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New Treo Reviewed

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the pocket-this dept.

Bill Koslosky writes "Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal just posted his review of the new Treo. His initial review of the Treo 300 inspired many, including myself, to purchase this PDA/phone device. 'I prefer it to any RIM BlackBerry model I have tested, and it blows away any of the PDA/phones based on Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system.' The Sprint CDMA version should be available in the beginning of October."

26 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. Nails? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    [A]t least one woman who tried my test Treo 600 hated the keyboard, saying it was incompatible with long nails.

    Well, there goes the slashdot user base.

    1. Re:Nails? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Graffiti was replaced by Graffiti 2, which isn't subject to any patents. Palm will continue to sell Graffiti 2 devices. The keyboard on the Treos has nothing to do with this.

    2. Re:Nails? by pmuellr · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What really irks me with the Treo 300 device, and maybe the 600 has fixed this with it's 5-way toggle, is that you need to use the keypad AND a fingernail/stylus to run many apps that require some kind of tactile feedback. I get to the point where I keep the stylus between two fingers and shift my finger position so I can quickly use the stylus while texting. You have to text, because there is no grafitti. I would actually be quite happy with the graffiti area back and no keypad. Who needs a freaking keypad on a Palm? (Well, actually the Sony Clie's that fold out, with the keypads, are perfectly acceptable, since they have both keypad AND graffiti area).

      I didn't spend 6 years using graffiti to just throw it all away now!

    3. Re:Nails? by Aetrix · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Disclaimer: IAAGF (I am a geeky female)

      You bring up an interesting point about Technology nowadays. So many reviews of new gadgets are hideously male-dominated. The comparison that irks me is the "fits comfortably in a shirt pocket" standard that is somehow being held to all MP3 players, cell phones and PDAs. Frankly, I don't know many women that keep PDAs, Cell phones, or mp3 players in their pockets. Women don't mind carrying purses that hold their gadgets. And when you're stuffing your gadgets into a purse, the size doesn't much matter, but the weight does.

      And the thumboards... I would think they would give large-handed people issues, but all keyboards, thumboards, and other sorts of button-based input devices give hell to women with longer fingernails. Even if a woman's nails aren't raptor-claw length, the slightest length will fudge things up.

      Well I guess this is why I like Julie and Judie at The Gadgeteer so much. They strive to have a mix of male and female reviewers and they make sure not to laden their reviews with sexist bias.

      --

      "One touch of Darwin makes the whole world kin." George Bernard Shaw
  2. For Sale... Kyocera 7135 Palm Smartfone.. by mikewren420 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? I gotta ebay it quick! :)

    Hell, if Mossberg loves it, it must be good!

  3. eh, no thanks. by garcia · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I prefer it to any RIM BlackBerry model I have tested, and it blows away any of the PDA/phones based on Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system.

    At $550 I expect that this phone would be compatible with other software and hardware accessories out there already. Palm (while having a nice software base) is not even close to what is available for PocketPC.

    Digital camera, phone, PDA, MP3 player. I want this thing compatible with my CF cards (wlan and microdrive) - I want space AND wireless networking (so I don't have to be on the providers network at all times for connectivity).

    No thanks, at least not for now.

    1. Re:eh, no thanks. by TedTschopp · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Palm (while having a nice software base) is not even close to what is available for PocketPC.

      Can you provide data to back that up? I've heard the exact opposite. I'd love to see your source?

      Ted Tschopp
      --
      Fantasy remains a human right; we make in our measure and in our derivative mode... -- JRR Tolkien
    2. Re:eh, no thanks. by pmuellr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sure PocketPC has the lead in interesting peripheral support, but Palm wins on software available. Bonus; Palm devices don't suck the juice like PocketPC. For anyone who really uses a PDA, and doesn't want to have the device in the cradle every day, there's no competition; Palm wins. The power usage of PocketPC is the ultimate killer for me, for that platform.

    3. Re:eh, no thanks. by ATomkins · · Score: 3, Informative

      There are certain aspects of Palm OS software that could definitely use some work... I've never seen a decent photo editor for the Palm OS...

