Customer Reviews

PCS Phone Palm Treo 650 (Sprint)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

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.

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.

****************
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.........

[...]

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........
[...]

What can I say. This is the gadget that I've been wanting to get for years !!!!!

Just look at all the things I have on my belt now and can use at a moments notice. Some of these functions are not available even on my Windows XP (media center edition) desktop PC or my laptop XP.

1. Compact, roughly the size of my old calculator, fits in wide choice of belt carrying cases
2. Digital camera, shares same SD card with my Kodak and my new PC
3. Camcorder too
4. MP3 player
5. eReader to read books, comes on CD with 2 books
6. Edit native word, excel, powerpoint documents; Also there is a PDF reader on the CD too !
7. Unlimited storage using the SD card slot, specially with the 1GB cards going on sale now. Kind of like floppy disks used to be; 10 times smaller and 1000 times more capacity than the old floppies.

8. Organizer (Calendar, Contacts, Memo, Tasks)
9. Handy calculator, world clock
10. Games came on cd: Solitaire, Zap 2016
11. Beam: when my friend has an interesting article to share with me, we can put the 2 units on the desk and beam the documents by IR transfer

12. Cellphone with picture caller ID, speakerphone, and bluetooth headphone capability; Can also connect to computer by bluetooth for printing (although I've not tried that yet)

13. Wireless modem: when I'm traveling, I can stop at a rest area, and dial up AOL from my laptop using TREO for phone connection
14. Quick Instant messaging with keyboard, so I don't have to learn how to type on phone keypad

15. Real web access, personal email, and corporate email
16. Daily selected content updates: With Avantgo installed, it gives me quick news, stock quotes, whenever I sync with my PC
17. I'm buying pocket-DVD studio software (which I've not installed yet), I can put a movie on my SD card and watch it on the bus/train ride, waiting at the airport, or long trips. Becomes a portable DVD player for me.
18. Tap into the vast amount of software for Palm

I've had it for a week, and I'm thrilled to have all of these things packed into my one unit.

Unlike some of other reviewers, I haven't run into any problems. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Here's some tips to avoid reboot problems:

1. Get a 500MB card (they are $25-$30 now) and a USB/SD reader, if needed (as low as $9.99), and load as much as possible on it, keeping the internal memory mostly free for running applications.

2. Do not sync up any data files (like word documents, pdf files etc). This will take too long for sync and it may hang. It did for me. Instead simply copy the documents to the \Documents directory on the SD card. They will show up when you open the Documents application.

Hope this was helpful. Enjoy !

I am not too picky when it comes to a PDA phone, if I can keep my outlook calendar, appointment, and call the contact store on it, I'm happy! But I do wish the Treo 600 can be better!

I had the Treo 600 for almost 1 year and upgraded to Treo 650 as soon as PalmOne asked me to that's because Parts of my prayer has been answered: A better screen resolution; touch screen is more sensitive than the 600, I use my finger instead of the stylus now; camera is a lot clearer and the zoom works great; removable battery is really handy to use that fully charged spare one any time; my favorite bluetooth is built-in. And that little keyboard lites up in bright blue and white is very easy to read. Thanks to the faster processor, the program loads a lot faster.

However, I am still looking for the built-in WiFi, and the bluetooth does not take voice command; reboot is not as easy as Treo 600. I do not notice the boot up being slow because I rarely have to. However, I did notice that it takes up more internal memory and thus make the available ram less than 10MB the first time I turned it on. (Palm is doing a flash upgrade to fix this, so I heard.) With an SD card, I put a bunch of application on it to get around this until it get fixed. And I was able to have about 18MB available internally.

I like this new Treo 650, as to all my handheld gadgets, I bought a fitted case to protect it. If you like me want to keep everything in perfectly nice looking condition, I recommad a case and a screen protector. Remember, this is a hefty investment comparable to a PC, this Treo 650 may even be your home phone, make sure it is well-protected.

I have now had the Palm One Treo 650 in use for 1 full week. It is easy to use and wonderfully designed. Sprint's 1xRTT PCS vision data network is much too slow and does not allow the Treo user to take full advantage of its possibilities. I have used it frequently for email, but am quite frustrated at the speed of web downloads. I am reminded of 1994 dial up speeds of 9.6kbps.. dreadful! Otherwise, the blazer browser is fully capable of downloading an entire webpage as displayed on any copmuter based web browser.
Battery life is exceptional. I have used for complete day, 1.5 hours of phone calls, web browsing, email access and still 51% battery charge come evening.
Palm should have included more memory than the 32meg's (23 available) Some programs need to run on system and can not be run of additional (optional expansion card)
System reboots itself occasionally, (still attemtping to isolate that problem)
Perfect blend of PDA/Telephone

I purchased this device last month after several months of debating whether or not I really wanted to make this much of an investment for a "phone". I've owned a Palm device before (an m105) and I absolutely hated it (I hated having no keyboard and having to use graffiti...but no more with the Treo!). I wasn't sure I was ready to go down that road again. Boy am I glad I decided to go ahead and make the purchase.

