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Handhelds Wireless Networking Hardware

Treo 600 Photos And Comparison To Treo 300 122

Posted by timothy from the doesn't-play-oggs dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Alex King has posted a pretty cool review of the Treo 600 on his site. It has some nice photos and comparisons to the Treo 300."
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Treo 600 Photos And Comparison To Treo 300 More

Treo 600 Photos And Comparison To Treo 300

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  • I've been waiting for this for the longest time. Finally a phone that will reduce all the cludge and provide me with an all in one solution. Phone, PDA and MP3 player rolled up into one. Thing is, I wonder if Handspring/Palm screwed this one up like they did with the Tungsten W and made the headphone mono.... Also, I'm a little curious on the voice quality of the phone. There's always something that seems to catch these phones and prevent them from being amazing.

    • Re:sweet phone... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RoLi ( 141856 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:41AM (#7254062)
      I have a Treo 270 and the voice quality is good. The Treo 270 has these problems though:

      • They made a terrible way to connect the SIM-card. It's unreliable and easy to lose the SIM card. (The Treo-600 comes with a slot like most phones so that is fixed, thank god)
      • According to some users sooner or later the wires running to the speaker in the flip cover will fail, haven't hit me yet, though. (Without flip-cover that obviously can't happen with the Treo-600 either)
      • The last-callers-list is not easily reachable, which is annoying. (The telephony part of the Treo is said to be reworked, I don't know wether it improved or not)

      All in all, I'm still very happy with my Treo, it's the all-in-one device that is small enough to fit in the pocket and with the Treo600 fixing most of the quirks, I'm surely getting one of those next year.

      Although I like the flip cover. You can talk for 45 Minutes without problems when with other phones the phone (and your ear) gets uncomfortably hot. But the smaller size and the robustness (any moving part is something that easily breaks) are good arguments to remove the flip cover, though.

  • Article Text (Score:4, Informative)

    by Oopsz ( 127422 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:07AM (#7253920) Homepage
    Treo 600 First Impressions (and photos): it ROCKS!

    My Treo 600 [handspring.com] showed up today. Yummy!

    Ive been really looking forward to this phone. I placed my order [alexking.org] the moment I heard they were available and now received it less than a week later. The discount for existing Treo users [handspring.com] is a really nice touch. The Treo 300 was the best PDA Ive used and a decent phone, but the Treo 600 is improved in every regard I can think of.

    Ok, on to the first look . Changes from the Treo 300:

    • SMALLER!
    • No flip cover. This is a huge win in my opinion. The screen isnt protected as well, but the keyboard and screen are accessible and most of the time they need to be. With the flip open, the Treo 300 is a real beast.
    • Everything is more responsive. The new OS and faster processor result in a big performance boost.
    • Much brighter screen, I havent tried it out in direct sunlight yet but it is a huge improvement over the Treo 300.
    • The 5-way navigation pad is really fantastic. One handed operation works exceptionally well.
    • It has a little camera. Id much prefer to have built-in Bluetooth than a .3 megapixel camera. I guess Ill probably use it occasionally but if Id had the option to get one without this, Id have done so.
    • The network connectivity is much faster. SnapperMail [snappermail.com] absolutely screams. Id read that the Palm OS 5 internet libraries were much faster and they are.
    • A Save this Page feature in Blazer (the web browser) will save a copy of a web page on the Treo. This is something Im really thrilled about; it means that if you have a page of bookmarks or the like, you dont have to request that page and wait for it to load before selecting the link. Also, Ill be using this for fast access to the New Task screen in tasks [slashdot.org] (using the mobile version of course).
    • Outgoing SMS messaging - I still cant believe that wasnt in the Treo 300.
    • SDIO slot allows you to add memory or a bluetooth card (when they are available).
    • The numeric keypad is moved from the right half of the keyboard to the left - this makes sense for right handed users since the device is narrower. The distance from the right edge of the device is actually similar to the Treo 300.
    • The Alarms and Ringers sounds are much nicer, but the Delete button shouldnt be in the same spot on the screen as the Edit button in the list. I deleted one of the ringtones by mistake by double tapping.
    • The UI widgets and overall interface feels much more polished.
    • When it is charging or when youre talking on it, the Treo 600 stays much cooler than the Treo 300 did. The Treo 300 would get pretty hot.

