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Handhelds Hardware

First Review of the Treo 600 Smartphone 153

Posted by CowboyNeal from the kicking-the-tires dept.
jlouderb writes "Handspring debuted the biggest product at last week's lCeBit show in New York. Lots of news articles were written about the Treo 600, but I actually got to borrow one of the few prototypes for a day." Looks like the only real negatives are that there's no protection for the screen, and no removable battery, otherwise it's a tight little device. It'll be interesting to see the release model in action.
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First Review of the Treo 600 Smartphone More

First Review of the Treo 600 Smartphone

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  • Will it be always on (Score:5, Interesting)

    by HiKarma ( 531392 ) * on Thursday June 26, 2003 @09:35PM (#6307945)
    One thing that highly annoys me about our current Treo 300, at least with Sprint, is that it's not an always on data device.

    GRRRRRRRR. Why don't they know this is what we want?

    You must log in to surf the web or do IP, and while you are surfing, your phone is busy -- people can't ring you! And yet people said the Treo was doing a good job of PDA/Phone integration -- just shows how low the bar is there.

    The Danger/Sidekick does always on. Is this entirely the carrier's fault, and do some carriers do it right with the Treo 300? Is there hope they will do it right with the 600?

    • Re:Will it be always on (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 26, 2003 @09:47PM (#6308004)
      This isn't 100%. While an active data call is running, you can't get a phone call on a 1x network. If you are in the dormant mode (you are still logged in to the network and can receive IMs for example), phone calls do come through. GPRS does not have this limitation which is why the sidekick and Treo 270 don't have this issue but neither of those units can do data and voice at the same time either. You just get interuppted for a voice call. The 3g networks should (in theory:)) fix this limitation

    • Re:Will it be always on (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Always-on doesn't exist, yet... There are different classes of GPRS devices, and none in the market today allow simulatenous call and data connections.

      Have a read in our GPRS [geekzone.co.nz] article to find out more about speed, devices and capabilites...

    • Re:Will it be always on (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The Blackberry that I have is also always on - I have tried surfing, receive emails and making a call at the same time just for the heck trying.

      When the data is heavy it is a bit slow - it's the limit of the data network. But for normal uses yes, all of them can be done at the same time...

  • Perfect (Score:2, Funny)

    by BigDork1001 ( 683341 )
    New web browser that allows you to surf any web siteâ"including JavaScript enabled sitesâ"and even download software

    Five-way navigation for optimal one-handed use Oh yeah, I need to get me one of these.

  • lCeBit? (Score:2, Funny)

    by fishynet ( 684916 )
    new trade show huh?

  • Okay, but... (Score:2, Funny)

    by tds67 ( 670584 )
    Still, after about a day of using the device for Web browsing, e-mailing, making phone calls, and taking pictures, we came away impressed.

    Yes, but how well does the file sharing work?

    • May I suggest taking a look at Mobilefile (http://www.quickoffice.com)? This allows a primitive form of P2P sharing across Palm devices and desktops.

  • hmm, not sure what to think (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Am I the only one who finds the timing of this release to be a bit suspect. With Palm announcing the acquisition of Handspring, I don't trust purchasing anything else from them for the time being. But maybe that's just me.

    • Re:hmm, not sure what to think (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      This was discussed in an interview. The device will be labeled a Handspring Treo for its introduction and most likely some time after it. Eventually, it will be named the Palm Treo and will begin a new line of Palm-branded smart phones. It will be supported for as long as Palm is in existence.
    • The release date is no coincidince, but you're looking at it wrongly: strong advance reviews of this phone were what conviced Palm to purchase the Handspring corporation. If the Treo's technology was found to be horrible, Palm would have little/no motivation to purchase the company.

  • Okay, but... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Still, after about a day of using the device for Web browsing, e-mailing, making phone calls, and taking pictures, we came away impressed.

    I'd be impressed to see a bill for how much that usage must cost.

    • Re:Okay, but... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 26, 2003 @09:48PM (#6308011)
      actually, with sprintpcs vision, you get unlimited data access, thus all of what was done (Besides phone calls) could be done as much as one wants.
      • Some one has to port a voice over IP to the treo 600:) Phone carries have the must insane price plans this side of the airlines
      • Sprint PCS vision was the first to offer unlimited data, but now TMobile has joined in, offering unlimited GPRS for $20/month. See story [treocentral.com] on TreoCentral.

