PCS Phone Palm Treo 650 (Sprint)

by Palm

Product Details

Product Manual [2.28mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0006FLA80
• Item model number: TREO 650
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,416 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The PalmOne Treo 650 boasts all the legendary features of the venerable Treo 600, plus a whole lot more. Now with Bluetooth, a higher resolution screen, a removable battery, and an improved keyboard, the Treo 650 is once again on the cutting edge of Smartphone technology. It offers all the functionality of a high-end Palm OS-powered PDA, a cell phone and a VGA camera. Simply put, it's the ultimate mobile office companion.

Design

Click the image to get a closer look at the Treo 650's features.

Under the hood, the Treo 650 features Palm OS 5.4, 32MB of RAM (23MB available for end user storage), and an Intel PXA270 312 MHz processor. The design retains the same popular form factor as the Treo 600 with a few subtle, yet significant, changes. The unit's screen has been dramatically enhanced to support 320 x 320 resolution and the full QWERTY keypad has been redesigned for greater ease of use. The top of the unit features an expansion card slot for SD and MMC-based memory and expansion cards. There's also an infrared port here for line of sight data transfers, as well as a handy switch for turning off the phone's ringer. A five-way navigator controls most of the phone's menus and operating system functions, while quick application buttons on either side of the navigator get you to your favorite applications in a snap. The left side of the unit features a volume up/down toggle plus a handy user-customizable button that can be assigned to any phone or PDA function. The rear of the Treo 650 houses a loudspeaker, as well as the VGA (640x480) camera unit. A touchscreen stylus can be tucked away on the right side of the phone. Meanwhile, a combined charging, data, and accessory attachment port is housed on the bottom of the unit, as is a standard 2.5 mm stereo headset jack.

Calling and PDA Features
All the of the Treo 650's phone and PDA functions are designed to provide an integrated, seamless experience. For instance, you can type in the name or initials of a contact on the keypad to dial them. Or, use the touchscreen and stylus to copy information from an email and quickly paste it into another email or text message. All of the latest phone features folks expect are built-in, too, like a handsfree speakerphone, polyphonic ringtones, a vibrate mode and picture caller ID. The capacity of the unit's address book is only limited by the amount of internal and expansion memory available. Use the Treo 650's Bluetooth capability to wirelessly sync your contacts with your PC or Mac (yes, Mac!). Headsets, car kits and other wireless peripherals can also be paired with the unit via Bluetooth.

The Treo 650 is also a fully functional Palm OS device. That means that a huge library of applications, from spreadsheets to word processors to games, can be added to the Treo 650. It's easy to perform multiple tasks like checking your calendar while talking on the phone or dialing calls directly from your contacts list. Familiar Palm OS software ships with the handset including calendar, calculator, clock, contacts, memo, and task management applications. Real Player for video and MP3 playback, VersaMail email client, and DataViz Documents to Go for mobile access to spreadsheets and text documents, are also included.

The unit's memory expansion slot allows you to transfer music, photos, and video from your desktop. Or, use it to load additional games and applications.

Click the image to see the Treo 650 in action.

Messaging and Internet
The device fully supports SMS and MMS messaging for rapid exchange of pictures, text and video via Sprint's instant messaging system. Other Sprint PCS Vision services are also supported, such as mobile email, web browsing and instant messaging. Sprint's PCS Business Connection service, which is fully compatible with the Treo 650, gives you secure, remote, real-time access to Microsoft Outlook Exchange-- including email messages and attachments, calendar, business directory and personal contacts. You can also respond to meeting requests, access documents stored on your desktop PC, and view email from POP3 and IMAP4-based email accounts, including Sprint PCS Mail, Yahoo!, Earthlink and more.

Imaging and Entertainment
The Treo 650's built-in camera features a 2x zoom, a flash and a self portrait mirror. While the camera is great for taking stills, it can also function as a camcorder, allowing you to capture MPEG4 video to the unit's memory. The device ships with two games, Zap! 2016 and Handmark Solitaire, and many more Palm-based games are available. As mentioned, the device ships with Real Player, so you can use your Treo 650 as a portable MP3 and video player. Keep your tunes loaded on a memory card and you're ready to go with stereo sound wherever you roam.

Vital Statistics
The PalmOne Treo 650 weighs 6.30 ounces and measures 4.40 x 2.30 x .90 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5 hours of digital talk time, and up to 300 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the CDMA 800/CDMA 1900 frequencies. The phone comes with a one year limited warranty.