    Here are a couple of things upgrading users should be aware of:

    • The cables that came with the Treo 300 are compatible with the Treo 600, the cradle for the Treo 300 is not.
    • The Treo 600 headset jack is different than the Treo 300 headset jack, your Treo 300 headset will not work with the 600.
    • The Keyguard function seems to break if you are in an application that does not support the 5-way nagigation button. I just ran into a nasty problem where an Alarm popped up over an application that doesnt support the 5-way nav and I was stuck there. I couldnt unlock the keyguard and I couldnt dismiss the alarm to let it change applications. Had to do a reset - bummer.
    • The keyboard is smaller and it a little tougher to use. Im getting used to it but right now I make more typos than I did with the Treo 300.

    So my overall first impressions are extremely positive. The size is good, it is much faster and the software ha

  • Acchh!

    Colour me redundant by all means, but a phone this size, with such a beautiful screen that you're obviously supposed to, you know, look at, and it's got no Bluetooth? What were they thinking? How am I supposed to use the thing to make calls in this 21st-century totally hi-tech world of ours? I'm sure as hell not going to hold it up to my ear and mess up the nice screen. And a wired handsfree kit? Oh how very 20th century. Not to mention illegal to use in the car, come December here in the UK.

    OK, I'm

    • It is available. But only on the Orange [orange.co.uk] network.

      The law says that a wired hands-free kit *is* legal - only if you don't have to hold the phone to make or receive calls (BBC News [bbc.co.uk]). The Treo's hands-free kit has a button by the mic that will allow you to answer incoming calls. Sadly, it has no voice activated dialling.

      T

      • Blimy, first no bluetooth (which would have let me not only do handsfree calls but also sync to PC), now no voice diallingI thought the big thing about a Treo was it's a Converged Device... you know, best of both worlds? But if it's lacking these sorts of phone facilities, and "only" running PalmOS (not that there's anything wrong with PalmOS but I like my environments a bit fuller-featured and hackable, personally), then it's absolutely no use to me. I'll stick with my (bluetoothed and voice-dialling) Noki

        • Bluetooth will almost certainly be availiable within a few months. Handspring is working with OS 5 BlueTooth SDIO card makers to make sure that one of them has a headset profile. So, there goes one thing.

          Second, one of the cool things about the 600 is that the microphone and speaker are exposed to Palm OS applications, so you could do all sorts of cool things, one of which could (theoretically) be voice dialing. Somebody would have to write it, of course, but it is possible.

          But personally, I haven't been

          • I've never had Voice Dialling dial the wrong number, but plenty of times when it's failed to find the right number. It's by no means a perfectly working feature, but for my application at least it's marginally serviceable.

            I'd have thought it was close enough that the extra processing power of a smartphone / pda CPU would have made it very reasonable, rather than something to be waited on by a 3rd party app. developer...

    • It looks like a cool phone/pda, could be what we have been waiting for.
      But I agree what Bluetooth would be great to have. When you first have tried a phone with Bluetooth, it is hard to do without.
      I love that a phone with Bluetooth just needs to be around the office for it to sync with my calendar. But I guess if the applications are supported properly, one should be able to sync without connections and through the internet (GPRS). Although I must admit while it is great that my phone is connected to th
    • Agreed, the lack of integrated bluetooth is a huge deal-breaker in this. I'm a Sprint customer, and am DYING for a bluetooth phone that will work with iSync .
  • That should read:

    An anonymous reader writes "Alex King has just had his site reduced to smoking cinders. It had some nice photos and comparisons to the Treo 300, but now it's been totally destroyed."
  • I don't have one, but my friend switched to Sprint for a couple months to try one before he can get one that'll work for T-Mobile.

    He really likes most aspects of it. Reception's good and it's surprisingly small.

    What's really lame is that threre's no way to reach the contacts while on the phone without putting the other user on hold. It lets you get to the Palm desktop easily, but there's no contacts icon there!

    And when you finally do get to the contacts, it's in a silly view with all numbers for all na
    • On a Treo 300, you can simply switch to the Speakerphone and tap the small icon that looks like a list in the bottom-right hand corner of the screen, or press the phone button repeatedly until it shows the contact list. I don't know if this works on the 600, but you definitely don't need to put the person on hold - the speakerphone is high enough quality that it doesn't piss off the person you're talking to and even the Treo 300 can let you talk and use the palm capabilities at the same time.

