Customer Reviews

palmOne Treo 600 PDA Phone (Verizon Wireless)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The Verizon sales people won't tell you this -- and indeed I didn't find a sales person who even knew it -- but you don't need to pay for data at all. If you have a national plan (America's Choice or National Access), you get something called NA-MOU (I think that stands for national access-minutes of use), whereby data usage is charged as minutes, and the night and weekend usage comes from all those free minutes.

The catch is that the daytime Internet usage comes from your allotment, and the Treo does not automatically disconnect. If you see arrows, gray or green, over the status bars, you are connected, even if the phone isn't doing anything. This means unless you're fanatical about disconnecting from the data session, after every email check, every Web search, etc., you can easily end up with a $1,000+ bill. (Some programs like Snappermail have an option to disconnect automatically.)

There is a $5 shareware program called Battery Doctor that, among other things, disconnects after a set amount of time. Well worth the $5.
[...]
(There is another program Treo600 Connection manager with similar functionality, but it didn't work for me. It was originally written for the Sprint network, which probably explains why.)

So, this is great if you are like me and don't use the phone for Internet much during the day. I wait until 9 p.m. and then download my email and RSS newsfeeds. I also check sports scores on the weekends.

This is very bad if you want push email or instant messaging.
[...]

Check your minutes with #646 to make sure that the Treo is disconnecting properly.

Bottom line: I have the 400 minute America's Choice plan, no data plan, plus two extra lines for my wife and parents and my bill last month was $120. Caveat: mileage may vary. Apparently this doesn't work for everyone.

And, oh yes, the Treo 600 a wonderful gadget that integrates the PDA and phone halves very well, minus one star for deficiencies like poor camera, too easy for Secure Digital card to pop out accidentally, and no Bluetooth or Wi-fi. (The new 650 fixes most of that, but who knows when Verizon will get it.)

UPDATE 2/21/2005: Apparently, Verizon Wireless has made it more difficult to do data as minutes. I dropped and broke the phone and got a replacement through insurance. However, the replacement wouldn't activate, because Verizon's computer system no longer allows that option. After being on hold with customer service for way too long, they did enable it (the tech people have to do something special). So... evidently it is still possible, but you'll probably have to do even more kicking and screaming to get it.

Well, as an early adapter, I guess I should be used to taking it hard. I bought Verizon's PalmOne Treo 600 the first day it came out - over a year after most other carriers released it. My plan is 400 anytime minutes, unlimited in-network calling, unlimited nights and weekend, and $5 for Internet access a month. Unless I go over, it should cost me $49.95 a month. I just got my first bill.

$1,641.66.

It turns out that the connection to the Internet doesn't shut off - even if you chose "Disconnect" from the web browser's menu. Even if you turn off the unit. It continues to ping the Internet looking for data every six minutes. Hence my bill show some 1023-minute calls.

Steve in Verizon's data division said they've received a lot of calls on this issue and isn't sure why they even offer the $5 web-only feature, when customers need to get the $49.95/month unlimited data transfer or deal with $1,000-plus monthly bills. When I asked if there was a way to stop the pinging every six minutes, I was told no, "it's a data phone first and a cell phone second."

Interesting, as my friends who have the phone with other carriers have never had this problem. Interesting, as I was never told this when I bought it. All I wanted was a freakin' cell/PDA combo, so I don't have to carry both with me, making me look like I'm sporting a chubby in two pockets at once. With Verizon, the cost for doing so is $44.95 plus your calling plan a month, which for me will come to about $100.

After 58 minutes, I was told my bill should be adjusted within 24 to 48 hours.

Also, on Verizon Wireless's PalmOne Treo 600 Smartphone web page it lists a 5 MB transfer for only $24.95. When I asked the technical rep about that option, he said getting it would still cause a Treo 600 owner's bill to be over $1,000 a month. He said it was up there for use with other phones. He had no answer when I said there are no other phones on that page.

Now, I probably could return the Treo 600 - except I already sold my old phone and Palm on eBay.

Of course, if I could just get a free minute for every time I heard "Oh, that's the new phone. I'm not familiar with it" none of this would be an issue.

Buy the phone from a differnt carrier and don't deal with the problems I had with Verizon Wireless. The phone is great!

First of all. The Treo technology is, as the other reviewer commented, a PDA first. It is on a push/pull technology. If you don't log off of the internet (that does not mean ending the internet session by closing the phone or pressing end) then your phone will continue and remain online. You must log off. That is where those $1000 + bills come from. The treo uses a 1x/and broadband technology, which is the among fastest wireless technology in the country. It is faster than your home dial up. Yes you can use the treo just along with your regular plan, but if you got one of the megabyte 1x plans it will be alot faster when browsing the internet. Those plans are 24.95 for 5 mB and 44.95 for unlimited. that is unlimited internet access and downloading etc. I pay more for my home computer internet and I gotta stay in one place with that. I also recommend the Verizon Wireless Treo, because the coverage area is so much greater than any other carrier. Not only does verizon cover more that anyone else, (including Cingular and At&T combined), but they have more towers than any other company. The Treo as a phone has camera speaker phone, stylist and a letterpad. It is smaller than most PDA phones but has a screen that is just as big, if not bigger. The people who I have talked to who also have the phone have hardly had any issues at all with it. It is the highest selling Verizon Wireless PDA phone. There is a reason for that.