What's in the Box
Treo 650 handset, lithium-ion battery, USB HotSync cable, headset, AC charger, user manual, software CD-ROM.

Product Description

The Treo™ 650 smartphone from palmOne makes it easier than ever to stay connected. It simplifies your life by combining a compact mobile phone with email,3 an organizer, messaging, and web access.3 There’s also Bluetooth® technology so you can connect wirelessly to other Bluetooth devices. Not to mention an MP3 player,2 a digital camera that captures video, and a vibrant color screen that brings everything to life – all in a device that’s still small enough to fit in your pocket. Seems like Treo smartphones just keep getting smarter. The Treo 650 smartphone looks and feels just like a phone, but it’s so much more. Carry thousands of business and personal phone numbers with you, and dial any of them by name from your contacts list. Or enter a name or number on the QWERTY keyboard. There’s even an on-screen dial pad. speakerphone, speed dial, conference calling, call history, and caller ID make managing all your calls that much easier. Available as a dual-band digital CDMA phone, and as a GSM quad-band world phone.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is it a camera? Browser? Cell? Mp3 player? Oh yeah baby!, June 20, 2005

By 

K. D. Crapsey "justkimberly" (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PCS Phone Palm Treo 650 (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

I would be encouraged to give this 5 stars, but the high price and lack of certain features takes it to a 4. (Really 4.5, but you can't award 4.5.)

What I like the most:

The integration of wireless web, text paging, email, games, camera, and various other software is superb.

The camera takes pretty impressive photos for a phone, and the lighting is wonderful.

The resolution on the Web is absolutely wonderful! It's like having a small laptop. I can pull up the GA navigator site and see traffic in real time, get very detailed maps, it is far better than I would expect.

Built in MP3 player, built in video player, ease of use of SD card, sensitivity of the touch screen, ease of navigation with the shuttle button, it all makes this phone a wonder.

There really is so much more that I love, but you don't want to read a book. :-)

What I don't like:

No built in voice dialing! To me, for a 600$ phone, that is absolutely unacceptable, and was almost a deal breaker. I had been accustomed to having built in dialing on all of my previous Sprint PCS phones. The Voicedial program does work after the trial period by direct number calling, which is some salvation, but I still think having to pay an extra 25$ for the software is rediculous.

The video camera is awesome, except that it seems to cut off and stop recording, without telling you, after 60-90 seconds. I may have over looked that in the book, or perhaps because I was trying to record to my SD card, but as a result, i missed out recording an important event. (The phone appeared to be recording, but when you stopped, it didn't save.)

The accompanying ear piece is crap. Why did they even bother. And no stereo headset adapter? Come on, it is a 6$ purchase, should have been thrown in.

The speaker phone is an embarrassement, unless you want to only listen. Even with the 1.08 upgrade, the sound is hollow, it is not full-duplex, and if you don't talk into it after some time, it stops responding.

No bluetooth 2 support???!

The reset button behind the battery compartment. What user experience group did they get for this? Of course, I guess they just assumed that nobody would ever have to reset it. ;-) But seriously, that is insane. I am on my second skin case now because they get stretched out when you have to keep taking them off to reset. (Which I only have to do maybe once every 2 weeks.)

The bottom line, if you have the money to spare, this is a dynamite phone. Even with the things that I don't like, I would buy this phone again. I know it gets some bad marks because of resets and such. But, I think the majority of that is from newbie users who don't read about it. I frequent two forums often and have been sure to read about problems with software and such. I believe that most of the problems people experience are due to installing many programs that are not compatible. Even Winblows will crash on you in those scenarios.

If you need a one-for-all device, this is for you. It sure beats carrying a cell phone, pda, mp3 player, and digital camera. One more thing, Sprint, if you are listening, increase your text paging allocation! My pages always cut off due to character limitations.

66 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sadly, I'm leaving Palm, April 20, 2006

By 

G. Crain (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PCS Phone Palm Treo 650 (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

I have had this phone almost 6 weeks (40 days). At 3 weeks the middle row of keys stopped working (a, s, d, f, and g, etc). I was told to call Palm in India, which I did, and they told me the keys were not covered under warranty.

