Anthony Newman has spent some time with Handspring's final handheld, and finds that it's the closest thing yet to a perfect convergence device.
Review summary of the palmOne Treo 600:
| Gallery » |
 Price: $600.
Pros:
Cons:
%
POOR |
Mediocre |
Good |
Very good |
Excellent |
|
|
Full review of the palmOne Treo 600:
 |
It's incredibly difficult to avoid using superlative terms of affection when discussing the Treo 600: words like 'love' and 'perfect' have a way of creeping in, which is a tribute to just how good a job the team at Handspring did on this, their final pre-palmOne handheld. In fact, the presence of little design details and sheer quality of implementation alone make this arguably the best WAN handheld we've yet seen.
 | The Treo 600: good things come in small packages
|
Design
The Treo 600 is a tiny candybar unit, which crucially feels more like a phone than a PDA in the hand. Although it is relatively thick it is ergonomically shaped and sits very comfortably in the palm. This is the first reason why the 600 is so good: it is a full PDA with a touchscreen and a thumbboard, and yet its phone features don't feel out of place: one never feels like they're holding a computer to their head. Perhaps most importantly, it's small enough to carry everywhere like a phone.
The display is the Treo's first achilles' heel, though. In a gesture towards size, Handspring included an 11-bit, 2.2" STN LCD running at an archaic 160 x 160 pixel resolution. Although the backlight is incredibly bright, and also readable outside, colours are uneven and notable ghosting can occur. The resolution doesn't feel like a problem - after all, Palm OS devices managed quite well with it for years - but more would have been appreciated on a 'high-end' handheld. Granted, no other Palm OS smartphone uses a 320 x 320 display yet, and surprisingly, such a small touchscreen is not a problem - thanks to the well-implemented thumbboard, as we will find.
The stylus is rarely used in normal operation, but resides on the back-right corner as usual. The metal barrel runs the entire length of the handheld, so despite the diminutive size of the Treo we find a pleasantly comfortable stick.
The buttons are the second real joy of this device. From the power button to the D-pad to the integrated thumbboard they are perfect, offering solid positioning and wonderful feedback. The top of the device holds a power button for the wireless unit and a hard switch to engage silent mode. This is a great little addition - no fiddling with profiles when entering a meeting or cinema; just flick the switch.
The left side of the device holds two buttons for controlling volume, while the reset hole resides on the back of the unit. The Treo's front is a button-fetishist's dreamworld: four neat clicky application buttons kick off the selection, offering access to the phone application, calendar and inbox respectively. The final key toggles standby and keylock: a quick tap will turn off the screen at any point, which is great for saving battery life. As with the earlier Treos, use of the option key in conjunction with the application buttons allows an alternate set of programs to be launched. Genius.
The D-pad is itself a revelation, and other manufacturers could take a leaf out of Handspring's book in this regard. Feedback and precision is excellent, and the centrally-mounted enter key is equally good. Handspring's implementation of the pad is great for quick navigation too, as we will find later.
Of course, the 600's great selling point is its integrated backlit thumboard, which is one of the best we have used. Quiet enough for a meeting, it nonetheless gives a clicky response from its hard, domed keys. They are, admittedly, small, but even this reviewer's large hands had no problem keeping up with note-taking, and made very few errors. Punctuation is easily accessible through a sticky toggle key, and the period has a dedicated key. Handspring has also included a menu key and home key, which help navigation without need for the stylus.
One flashing LED indicates network and charging status, although it unfortunately doesn't seem to indicate the presence of a new message or missed call: users will have to check this manually.
Audio is provided by a large speaker on the back of the unit, which provides great output for music and the speakerphone, especially considering the petite size of the Treo. The standard phone speaker and microphone are solid as well, offering loud, clear voice transmission. The same can be said of the 2.5 mm headset jack, although the included mono earbud leaves something to be desired: a stereo headset offers greater flexibility for music.
The final design feature of the Treo is its integrated VGA digital camera, which sits on the top-right corner of the back. This provided fairly decent output, considering its intended role is photo messaging and casual snapping - see an example here. The Treo occasionally had trouble with some odd colour tinting, and obviously without a flash had difficulty with dark environments. Overall, this is a helpful feature, however.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
» Top 15
|
|
|
» Search (New!)
Search by cell phone features
|
|
|
» Manual comparison (New!)
Select up to 4 cell phones side-by-side
|
|
|
» By release
October 2008, November 2008, December 2008
|
|
|
» Top 15 by carrier
Unlocked, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Helio, Alltel
|
|
|
|
» Top 15 by user type
Average Joe, Business users, Calling addicts, Fashion conscious users, Globetrotters, High-res addicts, Internet addicts, Multimedia enthusiasts, Music aficionados, Outdoor enthusiasts, TV addicts, Video lovers, More...
|
|
|
» Top 15 by brand
Apple, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia,
BlackBerry, Samsung, Sony Ericsson Other
|
|
|
» Top 15 by platform
Palm OS, Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ, Windows Mobile
|
|
|
|
» Top 15 by cell phone type
Business smartphones, Multimedia smartphones
Consumer QWERTY phones, Multimedia phones
Concept phones
|
|
|
|
|
|
_it00.jpg)
|
Archive