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It's official - The
new Treo 650 is out for Cingular (GSM)
Why I love the Treo series of handheld devices
Hands On by Yuval Kossovsky
JANUARY 24, 2005
(COMPUTERWORLD) - Recently I was in the airport,
where I witnessed the following scene:
A businessman is furiously
typing away on his BlackBerry. A few minutes later,
he puts the unit back into the holster on his belt,
takes out his cell phone and begins making calls.
This was not the first time
I had observed such behavior by a BlackBerry owner,
and each time I have inquired about it, the answer
has been the same. "I love this thing for e-mail,
but it is a terrible phone," they say. "It doesn't
feel comfortable in my hand or against my ear." One
added, "It looks like a pancake, and I don't talk to
food."
Enter the Treo 650 from
PalmOne Inc. This device was built from the
beginning to work as a phone and a data device. The
design mantra was that it had to feel like a phone
and a person should only carry one device. For any
business user who has a Palm device and is tired of
carrying both a Palm and phone, this is the perfect
solution.
The Treo 650 has a bright
color screen, the familiar Palm OS interface and the
ability to run the entire library of available Palm
OS applications. Moreover, PalmOne has a product
available that allows the Treo units to hot-sync
with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and Novell
GroupWise, making the Treo a true enterprise-quality
device.
Both the Treo 600 and 650
are excellent phones and personal information
management (PIM) devices. A bit of history here. ...
The Treo 600 was introduced
for the Sprint network in late 2003 and rolled out
to other carriers over the course of 2004. It has
support for 12-bit color, a 144-MHz processor, 32MB
of built-in RAM, SD card expansion and infrared
support.
The Treo 650 is currently
available using the Sprint network, but a GSM model
for Cingular's network is due in the next few weeks.
One significant way that it differs from the 600 is
the way it handles RAM (see below for a caveat). The
650 has 23MB of ROM, and additional RAM is placed on
an SD card. It has a 320-by-320, 16-bit color
screen, an improved Intel PXA270 312-MHz processor,
a removable/swappable battery, and an improved
user-interface design.
The 600 hasn't been
discontinued now that the 650 is out, and PalmOne
expects that the lower price of the 600 will
encourage further enterprise penetration.
Both units come with the
Blazer Web browser, which doesn't require WAP-enabled
sites in order to operate. In fact, this browser
supports frames, JavaScript, CSS and cookies. I
found this feature really handy when looking for
directions and looking up a company phone directory.
The Treo 650 also comes
with Bluetooth connectivity, which allows the use of
a wireless headset and also simplifies the hot-sync
connectivity process. Macintosh users should note
that the Palm desktop bundled with the 650 is much
friendlier than in previous versions. But for true
MacOS integration with iSync, iCal and AddressBook,
you will need to download the Apple iSync connector
for Palm devices. Also, you will need to purchase
The Missing Sync from MarkSpace. The software
installs easily, and I was instantly able to
hot-sync my Treo 650 using iSync.
The Treo's keyboard is a
bit smaller than the BlackBerry's, but after a week
of typing, I didn't notice the difference. I found
that both the 600 and 650 had excellent battery
life, but the 650's ability to swap out batteries
like a phone ensures that I am always able to stay
in touch. The 600 comes in both CDMA and QuadBand
GSM (not operable in Japan), and while the 650 is
currently available only in CDMA flavor, I would
assume that the GSM version isn't far behind.
Happily, the Treo 600 model
I reviewed had an updated ROM that allows the user
to disconnect the device from the network without
turning off the radio. The Treo 650 comes with the
same feature, and it's much more accessible and
intuitive. Both devices also have an easy way to
turn off the phone radio, allowing the use of the
PIM features in places where a phone isn't allowed
(airplane, courthouse, etc).
Up to this point, I've had
only good things to say about the Treo series. So,
what's the downside of this BlackBerry killer?
In the Treo 650, the use of
memory was changed in such a way that although the
device comes with double the RAM of the Treo 600, it
has functional access to about 33% less storage. I
won't delve into the engineering details as to why
this is, but PalmOne has acknowledged this issue and
is shipping the units with 128MB SD cards to
compensate.
You can learn more about
this issue on the PalmOne Web site.
My only other complaint is
the fact that PalmOne is also pushing the Treo as a
multimedia device. The built-in media player is a
hobbled version of RealPlayer that recognizes only
.mp3 and .rm files.
This is supposed to be a 3G
phone, and the GSM version is made for EDGE
networks, yet the device ships without the ability
to play 3G streaming media (.3G2 or .3GP format).
Luckily a company called Kinoma makes a product
called Kinoma Player EX. This application allows the
Treo series to play AAC-encoded streaming audio
media and MPEG 4 video. The Kinoma producer
application simplifies the creation of this media,
but you can use other media-encoding applications if
you choose.
Overall, I found the Treo
650 to be an excellent all-in-one phone and
data-connectivity device. For the individual and
small business, this is the only reasonable solution
to the two-device issue. For the enterprise user,
PalmOne has the same connectivity options that the
BlackBerry provides and is significantly more
comfortable in the hand. The Treo 650 is a strong
competitor, and enterprise IT departments should
take a closer look.
Did I miss something? Want
to ask me something? Send your questions, comments
and curses to
y.Kossovsky@ieee.org.
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