Palm Treo 500v First Impressions

[holvoetn]

Palm's latest device is the Treo 500v, a Windows Mobile smartphone that is being launched on the Vodafone network all over Europe and some other places in the world, too.

(view large image)

After a small logistical hiccup that lasted 4 weeks, this device arrived in my hands a couple days ago. I received the white version (the 500v also comes in black).

A New OS

As a die-hard Palm OS übergeek, I was very interested to see how I would handle a Windows Mobile 6 Standard device. Let me tell you I am very pleased, even impressed.

For the very first time I was able to experience 100% keyboard and/or 5-way nav navigation. Sure enough, some settings are not in the places I expect them to be, but that's because I haven't played around enough yet.

Size

Comparing this model to the earlier Treo 680, the new model is wider, shorter, and substantially thinner.

Looking at the specification sheets, it is even thinner than a Centro which was billed as the thinnest Palm ever -- 0.73 inches for Centro versus 0.65 inches for the 500v.

Screen

Treo 500v uses a screen with a resolution of 320 by 240 pixels, This has a landscape orientation, but that doesn't mean it's unusually wide; it has a comparable width to the one used in the 680. The smaller vertical resolution simply means that the 500v's display is a third smaller.

The display is a normal LCD, not a touchscreen.

The brightness of the screen is more then enough from what I could see, but I haven't had the opportunity yet to check how it behaves outside, especially in direct sunlight (It's not really the time of the year here for a lot of sun).

Keyboard

The Keyboard does not have the curved layout used in most of the earlier Treos but has the same straight set up as used in the Centro.

Even as a seasoned 680 user, I did not have any problems using the 500v's keyboard. It does give me a funny feeling when I'm using it since the keys are a little harder to press. The backlight of the keys is also noticeably brighter than on 680.

From researching on the Web I can conclude this device will be available in QWERTY and QWERTZ layouts, and maybe more.

Camera

This device is equipped with a camera able to capture pictures up to 1600 by 1200 pixels, which translates to a bit less then 2 megapixels.

Video, however, can only be recorded at 320 by 240 pixels.

Installation

Setting up the 500v was the part where I got my first big problem: the install CD would not start on my laptop. It kept complaining about the need to have FlashPlayer 8 or above installed. I already have FP 9 and even removing and reinstalling would not resolve this problem.

Net result: no manual since it needs to be installed from the CD. But I did manage to get ActiveSync installed. Using a second PC gave more promising results. I have not yet completed installation there but it at least revealed where I could retrieve the manual from: Palm's web site.

Other Tidbits

This Treo's microSD card slot is hidden under the battery. I'm not sure from Palm's spec sheets if it supports SDHC, nor what the maximum allowed capacity is.

There's no switch to quickly silence the ringer, though the power button on the top can be used to make a menu pop up where this can be selected.

The 500v has Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, but there's no Infrared port.

It includes a 1200 mAh battery, the same as the one in the Treo 680, but slightly higher capacity than the Centro's.

Availability

According to the included paper documentation, the Treo 500v will initially be made available in following countries:

• Australia
• Germany
• Greece
• Ireland
• Italy
• Hong Kong
• Hungary
• Malta
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Portugal
• Singapore
• Spain
• United Kingdom

It seems to be available for ordering from Vodafone's web site now, but it is not clear to me if it is actually shipping in all of the related countries. It is definitely available in the U.K. and Germany; that I was able to confirm.

Reviewing Vodafone's web site in the U.K. it becomes clear where this smartphone is going to be positioned. With a price of 0.0 GBP, this is definitely targeted at an entry-level market, but you need to agree on a 18-month contract to get the device for free.

Various contracts are available, ranging from as low as 20 GBP up to 75 GBP per month (roughly 40 to 160 USD). Take into account that is only for voice and texting. If you want to use data, you need to add about 10 USD per month for 120 Mb. Additional capacity can be purchased using Vodafone Live! through your device.

In Germany the device is being sold for 50 EUR with a 34.95 EUR per month for a 2-year contract, 400 EUR without contract.

Unfortunately my Greek, Italian, Spanish and whatnot are not good enough to verify the offers for the other countries where this device is going to be released.

Vodafone Locked

The device is normally locked to Vodafone networks only. Although Belgium is not on the list of approved countries, I was lucky enough to get it to work since my current provider Proximus is affiliated with Vodafone.

Full Review in Progress

I am now using this device as of now as my main tool to really test it in real life conditions.

