PCS Phone palmOne Treo 600 (Sprint)

by Palm

Product Details

Product Manual [3.11mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 2.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000SX2U2
• Item model number: TREO 600
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (152 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,705 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

470 of 477 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Machine - Frivolous Features - Update, October 28, 2003

By 

Robert "HarriedTraveller" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PCS Phone palmOne Treo 600 (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

After more than six months of using this phone I thought I should update my review and downgrade my rating. First, here is my original review after having the phone for a few weeks...

Bottom line: This is a terrific pda-phone combo that compromises very little to deliver both in a single, well-integrated package. It is the iPod of PDA/Phone combos. Elegant controls, easy to use, small and stylish.

The 600 is dramatically faster than the 300, the five-way navigation control makes it a truly one-handed device in most circumstances, and its battery life is vastly better than the 300. But why Handspring chose to add bulk and (presumably) cost by incorporating a 0.3 megapixle camera is beyond me. They should have dumped the camera and saved a few bucks.

Here is, from my perspective, is the rundown of the Great, the Good, and the Not so Great features.

Great:

Speed - the thing is fast. In less than the blink of an eye it can search through 2,000+ contacts and get you the right phone number. Almost everything happens instantly.

Five-Way Controller - almost 80% of what I do is available at the touch of one button and a flick of the navigator. All with one hand (or one thumb to be more precise).

Software Integration - unlike the guys in Redmond, Handspring really knows how to integrate hardware and software. It is completely intuitive. I still have not needed to crack open the users manual.

Battery - The battery life on this is a genuine 4+ hours of talk time. Not the best on the market for a phone-only device, but terrific for a PDA/Phone combo.

SD Card - a cheap, effective way to expand the memory and you can load specific programs of databases onto it.
Speaker Phone - maybe should go in the "good" category but the loudest and clearest I've ever had on a mobile device, so by comparison it's great.

Size & Shape - much better than the old Treo, handles like a phone but small enough to comfortably pass the shirt-pocket test

Reception - this was a surprise, but I get better reception and signal strength on the Treo than I have with any Sprint phone.

Good
Screen - bright and clear but not the highest resolution on the market

Keyboard - small but surprisingly usable and with solid, crisp key action.

Compatability - most of my old software works fine but Eudora Mail has some quirks that make it hard to use and RecoEcho does not work at all.

The Not So Good
Camera - why in the heck would you put a super-low resolution camera into a business device? I do use a digital camera from time to time in my work (I capture white board and flip chart scribbles to use later) but the 0.3 mp camera is too low a resolution to make this effective.

Headset - lame, cheap, poor sound quality. Plan to upgrade this out of the box.

Overall, the Treo 600 is a great device. But is it worth the high price? If you are still carrying around a separate phone, PDA, and you have to crack open your laptop everytime you want to check your e-mail then this is worth every cent. And in my view, there is no better choice on the market for a fast, portable, easy to use combo device.

UPDATE:
In the past seven months I've had the phone replaced once when it simply stopped working and now the replacement is broken again. Like other reviewers have said, the speaker just stops working. No explanation, it just stops. Now the thing will only pick up the network when it is plugged into the wall socket. Weird. And, of course, the Palmone customer service is rotten and hopeless. Sprint has been pretty responsive. I'm going to go into the Sprint store again and see if they can help. But as others have noted, there is just no excuse for a device this expensive to be this unreliable.

So new bottom line: Great when it works but not reliable enough to make it worth the cost.

115 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Treo 600 is good, but could be better, December 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: PCS Phone palmOne Treo 600 (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

I have had the Treo 600 for a week now and overall I am satisfied with its performance. However, here are my thoughts.

Pro's:
1. Small size-this is nice compared to older versions of PDA phones like my old Kyocera 6035.
2. MP3 is nice to have-however I haven't used it because the headset adapter is not included.
3. Keyboard is nice-takes a little practice to use, but so does graffiti.

