Last year's Treo 600 was the hybrid communicator to beat, so how does palmOne follow that? With the Treo 650, of course. Larry Garfield gives his first impressions.
Read infoSync World's review of the palmOne Treo 650
When we reviewed the Handspring Treo 600 last year, infoSync World described it as the "closest thing yet to a perfect convergence device." Our only serious complaints were the low-res screen, lack of Bluetooth, and awful camera. palmOne was apparently listening, as the new Treo 650 addresses all three issues, and adds a few incremental tweaks as well.
At first glance, the Treo 650 is almost the same as the Treo 600. The external dimensions and general design are identical, but there have been a few evolutionary improvements. The backlit keyboard keys are now slightly larger and flatter, making them easier to use. Call and Hang Up now have their own dedicated buttons, and Home and Menu are moved above the normal application buttons. The Treo serial connector at the base of the device has now been replaced by the new palmOne Multi-Connector, first seen on the Tungsten T5, which makes it compatible with new and future accessories but not with older Treo accessories. The Treo 650 also offers a removable battery in place of the non-swappable battery of its predecessor.
More significant is the new screen. A bright and crisp 320 x 320 16-bit color display, it is, if anything, slightly richer in color than the T5, although that may be due to the smaller overall screen size compared to the T5. Nonetheless, that's one problem well-corrected.
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Next up is the new wireless. The Treo 600 came in CDMA 1xRTT and quad-band GSM/GPRS versions. The Treo 650 also comes in two versions, CDMA 1xRTT and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, the latter being compatible with virtually any GSM network in the world up to the highest current data speeds. Both versions also add Bluetooth support built-in for connecting to Bluetooth headsets, computers, other handhelds, and Bluetooth-equipped cars. That's two issues corrected.
The camera has also been improved, but not greatly. The Treo 650 still sports only a VGA camera without flash, but it has been improved for much better low-light indoor pictures with considerably improved white balance. Where the Treo 600's camera was barely useful, the Treo 650's should prove on par with the Zire 71 or higher-quality VGA camera phones. palmOne has also added a vanity mirror for self-portraits. That's three.
The software on the Treo 650 has improved greatly as well, although most of it has been seen on other palmOne handhelds before. Based on Palm OS 5.4, included applications include Documents To Go 7 with native MS Office support, an audio player for MP3s, the new palmOne Media suite from the Zire 72 and T5, SMS/MMS support, and a new version of VersaMail. As per palmOne's previous announcement of support for Exchange ActiveSync, the Treo 650's VersaMail supports POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, and Exchange ActiveSync mail, and through corporate sales can support Good Technology's GoodLink BlackBerry-like mail service as well as carrier-specific mail systems.
The Treo 650's specs have changed a bit as well. The processor has been upped to a 312 MHz Intel PXA270, although the memory has stayed at 32 MB, with only 23 MB available to the user. Other features of the Treo 600 we liked are still included, such as the speakerphone, SDIO slot, and hardware silent switch that is the glory of theater-goers everywhere.
If there is a downside to the Treo 650, it's that it is only a modest improvement on its predecessor. It is, essentially, the Treo 600 Take 2. Particularly missing is Wi-Fi support, something many users have been requesting, and according to palmOne the company's Wi-Fi card has not been tested with the Treo 650 and likely will not work. However, a palmOne representative did say "If customers require this functionality, we will continue to evaluate it for future release," which could mean a driver update in the not-near future or consideration in a later Treo. Still, the Treo 650 gets an initial thumbs up from infoSync World.
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