        Since I was paying $20 a month for 10 megs, and I use the GPRS on my Treo 180g as a modem for my laptop, I was quite happy to see the change. But you have to call and ask for it.

    • Re:Okay, but... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by mpost4 ( 115369 ) *
      Depends on the provider, I could spend all day on the web on my cell phone and not raise my bill. I have sprint and have added wireless web, so I can use my minutes for wireless web minutes, and I have unlimited nights and weekends. and if I start a call before peak minutes it counts as off peak minutes. so I could stay on-line all day, in theory, to bad I don't have a better battery. but the only problem is that it is only a 14.4 modem if you do dial up instead of using the direct net connection that v
      • That's nice, but with the new vision system, you get all of what you mention and you don't have to wait until all the church-goers are asleep for half an hour before you can afford to use your data services.

        In areas where it's up and working, Sprintpcs Vision is *tons* faster than 14.4 running from as little as 56k on average to a 144K theoretical maximum, hovering around 100k on average. You can sign onto it whenever you like and it has nothing to do with your night and weekends minutes, period. You can s

  • No screen cover (Score:2, Interesting)

    by silverbolt ( 578120 )
    I would imagine that the screen would be susceptible to scratching without some kind of cover. They probably would sell the screen cover separately. Otherwise, seems a pretty cool device.
    • One thing you should consider: there are a number of companies that offer 'screen protectors' for your PDA.

      If you need an aftermarket item to prevent scratches, you could always buy one and cut it down to size.

  • That's it, it's already ruined for me (Score:4, Funny)

    by orpheus2k ( 166678 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @09:46PM (#6308000)

    We entered "Whassup!!!" in only a few keystrokes.



    That's great, thanks for showing me how easy it is to scare off all my friends and coworkers.

    • They can't be geeks. They must be from marketing or management. A real geek writes a variant of 'I am l33t' into every telecommunications device she tries for the first time. The part about scaring off friends still applies, of course, though it's likely that has already happened if they read slashdot.

  • Another PDA/Phone (Score:5, Interesting)

    by IdleLay ( 682465 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @09:47PM (#6308005)
    For some reason I no longer have to have the latest and greatest. For the sheik in geek is now the trusted and reliable. My best PDA - Palm III, best mobile - Nokia 5110. After spending many years and lots of money to make sure that I have the latest and greatest, I now think "WHAT A FOOL" I was to have been taken in by the hype! Gosh I'm either getting old or starting a trend.
    • Blockquoth the poster:

      For some reason I no longer have to have the latest and greatest ... Gosh I'm either getting old or starting a trend.

      The former.
      • Or maybe he just got unemployeed;)
      • Or he wants his investment in technology to pay off, by haveing it last more then 3 months. My cell phone is the same one I got back in 2000, and I refuese to upgreade (at lest untill sprint gets a bluetooth capable cell phone, and from what I read it will be the sony ericson T608) I will admite I upgreaded my palm pilot 3 times in the same time, but that was because I need more memeory, I am not finaly on the Tungsten T.
      • I think it's option C, getting smart about what is greatest. These "communicators" do a half-assed job as a PDA and as phone.

        You can't use the PDA while on the phone, it's a lot bigger than a modern cell phone, costs more than both devices, makes it difficult to upgrade because then you lose you phone and PDA and have to replace both and lose all your accessories for both, same thing if it breaks. In the specific case of the treos they have a thumb keyboard which is useless for any adult male with norm

        • Re:Don't take this the wrong way... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by tftp ( 111690 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @11:11PM (#6308358) Homepage
          There is no way I'd replace my Visor Deluxe with one of these pieces of crap even if they offered a straight trade. If it broke, I'd buy a used Visor Prism.

          My Visor Deluxe broke last winter - the LCD bias disappeared, I guess, but I have no schematic drawings to fix it.

          For several weeks I was determined to replace the thing. I looked at Palm, Handspring, Sharp and Sony products, looked long and hard. Every time it seemed that I need that a little bit faster CPU, or that more memory, or that better resolution of the screen... I couldn't decide. This went on for some time.

