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First Review of the Treo 600 Smartphone

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the kicking-the-tires dept.

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.

2 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Stop Forcing A PDA Into A Phone... by mgeneral · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  2. Stop forcing the user into a phone... by fm6 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Unfortuneately she requires the functionality of a palm-based pda/phone, but AT&T didn't carry anything else. She would have prefered the Samsung I330.
    The choices cell providers force on you are strange and irritating. I want a GSM/GPRS phone with Bluetooth, so I can continue to use my m515 PDA. But neither T-Mobile nor AT&T offer Bluetooth phones. You can get a package from Amazon.com, but I wonder what they support is like when you use a third-party phone?

    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.