Customer Reviews

Palm Treo 680 Unlocked PDA Smartphone with MP3/Video Player, SD/MMC--U.S. Version with Warranty (Silver)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Edit: Bought an iPhone as soon as it was released. Just tossed the Treo... no comparison!

Purchased from Palm directly online.

I decided to upgrade from the Cingular Treo 650 to the unlocked 680. I read many reviews that said there just wasn't enough of a difference. I found that the extra user memory was indeed worth it for me. The much maligned VGA camera is also much better on the 680 than the 650. I couldn't believe the clarity of the pictures for a camera phone. It's not going to replace my Canon SD80, but for a camera phone it does the job. The colorful plastic case also feels much sturdier than the scratched up shiny case of 650.

I also must say that I had a problem with the responsiveness of the buttons on my six month old Treo 650 so I was encouraged to upgrade to something else. This was the only GSM Palm OS available. I just have too much invested in the Palm OS to switch to Windows. I have been a Palm user for years (Palm III, Palm IIIc, Handspring Visor, Tungsten T3, T|X, Treo 650, Treo 680). I was also able to take advantage of a "turn in your 650 for a discount" promotion, which sweetened the deal even more. I know that it is a dying OS and eventually I will have to switch, but as a Mac user, why would I want Windows on my PDA if I don't want it on my PC. The Palm OS has more software available than any other PDA/smartphone OS.

Overall I am ecstatic with the purchase.

The functions of this device are pretty much what you'd expect from Palm: there have been a few minor improvements and changes from the Treo 650 but nothing that really makes a difference. So why buy this model and not a 650? Two reasons were enough for me: more memory, and size/form-factor. Sure enough, this model has loads of memory: 69 Megs of usable internal memory, and apparently it now takes 4 GB SD cards whereas previously only 2 GB was supported. Form factor isn't much of an improvement: you do lose the chunky antenna at the top, but the thickness of this unit is not noticeably less than the 650. The specs claim it is 0.1 inch thinner, I don't believe it. If you put the two phones next to each other the difference might be a sheet of paper at best.

Unfortunately, the battery life of the new model stinks. The battery is compatible with the old 650 battery but is much thinner. It's rated at 1200mAh, but in practice it barely lasts a day of normal usage. I keep Bluetooth turned off, my backlight turned down to 20%, beam receive turned off, and I have my email checked just once an hour, and I still frequently find that if I leave it charging overnight, then by late the following evening after maybe 15 hours of use I am down in the red zone with 15% or less battery remaining. In comparison, my 650's standard production battery lasts for days (4 or more) with exactly the same usage.

Hopefully there will soon be a high capacity battery that fits this phone, or a third party battery cover which will fit over a fatter battery so we can reuse the batteries from the Treo 650. (These batteries do fit in the battery compartment, but they're too fat to put the cover over.) Until then this phone just isn't ready for prime time.

This phone is a great phone. You don't have to spend more bucks to buy Treo 750, unless you want to run Microsoft Operating System instead of Palm Os Operational System.
To solve the battery problem just go to www.palm.com, find support and download the last version of the phone software, which is Treo 680-1.12-ROW. With this software upgrade you won`t have anymore battery problems.

When I decided to buy a smartphone I seriously considered buying the Treo 650 since many reviews here pointed at a poor battery life for the Treo 680, and an apparent lack of improvements over the previous model. Most reviews were written before the camera patch came out which solved the battery drain problem, so, here's a review from a longtime Palm user who got his first Treo. The Palm website includes a page where you can check if your device needs to have the camera patch installed (you need the Treo's serial number).