      The Palm OS is also lacking in several neat features. PocketPC *dominates* on the multimedia front... and last I checked, the only 2 (3?) Palm OS SSH clients didn't support Hi-res, so they were a bitch to read... I would love something as good as sshCE on a Palm.

      And PocketPC games can't be beat ;-)

      Oh! And don't forget ports of FTPD, Perl, Apache, XFree86, emacs and Vim ;) (among others)

  4. Ahhhhh, perfect... by greg_barton · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...for pr0n.

    From the article:
    Unlike the older Treo, this new model can be operated most of the time with just one hand.

  5. Re:palm os = blah by ePhil_One · · Score: 3, Funny

    I know I'm constantly aching to work on my doctoral disseration but am foiled by the lack of MS Word on my Tungsten T.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
  6. Battery! by neves · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It looks like this Treo solved the greatest problem with pda/cellphones combos: the battery lifetime. Any portable device that you have to charge twice a day is unusable. Does anybody know the battery technology that is behind this new Treo?

  7. headache by ajnlth · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wonder if it helps against headaches, because atleast in Sweden Treo is a headache pill. (or maybe the electromagnetic radiation causes headache so you will need a Treo)

  8. bluetooth? by viniosity · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hate to be the guy who cried bluetooth but
    BLUETOOTH?

    1. Re:bluetooth? by bhny · · Score: 3, Informative

      you should be able to plug a bluetooth adapter in the expansion slot

      from treocentral.com-

      The Treo 600 family also adds an SD/SDIO/MMC slot. This slot, located on the top of the device was also found on the Treo 90, and on all current Palm models. It enables the use of SD and MMC media for storage of more programs and MP3 audio or video and SD content cards like dictionaries, or game packs. More importantly it also is SDIO enabled, meaning that it will work with hardware accessory cards like Veo's SD photo card, Margi's SD presenter-to-go, or Sandisk's upcoming Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards.

    2. Re:bluetooth? by illumin8 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      you should be able to plug a bluetooth adapter in the expansion slot

      Yes, but what if I want to use the SD card slot for what it was intended: an SD memory card, and still use my Bluetooth wireless headset. I can't understand why they try to sell a $550 to $600 piece of kit that doesn't have a $5 Bluetooth interface in it.

      I own a Treo 300 though and this is the best phone I've ever used. I'm sure the Treo 600 with Palm OS 5 and longer battery life is much better.

      --
      "When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
  9. VisorPhone by jooon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have the forefather, one of those old VisorPhones that you put in springboard of a Visor. It's about 2 years old now I think, and quite big in my pocket, if you compare with these new models. Still, I wouldn't trade for any of those other "smart phones" out there, except for this new Treo 600 of course. Why buy a phone that also tries to act as a pda, when you can get a really good pda, that can also act as a phone? I mean, the gadgets of a cellphone are more important than the phone itself, right. :)

    1. Re:VisorPhone by avi33 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree completely. I recently squished my Visor, and after doing all the research for a new PDA/phone combo, ended up buying another Visor on eBay (though you can still buy reconditioned ones from handspring).

      Granted, I want nothing more than a Palm and a phone, in one device. I guess Samsung is coming out with one in Europe, but it looks to be expensive.

      At one point (before they EOL'ed the whole line), you could get a Visor + VisorPhone for about $100. Now, 2 years later, you get them combined...for $400? (ok, it's $49/$199, depending on which company you sign your life over to for 2 years.)

      Plus mine is GSM...remember that whole "you can get a new phone, slip the GSM card in, and your phone works, without a new plan" selling point? Turns out the bastards want $600 for the Treo if I keep using my own GSM card! (For the record, I want to keep it, since around the time my 1-year obligation wore off, my carrier called me up and offered me some cheap month-to-month plan with free long distance, a zillion minutes, etc.)

      To top it off, they now want in on the data stream side of things, so they try to hardsell you a dialup account -- though you can get one on your own for next to nothing, if you don't already have one.

      So, just to recap, it was a non-expandable (if slightly smaller) version of what I had, for $600 if I keep my own plan, or $49-199 if I sign up for a new two year plan. or, buy a used one on eBay for nearly nothing.