First, you won't hear any Sprint bashing from me. I've been a customer of theirs for almost 6 years, and though they have their moments when I'd like to ring they're necks, all in all, I think they're an awesome company. Besides, this review is about the Treo...not Sprint.

Out of the box, I could see this was a device that would get a lot of use. Love the fact that there is a keyboard (did I mention I hate graffiti???) The phone (to me) is great (and yes, I'm including the speakerphone). Good reception, not a lot of dropped calls, good volume and clarity (of course, I use a bluetooth most of the time...holding the phone up to my ear feels akward). The camera is not the best...but its a camera phone...not a digital camera. Its good enough for taking a few pics, but if you're wanting print quality, you would be better off using a digital camera. I love the fact that this is also an mp3 player. I use that feature ALL THE TIME. A few words of advice on that...first DO NOT USE REAL PLAYER!! It is AWFUL!! Instead, download Pocket Tunes (you get a 14 day free trial, to buy it is $14.95 for the basic version which plays mp3, wav, or ogg vorbis or $34.95 for the deluxe, which plays mp3, wav, ogg vorbis, wma, and streaming audio). The cost for either is well worth it (I got the deluxe edition as a download from sprint). Just try the trial and you'll be convinced!

After you purchase Pocket Tunes, you can download skins from their website: www.pocket-tunes.com to make the look of PT yours. Also, once you get Pocket Tunes, you'll want to invest in a pair of stereo headphones (you only get a basic headset with the Treo), or you can just get an adapter from Palm.com that converts a standard 3.5mm jack to a 2.5mm jack that you can use with your Treo for audio(the adapter is $9.99 plus shipping).

Another word of advice...get a nice big memory card (I got a 1 GB that was on sale at Best Buy). I also have a second card that I keep games on (the 1 GB holds audios only...did I mention I LOVE the mp3 player feature?!) I know a lot of people mentioned having problems with resets, but I found that I only had that problem when I overloaded my device with applications that could easily be stored on cards. So now I keep audios and apps that I don't use often on cards, everything else goes right on the device. Voila...problem solved...no annoying resets.

If you're looking for software for the Treo, check out www.mytreo.net. Once you register for free, you can begin to download all types of software (some freeware, some paid downloads), to really make your Treo YOURS. A few downloads I recommend are (not all available at mytreo.net): Chit Chat Lite (a free MSN messenger app), Pocket Tunes, Mobile DB (free on the Palm website), Voice Dial (free trial on the Palm website...its free to keep to dial by number only...you have to pay to dial by name), Avvenu (a free download on the Palm site that allows you to access your PC and all its documents through your Treo online), Palm PDF (free on mytreo.net), and whatever games you might like (I've got a Lemmings sim, a Tetris sim, a Minesweeper sim, and a few others...all free at mytreo.net). If you're Muslim, I would highly recommend Fatwa Base and Salat Schedule (both free).

I absolutely love my Treo...its my do everything life manager. I do recommend also investing in a good Bluetooth headset to prevent having to use a standard headset (the jack is on the bottom, so its a bit inconvenient to use a regular headset with the treo in your pocket). I got a Plantronics Discovery headset that I love. I could go on and on, but I sure you're sick of my word vomit by now! Just know this: overall, great device...once you learn how to customize it and not overload it.

I used a 600 for about 6 months before pre-ordering the 650. I used it for 2 weeks and returned it because I preferred the 600. Both are fine devices, but neither has really fixed all the issues yet.

The Pros:
Beautiful Screen - Hi-Res just makes a huge difference and it seems much brighter, too
Bluetooth - for syncing and handsfree
more memory - well, a little, at least
better button layout - the addition of the phone buttons and move of menu to the top of the keyboard is much better
VersaMail - better than Mail, but just barely

The Cons:
SLOW - it takes about 3x as long to turn on as the 600 - no idea why (this is quite possibly just a quality control issue)
Bluetooth - wouldn't keep my preferred connections - had to re-verify about every 3 times I used it
- no DUN (ability to use as a wireless modem via bluetooth) - there is a hack to enable, but it is pretty unstable - Sprint has said they will fix this soon
Software - this is probably the cause for the slowness, but there are other issues, too
- many of my favorite programs for the 600 crashed the 650 (or won't work because the buttons don't map the same - like Klondike)
Some stupid changes:
1) You can't remove the new mail icon from the main screen, which makes you do an extra down motion to get to contacts
2) buttons - reduced the number of customizable buttons - WHY?
3) the four way button can't be programmed to go directly to something - have to use the favorites
4) bigger hotsync connector
5) useless (basically) side button keeps you from using the old cases without modification

