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More Problems for the Treo 650
koreth writes "PalmOne's new Treo 650 smartphone is one of the season's most eagerly-anticipated gadgets. But it looks like they let it out of the gate too early. First there was the memory problem, which, to PalmOne's credit, they addressed quickly. That satisfied me and I bought one, only to find that while it's a great device in a lot of ways, as a phone it stinks. From the other end, it sounds like I'm inside a cardboard box, and lots of other people are complaining about the same thing. No word yet from PalmOne on this problem. Any other 650 owners having problems with their new units?"
Remember what Smokey the Bear says. Only you can prevent your Treo 650 smartphone from starting a forest fire.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
One would think they'd take the good parts of the 600 (namely the radio/phone part) and merely add a higher resolution screen and other small improvements rather than seemingly designing it from the gound up again.
... when one actually READS TFA, one finds that a few people seem to be having this problem, and a great many more don't. And that it could be Sprint's crappy service in the first place.
...You don't sound like you're on the toilet.
That's always awkward for the other person.
His name is Robert Paulsen...
To solve the voice quality problem, you probably shouldn't use the phone from inside your new house. :-)
Bort.
Free, Anonymous surfing: Pagewash.com.
Oops, until December 10 they're backordered
I guess it's back to carrying a Treo and a real phone.
(I know you can buy a nice third-party headset for cell phones. It's just a joke.)
sigs, as if you care.
I was going to buy the Treo 650, however, now that I have heard this, I'll be waiting for my GPS, Camera, MP3, WiFi, TV Control, Weather Station, Glucose monitor, Range Finder, MicroDrive, FM/AM, Fuelcell driven Phone PDA.
First of all, check that you are not really inside a cardboard box.
Oh well, perhaps I've been the informal help desk for my family for too long.
From the forum, posted by bael (post number 18 in the thread linked to):
First call I made I was told that it sounded choppy like y'all are describing. I turned the volume down on the phone and that seemed to help.
So, turn the mike down a bit and problem solved. By the way, this story summary is a joke. "From the other end, it sounds like I'm inside a cardboard box"? Would it really be that much of a stretch for the editors to edit this sentence (or add one of their own) to explain that the people at the other end are experiencing choppy reception because of a microphone issue?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I've had my 650 for about 2 weeks (on Sprint) and haven't noticed this problems. I just asked my wife who probably accounts for 1/2 my cell phone time and she hasn't noticed anything in the quality of reception. In noisy environments like my car I use the ear piece (which I think is also the law in my state) so perhaps it's the mike on the phone in noisy environments but that doesn't seem unusual. The first problem was a non-issue for me when upgrading for me and SD cards are so cheap I doubt it ever will be.
I really like the 650. The touch screen is much easier to navigate with my finger and nail than my 300 and the increaded resolution is really nice. Browsing is also fast and quite usabe. I don't bother with the palm version of slashdot since I can read the regular one just fine.
There are a few minor interface issues like it takes a while to move to the dialing screen which sometimes makes me think that it didn't register the click and the call logs interface high-lights the last call dialed and the cancel button but the cancel button has focus (not the last number) so I often am sometimes confused when I hit enter and it doesn't call the last number. Nothing huge though just something to get used to.
The only reason I see to wait is if you're still deciding whether to shell out $450 for a phone. For me it was worth it.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is.
My friends (gasp!) have told me that whenever I used my Treo, it sounded like I was stutering, and they couldn't understand me most of the time. I tried my bluetooth headset, and it worked fine. Is this a microphone problem?
-b0lt
got sig?
who accounts for the other half? ;>
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I had a color sidekick. The web browser and email were great on it and rock solid stable. My only complaint was that the phone wasn't as good as some other phones.
I got a Treo 600, paying a lot more for it than the sidekick and I was unimpressed. The internet apps were not as feature filled and a lot more buggy and the O.S was not a real multitasking os. The terminal app sucked compared to the sidekick and there was no instant messaging included. That and the keyboard wasn't that great. It felt like I was using the old mac os on the thing with applications ocassionaly freezing or not being able to do things in the background. Then the thing broke. When you pay as much as I did for a treo 600 the phone better work. It was even more poorly made than the old sidekicks!.
I was so dissapointed that I canceled the contract and got myself a sidekick 2(now available for free with rebates on amazon). The thing has a decent camera, certainly better than the treo's and has yahoo messenger,etc built in. The phone is made by Sanyo so it's a lot sturdier than the old model and the radio is supposed to be much improved. ANyway, I'm looking forward to it. Any other sidekick II users care to comment?
You, my friend, are a sucker in every aspect of the word. You bought a phone because of all the gimmicks without actually making sure it was adequate as a phone.
Strong words there, fella. How is he a sucker merely for buying a highly recommended product and then trying to get some problems fixed?
I'm very interested in the Treo 650 and I really appreciate users like him airing possible problems with the product and looking for solutions that will keep him from returning it.
My guess (and hope) is that it's a software problem that can be fixed with a flash rom upgrade or some such.
The Treo 650's not that bad a product. I haven't heard any complaints about the Treo as pda; it's got a really nice screen and all the usual Palm apps. The camera is OK, the bluetooth is nice except that Sprint disabled dial-up networking (they promise to enable it in a future software upgrade), and Palm's giving out free 128MB SD cards to its customers as a temporary fix for the memory problem.
I'm waiting for T-Mobile and Verizon to start offering it, so I can choose between the competition for my next contract. But I'd prefer a Treo 700 that included wifi and a little more memory.
it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.