          But in the meantime I needed something to replace the lost device. I had IBM ThinkPad T240 at the office; it is an older (and slower) mini-notebook. I adopted it. Guess what, I still haven't bought the replacement PDA (and the manufacturers went through several upgrades already :-) The notebook is maybe 4x heavier and larger, but it is a real computer, with 6 GB of HDD and 192 MB RAM, and I can do some real work on it. The thing boots Win98 and RedHat 9.0 now, runs OpenOffice, and I can compile Qt apps. To me, returning to an unreadable 160x160 screen is unthinkable. Even the best modern PDAs - with hi-res color screens - are not as good as a standard 800x600 color screen of the T240.

          Some features are lost, of course - a notebook does not fit into a pocket, and can't be operated on a few second notice. But I found that it does not matter, since I don't do anything on a few second notice anyway :-) I am now glad that I haven't invested into the pricier PDA back then, because I don't really need it. I decided that I will buy a PDA only when I can explain to myself how I am going to use it, and why I want to use it this way.

        • I think you should probably learn something about the devices. I have a VisorPhone Prism right now, which albeit big is a pretty good cell phone and just as good a PDA as your deluxe.

          I can most certainly use my cell phone and PDA functionality at the same time and I commonly do. If my headset isn't handy, I just turn on the speakerphone volume and use my PDA functions while conversing at the same time.

          If you lose your PDA and phone and they are separate devices, which is probably nearly as likely, you'l
          • If you didn't lose any phone fuctionality while using the PDA, why do they sell a carriage that holds your visorphone and lets you use it without the PDA?

            If you lose both your PDA and cell phone at the same time, my arguements still stand; you don't need to upgrade both at once, and they're not likely to both break at once. I'd consider buying a visor prism for the colour screen, but there is no way I'd also pay for a new cell phone; my fairly new (and tiny) samsung clam-shell is just fine.

            I don't know
            • If you didn't lose any phone fuctionality while using the PDA, why do they sell a carriage that holds your visorphone and lets you use it without the PDA?
              That product was a flop, but I believe it was for people who still wanted to have a phone when they swapped in other springboard modules - the VisorPhone won't work alone.

              As for the rest of your points, mostly preference I guess. I will say this - color screens have far exceeded the Prism's, even with a lower color depth. Accept that from a Prism own

        • ALL PalmOS Smartphones are capable of PDA operation during phone calls. The Kyocera 6035 and 7135 (www.kyocerasmartphone.com), all Handspring Treos, the Samsung PalmOS phones and even the asian PalmOS Smartphones have this capability.

          Just what model did you use that was unable to be used as a PDA when a phone call was going on? And how could you idiotically paint EVERY Smartphone with the same incorrect assumption?

          Neither my Kyocera 6035 or 7135 did a "half-assed" job of being a PDA or a Phone. They perfo
          • If the "smartphone" is PDA sized, it's too big to be a good cell phone, if it's cell phone sized, the screen is too small to use comfortable as a PDA. It can't be the right size to do both well.

            How do you use the PDA when the screen is pressed into your cheek to talk? Or do you mean using a speaker phone so everyone within 50 feet hears both sides of your call instead of just you shouting into your PDA? Or maybe the headset which is even more to carry, more to buy, and more trouble to pull out of a poc
            • I live in Boston, a city chock full of professionals. I don't see too many people walking around without a headset. Since my Smartphone is also a MP3 Player, my stereo headset is also the phone headset so I always have it with me. Further more like someone else in one of the replies to you asked, just how often do you need to look at your PDA when you are making a phone call? If the phone call is of any duration (more than 5 minutes) most folks opt to use their headsets. Driving is another issue since by la

    • Re:Another PDA/Phone (Score:4, Insightful)

      by deadsaijinx* ( 637410 ) <animemeken@hotmail.com> on Thursday June 26, 2003 @10:39PM (#6308225) Homepage
      getting old, happens all the time. People drop out of the pimping race. But they are always replaced by a newer crowd of people with what seems an excess of funds. You are not starting a trend, you are continuing a trend as old as humanity itself.

  • Price (Score:2, Insightful)

    by D4rkSt4lker ( 678569 )
    I REALLY want to get one of these, but the price is just not worth it. C'mon really, $599, $699, or $799?! I'm just sticking with my current setup: A Laptop, Samsung N400, Samsung USB Cable, and the extra $10 a month unlimited vision.

