neither my Kyocera 6035 or 7135 did a "half-assed" job of being a PDA or a Phone. They perform excellently in both instances. Even the attachable keyboard for the 6035 works on the 7135 and other than a different type of power charger and belt clip (items which are unique to just about each model of PDA not just Smartphones) there wasn't any accessories that needed to be replaced.
As for them breaking, well when one breaks you can either get the same damn model or the upgraded version (if available at the time.) My phone is fully insured with a 24 hour FedEX replacement service.
I'm not trying to be rude but you might want to have a minimum of knowledge about a subject before you make clearly incorrect statements about it in the future.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
i used a visor for years and my treo 300 is like a better visor, that's it. it's a perfectly fine palm pilot, as good or beter than my visor. and it rings and i can talk into it! that's cool. calling people is a natural part of organizing yourself. how many of you sit there looking at your palm pilot while dialing your cell phone. i look someone up in my palm pilot, hit dial, pop it on speaker, and keep working on it while i'm talking. i have one device in my pocket (i don't like to strap things all over my belt like a lot of geeks, i'm a loose kinda guy) and it handles about 90% of my business. it and my wallet are all i need to be a fully functioning and connected human. iSync keeps my calendar and contact list perfectly synced with my desktop, and .Mac keeps it all synced with any other mac i might be using. how is this bad?
Discussion uses up my brain. If I'm talking, I'm not thinking or paying good attention to what is happening around me. If I'm not thinking, I'm getting us killed.
I don't need a law against talking on a phone when I'm driving, because my fear of death, injury, and even insurance deductable expense, is sufficient motivation.
So the question is: is everyone else smarter than me, because they can talk and think at the same time? Or is everyone else dumber than me, because they don't realize that they can't talk and think at the same time?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Yours is the something like the fifth response I've gotten that says, "you don't have to buy your phone from the provider". I know this. I even mention it in the post. Doesn't anybody read a post before responding?
I have a Kyocera 6035.
It's EXCELLENT. It's a little bit taller than my old Palm III, slighly narrower, and a bit thicker.
Yes, it's freakin' huge for a phone. But the original poster suggested putting a phone into a PDA - OF COURSE it's going to be big for a phone.
But if you are already carrying around a PDA AND a phone at all times, who cares if it's a huge phone? Yes, it may be a huge phone, but it's a lot smaller than carrying a seperate phone and PDA.
Personally, I hate the trend towards tiny phones. Yeah, it's nice when carrying it around, but they're hell to hold during a conversation and a pain to dial with. My Kyocera fits naturally in my hand when it's in a relaxed position and is easy to dial, as opposed to having to grasp a tiny little thing and push miniscule buttons.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
The 6035 does a better job as a phone than the Treos, has a removable battery, all of Kyocera's phones use the same data cable (Didn't need to buy a travel sync cable for my 6035, just used my old 2035 cable), and has a standard 2.5mm headset jack.
The 7135 adds MP3 and a color display, plus SDIO expansion capability.
Kyocera (Formerly Qualcomm's handset division) has been in the smartphone business longer than anyone. Yes, the first attempts (pdQ) sucked and flopped, but Kyocera released their second generation smartphone before most other manufacturers released their first combo device, and they are on their third generation product now. (Note: I am NOT talking about 2G vs. 3G wireless. The 6035 is a 2G device, and the 7135 supports the "2.5G" portion of the CDMA2000 standard.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
It has an SDIO port. So add what you want.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
always enjoyed your work. :)