The Treo 650 tries to improve on the first-class success of the Treo 600. Larry Garfield tries it out to see if it does enough, and concludes with a resounding yes.
Review summary of the Sprint Treo 650:
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 It is always difficult to follow on success, but palmOne’s fourth generation Treo manages to do just that. It takes the already first-rate design of the Treo 600 and rounds out the feature set, adding more polish, pizazz, and tweaks to perfect the design. The memory overhead problem is the only major gaffe on the Treo 650, although the current lack of Bluetooth DUN support and out of the box voice dialing is also disappointing. On the flip side, excellent software integration, a first-rate thumbboard, good camera, and record-breaking battery life make the Treo 650 a compelling product, and one that replaces the Treo 600 as the standard-setting communicator on the market. Price: $250.
Pros: Excellent software integration; good camera; Methuselahan battery life
Cons: Inefficient memory design; no wi-fi
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Full Sprint Treo 650 Review:
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palmOne hit a home run last year with the Treo 600 communicator. Now, the company is trying to push ahead with the Treo 650, which offers some small and some large improvements on its predecessor as well as one or two major problems. On the balance, however, the Treo 650 is a worthwhile successor.
Design
At first glance the Treo 650 is almost identical to its predecessor. Measuring 113 x 59 x 23 mm and weighing 178 grams, it's slightly heavier than the Treo 600 but about mid-range weight for communicators overall. The size is nearly perfect for fitting in the hand as either a phone or a handheld, just as it was for the Treo 600, and the paint job is very similar with dark plastic and painted chrome highlights on front.
The new screen on the Treo 650 is gorgeous. A bright and crisp 320 x 320 16-bit TFT, the screen is slightly smaller than a normal handheld screen, which pushes the pixels closer together and eliminates all pixel lines. Below that sits the Send/End buttons, 5-way directional pad, and application buttons. Home and Menu keys are now available above the Send and End buttons, respectively, while Calendar and Email get dedicated buttons of their own.
The thumbboard below them is also slightly improved from the 600. It now features a marginal curve to the layout and slightly flatter keys, white colored with a numeric keypad embedded in them. Two shift keys, a function key for symbols and numbers, and an Alt key to access alternative characters, all familiar from previous Treos, make for one of the nicest keyboards on the market. All buttons are backlit with a surprisingly bright but comfortable white backlight, and have a good feel when pressed. The layout easily supports both one- and two- thumb typing.
The left side of the Treo 650 includes a long volume rocker and an Alternate button that can trigger another application when held down, while the bottom of the device offers the new palmOne Multi-Connector port as seen on the Tungsten T5. The top of the device includes the infrared port and SD slot, along with the hardware silence switch we've always loved about the Treos. The antenna is a fat external design on the left, while the metal barrel stylus sits on the right, albeit with a new head design that's a bit difficult to remove. In back is the VGA camera lens beside a small vanity mirror. In front is also a single multi-colored LED that, sadly, is one of the "blinks in my face constantly when the radio is on" variety.
Connectivity
The Sprint version of the Treo 650 sports a dual-band 800/1900 MHz CDMA radio with 1xRTT support for data. The Secure Digital slot with supports SDIO for supported accessories, and the aforementioned Multi-Connector port offers charging and synchronization via the included cable. A stereo 2.5 mm headphone jack sits next to the Multi-Connector.
Also new to the Treo 650 is Bluetooth support. At the moment, however, it is not the best implementation. Sprint has disabled the Dial-Up Networking profile for using the Treo as a wireless modem for a laptop, citing lacking time to complete test and debugging procedures. A ROM upgrade was promised to enable such functionality, but no comments were made regarding when. Profiles which enable communication with Bluetooth headsets and allows users to carry out Bluetooth HotSync are included, however, as is a setup wizard for both.
Absent from the Treo 650 is Wi-Fi, which, although debatable with regard to necessity, has become a staple feature of high-end communicators - and as such is an unfortunate exclusion when considering the competitive landscape.
Specifications
On the inside, the Treo 650 starts off with the now-common power-saving Intel PXA270 processor rated at 312 MHz. The memory situation, however, gets thorny. As with the Treo 600, the Treo 650 offers 23 MB of user-accessible storage - but in the shape of Flash ROM, not RAM. On the upside, this choice leads to no data being lost when the device loses power, as well as power savings while the device is running.
On the downside, the ROM of the Treo 650 uses a file system which stores data in blocks of 512 bytes each. The result is that database records smaller than 512 bytes will still take up 512 bytes, and while that may not sound as much, numerous small records - the standard for most Palm OS databases - rapidly devours valuable memory. As a worst case scenario, an 80 KB Contacts database grew to 334 KB on the Treo 650 just from that slack space. It is difficult to estimate the amount of data that will be lost on slack space in practice, but an SD card is mandatory with this device.
In more positive news, the Treo 650's removable Lithium Ion battery is nothing short of amazing. Rated for 5 hours talk time or 14 days standby, the Treo 650 was able to play music with WAN and PAN radios active and its screen off for a record-breaking, ear-popping 18 hours and 40 minutes before giving a 30 second countdown warning to shut off. To be fair, this test does not reflect typical usage patterns, but under the same conditions most devices on the market offer 6-7 hours of charge. The Treo 650 offers 2-3 times that, bringing back fond memories of the days when a Palm Pilot would run for weeks without battery concerns.
Software
The Treo 650 runs Palm OS "Garnet" 5.4 with all of the extra software library that palmOne has built up in the past two years. That includes the improved PIM suite (including photo support in Contacts) as well as VersaMail 3.0, a unified SMS/MMS client, and so forth. RealPlayer is provided in ROM for audio playback while palmOne provides their own picture and video player. The Blazer web browser is feature-rich and now based on the standard palmOne browser from Access Systems.
Overall system integration on the Treo 650 is excellent. All of the included applications have been optimized for the directional pad and the "moving highlight" feature that debuted on the Treo 600 and also appeared on the Tungsten T5. Combined with the thumbboard, using the touchscreen is almost unnecessary for nearly all built-in programs and many 3rd party applications as well - a boon for power users on the move. The traditional Launcher screen also now includes a quick Bluetooth toggle detailed battery meter, and signal meter. Auto-shift and auto-number shift are intelligently implemented throughout the system.
The Treo 650 includes Camera, Camcorder, and Pictures applications that in practice dovetail into a single program handling their respective functions. The 0.3 Megapixel VGA still camera and 240 x 320 video recording function were both excellent. The camera was a weak point for the Treo 600, but the Treo 650's camera is reminiscent of the Zire 71 with excellent white balance and good quality even in low-light despite the lack of flash. Images and videos can be transfered to the desktop on HotSync in JPG and MPEG4 format, respectively.
Of particular note to corporate users, VersaMail now supports Exchange ActiveSync in addition to traditional POP3 and IMAP4 mail protocols, and in practice setup and use proved a breeze.
The Phone application has also been improved, and now features directional-pad access to 70 quick launch or speed dial buttons via an animated sliding display. On-screen finger-friendly buttons give access to speakerphone, hold, and multi-way calling functions. Amazingly, voice dialing is not included by default, a feature available on even sub-$100 USD phones.
Lastly, although not in ROM, third-party Office suite Documents To Go 7 from iGo is available on the included CD-ROM, making for an adequate software offering.
Availability
The CDMA version of the Treo 650 is as of this writing available exclusively through mobile network operator Sprint in the United States for $599.99 USD with subscription.
Price and availability
The Sprint Treo 650 will start selling for $250 to $350 ((Sprint)) in November 1999.
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