      Break the upgrade cycle and maybe the bastards will start treating us like intelligent consumers.

  10. Flimsy Case by shalunov · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The case of the old Treo is made of low-quality flimsy plastic. To me, the resulting fragility is the biggest problem with the device. I wonder if the new one is any better...

    Why shouldn't it be possible to provide a titanium or lexan case at the price they are charging?

    --

    -- Stanislav Shalunov

  11. Finally! A replacement for my Kyocera 6035 by Phoenix-kun · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've been using the 6035 for years and loving it. But I wanted so much more; color screen, real keyboard, camera. This 600 looks like it will fit the bill perfectly. However, Sprint needs to get the word out to their salesmen. I went into a Sprint store the other day to see when the 600 would be out and even the tech had no idea what I was talking about. All they could do was point me to the Treo 300 already on display.

    --
    Phoenix
  12. PCMag.com Review by elid · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's the beta version, but anyway... Link

  13. Everything except the flip cover by conan_albrecht · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...is included in this phone. I've got a Treo 300, and one of its greatest features is the flip cover -- something most other phones don't have.

    My flip cover is absolutely scratched up on the outside. My Treo screen is perfectly scratch-free. With the new 600 lacking the automatic cover, I'll have to purchase a leather cover or something -- essentially a useless hack that does nothing but cover the screen.

    The 300's cover is actually useful! Sure, it might look like a communicator from the original star trek, but it does three primary things: 1) protect the PDA, 2) extend the phone when in use as a phone (the earpiece is in the cover), and 3) the see-through nature of the cover allows some PDA functions to be done without opening the cover (for example, when reading a grocery list at the store).

    A typical leather cover does only one of the functions. If I upgrade, I'll sorely miss the other two.

  14. Are you thinking what I'm thinking....? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Seriously, I know the "Imagine a beowolf cluster of these things..." line is a total cliche and often used in the most ridiculous of situations, but... Imagine a beowolf clusted of these things. Better yet, imagine a whole connected world, with everyone owning a portable, wireless PDA/cell phone. Each device could be networked to every other device, and could be set to run important calculations in the background, when it is not in use. The processing power of each one is tiny, but imagine a New York City or Tokyo full of them. Who needs the earth simulator to predict weather, when you could have 5,000,000 wireless PDA's in Los Angeles automatically taking in satellite imagery, humidity, temperature, barometric pressure, etc, and then predicting the weather on the fly for their users!

    Must go drool now...

  15. I like the Samsung better... by Faw · · Score: 3, Informative

    The SPH-i500 (CDMA) looks better. The SGH-i500 (GSM) is also on it's way. It uses PalmOS 5.2 and has a SDIO port that can take wifi and bluetooth. It says it will be available for Q3 (it will be in Just-talk.com in 26 days, at least that what the website says).

  16. Re:Removed the flip cover?! by Hayzeus · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Hopefully there will be an inobtrusive cover available aftermarket, which both protects and adds minimal bulk.

    Hmmm... Someone's obviously never heard of duct tape.

    --

    Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
  17. Urban use only by steveha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One potential problem with the new combination PDA and phones: they are digital-only.

    Someday, in the bright happy cheerful future, digital cell phone service will be everywhere. Meanwhile, there are still places where there is only analog phone service, and I actually go to those places.

    My battered old StarTac phone has two bands of CDMA, plus a fallback to analog. I can use that phone pretty much anywhere in the USA that has cell phone service at all. The same cannot be said of the new combination ones.

    There is a cable I have to connect my PDA to the digital connector on the bottom of my StarTac, and then I can use the StarTac to call up my ISP. This does not require buying any special "data" features, only using my phone minutes. Depending on where I am, my ISP might be a long-distance call, of course (buy my ISP has a toll-free number I can call and use for ten cents per minute).

    I think that the combination of a really nice PDA (mine is a Tungsten T) and a really nice phone (battered old StarTac) is better, for my purposes, than the new all-in-one gadgets. It might be different if I lived in a big city and spent all my time there.

    steveha

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely