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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.

4 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Will it be always on by HiKarma · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

  2. Another PDA/Phone by IdleLay · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  3. Slide-out keyboard by lpret · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
  4. no removable battery by jchristopher · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I've been using a Treo 180 for about a year and I've been very happy with it. But I'm puzzled by Handspring's refusal to put on a removable battery.

    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.