I looked long and hard before deciding to purchase the Treo 600. Keep in mind that when I bought the Treo 600 from Amazon it was only $150 after rebate, rather than $299. Anyhow, I definitely compared it to the 650 and decided that for the price it simply wasn't worth the extra money for a 650. Here's why:
Advantages of the 650 over the 600 (and in parentheses why it's not worth it):
-Replaceable battery (Read the manual: top your battery off often and replacing your battery won't be an issue)

-Bluetooth (great for wireless headsets and a few other things, but is it worth the extra $250 (with a new service plan!)to synchronize my contact list a few seconds faster and not have to plug it in? I think not!)

-Larger display (many people complain about the 600's "small" display, but keep it in perspective- it's a tiny cellphone screen! Will you really be watching full length movies on your treo very frequently? Be honest! Will you be using high-powered software to edit images? I think not. Many people who complain about this are simply used to a higher res screen. )

-Processor (Yes, the processor speed has tripled, however, consider if this is really necessary to, for example, play MP3s? or write memos? or respond to email? or to browse the web? It's really not a necessary upgrade unless you are a true power user.)

-Other minor upgrades. (There are certain fixes,etc to consider, but most are minor and many annoyances on the 600 can be fixed with software off the net.

In my personal opinion, get the 650 if you are already stuck on 320 x 320 screen resolution or are a bluetooth fanatic. Otherwise save your pennies and get the 600 which will deliver the most bang for your buck performance-wise.
Perhaps the 650 users need to justify their splurge and that is why they get so defensive of it... I want to be a voice for the budget-minded consumer - because not everyone relishes the idea of spending $400 for a phone!

Neither Verizon nor PalmOne provide any credible support for the features that are supposed to make this phone so useful. The audio output of the device is unstable. After performing several hard resets per Verizon's instructions and performing the painful task of reloading my address book, the audio jack works for a short period of time and then crashes again. Verizon provided a free rebate for Normsoft's Ptunes program and implicitly recommended this application, but ultimately, they deny any responsibility for the correct functioning of this application, and blame Normsoft. Here's Normsoft's reply from their technical support. "The issue with the output jack sounds more like a hardware issue. There is nothing Pocket Tunes does that controls the output jack." I recommend giving this product a pass and going with Samsung or Blackberry, who have developed a reputation for high product quality.

I recently purchased this phone and everything was working fine. The phone was then accidentally dropped from less than one foot and the screen has gone black through the middle. If you do purchase this phone, be sure to buy the extra equipment protection with it as the screen cannot handle any pressure other than from the stylus or fingernail. Good luck.

I purchased a PalmOne Treo 600 from VerizonWireless in Sept. 2004, content that I could finally "converge" my PDA and cell phone into a single device. WHAT A TERRIBLE MISTAKE THAT WAS!
Soon after my purchase but unfortunately after the 15-day return period, I found the Treo 600 to shut itself off randomly, often in the middle of phone calls. I brought the phone back to the store and was told that I needed to contact the Verizon tech folks about my problem. The Verizon tech support team sent me one replacement phone after another but they all had the same problem. Finally it was determined that there is a software bug in the SMS application which causes a hardware failure for the device. An Verizon network engineer informed me that there is nothing they can do until a software patch is released. I am now on my sixth replacement phone and I still can't use this LEMON. Save yourself some headaches and buy something else.

Love the PDA features, but the phone is awful. If battery is not fully charged it can not make calls. With a full signal and battery it drops calls or will not force its way on to Verizon's network. Ringer volume is fine but vibrate mode is weak. I teach and cannot always answer the phone... I'm going back to Verizon to see if I can upgrade or change over. Maybe the 700 is better.

I bought the phone in May and have had numerous problems ever since. (1) I cannot synch my address book; (2) I have to constantly add contacts to my address book because I keep losing them (making problem number one all the more painful); (3) The phone drops calls daily, despite the fact that I am calling someone's land line from a stationary position; (4) I cannot release my auto lock if I stop using the phone for 30 seconds; (5) I have stripes instead of solid color and (6) Verizon Wireless customer service offers the worst service I have ever encountered - they are rude and barely speak English.

It took me a few months to get my Treo 600 to operate flawlessly (email, web, contacts...). It's not really user friendly fro a novice. My main complaint is that the phone service leaves much to be desired. I previously had a kyocera phone with Verizon and loved it - strong signal, few lost calls. But that's not the case with the Treo. I am constantly dropping calls and can't make calls from my home at all anymore. It has gotten worse with time. Verizon tells me it's because the antenna in the Treo is not "strong" and it can't be fixed. I'm looking forward to finding an alternative.