Not perfect, but it rocks!
Written: Jan 08 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Almost perfect size, great phone, good pda
Cons: Mediocre camera, lo-res screen, slippery
The Bottom Line: If you live and die by your Palm PDA and also also carry a cell phone, it's a no brainer.
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| kevin_talbot's Full Review: Handspring Treo 600 Handheld |
I've had my Treo 600 GSM phone/Palm PDA combo for about two weeks now and I really like it! I was skeptical at first as I think all the PocketPC/phone combos suck (as if it's possible to look any nerdier than with a full size PDA stuck to your ear ).
I should mention my mobile provider is AT&T wireless and I've been with them since 1989. Overall I'm pretty happy with them. They rolled out GSM about 2 years ago. The coverage area is not as large as their TDMA network but it's getting better. I swtiched to a GSM phone (Motoroloa T720) about 9 months ago and am fairly happy with the GSM service. I do see a big improvement when I have a weak signal - on GSM even with 1 bar I can have a decent conversation with minimal cut out. With at TDMA phone, 3 bars (out of 5) or less and you'd get the "stuttering dog" effect ("Yes honey I can -browf- -ung- ome milk -bow- way home").
The treo 600 is just about the perfect size - it's actually slightly _smaller_ than my Sony Clie SJ33 and not much bigger than my motorola 720 phone it replaces. I have big clumsy thumbs and was concerned I would not be able to type well, but it works quite well using a two-thumb method. It's a little strange to have a Palm PDA w/o grafitti but it works nicely. Very few apps require pulling out the stylus as most adapt to the excellent "five way" controller. Battery life (so far) is excellent. 4 days of use and the battery is still about 75% full.
A few things that are very slick:
1- Screen is very bright and readable, very easy to do most "phone things" with one hand (tapping with your thumb).
2- Very intuitive overall - not much need to RTFM
3- Built in speakerphone rocks. Very loud! Sound quality is very good. They have a ring tone that is a dead ringer (pun intended) for an old mechanical ringer type phone (I'm old enough to remember them).
4- Very slick "favorites" menu setup. Five pages of ten buttons each and each one can be a phone number, Palm application, URL or e-mail address
5- Picture "caller ID" with big (160x160) pics and unique rings for each caller if you want.
6- A simple old-fashioned slide switch to put in silent mode. No more "boop" - "beep" - "boop" [silent mode on] like with most every other PDA and phone.
7- Very easy to turn off the phone and use the PDA only when on a plane. The screen clearly says "Wireless mode off" to keep a flight attendant from taking it away when you pull the Treo out at 30,000 feet
8- Will play MP3s on an SD memory card if you get a Palm OS MP3 software program ($10 - $15). That said, I still much prefer my my iPod on trips.
A few nits to pick:
1) the nice silver paint job is very slippery - I damn near drop it once a day (I ordered some sticky "grip strips" to put on it)
2) There should be a law against these !@%#$# "smaller than mini" head phone jacks - they use the same damn one on my wife's iPaq 1910. They were too cheap to put an adapter in the box and gouge you $10 for the damn thing. Also they don't even put a set of stereo headphones in the box. For $550 you'd think they could throw these in as well as the adapter.
3) I wish they'd spent a few extra bucks and gone for a 320x320 screen instead of 160x160. That lo-res is so last-year out style, but it works OK.
4) My review of the built-in camera: it sucks. I know where the could save a buck or two the hi-res LCD - dump the crappy 640x480 camera. First it's "cool - it even has a camera!". Then you snap a "picture" (and I use the term loosely) and see how well it works (or not).
5) Battery is not user replacable. Hope it lasts longer than the Li-Ion batteries in iPods. At least there's an external big capacity pack if you need it.
6) Can't setup "speed dial" by pressing and holding a number on the screen other than "1" for voice mail. You can with letters on the keyboard but not numbers on the screen. How hard could that have been to be like every other phone on the planet?
Overall I really like it and think it's a keeper for me. It works great as a phone and also well as a PDA.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 500
Recommended for: Business Executives - Powerful and Professional
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Epinions.com ID:
kevin_talbot
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Reviews written: 2
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