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The Official Launch of the Treo 650
A whole slew of people sent us in links regarding the Treo 650. There's the official release from palmOne, with a new entry on their website. TreoCentral also has launch coverage, including a sample video and first impressions. Engadget also has coverage of the launch as well. Details are that the Treo 650 is an evolutionary upgrade to the Treo 600. palmOne made few external changes, but redid much of the internals. As with the 600 there will be a dualband CDMA 1xRTT and a quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE version. The most notable new features are an improved 312 Mhz Intel PXA270 processor, a new 320x320 High resolution TFT screen, built in Bluetooth, non-volatile flash memory, a removable battery, and a new connector. Carriers, pricing, and availability are to be announced soon. Another reader notes that this ups the bar for mobile internet - and the last wonders if RIM has any good responses
However, the Sprint Treo has crippled bluetooth:
TreoCentral is reporting that the Sprint version of the Treo 650 doesn't allow you to use Bluetooth for dial-up networking through your computer. Apparently other carriers will, but not Sprint.
Who said Freedom was Fair?
Finally, a smartphone I can take seriously! Too bad it won't be affordable for another three years...
"Dave, I stand still--the conclusions jump to me!" - Bill McNeal, NewsRadio
I have to say I think for $550+ the Treo 650 is way overpriced. As a Palm fanboy, I feel sick with mistreatment. For that price, it is currently missing:
- 128 mb ram (at least!)
- voice recorder
- 802.11b
IMO... disgusting at that price. I have and love and setup TONS of Treo 600's, but seriosuly the price is nuts without the above. And to nitpick, IMO the Treo 650 should also have:
- not just bluetooth, but Class 1 (or is it class A) bluetooth with 100m range
- all 128 mb as non-volotile
- voice recorder to record the phone calls too
- easy setup to use device as a laptop modem for windows/mac with open spec to let Linux dudes knock up their own sw
- Camera Flash (even the lame ultra-bright led's actually can save the day with a photo in a very dark room, much better than nothing)
- Software to have web access auto-switch from carrier service to 802.11 when 802.11 becomes availbe, and back again when wifi disappears. Latest Pocket PC devices to this automatically.
Oh, and to REALLY bitch, but to make this thing perfect, add:
- Blackberry e-mail client
memory: 23MB user-available stored non-volatile memory (22MB multi-lingual)
the new Tungsten has over 150 megs of memory while the new treo only has 23? for all the web surifng, emailing, and pictures that people will take, 23 megs doesn't sounds like nearly enough for internal memory that is. Still a really cool product.
"As with the 600 there will be a dualband CDMA 1xRTT and a quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE version."
For anyone who doesn't understand the technical jargon, here's a handy explanation:
CDMA -- Code Division Multiple Access, any use of any form of spread spectrum by multiple transmitters to send to the same receiver on the same frequency channel at the same time without harmful interference.
GSM -- Global System for Mobile Communications, the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world.
GPRS -- General Packet Radio Service, a digital mobile phone technology. It is considered as 2.5G, between the second and third generation. It provides moderate speed data transfer, by using unused TDMA channels GSM network.
EDGE -- Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution, a digital mobile phone technology technology which acts as a bolt-on enhancement to 2G and 2.5G (a.k.a.GPRS) networks. This technology is compatible with TDMA and GSM networks. EDGE uses the same spectrum allocated for GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800 and GSM1900 operation.
Click the links for more info.
To editors: please provide at least some links to explain the terms you use in the story next time. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
I used to live in the US, and got very used to my Palms (I've been using them for years, starting with a Handspring Visor through a Sony Clie), and I was just looking to upgrade my phone, and I ended up getting something that Wasn't The Treo. Why? Because even though I waited until the "official" announcement, and thus knew everything about it, I still don't have any idea when it'll be available here in the UK.
This is pretty lame. Here in Europe (at least in the UK) Palm Pilots and other PDAs don't have nearly as high penetration as in the US, because everybody's got their mobile with them at all times and doesn't want to carry around two devices. However, given past performance, the GSM Treo (which is a worldphone, so you can just buy it in the US and bring it on a plane here and it'll work perfectly with your local coverage) won't be available for several months at best, unlike in the US. Even now, although the Treo 650 is all over the US PalmOne site, it's nowhere to be found on the UK site.
This makes very little sense, given that the biggest competition for the Treo (namely the blackberry and the Sony Ericsson P910i) are available here as soon as the US, if not sooner. Moreover, the SIM-free (i.e. not tied to a particular provider) version of the Treo 600 is GBP525 ($966 at today's exchange rate) from PalmOne UK, while it's $349 from PalmOne US. This whole state of affairs leads me to believe that PalmOne just doesn't get it when it comes to Europe and the attractiveness of something like the Treo. Give it to us now!
The RIM 7100t is a more fair comparison, IMHO. For $199 (after $100 rebate from T-Mobile) you get just about everything the Treo 650 does. I decided I couldn't wait for the 650 to come out so I got the 7100t (Actually, I could still return it if I wanted to). I'm a long time Palm user, and have used the Treo 600 before.
Some notes on my experience of the BB over the Palm:
-No camera. Business device people.
-Can do dial-up networking over USB and Bluetooth.
-Full one-handed operation. Somewhat clumsy at times, but you can get-r-done.
-Push e-mail. (isn't the 650 supposed to have this?) You don't have to buy the BB Enterprise Server software for just syncing e-mail, there's a "desktop" version.
-Software is made for syncing with corporate e-mail, no middle Palm Desktop stuff to break on you
-The new keyboard is not that bad after you use it for a week.
-Push e-mail can be delayed 10 or 15 minutes at times.
-I miss the Calendar Palm app, was much faster to enter an appt and pick the start and stop times.
-Form factor of the BB is pretty slim, fits easily in front pants pocket (older ones were way too big)
-Charges over USB cable, no extra power adapters needed (major plus)
-I miss the 4 dedicated PIM keys on the Palm. Alawys so much drilling in and out of the menus. BB has two blank spots where they could have had two user-assignable keys, that would have rocked. They have a dedicated Browser key and a dedicated Telephone key.
-Soud quality is good to excellent on headset and to the ear to both parties
-No bluetooth to PC sync. Can't imagine why.
All in all, as a business workhorse handset, I think the Blackberry 7100t at $199 is an excellent choice. It's not perfect, by any stretch, but is getting there. I suggest you test drive any of the units (including the SideKick II) at your local T-Mobile (or Cingular I suppose) store....
Questions?
-m
http://www.invisik.com
Although it's always dangerous to generalize, I like to explain the differences between the Treo and the BlackBerry this way:
BlackBerry: email with applications
Treo: applications with email
You can build applications for both platforms, but the BlackBerry is still seen (and being used) primarily as a mobile email device. You can send and read email with the Treo, but you can run many more useful apps on it than on the BB. Which one is better? As usual, it depends on what you need...
EricBlackBerry development info