    • Re:Price (Score:2, Insightful)

      by davidm25 ( 606820 )
      Wait 6 months or a year. The treo 300 started off at 500 bucks and is done to 199 on amazon. Of course by then the treo 900 will be annouced:)

  • Slide-out keyboard (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lpret ( 570480 ) <lpret42@NOspAm.hotmail.com> on Thursday June 26, 2003 @09:49PM (#6308018) Homepage Journal
    It seems to me that a phone/PDA device could really benefit from a slide out keyboard a la Tugnsten T or Sharp Zaurus. Save real estate while adding functionality.

  • Stop Forcing A PDA Into A Phone... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mgeneral ( 512297 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @09:57PM (#6308047)
    I am really tired of seeing PDA's that are being crammed into a phone. It really doesn't work. The phone ends up being to big, and the PDA is barely usable.

    Instead, put a phone into a PDA. Yes, thats right, take our best PDA's, the Zaurus, the IPAQ's, Palms's, etc...and add a phone into them.
    Now I know that sounds odd at first. How does it differ.

    First, get over the idea of holding a phone to your ear. Its simply not practical anymore. PDA's don't fit your head. And before you know it, most states will outlaw using a handheld phone in the car anyway.

    Instead, use a headset that attaches to the PDA. For instance a Jabra [jabra.com], or Jabra-like device. Ideally, using Bluetooth built into the PDA for wireless headset convenience.

    IMHO, the combo PDA with a built in phone and wireless headset would make the ideal solution.
    In the meantime, I'm through with these so-called integrated devices that are barely usable.
    • The Tungsten W [palm.com] already does this. I have a friend who has one. She says its a total pain in the ass to answer your phone when it rings. Unfortuneately she requires the functionality of a palm-based pda/phone, but AT&T didn't carry anything else. She would have prefered the Samsung I330.

      • Stop forcing the user into a phone... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @10:26PM (#6308186) Homepage Journal
        Unfortuneately she requires the functionality of a palm-based pda/phone, but AT&T didn't carry anything else. She would have prefered the Samsung I330.
        The choices cell providers force on you are strange and irritating. I want a GSM/GPRS phone with Bluetooth, so I can continue to use my m515 PDA. But neither T-Mobile nor AT&T offer Bluetooth phones. You can get a package from Amazon.com [amazon.com], but I wonder what they support is like when you use a third-party phone?

        Which is an example of something that really bothers me: U.S. cell companies do not like phones that talk to other devices. When I got my first cell, I would have liked one with IRDA, to talk to my Vx and my laptop. No way. I'm guessing that they don't want users to put together their own solutions -- they make too much money selling them hardware. Maybe I'm paranoid.

        • I'm on T-Mobile in NYC. I bought a Sony Ericsson p800 (the best PDA/phone on the market today, BTW) and put my SIM into it and it works...no problem. T-Mobile even helped me configure the WAP and GPRS service. You do realize that you can buy almost any GSM phone and use it, right?
          • Americans complain about being locked into contracts or the limited selection of telco-provided phones, but OTOH they aren't willing to pay the real (unsubsidized) cost of phones. If people accept the fact that the phone has to be paid for one way or the other maybe they'll stop complaining. It would also help if there were higher-profile ways to buy unlocked, unsubsidized phones.
            • How hard is it to go to expansis.com and buy a kickass european market phone (that even ships with a US power adapter)? It's easy. I love the fact that I can buy the best phones and use them so easily, and even get support for these phones from T-Mobile's help desk.
          • I knew I could buy my own, but (as I think I made it clear) I'm wary of the risks. Maybe there aren't any...???
        • Yeah, that bothers me too. Even if I wanted to use the Treo, or the Tungsten, or the Sony/Ericson, etc...my cell phone provider doesn't support them. It has become iritating to find compatible devices and carriers, and I live in a major metropolitan area, too!
          To some degree, I think you are right. I think the carriers like have a stranglehold on the products that are available verse what they allow you to use.

        • AT&T wireless online and my local AT&T wireless have the following Bluetooth capable phones in stock:

          • Sony Ericsson T68i
          • Nokia 6310i
          • Nokia 3650

          A friend of mine has the T68i through AT&T and uses the Bluetooth capability of it extensively (there is software for Mac OS X that allows you to use Sony Ericsson bluetooth phones to control various functions on the Mac).