Cons
1. Color screen is too low resolution--needs to be the clarity of aPocket PC devices. Viewing pictures on the Treo 600 is very fuzzy.
2. No voice speed dialing-I miss this from my Kyocera 6035 phone. The shortcut dialing feature is too limiting.
3. Some interfaces could be better, especially when on an active call.

My suggestions to Palm One:
1. Either eliminate the camera or make it higher quality-even using it for fun pictures is not good enough.
2. Include the headset adapter. Why make it so that you have to order the adapter before you can listen to mp3.
3. Needs a replaceable battery. Although the battery life is good, under heavy usage, it is not sufficient.
Would I buy it again? Yes, at a $300 price range. To me, it is not worth the retail price of $549.

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing else comes close., December 8, 2003

By 

PeteTechGuy (Woodside, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PCS Phone palmOne Treo 600 (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

This is a great device which really proves again that the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts. Can you imagine a desktop computer with no internet? Well, after using the Treo 600, you'll feel that a PDA without a phone, or a Phone without a PDA, is equally lacking. Having tried many (incl. an i700), and having owned an i500, a Treo 300, and many other Palms and Pocket PCs, I can say this device is better than any other single PDA or Phone, or Combo. It's the beautiful integration that makes it all work. Its my perception that any two machines connected with Bluetooth are not nearly as convenient. Never mind the extra carting, storing, charging etc.

Phone Performance
My coverage and ability to hold calls is the best I've had in this area. I've had good success wherever I've gone as well. Sound is very good.

Speakerphone
Works well and is a tremendous asset in general. The ability to talk on the speakerphone while using any other application (like the Contacts, or DateBook) on the PDA is especially valuable.

Phonebook and Favorites
The Phonebook integration is superb. No other device makes it so quick and easy to choose from your thousands of contacts and dial, all with one thumb and a couple of clicks on the keyboard. SNAP. Other Palm smartphones, like the i500, actually require a stylus to choose between the multiple phone numbers for a given contact. This feature, like so many others, is perfectly dealt with on the Treo600. The Phone favorites function is also far better than ANY phone I've seen. Just beautiful.

Web and E-Mail
With Sprint's high speed CDMA 1xRTT service, the web is truly usable now, anywhere, anytime. Almost ALL web sites are supported due to the faster CPU's ability to handle Java Scripts. Having always available Web access is great for solving problems when you need them solved. E-Mail can handle attachments. Life is good.

Keyboard
Much much faster than graffiti. The small keys take some time to get accustomed to, but now I love the keyboard, and wouldn't give it up. Its just a pleasure for mail, messaging, and data entry in general.

5-Way control
Makes a bigger difference than I could've imagined. Beautifully done and adds enormous convenience to many, many apps. You'll have to try it at length to fully appreciate it.

Battery Life
Really excellent, I can browse off and on all day, make several long calls and still have juice left. I've ordered extra slide-on batteries, so I can play ChessGenius and listen to music all day at the beach.

Screen
It's the brightest most readable screen I've seen. I found it usable outside on the sunniest days. If you aim bright sunlight straight at it, it may be difficult to see. But, unlike others, it's very easy to shift the angle a wee bit and get total visibility. Given the potential Battery Life trade offs, I have no problem with its 160x160 resolution.

SD card
Great for nightly, automated, backups (using a third part app like BackupMan). I can do a full restore anywhere, anytime. Also great for storing lots of MP3s. Supports SDIO, so we'll have support for all future SD functionality, like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and more.

MP3s
Great sound and a pleasure to have.

Camera
It's not the best, but it's very nice to have.

Form Factor
Excellent. Always feels great in the hand. It's very quick and convenient. I miss one thing: With a clamshell design you can get right into the mike and really whisper on phone calls. Not quite as easy with the candy bar form factor.

Cool Factor
I must say its got the highest cool factor of any device so far. People are always asking me about it and admiring it. My kids thought my Treo 300 looked geeky when used as a phone, they think this one is great and would die to have it.

CPU
About 5 times faster than a Treo 300. More than twice as fast as an i500. You really feel it. Every app is very zippy indeed.

Conclusion
Just get it.