Other comments:
you do have speed dial - one for every button on the keyboard, if you want (including voicemail)

you can get a program SmartPhoneTools, for the 600 that gives you great control over your minutes tracking and call log - get it! - and hopefully they'll make a 650 version soon.

contacts is great once you learn to use it - but you have to have your information correctly labeled (EG don't label the mobile number "email" or it won't show at the right times)

After 10 years (I had a US Robotics Palm 5000) of using graffiti, I can type as fast on the keyboard of the Treo after 6 months - you'd be surprised.
BTW - use PDANet to get decent speeds as a modem for your laptop.

(Disclosure: I do not have anything to do with the programs named, nor am I responsible if they don't work for you. I like them, I bought 'em, YMMV)

Pros
(+) Has great browser and screen resolution. If you want to have the coolest new gadget on the block - this is the toy for you. The bandwidth on the Sprint network is great during the day, sometimes slower at night.

(+) POP email access is great. Unfortunately my company does not have an Exchange server setup for the Palm. Only the Blackberry platform is supported internally. My personal email works great though.

(+) Speakerphone function works fine.

Cons
( - ) Dropped calls. In the two weeks I've been using the thing, I've had a few of dropped calls that I normally would not with my old phone in the coverage areas I've been in.

( - ) Random system reboots. This is very irritating - the very reason I don't have a microsoft OS - rebooting - is now plaguing me with this Treo. It hasn't resulted in data loss but it seems like only a matter of time.

( - ) Phone dialing lag. There is a 2-3 second lag in the response time of the phone when you are dialing from the contact manager. Not a huge deal but it does give me the impression that I'm using a PDA device that emulates being a phone as opposed to a phone that has PDA functionality. This was the most obvious.

(-) Motorola bluetooth headpiece connection is lousy. There is a 2-3 second delay between the time I hit connect on the headset and the time the headset actually connects. I don't know if the blame lies with the Treo or the headpeice but I suspect it's the Treo. This coupled with the small delay in actually dialing contacts from the Treo makes using the phone seem much more complicated and cumbersome than worth it in the coolness of it all.

1. Press one button to activate phone from standby mode
2. Press keyguard button to unlock phone
3. Press screenpad to goto Contacts screen
4. Type a few letters of the contacts last name
5. Press dial/select button - wait a few seconds
6. Press connect button on headset - wait a few seconds
7. Call is connected. Sometimes I'm fearing that the person has already picked up.

This is the main reason I'm returning the Treo. I need a reliable phone and PDA. The combination of the two is lacking in my eyes. If I had to have an all in one device, this one would probably be my choice (I have co-workers using the Blackberry) but I'll be using my old sprint phone and be on the lookout for a reasonably priced PDA.

Qualifiers: I am a Mac OS user, live near a major highway, and work in a major urban (read: solid digital coverage). I am usually surrounded by computers, but am increasingly finding myself engaged in business travel, offsite meetings, and the like.

For me, the Treo 650 rocks.

Claims that it replaces a laptop are bunk. However, it can totally suffice when no other computer access is available. (Our company firewall went down and the only way I could connect to the internet was with my phone. THAT was a first.) Software can extend the Treo's capabilities, just as with any other computer, so having access to services like IMAP email accounts (the built-in VersaMail only does POP), Instant Messaging, and so forth really are what make the high price tag actually worth it (but yes, you do have to pay for the add-on software from third parties).

I've had no problems with build quality, or with setup or service from Sprint. $15/mo. for unlimited wireless internet access? Worth it to me, based on my current internet usage patterns (so, of course, your mileage may vary).

This is a digital-only phone, so service quality is directly tied to PCS digital coverage, so just be forewarned. The keyboard is great, but very small, so watch those carpal tunnels. ;-) The camera is low-rez, but it's great as a backup (only an idiot would try to use a 2004-era phone as their main digital camera - that's like serving water with a slotted spoon). Given that the Treo *is* a computer, it does crash. If you can't handle a brief reboot of your phone from time to time, don't even bother. It's not happened so often that it's been a major usability issue for me. The voice quality was skimped on, but there is apparently a firmware hack floating around to improve that (hopefully Palm will release an official patch).

The Bluetooth syncing just works, for me, on both Mac OS and PC. On the Mac, downloading Apple's iSync conduit will allow full syncing with iCal and Address Book (sadly, minus categories and photos).

Having gone from the basic, bare-bones 1999 phone to this, it's been - dare I say it - a life-changing experience. It's not perfect, nothing is...but is it useful given it's limitations? Without a doubt.