      Secondly, I lo

    • Re:well... (Score:3, Informative)

      by rufo ( 126104 )
      Oh, one other thing... while the built in SMS capabilities aren't going to be activated for another month or so, if you log onto Sprint's Vision site, there should be an option for Short Mail, which is sort of the same thing. It's not mobile-originated like SMS usually is, but it is SMS, and cross-links with every other providers' SMS system like standard SMS does.
  • Wow the website has been slashdotted already. Come on, Alex, just because ApachePDA [apacheweek.com] can run on your new Treo 600, you shouldn't have thrown away your server just yet...
  • TreoCentral.com also has an excellent preview.revview of the Treo 600 here. [treocentral.com] TreoCentral claims to be the #1 community website for the Handspring Treo - they have reviews, news, a store and more.

    The thing that makes TreoCentral great though is their very active discussion board [treocentral.com].
  • http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3191892.stm

    I just finished reading that article when I saw this one and I had to laugh. Could not get to the Treo, nor do I have flash to see the artists sight. Oh well. Another co-incidence is that I finally managed to make k-pilot work through a serial cradle this morning. Hmmm, time to get up and do something real.

  • Treo 600 [speedera.net] (1193x1828, 748k)

  • Where do you put it? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by suwain_2 ( 260792 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @12:35PM (#7254340) Journal
    I currently have a 'brick' phone -- an older (though not ancient) block-shaped phone. I've been thinking of ditching it and buying something smaller, perhaps a clamshell phone with a color screen. Kyocera's 7135 [kyocera-wireless.com] seemed extremely appealing; it's got PalmOS and an MP3 player.

    As weird of a question as this may sound... Where would you put the Treo 600 when you're not using it? As I typically don't wear a suitcoat with an inside pocket, I usually find myself shoving the phone into a pants pocket, but this can be uncomfortable, and I sometimes fear what people might think of the enormous bulge in my pocket. Wearing the type of phone I have on your belt isn't really an option either, as it looks incredibly tacky. A nice clamshell flip-phone would fit nicely into my pocket, or I could wear it on a belt easily. But where on Earth do people carry their Treo 600s?
    • Take a look at this page from a Treocentral review [treocentral.com] of the 600. You'll notice that it is only slightly longer than the 300 and no wider or thicker. So if you could jam a Treo 300, or any Palm handheld for that matter, in your pocket without your bulge drawing unwanted attention you should be OK with the new Treo.

      I would recommend going to a CompUSA or Best Buy and seeing how it fit in your pocket, but with those overly-sensitive alarm cables you could really draw attention to yourself.
    • I suggest you go to a Sprint store and check out the form factor for yourself. They're getting seeded with them now, so call ahead first.

      Myself, I put my 600 in my pocket, and I feel it's acceptable. The case it comes with adds a little bulk, so I take it out of that if I'll be walking far. The phone has a keyguard function, so it's not a big deal to keep it in your pocket, as long as you don't put your keys in with it! You can also pick up PDA screen protecters (clear plastic) that you can cut to fit the
    • I have a 180, which is similarly bulky but not really a problem. I generally wear something like cargo pants, or the dockers with the "stealth" cargo pockets that zipper along the seam. Otherwise, I use the belt clip [handspring.com] and put the phone in my left front pocket. The clip is about as obtrusinve as a pager clip- not very. And it keeps it from sitting in the bottom of my pocket with my keys and loose change (which I worry about getting stuck into the slot for the connecting cable). They have something simila
    • Three words:

      Palm, small, flip.

      Everything on the market meets only two of those requirements. Kyocera 7135? Jesus, it's huge. Treo 600? Not a flip.

      ... until about two months ago, when the Samsung i500 [pcsvision.com] was launched (also on Sprint). I have mine and I looooove it. Can't play mp3's (yet), got no expansion slots, no Bluetooth, no speakerphone, no keyboard ...

      But I don't care, because it's got Palm (so I can load and run all my Palm apps, which do nearly everything possible), it's a flip phone so t

    • if you're using GSM, I suggest you to have SonyEricsson P800. It has everything, from Camera, MP3 player, Stereo headphone, bluetooth, GPRS, MMS, end even you can have PuTTY and Opera in it. I've had this phone since early 2003, and I really love it. Don't know for you guys who hate GSM.

  • I wrote up some notes on my experience with the Treo 600 - no photos, just lotsa text.

    They're available here (part I) [freemode.net] and here (part II) [freemode.net].

  • I can't imagine giving up the 320x320 color display on my Sony Clie for a 160x160 display, even if it was also a decent phone.

    On 320x320, a Sony makes a fantastic book reader, which is a lot of what I do with mine. Going back to 160x160 would be like gouging my eyes out at this point, I think.