          Note that this doesn't mean that I dont' agree with you -- I would prefer their to be far more handset choice than there is.

          • I would prefer their to be far more handset choice than there is.

            Handsets cost a lot of money to develop, and they devalue very very quickly. If you want more variety, that'll probably come at the price of having to pay quite a bit even for older models.

        • I think T-Mobile offers the T68i for bluetooth. T-Mobile offers the T300 for sure (an infrared phone.) It works great for data.
        • Go to http://www.expansys.us and buy any tri-mode GSM phone you want.

          Take your current phone, write down your gateway settings (should be available in your SMS settings and browser settings)

          Put SIM in new phone. Key in gateway info.

          Voila! You are no longer limited by what your carrier thinks you should use.

          The only problem with this solution is that you're going to spend a small fortune on the phone, since it's not being subsidized by the carrier.

          • RTFP (Score:2)

            by fm6 ( 162816 )
            Yours is the something like the fifth response I've gotten that says, "you don't have to buy your phone from the provider". I know this. I even mention it in the post. Doesn't anybody read a post before responding?
    • I agree, my low-end Clie is the same height and thickness of my reasonably small phone and fits nicely into a pocket. If I could ditch the phone and just keep the PDA with its full size screen, I'd be very happy.

      As for the headset, it should certainly be available as an option but when the flip-top for my PDA is folded out the whole thing is pretty much the same size as a standard land-line handset. Put a mike down the bottom, a flat-panel speaker and maybe a keypad in the lid, add some GSM support and Bob
    • This has already been done by both RIM, motorola, and Palm (tungeston w). Ever review complains about the having to use an ear bud and the sales of those products in general has been poor. If you live a data centric world it makes a lot of sense. If you live in a voice centric world you will be unhappy. I have heard that other cultures besides the US are a lot more handsfree accepting.
    • Have you actually USED a Treo? I have a Treo 270, and while it's not perfect, I would never again go back to carrying around two devices.

      The PDA part is hardly unusable, and it's adequate (though not great) as a phone. In fact, even if it wasn't a phone, I think I'd still like it better than any of the other PDAs I've had, simply for it's small size.
      • I have a Kyocera 6035.

        It's EXCELLENT. It's a little bit taller than my old Palm III, slighly narrower, and a bit thicker.

        Yes, it's freakin' huge for a phone. But the original poster suggested putting a phone into a PDA - OF COURSE it's going to be big for a phone.

        But if you are already carrying around a PDA AND a phone at all times, who cares if it's a huge phone? Yes, it may be a huge phone, but it's a lot smaller than carrying a seperate phone and PDA.

        Personally, I hate the trend towards tiny phone

    • Works for me... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by moodboom ( 191676 )
      *I* am really tired of people spewing who have never even used what they're bitching about.

      I'm sure you can plug a little corded earphone into the Treo.

      I actually use an old Visor with a Sprint phone module [airprime.com] (got mine for $12 [ebay.com]. I don't mind holding it up to talk, but 90% of the time I use the corded earphone, talking during my daily commute. That said, I would prefer the smaller footprint of a Treo.

    • this is the first sensible thing I have heard anybody say all day

    • Ok, let's follow the logic.

      First you say "I am really tired of seeing PDA's that are being crammed into a phone. It really doesn't work. The phone ends up being to big".

      then you say "Yes, thats right, take our best PDA's, the Zaurus"

      You complain that the phone is too big but you want to put a phone into one of the largest PDAs?

      BTW, being forced to use a headset sucks. It is a pain in the ass to always carry around and if you don't have one then your phone effectively isn't a phone.
    • "I am really tired of seeing PDA's that are being crammed into a phone. It really doesn't work. The phone ends up being to big, and the PDA is barely usable."

      Au Contraire mon ami. As a Treo 270 user I can safely say the PDA is EXACTLY as usable as a Palm (because it is one) and the phone is not as big as carrying a Palm and a small Nokia.

