Palm Treo 650

I upgraded to the Treo 650 from the LG VX6000 camera phone and I absolutely love the Treo. I wanted a good quality phone and a Palm Pilot and I got both in one product. I opted for the 650 instead of the 700 because of price and the Palm OS rather than Windows. Not much of a Windows fan :(

Pros: the Treo Palm functions are all the same as a normal PDA. The phone functions include an easy-to-use contact list, large on-screen numbers for dialing, speed dials, and call logs for everything. The camera is good quality and the built-in memory holds more than enough pics. I expanded the memory when I put in an external 2GB SD card for mp3's and more pictures. Although I was hesitant to buy the phone because of the small buttons, I have found them quite easy to use since they are arranged liek a normal keyboard. I was pretty good at typing text messages using Smart Text but I have quickly adapted to using the keyboard on the phone.

Cons: Obviously the size is a little heftier than your normal flip phone or Razor but not as annoying as I thought it would be. I use a bluetooth headset so I almost never put the phone up to my ear. The screen is very big for a phone so you need to make sure you put on a screen protector. The SD card is spring loaded so it pops out in my pocket sometimes. You don't really want to lose a 2GB SD card so be careful :(

Overall, any cons are minor compared to the advantages that this sleek phone/PDA offers. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in investing a little in an upgrad.

I love my TREO 650, BUT...

The SD card slot lock-in mechanism is spring loaded and when subjected to a jolt, can eject your memory card!

This has happened to me 3 times. Twice I did not notice the ejection and lost 1GB cards! OUCH! That hurts the wallet. Now, I have a funky, grey duct tape fix in place that also covers the IR port, eliminating that functionality for me. Not a great deal, but better than having yet another card loss!

There should be a design fix for this, such as a lock that slides over the top of the card from the right of the slot.

I have also had problems with spontaneous reboots of the phone, but that's another story.

If you are seriously considering an all-in-one, this is the way to go.
At first glance the keys seem very small and difficult to type with. If I was doing all of my texting or e-mailing from the phone it would be, however, it doesn't pose that big of a problem even with chubby fingers. It is very lightweight for an all-in-one and doesn't bother me even on 40 minute conversations. The central nav bar is better than previous cell phones I've had and the stylus puts to rest any frustration for surfing the net with a nav bar alone. I haven't tried a bluetooth wireless yet but birthday and Christmas are coming. I keep it charged during the day and have purchased a seperate charger for the car. (I travel every other week) I would say I am a moderate to heavy phone user and it will easily go two whole days before having to charge. The large diplay beats the pants off any cell phone and the built in camera is ok for fun use. When taking a picture the subject needs to be well lit although the contrast adjusts on its own. The cam corder feature makes jumpy footage but it's still fine for fun use. If you want nice digital pictures, go buy a nice digital camera. This is my first all-in-one and I saved my money to get it. I don't regret the purchase and would welcome any questions for those serious about a similar purchase. I paid $200+ with Sprint PCS (the only way to go) One more thing, Sprint offers MobiTV (streaming TV on your phone) very cool $10 a month! Awesome
Tyler

The Treo 650 is a great converged PDA + Cell Phone + MP3 player solution! Not only is the Treo 650 an excellent PDA, it has features that make it a much better solution than a Blackberry and a much better value than most PDAs running Windows Mobile Edition.

The Treo 650 by Palm, uses the Palm OS V5.x. One of the best things about using any Palm OS device is the wealth of software options/solutions that are available.

My Treo is loaded with a number of applications that make the most of its converged feature set and Internet connectivity. I use Agendus for contact management and Agendus Mail for email/SMS messaging. Using these on the Treo allows me to send/receive email to/from any of my contacts with a couple of touches. I can even get a weather report for my client/vendor locations, giving my conversations with them a more personal touch. Using VeriChat, I can chat with my contacts and family using MSN, Yahoo or AIM! With Pocket Tunes I can stream live music from the web and with AvantGo I always have the latest news and information at my fingertips.

In addition to Bluetooth, one of the nicest features of the Treo 650 is the ability to turn off the sound (ring tones, etc.) by simply sliding a switch on the top of the unit. This avoids fumbling with button combinations as you are going into a meeting or just before the movie starts! Up/down volume buttons on the side of the Treo make it easy to adjust the volume on the run.

The thumb keyboard is better than the one found on the Treo 600 and although it's not going to win you any typing contests, is perfectly adequate for entering contact info/phone numbers on the fly or entering search strings to lookup previously stored information. Most people will want enter new information using either the Palm Desktop software or Outlook and then synchronize it to their Treo.

The Treo 650 comes with an SD Memory card slot, typical of recent Palm models. Equipped with a 256M or larger SD card, the Treo can store a complete backup, hundreds of music files and offload programs from main memory to improve performance. The camera of the 650 takes both still pictures and movies with sound!

The decision to buy a Treo 650 or one the newer 700 series models shouldn’t be too difficult. The only significant differences between the 650 and 700 is the 700 supports the faster EV-DO wireless data standard and has a slightly refined keyboard. The 700 is also available in a Windows Mobile version.

Cost is currently (3rd Qtr, 2006) the major advantage the Treo 650 has over other converged devices, including the Treo 700p/w. Some providers, like Cingular are offering Treo 650s for as little as $199 with a one year contract. Compare this to $499 for a 700 with a two year contract from Cingular or Verizon and the value of the 650 becomes apparent. The 700 series faster performance and the potential of WiFi support, does not justify the additional cost. Add $100 worth of 3rd party applications, like Agendus, VeriChat, PocketTunes, Mapopolis to the Treo 650 and you have a solution that will handle virtually all your communication needs!

Note: Although the Treo 650 is not offered by T-Mobile, an unlocked Cingular or Generic Treo GSM model will work fine on the T-Mobile voice & data network!

As a Business and Technology Pro with over 15 years of experience, I give the Treo 650 Five (5) Stars! It is the most cost effective and value packed converged device available!