Slashdot Mirror
Treo 700w Review
bart_scriv writes "Business Week has a review of Palm's Treo 700w (the first Palm device to run Windows). Aside from network performance, the reviewer was fairly disappointed. From the article: 'The best Windows Mobile device ever, but a cut below Palm's 650."
Reviews Without Fullpage Advertisements
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
What's next, Intel processors in a Mac?
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
Is that trendoid-speak for "supports GPS"?
Clue: with GPS, satellites track YOU!
Just junk food for thought...
From TFA:
It just may be that the dream of creating an all-in-one device isn't ready to be realized. Or maybe the dream is misplaced. Perhaps people will carry a collection of small, lightweight devices like Treos, T/Xs, and iPods, all of which are optimized for different tasks. We'll grab one from the shelf or the drawer when we leave the house based on what we plan to do that day, just as we would pick our socks or belt.
I have an iPod, a Palm TX and a bluetooth cellphone and enjoy each device for how well it does its respective task. I had thought about switching to a Treo 650 in an effort to replace the three devices I carry with me daily, but I don't think I'm ready yet. I agree with the authors of this article that there are very good MP3 players, very good organizers, and good phones, and to find them all in the same package is a bit unrealistic (at least, for now).
When the "holy grail" of mobile devices arrives, I will probably only buy one if it offers me the same high quality experience that my seperate solutions do now.
a non apple product getting a bad review and not being a feature article
OK, I am no WinMo 5.0 fanboy by any means (OK, so I used to catchy shortened form) but the statement that it won't support a higher res because Windows can't is full of CRAP. Not that I expect BW.com to get the facts right, but come on - the last thing we nerds need is one more PHB convinced of something based on bad journalism!
The best Windows mobile! Wow!
BTW, can you install Linux on this baby?
I find all of the comments about "web performance" in the article to be highly amusing - the device that the 700w is being compared to, the 650, used the absolutely abysmal Blazer browser.
Imagine a browser that switches to a "simple" mode for any page over 200k. That's absurd. Imagine a browser that takes 35-40 seconds to render some pages - while locking the device. That's Blazer.
PIE isn't exactly a great web browser, but it's sure a hell of a lot better than Blazer. And you can also choose Opera, NetFront, or Minimo on Windows Mobile - the alternatives for Palm OS are generally few and far between.
Also, the 240x240 screen size isn't a limitation of Windows Mobile; there are WM devices with 640x480 and 320x240 screens.
Having owned the Treo 650, I never understood why everyone loved it so much - my device crashed frequently (always requiring a soft-reset; WM devices sometimes "bog down" but rarely lock), had a crappy USB/power connector (the Palm design is frankly garbage - it relies on the tension of plastic clips to hold the connector together), had a quiet earpiece (though this was fixable with 3rd-party software), and had a number of interesting "quirks" that made it unusable as a video/gaming system (1px white border around the screen - all the time, practically impossible to allocate more than 2-4MB of memory).
It won't. It'll support lots of resolutions, but apparently 320x320 is not one of them.
That's twice as powerful as my computer's PSU. Is it quiet?
While most of your comments are true, you do ignore one glaring detail: Opera is available for the Treo.
Palm has provided the necessary Java runtime environment free of charge to 650 users (and $5.99 for others). Once downloaded, you can run Opera or Kmaps (an excellent Java app that downloads data from Google Local and even gets the scrolling part down well) or any other Java app compiled for Palm OS. I use both routinely on my Treo 600 and get pretty decent performance out of Opera. With a GPRS connection no less!
(While I agree that the first generation 650s froze often, those issues have been fixed with firmware updates. This doesn't excuse the initial lock-ups, but it's not a fault of Palm OS necessarily, just as 240x240 is not necessarily a fault of Windows Mobile (although the lack of 320x320 is)).
Per Square Mile, a blog about density
-99: N00b1e Must be Living Underneath a Rock
I'm glad to see the sarcasm wasn't lost on you.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
dimwit fucktard AC with no sense of humor.
Bah. The proper lame retort should be, "2005 called. They want their joke back."
On my Audiovox PPC-4100 PocketPC phone, I run numerous third party PocketPC applications that won't work properly on the Treo 700w. I can't live without these apps, especially when I travel.
You can get slashdot with AvantGo, you just have to set it up as an rss feed on AvantGo's website, it works fine.
CRAP? If that's not a fanboy, what is?
For whatever reason, Microsoft and Palm were unable to get together a driver for the better screen. A software limitation, of the non free kind, lead to a hardware downgrade. M$ should have done the work and given them whatever they needed to avoid that kind of embarrassment. People might start to think Opie and GPE are easier to use. If Palm can't get it done, who can? Why would anyone else want to use a platform that's owned by such assholes?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Have they even seen any other PPC's?
Humor from a Genetically Molested Mind
I've looked at them all and here are a few comments. Note that I moved to a XVT6700 but did look at the Treo.
- I had a Danger, and it was a wonderful device. They have done a terrific job of engineering for ease of use and connectivity. However, it is a closed system so you can not find the applications you might want / need. They also have a terrible sync program from Intellisync. No auto operation, full of bugs, etc.
- I looked at the Treo 700, but the keyboard is just too tiny. After the Danger it is a real step back.
- Got the XVT6700. Pretty good keyboard, EVDO, WiFi, etc.
- I've used various Windows CE devices for 5 years. Windows Mobile 5 is better, but still needs work. Not ready for one handed operation and they should definitely improve the apps for phone, today screen, etc. It is amazing how slow MS moves this OS and how slow the OEMs are to get updates out. MS really needs to get a group of users in a room and LISTEN to them. Having said that, I understand that such devices will always represent a large number of compromises between size, battery life, etc. In the end, I find it is pretty good, has great Exchange/Outlook integration, lets me work on Excel, Word docs and view presentations. I have gripes but am OK with the device.
- MS doesn't have a JVM, but there is one from IBM and it provides a MIDP2 environment. I am running Google Local Mobile using it.
- EVDO is awesome. I am actually on my laptop connected to the Internet using my 6700 as a modem. Can not tell the difference between this and most hotel "high speed" connections. On the device, I am not afraid to download 4 Mb files, because they get there quickly. I typically see 400Kbps - 600Kbps.
- These devices are NOT for everyone, but if you are a business user and travel a lot, they can be a life saver. I can now make many trips without a laptop.
Absurdly low memory, a browser that can handle barely any webpages, and a non-standard screen that breaks most WM software... I give it low ratings too. That said, I love it just because I can check my email anywhere.