      Indeed, the principal advantage of a phone with an integrated PDA (and a REAL one, not a dodgy calendar application) is that PDA's beeping to tell you to be somewhere are
    • Pogo [carphonewarehouse.com] is, iirc, another item (besides the already mentioned tungsten) which fits a phone into a pda like thing and requires you to use a headset.
      And I wouldn't get one. I have a handspring treo 180, which seems to suffer from a problem with the connections to the speaker in the flip lid. For about a month (it took me a while to get around to having it replaced), I had to carry my hands free adapter around with me to hear the other person on the phone. It's such a pain to get the wire out and untangled tha
    • Ummm... I love my VisorPhone Prism. They did this and everyone said it sucked. They released a Sprint PCS version of it too. They started with a great PDA, the Visor line, and then they added a phone and it flopped.

      As for being barely usable, it's not. And these Treos are even more useful. Handspring has never crammed a PDA into a phone - that's why their products are better than the phones out there will built in PDA functions.
      -N
    • ...it was called the VisorPhone, and it sucked rocks.

      The concept works great in theory, but breaks down badly in practice when it comes time to actually talk on the damn thing. Holding a PDA up to your face is awkward and stupid-looking. A wired earpiece gets tangled, broken and lost with clockwork regularity. A wireless earpiece is even easier to lose, and additionally will drain the hell out of the phone's batteries (usually already pushed to the max in order to support PDA functions on top of phone f
  • What was the first thing that the geeks who beta tested this phone did? Input "Wassup" into the sms client...

  • Can't really call it a REVIEW (Score:4, Interesting)

    by securitas ( 411694 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @10:06PM (#6308085) Homepage Journal


    Sorry Jim, but you can't really claim that this is the ''First Review of the Treo 600.''

    It's not a review because it's a PROTOTYPE. It's a BETA. (Say it in your best Dr. Evil voice with me). Even the headline on the article in PC Magazine calls it a PREVIEW. So it's a hands-on preview at best.

    Let's aim for some journalistic accuracy here, something that's woefully lacking in most of what passes for technology press.

    That said, I like your stuff. Keep up the good work.

  • Possible replacement for my SideKick/Hiptop? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by armaghetto ( 240282 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @10:06PM (#6308086)
    I'm getting kinda pissy about my sidekick.

    I paid 300 bucks for the thing, then get told that the trade in for the color version is to pay another 300 bucks. "If I had just waited" (early adopter mantra, I know) a few months, I could have picked this thing up AND gotten java script support on the thing, AND had a real Palm OS device AND a color screen for the same amount.

    I've gone from loving my sidekick to just thinking it's alright. After seeing this device, i'm thinking about a divorce.
  • When are we gonna get Dvorak on these little keyboards?

    • Re:Dvorak (Score:3, Interesting)

      by outlier ( 64928 ) *
      I type Dvorak on my PC and qwerty on my Treo. Because the interaction styles for the two keyboards are so different (whole hands vs. thumbs) there's no real problem converting back and forth.

      Also, the efficiency of Dvorak (about 5-10% faster than qwerty) comes in part from the switching from hand to hand between characters. This isn't particularly helpful in a small keyboard. Perhaps one of the one-handed Dvorak layouts would be efficient for one-thumb typing...

  • Carrier's fault (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    In short yes it is the "fault" of the carrier. Sprint is CDMA however when you are not actually sending or receiving data you can receive calls. Ex. If you are sending you pass word to check you email you can not receive calls however once you receive email to you phone and are simply reading it you can. It's the same with GSM providers like t-mobile. When packet data is being sent you can not receive call. Data is beingsent in bursts. When data is not being sent calls can be received.

  • I need to know... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Is this Treo 600 small enough to fit in my ass in case I'm held in a seedy communist North Korean or Iranian concentration camp? I have no need to wear a watch and tell time using my cell-phone.

    Plus, I have trips to Tehran and Pyong Yang coming up...
  • What's up with that low-res screen? I'd take a high-res grayscale over low-res any day. It's all about the TEXT, man.

    Also, after carting around a Danger Hiptop for a while, it's completely changed my expectations of a phone/PDA. Without always-available wireless web, you might as well be carrying around a notepad and a pencil.
    • No its not about the text. It is about the porn http://java.sun.com/industry/news/story/47181.do And actually it probably isn't about color or resolution. It is about readibility in every day situations like when your outdoors
    • The previous treos are more focused on PDA functionalities. But Handspring figured out the phone market is much bigger, so this time around they designed a smaller, more phone-centric device. I believe they could only fit a low-res screen there, and by the way the low-res is more energy efficient.

