Palmone Treo 650 GSM Review

PDA Review :

Main Features
•Treo 650 smartphone

The Treo 650 smartphone from palmOne makes it easier than ever to stay connected. It simplifies your life by combining a compact mobile phone with email, an organizer, messaging, and web access. There's also Bluetooth technology so you can connect wirelessly to other Bluetooth devices. Not to mention an MP3 player, a digital camera that captures video, and a vibrant color screen that brings everything to life - all in a device that's still small enough to fit in your pocket. Seems like Treo smartphones just keep getting smarter.

Design

The Treo 650 looks very similar to the Treo 600. While most of the changes are under the hood, the most noticeable exterior differences include a slightly larger and curved keyboard, a few more buttons and a different color.

PalmOne was smart to follow in the design footsteps of the Treo 600. It's almost the same exact size, which compared to my tiny Sony Ericsson phone feels huge, but next to a Windows Mobile phone, it feels just right. The display is the same size as the Treo 600, but it packs in more pixels to quadruple the screen real estate. Below the display is a set of largely new or repurposed buttons, along with the keyboard, more on both later.
Operating System

The Treo 650 is the second palmOne unit to leverage the updated Palm OS v5.4, also known as Garnet. It's much like what can be found in the Tungsten T5, with additional software and support for the voice and data applications. In general the OS is solid, though I have experienced unexpected reboots with some applications. It seems to be a software compatibility issue; I suppose not all developers have worked out the bugs associated with running their software in this new environment.

Memory

The Treo 650 memory is a love hate sort of thing. palmOne made a smart move by adding non-volatile memory. That means when the Treo loses power, the memory will not be wiped out. But at the same time, they only made 23.7 MB available to the user, which stores some files less efficiently than the Treo 600, resulting in less net storage space. palmOne has resolved the situation by providing users who request it with a free 128MB memory card. They think the memory can be used more efficiently with a software patch, but at this time, no patch is available.

It's really a shame that this is even an issue. After determining that business users would rather have more memory than WiFi in the Tungsten T5; there is no reasonable explanation for why the Treo 650 got such a raw deal in the memory department. While it's true that many users will find the memory ample for all their contacts, email and a few games, it's really not enough for moderate to power users. I maxed out the RAM with 6 applications in addition to what comes pre-installed. Of course programs can be installed to the Secure Digital card slot, but taking cards in and out is a pain and they're hard to keep track of.

For light users, the memory isn't going to be a problem at all, but anyone who was busting at the seems with a Treo 600, is going to be in a worse position now. The memory issue is the most significant Treo 650 blunder in my view and sadly one that can't really be improved on, short of a removable memory card. While it's not a deal killer, it's a mistake that simply should not have been made. Whoever thought this was a good idea needs to be removed from the planning team for future devices.

from bargainpda.com