Brighthand Reviews the palmOneTreo 650

Ed Hardy · 01-18-2005, 01:31 PM

The Treo 650 is the latest member of palmOne's line of smartphones. It isn't an amazing breakthrough, but it does have several significant improvements over its predecessor, the Treo 600.

Read more at http://www.brighthand.com/article/pa...view?site=Palm

strider_mt2k · 01-18-2005, 03:50 PM

Good review!

I see the 650 as much less of a POS now, and more of a serious handheld.
(Not that it is, it's just that I read alot of negative stuff.)
Unfortunately I'm still not seeing enough to fully pull me over to the 650.

I'm way spoiled on my Clie TH55 and cell phone combo.
While they don't provide all the same features, separately they do more, and better.

The 650 is very cool in it's way.

whydidnt · 01-18-2005, 06:05 PM

Well, I'm not suprised Ed would have a positive review of a Palm device. It seems hard for me to get excited about the 650 when you consider - Bluetooth does not work well and has to be hacked for full funcitonality. This is one of the prime selling points of this device if it doesn't work, then the ONLY noticeable upgrade from the 600 is the hi-res screen.

I can't give Palm a pass on this one since they are clearly banking their entire company on this product line. No stereo out? I think we're seeing even $200 "dumb" phones manage this trick now. Lack of memory, especially at todays memory prices is inexcusable. Since PalmOne has made the decision not to give us multi-taking by using Garnet, you think they could at least get a few of these other things right...bluetooh, stereo, memory, stability, etc.

Palm will continue to slide to the bottom of the barrel as long as respected sites such as Brighthand continue to give them passes in reviews such as this.

sidvi · 01-18-2005, 06:47 PM

Is realy true that you can't listen MP3s in stereo like in ANY OTHER Palm PDA?
I asked for this cuestion other time (about a Treo 600) and they tell me that the jack is an stereo one.

Please, tell me; are you really sure that is impossible to listen MP3s in stereo with a Treo 650? If this is true, I won't buy the PDA I've been wating for all my life

Thanks

imported_matiasdelalastr · 01-18-2005, 08:06 PM

I want to add that there's no CDMA phone that's capable of sending data while it's on a voice conversation. There are some CDMA phones that can keep the connection up while talking, but they won't send or receive files. This is why I think that GSM/GPRS is better for celular networks than CDMA. A GPRS phone can handle data and voice communications at the same time and without loosing speed. TDMA/CDMA phones have a better range than GPRS ones, but generally GSM/GPRS handle better voice quality and use less battery while talking (GSM phones use more battery than CDMA while on idle mode). I think that GSM/GPRS is what will stay in the future for cellular communications, while TDMA/CDMA will survive as data services (CDMA is much better than GPRS (including EDGE) if you only want to send data, because of the high speeds that it can achieve (some CDMA networks are already running at speeds up to 2.7Mbps for personal use on certain cities). GSM has a better voice quality and uses less battery... Two factors that are very important when you consider cell phones)

Ed Hardy · 01-19-2005, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by whydidnt
It seems hard for me to get excited about the 650 when you consider - Bluetooth does not work well and has to be hacked for full funcitonality.

Sprint has admitted it made a mistake by disabling the DUN function and is working on a patch that will re-enable it. And this is something that will affect only the Sprint version, not the ones from all the other carriers.

What I was attempting to do is review the Treo 650 in general, not just the Sprint version of it. We won't be writing a whole new review of the Cingular version. Therefore, I tried to de-emphasize things that were Sprint-specific as much as possible.

Ed Hardy · 01-19-2005, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sidvi
Please, tell me; are you really sure that is impossible to listen MP3s in stereo with a Treo 650? If this is true, I won't buy the PDA I've been wating for all my life

Sorry, my bad. You can listen to stereo on the Treo 650, but it takes a special adapter. I have one for 2.5mm-to-3.5mm, and that one wouldn't play the music in stereo, which made me think it wasn't possible. However, palmOne sells the "Treo Stereo Headphone Adaptor," which apparently can.

Sorry for the confusion.

whydidnt · 01-19-2005, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ed
Sprint has admitted it made a mistake by disabling the DUN function and is working on a patch that will re-enable it. And this is something that will affect only the Sprint version, not the ones from all the other carriers.

Unless of course they elect to disable it as well. Something tells me Verizon will insist on disabling it based upon their past record with bluetooth.

I've heard the same thing re: Sprint and a supposed patch to repair DUN using Bluetooth. But where is it? Why do they have to develop a patch? Wasn't it there to begin with? Can't they just add it back to the device via a quick ROM flash? I think the whole message that they are "working on a patch" is simply a tool to delay things while they decide how to charge more for data access on these devices.

PlasticMan · 01-19-2005, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by whydidnt
Well, I'm not suprised Ed would have a positive review of a Palm device. It seems hard for me to get excited about the 650 when you consider - Bluetooth does not work well and has to be hacked for full funcitonality. This is one of the prime selling points of this device if it doesn't work, then the ONLY noticeable upgrade from the 600 is the hi-res screen.

did you read the whole review? on the last page is a full list of ways the 650 is better than the 600. bluetooth, screen, usability, keyboard, battery is what I remember. what else could p1 have improved?

whydidnt · 01-19-2005, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PlasticMan
did you read the whole review? on the last page is a full list of ways the 650 is better than the 600. bluetooth, screen, usability, keyboard, battery is what I remember. what else could p1 have improved?

Of course I read the whole review. What else could they improved?

Bluetooth that actually works.
More Memory - Don't even go to the Memory card line, since not all programs can be installed to or will run from card.
An OS upgrade that allows multi-tasking, more than 15 categories, etc.
The slow response time of the phone application.
A higher resolution Camera.
WiFi?

It's obvious PalmOne's bag of tricks is empty and they have decided to incremently upgrade this thing over several versions to extract repeat purchases from the Palm Faithful. My gripe with the review is it glosses over mst of these shortcoming, while glowing about the improvements.