I truly wish I were making this up, because I have really loved Palm. This is my fourth Palm device, though it will likely be my last. I run a small real estate company which works with wireless telecom providers throughout the nation. My hope for this device was that I could stop carrying three devices (my cell phone, my Palm T3 and my laptop). And then, that all my guys could stop carrying all these devices around.

Of course, when I took the phone to Sprint, they said it was Palm's responsibility to repair. When I raised a stink with them they just looked at me with blank eyes, as they always do. Sprint seems like they are in the business of trying to run customers off.

I called India back and raised enough of a stink, that they said they would give me - this one time - a "free return and repair," meaning I would be without my phone for 5-10 business days. They also gave me the option of paying them an additional $25 to get a refurbished replacement, complete with a 90-day warranty (which I now know means nothing). These people honestly acted like they were doing me the biggest favor by offering me this repair.

I was then effectively called a liar by Palm / India when I had to re-emphasize that the keys just don't work, and that I needed something immediately. I don't understand how I can be made to feel like a criminal when I deal with these people, or how I can be made to feel like they're doing me a favor by standing behind their product. I am the customer! Doesn't that mean anything anymore?

I am also not sure I understand how customer service in general has become so bad (though Amazon's remains very, very good). When a person spends $400 on a phone, or any device, it should work longer than a few weeks. But when it does stop working, the company that sold it should stand behind their product, instead of looking for ways to squirrel out of their responsibility. Subsequent to this occurrence, other friends / colleagues have told me how they had problems with their Treo 650s, as well.

There are other issues with this phone. Out of the box, the power/sync cord did not work. I returned that to Sprint and got a tremendous hassle in trying to get it replaced. (I ended up buying a Seidio charger/cradle, which works fine.) The sound is pretty bad - I am constantly having to adjust the volume. Every so often, the phone just resets itself - can't figure this one out at all. Also, when someone calls in on Call-Waiting, you cannot disconnect your active call without disconnecting the incoming call; in other words, when you accept the Call-Waiting call, it automatically means two calls will run simultaneously, even when the first party hangs up. This plays heck on your monthly minutes.

Also, there are limited, non-intuitive ways you have to power on the phone. And don't get this phone for its camera: cell phone cameras are only good for placing pictures on that cell phone.

Otherwise, all the Palm applications work as they should, and as they have for the past number of years. Expect nothing new and different from the Palm OS part of the Treo.

All in all, I am firm in my opinion that I will never own another Palm device. My company will stop using Palm, and we are going to slowly migrate away from Sprint (when contracts start to expire).

My apologies for the rant, but it simply seems that these companies have become much bigger than their customers. Excuse me if I just let them move on without me.

Are there any companies out there that provide good customer service anymore? I know mine tries to; otherwise, we're out of business.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Upgraded from Sony Clie NX70, December 9, 2004

By 

Harold T. Boblitt (Louisville, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PCS Phone Palm Treo 650 (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

****************
TWO WEEK UPDATE
****************
The info below under 'Original Review' is just that.....the original review......this is a two (to three) week update after having the phone and integrating it into my life.

The camera is workable at best. Both the still and video cameras should be upgraded in the next update and could have been upgraded in the move from 600 to 650. Still functional though.

The mpeg viewer works great. I downloaded a little mpeg clip through the palm install tool and it played perfectly with relatively good clarity. This is a nice feature.......

The phone itself works fine with no problems and the programmable buttons have worked well since I set them all up. I had a Treo 300 a couple years back and this phone works functionally better.......

Versamail continues to be my favorite software installed. I have used it daily and have both mine and my wife's bellsouth.net accounts set up and functioning well. Haven't really noticed any major glitches in it.

I have downloaded a couple games over the web into the memory of the palm apps and that worked really well. In addition, I've installed a couple from the desktop with the same results. Functionally, it's a pretty smooth process that is working well.....

I really like the buttons and thumbpad and have progressed to where I can do most if not all the functions of the phone without having to pull out the stylus. At first, I thought I'd miss the Graffitti functionality of my Sony Clie NX70 but I do not.

The keyboard works well except for my large clumsy fingers and they're starting to figure it out pretty well. Only thing I've noticed on that is when sending messages with Versamail, there doesn't seem to be any great rules for when it auto capitalizes words. That's pretty nit-picky though.........

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If Palmone can figure out how to put 5-10GB of memory onboard for MP3's and MPEGS, they will have a killer piece of hardware here........
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