The new Treo 600 from Handspring (soon to be Palm), shown to the right, looks like it might be one kick-butt mobile device.
In a nutshell, it is a Palm OS-based mobile phone, and Handspring expects to ship both GSM and CDMA versions of it. The 600 will feature 3G data connections (GPRS and 1xRTT, respectively), 160x160 color display, digital camera, SDIO expansion slot, huge 1800 mAh battery, and a full QWERTY thumb-board keypad.
There are both lovers and haters of thumb-boards, but I'm definitely in the "love it" camp. After using a Treo 180 and a Treo 270 for about 4 months each, I really miss the thumb-board on my current phone, the Kyocera 7135.
Notably absent from the Treo 600 is Bluetooth. Given the size of the device, this is more likely explained as an engineering trade-off than a marketing/product development decision. Naysayers will also point out that the display is "only" 160x160. While this is less than both the Microsoft Smartphone standard resolution (176 x 220) and much less than the forthcoming high-res Samsung SGH-i500 (320x320), it is likely much better than most mobile phone users are used to and it will do less damage to precious battery life.
Overall, it sounds like it could be an incredibly compelling device. Handspring's Treo 600 "sneak peek" preview page, complete with Jeff Hawkins infomercial, is now available here. Other reviews and articles on the Treo 600 can be found at Brighthand, Wired, InfoSync, and Palm Infocenter.
A 320x320 screen would be great, but I'd rather have the integration more. I like the ability to look up an address in ContactsPro and then dial it right there.
I would have picked up a Treo 300, but the lack of an expansion slot meant no backup to go.
This looks to be my next phone AND palm!
K
I hope those keys in the keyboard 'click' when typing.
K
I believe the keys will have a nice tactile response. If Handspring is good at anything, it's designing a good UI and overall user experience from an industrial design POV.
just got mine today, taking a bit of time to get around it all....one thing i did notice was the ringtone volume doesn't go high enough:(... will let you know how i get on:)
got mine last week. pretty good, but the casing seems fragile (i placed mine on a table (and gently, yes), next thing i see are two dent spots. barely noticeable, but who knows what could happen if i dropped it 3 feet?
next comment: isnt as much text-user friendly like nokia. i appreciate the "chat" mode session where you read your texts like chat entries than single entries (pretty cool to look at), but i dont know just exactly how to forward messages i receive. doesnt say in the manual at all.
group messaging, a convenient thing in most new nokia phones, is just absent in the treo.
interface is quite like any machine with a palm os, so.
the casing that comes with the treo looks cheap, and pretty tight to a fault (after probably two months of pushing into and pulling out of that casing, id most probably see scratches and runs on the sides of the phone).
id doesnt come with a built in mp3 player.
no bluetooth, but thats fine.
signal is pretty good, and the speaker volume is also good. okay, excellent.
the camera is a lamer and doesnt come the least bit closer to any nokia camera phone.
overall, interesting phone. but not worth it. saw my friend's sony p900, almost the same price but legions ahead. i hope i got that one.
Having just gotten mine a few days ago as well, here are my quick reactions:
- Doesn't seem fragile to me at all. It may not be as tank-like as my Kyocera 7135 has been, but it's also a fair bit smaller. The Treo 600 passes the twist test with aplomb.
- Messaging is fair and about what an American would expect. If you want really good instant messaging, get the Verichat application -- it totally rocks on the Treo 600 with GPRS.
- Interface is somewhat like Palm OS, but it's pretty hard to see the operating system beneath all the interface that Handspring has designed into the phone. Since Handspring does great things with usability, that's a plus.
- The case that comes with it is cheap, yes, but then most people will want to opt for the belt clip or just stick the naked phone in their pocket anyway.
- No onboard MP3 player, but there are several good 3rd party apps to choose from (Pocket Tunes is my favorite so far).
- No Bluetooth, but who cares? The phone has everything built in.
- Reception is awesome so far.
- Camera is mediocre. Decent for outdoor shots and poor in low light. Typical phone cam fare.
- Overall, excellent smart phone and well worth it. Everyone who sees it drools over it and I run with a crowd that's pretty tough to impress tech-wise.