In case there are any specifics things which should be looked into, feel free to let me know so I can try to take this into account during the testing.

 

[Bard]

As usuall how about the battery life, secondly I want to know about the smooth for multimedia such playing movie, the speaker quite loud or not.

Thanks!

[AlanG]

Great job, Holvoetn! Thanks for the quick review. I'll be looking forward to the full review when it is ready.

Alan G

[Antoine Wright]

Thanks Holvy for the review. Looking forward to your full thoughts, and if WM6 will push you in a new direction

[Bj64]

Here is a question from the "Newbie" end of the "Peanut Gallery".

How would this device compare with the Samsung Blackjack and the soon to arrive Blackjack II?

[TimothyP]

A friend of mines at work has the Centro. Man, my fingertips got so sweaty trying to use the qwerty keyboard on that thing. Not my cup of tea.

[poryphyron]

Great review.

I have been using the 500v for a little while and have a few comments to add:

1. The video playback is sweet. This rivals a recent iPod for video playback IMO. I have not encoded a DVD yet but the playback colors are rich and smooth.

2. The issue with the install is one that affects all recent Windows Mobile 6 devices. Microsoft built their installer to be dependent on Flash and Flash updates itself automatically. So the two got out of sync. All there is on the CD is the regular ActiveSync 4.5 installation you can get free on the web from Microsoft. There is a good Introducing Guide in the box but if you need to get to the big long online user guide - this is the online page the CD goes to: http://euro.palm.com/europe/en/suppo...andbook_en.pdf
PS - I retrograded my Flash player to version 8.x and I was able to use the CD - another workaround. Or simply explore the CD and run the Setup.exe for ActiveSync. There's nothing else useful on the CD.


3. It took me a while to get used to the lack of a touchscreen but now I don't miss it.

4. There's a neat trick on the device for initiating new documents from the Office Mobile version on the handset. The Standard edition allows you to Save as but has no New command. So Palm left a set of template documents in the /templates folder so you have a document to Save as from the device. In short, you can use this version of Office to make new Word documents and Excel sheets. I still prefer Dataviz Docs to Go on my 680 btw - far superior to MSFTs offering.

5. The JVM (Java Virtual Machine to run Java apps) is a fun novelty for a Palm product. You could always add it to Palm OS using the download but it's nice to see one integrated. There's a ton of free Midlets out there to try out. By far the best one to get is the Opera Mini beta 4 browser (I hear it may have come out of beta yesterday). This is the best browser I have used on a Treo ever. It is super fast and allows you to see the full page and to zoom quickly into the portion you want to read. The browser can be downloaded directly from Opera's Java page. http://mini.opera.com

6. I'm in the UK and my phone is not locked. I tried an O2 SIM in it with no problems. I had to manually set up GPRS/UMTS data settings but this was easy. I'm sticking with Vodafone as I like some of the live services - MobilTV for music vids and footie.

7. I tried my 4GB MicroSD card - it worked no probs.

[Adama D. Brown]

Here is a question from the "Newbie" end of the "Peanut Gallery".

How would this device compare with the Samsung Blackjack and the soon to arrive Blackjack II?

The 500v has very similar hardware to the Blackjack models. The 500v has Windows Mobile 6 and 256 MB of flash, as opposed to WM5 and 128 MB on the original Blackjack. The BJ II has WM6, unknown memory, and a feature the 500v doesn't have, which is internal GPS.

The Blackjack models only support 3G in the United States and Canada, while the 500v only supports 3G overseas. Also, the 500v doesn't support the 850 MHz band, which is used by AT&T and a lot of T-Mobile's roaming coverage in the US.

[Bj64]

The Blackjack models only support 3G in the United States and Canada, while the 500v only supports 3G overseas. Also, the 500v doesn't support the 850 MHz band, which is used by AT&T and a lot of T-Mobile's roaming coverage in the US.

Hmm..It seems that it would be a rare event for the Palm 500V and the Samsung Blackjack to be used in the same area.

It appears from holvoetn's and poryphyron's feed back that this would be a good device and an alternative choice to the Blackjack. When I asked my original question, I had forgotten about the Centro possibly coming to AT&T in 2008.

[Adama D. Brown]

Hmm..It seems that it would be a rare event for the Palm 500V and the Samsung Blackjack to be used in the same area.

True. They're very much designed for opposite sides of the Atlantic.