This is a great combination of a high tech phone and a Palm PDA. It has all the functions I was used to on my previous Palm-powered devices. I have owned a Palm Vx, a Clie PEG-615T, and a CLIE-PEG TJ25, and lately a Palm Tungsten E2. The only thing I really miss is the grafitti (handwritten) function. The keyboard is a little cramped for my taste, but I assume I will become used to it. Apart from that, I just love this phone. The battery life is adequate, since I used to charge my handheld daily, charging the Treo's battery daily is no big deal for me. The device's stability is also great. So far I have not had any trouble with the Treo blacking out or restarting on its own. This device is great for people on the go, and I still believe it is far superior to any blackberry device and Iphone, since a Palm-powered device is a handheld computer and not only a fancy cell phone. The Treo 680 is easy to use and very intuitive. I comes packed with useful applications, and there thousands of applications you can buy and install customizing the phone to your personal needs. The documents to go application is great to take with you spreadsheets, powerpoint presentations, and word documents. The pocket tunes software is great for listening to your favorite music (with a SD card, not included), and the amount of RAM (64MB) is just great for taking all the applications and games that you need on the go. The only thing I wish it had is wi-fi capabilities, which it doesn't. It is great to finally take along only one device instead of two (PDA and phone)!!!

I have gone through several smartphones in the past 4 months (Including, Cingular HTC 8125, and Nokia E62) and can safely say that this is the best phone I have owned. The Palm operating system is much easier to use than the Windows operating system ( albeit, less powerful) and much more customizable and synchronization-friendly than the Symbian OS. Its great for easy installation of software.

Pros:
- Very customizable interface, making the phone very user friendly. You can set any application or any number to dial as a preset button.
- Palm OS is easy to use, and thus, you actually get to take advantage of the many features of the phone, unlike Windows Mobile, which is definantly more powerful than Palm OS, but cumbersome and difficult to use at times.
- You can use this as a one handed phone...very important for people like me who like to drive and text/email.
- Perfect size, weight and feel of the phone in your hand and on your ear.
The lack of the antennae stub on this model is a huge aesthetic improvement.
- Easy synchronization with your Outlook mailbox or with the Palm Desktop
- Can set the phone to automatically retrieve your emails and alert you, which is very useful (although limits battery life)


Cons:
- Battery life is somewhat worse than other phones. I have to charge my phone every night, and I probably use about 15 minutes of internet, 30 minutes of mp3 player, autoretrieve email every 30 min, and 2 hour talk time as well as some other Palm functions. If you have it set on auto-retrieve for your email, the battery life seems to decrease impressively. The newer manufactured 680s have a fix installed for this problem apparently.
- You cant plug in your own headsets into the device ( like your iPod headphones) you have to use a specific headphone that fits and you can get it from Palm. I hate that.



I suggest buying this phone unlocked from Palm, instead of from Cingular. I got it for 350$ with a 1G SD card and stereo headphones included. Also, if you get it from Cingular, they always ruin the look of the phone by plastering their logo all over both sides of the phone.

OVERALL: extremely satisfied with this easy to use, highly customizable, powerful smartphone, despite a somewhat shorter battery life.

When I first got my phone, I was quite excited. It had more memory than my current Treo 650 however only after one day I noticed the battery life was draining much faster than I had anticipated. From my research, I discovered a few things that needed to be done before I extend my battery life to more than 10 hours.
1)I had to apply a camera patch since my phone was manufactured prior to Jan 18th. This patch can be found on Palm support site.

2) I needed to completely drain my battery until there was nothing then charge it for 24 hours.

Once I did these two things, my phone has lasted for a few days without a charge, and I've set my versamail to retrieve messages when they arrive. This is a big plus for me going from getting emails every hour to getting them when they arrive.

I've had no problems with any of my SD cards or mini-SD cards. The increase internal memory also helps since I use my TomTom navigation with my Treo. I've heard the various complaints, but you have to work through some of them. it is a great phone.

The form and function of the 680 are a marked improvement over the 600. Unfortunately, the battery life is beyond sucky. Palm's claim of 300 hours standby time is laughable. My battery drops 10% every three hours with the phone on, no calls, no screen use, and no 3rd party apps running in the background.

I can't recommend this smartphone for anyone until Palm resolves the battery life issue.

Upgrading from the Treo 650, it is true that there isn't much new. Also issues such as the horrible battery duration and non-megapixel camera leave one frustrated. But the fact remains that the Treo 680 is one of the best smartphones on the market, particularly if you want good PDA functionality or are a PalmOS devotee.