    Of course, I suppose the idea is that you don't need too high a resolution when you're holding the screen up to your ear, right?

    • The way I figure it, eventually Sony *has* to start putting a phone into their Clie lines. I'm waiting until that, because a higher end Clie with a cell phone in it would be heaven.
      • Of course, given current Clie pricing, it'd cost about a thousand dollars with a phone. But you'd be able to sleep better at night knowing you've given an RIAA member and GPL violator your money.
  • Today is day four with my 600, after passing my 300 to a colleague. Before that, I had a series of Blackberries, Palms, and small mobile phones. The Treo replaced all of 'em.

    A few notes to add to Alex's review:

    While the 300 easily slipped into my pants pockets, the 600 makes it even less apparent that I'm happy to see you. I don't clip these to my belt, which is fortunate, as the soft case that ships with the 600 inexplicably excludes a belt clip. (BTW, the case closely resembles that for my 20G [apple.com]
    • The lack of a working SMS client is not a problem with the Treo 600 itslef. The problem is with the Sprint PCS Vision network, and this is merely the latest chapter in a long, sordid history of Sprint doing their damndest to prevent their customers from interoperating with the rest of the world.

      The GSM (TMobile, AT&T, Cingular) version of the Treo 600 will have working SMS out of the box, much as the GSM Treo 270 did.
    • Good points. I should have differentiated between Handspring and Sprint (together referred to as Handsprint?). My frustrations are certainly with Sprint's implementation of SMS, not the Treo's capabilities.

      Good catch with the web navigation. I've found that it can be difficult to get the 'focus' on the page, but once there, it's not too tough to navigate with the five-way.

      From the keyboard, it seems I only have two brightness settings. Pressing [ALT+P] toggles from full bright to dim.
  • My #1 grip with my 300 is that Blazer and consequently any other Treo browser is unable to accept JavaScript web pages. Has the 600 (or I guess Palm OS) fixed this? Please advise. Thanks! -Nick.
  • 1 bluetooth
    2 voice dialing
    3 320x320 resolution

    I know you can get 1 via SDIO, but I don't want to sacrifice the SD expansion slot (i.e. not more memory). 1+2 is important to get a cheap hands free application. Currently I have an SE t610 which works beautifully with bluetooth and voice dialing. Bluetooth is also nice for syncing with computers everywhere without buying extra cables (and is easier of course).

    I know bluetooth is viewed differently in the US, but in Europe it is taking off and you won't sell
    • You're probably looking for a Palm device, but I can recommend a Sony Ericsson P800 [sonyericsson.com].

      A touch thicker, a touch lighter

      screen is 208x320 (vertical format) and very bright

      Full bluetooth etc

      expandable memory (16MB to 128MB, Memory Stick Duo)

      plays MP3/Ogg and MP4 video (and comes with a stereo headset)

      Runs Symbian/UIQ (which I happen to prefer over PalmOS)

      Great for eBooks (probably my major use)

      No keyboard, but I could never use one that small, with my large fingers, and the Jot recognition works very we

    • 320x320 on a screen this small would be really tough to use.
  • I live in Finland and my cell phone had visible antenna about 3 years ago and I haven't missed it once since then. I'd have already bought one of these new PDA+cell phone combos if only one decent device came without external antenna. Internal antenna works just fine in much smaller devices so PDA sized device should work at least equally fine without huge antenna on top. So why the antenna? Do some people still think it cannot work if it doesn't have huge antenna? That antenna is a little too small to play
  • .. I'm going to upgrade as soon as they have a belt clip sort of case. I really hate the current leather type of cases they are offering.

    Even though it looks geeky, unless I have a good case that isn't that obtrusive, I'll wind up leaving it in my car/home/desk and not on my hip where I need it to be.

    For all your treo needs, remember to go to treocentral.com [treocentral.com]. Their msg boards are awesome.

  • http://www.treomb.com People say that the discussion board on the site is populated with professionals that work in the "industry". As far as what industry is, I'm not sure. Let's hope it's the Treo industry, because it wouldn't make much sense if it was the pornography industry (though that would be an interesting misnomer).
  • Is there a technical reason Smartphones don't have harddrives? The Trio seem great but I'd rather make a call from an iPod.
  • I've got 24hrs in singapore this weekend and I want to pick one up cheap. Can anyone recommend a shop, mall, or market I should go to inorder to get a good deal??

    Elivs

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