  • no removable battery (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jchristopher ( 198929 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @10:35PM (#6308209)
    I've been using a Treo 180 for about a year and I've been very happy with it. But I'm puzzled by Handspring's refusal to put on a removable battery.

    That's just standard in the cell phone industry (witness the wide selection of replacement batteries on eBay). I know they say it will just make the phone larger, but I'm not buying it. Take the Ericsson T28 phones, for example. The battery is removable, just it is shaped precisely to the phone and takes up almost no space.

    Another thing that bothers me is the Treo's poor battery life. We already know that Palm devices last for weeks, so that can't be the problem... natural assumption would be that the phone side of it is sucking up all the juice, except that there are plenty of phones that get 1 week or more, and the batteries are not large.

    • While the 180 did have a small battery (Handspring claimed 2.5 hours talktime, I got a bit less), the 600 will have a 1800 mAh battery which is supposed to give 6 hours. Compares well with many phones...

      There will also be a 1200 mAh battery sled released at/around the same time as the Treo 600, which does the same job as a replaceable battery for those who need one.
    • The 6035 does a better job as a phone than the Treos, has a removable battery, all of Kyocera's phones use the same data cable (Didn't need to buy a travel sync cable for my 6035, just used my old 2035 cable), and has a standard 2.5mm headset jack.

      The 7135 adds MP3 and a color display, plus SDIO expansion capability.

      Kyocera (Formerly Qualcomm's handset division) has been in the smartphone business longer than anyone. Yes, the first attempts (pdQ) sucked and flopped, but Kyocera released their second gene
  • Smaller than the current Treos but with better screen, keyboard & battery life.

    Are there are good games for small colour Palms?

    All I really want now is a someone to port rdesktop to PalmOS then everything would be sweet

    Cheers

    VikingBrad

  • No bluetooth etc (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The lack of bluetooth is a deal breaker for me....really dumb decision...as even if you don't wanna use the phone as a wireless modem a wireless headset can come in awfully handy...

    I would have loved to have had WiFi....but that's a pipe dream in a cell phone for now.

    The low res screen and lack of removable battery are also big minuses,

    • hello, SDIO (Score:4, Informative)

      by Doktor Memory ( 237313 ) on Friday June 27, 2003 @08:39AM (#6310028) Journal
      The SD slot in the Treo 600 is SDIO-compliant, which means you can put a bluetooth card, a wifi card, a GPS or whatever you want in there.

      I agree that it's not as nice as having the bluetooth antenna built in, but the damn thing is already being priced out at $600, and you gotta keep the aftermarket companies happy somehow.
  • Everything but wifi and GPS....

    Which lends itself to a tough choice..

    The new palm/Garmin iQue 3600 has palm os, integrated GPS, mp3 player, etc... And should be able to chew on an sd-wifi card

    And Amazon is taking pre-orders now! [amazon.com]

    What a fantastic year, just to have choices like that though.

    Kremvax

  • Next generation Treo 600 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by KeelSpawn ( 575726 ) on Friday June 27, 2003 @12:55AM (#6308777) Journal
    We had a mini-review of the Treo 600 at: www.palmzone.net

    The phone is much more narrow and sleek than the current Treo line. It runs Palm OS 5.2.1 and has a built-in digital camera and a Secure Digital slot that is capable of both memory expansion and SDIO. The Treo 600 will have 32 MB of memory. The screen is brighter and smaller than the screen of the current Treo with better visibility outdoors. It will have a large capacity battery that can run the phone for up to four hours, although the battery is not user-replaceable. The Treo 600 will be able to use the CDMA or GSM/GPRS standards.

    Handspring showed a prototype of its next generation Treo 600 smartphone at a Sprint PCS show recently:

    Handspring earlier this month demonstrated the Treo 600 at a Sprint PCS User forum in Dallas:

    http://www.treocentral.com/content/Stories/229-1 .h tm

    This is the last handheld from Handspring before it was acquired from Palm, Inc. I believe that Palm saw its potential, and instantly bought it off. Quite impressive I would say. Jeff Hawkins was originally Palm's CEO, but left to open up Handspring during 1998. It's nice to see him going back. =)

    Anthony

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