So I accept the current Palm reality and adapt by buying 2 additional batteries. Not elegant, but it works. That doesn't mean that I won't tell Palm "Guys get your act together and come out with something far better!"

I 'upgraded' to this phone recently from a Treo 650 that had speaker and audio problems (don't all Treo 650's suffer from that within a year's usage?) and was already replaced once with a refurbished one that developed same problems. I loved my Treo 650 anyway so I expected something equivalent to the 650 but what I got was a 'smartphone' with quite a stupid battery life. I have decided that there is definitely some glitch in design (some online geeks suggest it might actually be the SIM card) that is causing power to run right out of the phone, in a sharp decline, even when its not in use and all possible extraneous functions are disabled. Add to this the fact that Palm's website's online user group is not active right now (so no users can visibly discuss this among themselves),and you don't have to think too long to conclude that Palm knew this either beforehand or pretty quickly afterward, when they recently dumped this cheaper "smartphone" on the market recently. Palm, all I can say is pretty "stupid" and wonder if this was your last hurrah before exiting the "smartphone" market?

I've used the Palm OS going on 10 years now. When my Treo 270 died, I bought a used 270 on Ebay. Eventually that one died too and I bought an unlocked 650 on Amazon.

I called Palm "tech support" on issues I had with it (dial up networking didn't work on internal browser with T-Mobile). Forgive me for saying it, but the guy at Palm support was as dumb as dumb can be. I got someone overseas who told me one inaccurate thing after another (he insisted that my Treo 270 never allowed dial up networking with the internal browser -even though I told him first hand that I used it all the time- did he think I was lying to him?). He knew nothing about the phone and kept deferring to a supervisor, constantly keeping me on hold and it was just a huge waste of time. After a few calls like this with no resolution I gave up and decided to return the 650.

I then tried the T-Mobile MDA. I was uneasy of the idea of switching to Windows PocketPC but decided to give it a try. For me it was a huge mistake- Pocket PC is a joke and completely unintuitive. They expect you to study how to use their OS in order to make use of its clumsy interface. Friends tell me they sell 3rd party applications that make it easier to use, but c'mon- when you buy a phone you expect it to work right from the beginning- I don't want to have to spend time learning and installing additional software for it to work properly.

Finally, I give up on Pocket PC (sold it on Ebay) and give Palm another try when I see the 680 come out. The dialup networking issue is no longer a problem on the 680 (as compared to the 650) and I buy it unlocked directly from Palm. Overall, it's a decent phone and I just feel way more comfortable with Palm OS over Pocket PC. Palm customer support is still useless and, as others have mentioned, the lack of a standard Mini-USB connector is simply inexcusable. Still, I'm much happier with Palm-OS over Pocket PC.

As I use it, I see that the battery doesn't seem to last very long (just over 2 hours of talktime at the most). I hesitantly call Palm support and get some flunkie again- I decide to cut my losses and stop wasting my time with their "support". I'm just going to buy a second battery and second charger to keep the phone charged. I hate the idea of making such a compromise, but for me it's the lesser of two evils. The fact that Palm would release a phone with such terrible battery life is indicative of their customer mindset. They just don't care. As clunky as my Windows MDA was, its battery life was at least 3 to 4 times what the Treo gives me (even though the MDA has a much bigger screen).

IMHO the Smartphone market is still going through growing pains- The original Handspring Treo was designed by good people, when Palm bought them out they cashed in on the Treo product line but the customer oriented mentality of Handspring went right out the window -along with any intelligent design evolution of the Treo. Most of the better designed smartphones on the market (Samsung, Motorola, HTC Wizard) are all made for Pocket PC because Microsoft has used it's clout to take over the market. I just wish other manufacturers offered Palm-OS based smartphones again- this way you'd get the intuitive interface of Palm, without having to be limited to Palm's poorly designed hardware.

....maybe it's time I finally give the Blackberry a try.... :)