The PalmOne Treo 650 boasts all the legendary features of the venerable Treo 600, plus a whole lot more. Now with Bluetooth, a higher resolution screen, a removable battery, and an improved keyboard, the Treo 650 is once again on the cutting edge of Smartphone technology. It offers all the functionality of a high-end Palm OS-powered PDA, a cell phone and a VGA camera. Simply put, it's the ultimate mobile office companion.
Design
Click the image to get a closer look at the Treo 650's features. |
Under the hood, the Treo 650 features Palm OS 5.4, 32MB of RAM (23MB available for end user storage), and an Intel PXA270 312 MHz processor. The design retains the same popular form factor as the Treo 600 with a few subtle, yet significant, changes. The unit's screen has been dramatically enhanced to support 320 x 320 resolution and the full QWERTY keypad has been redesigned for greater ease of use. The top of the unit features an expansion card slot for SD and MMC-based memory and expansion cards. There's also an infrared port here for line of sight data transfers, as well as a handy switch for turning off the phone's ringer. A five-way navigator controls most of the phone's menus and operating system functions, while quick application buttons on either side of the navigator get you to your favorite applications in a snap. The left side of the unit features a volume up/down toggle plus a handy user-customizable button that can be assigned to any phone or PDA function. The rear of the Treo 650 houses a loudspeaker, as well as the VGA (640x480) camera unit. A touchscreen stylus can be tucked away on the right side of the phone. Meanwhile, a combined charging, data, and accessory attachment port is housed on the bottom of the unit, as is a standard 2.5 mm stereo headset jack.
Calling and PDA Features
All the of the Treo 650's phone and PDA functions are designed to provide an integrated, seamless experience. For instance, you can type in the name or initials of a contact on the keypad to dial them. Or, use the touchscreen and stylus to copy information from an email and quickly paste it into another email or text message. All of the latest phone features folks expect are built-in, too, like a handsfree speakerphone, polyphonic ringtones, a vibrate mode and picture caller ID. The capacity of the unit's address book is only limited by the amount of internal and expansion memory available. Use the Treo 650's Bluetooth capability to wirelessly sync your contacts with your PC or Mac (yes, Mac!). Headsets, car kits and other wireless peripherals can also be paired with the unit via Bluetooth.
The Treo 650 is also a fully functional Palm OS device. That means that a huge library of applications, from spreadsheets to word processors to games, can be added to the Treo 650. It's easy to perform multiple tasks like checking your calendar while talking on the phone or dialing calls directly from your contacts list. Familiar Palm OS software ships with the handset including calendar, calculator, clock, contacts, memo, and task management applications. Real Player for video and MP3 playback, VersaMail email client, and DataViz Documents to Go for mobile access to spreadsheets and text documents, are also included.
The unit's memory expansion slot allows you to transfer music, photos, and video from your desktop. Or, use it to load additional games and applications.
Messaging and Internet
The device fully supports SMS and MMS messaging for rapid exchange of pictures, text and video via Sprint's instant messaging system. Other Sprint PCS Vision services are also supported, such as mobile email, web browsing and instant messaging. Sprint's PCS Business Connection service, which is fully compatible with the Treo 650, gives you secure, remote, real-time access to Microsoft Outlook Exchange-- including email messages and attachments, calendar, business directory and personal contacts. You can also respond to meeting requests, access documents stored on your desktop PC, and view email from POP3 and IMAP4-based email accounts, including Sprint PCS Mail, Yahoo!, Earthlink and more.
Messaging and Internet
The device fully supports SMS and MMS messaging for rapid exchange of pictures, text and video via Cingular's instant messaging system. Other Cingular services are also supported, such as mobile email and web browsing. The Treo 650's web browser supports full-size web pages, and you can enter secure pages with 128-bit SSL encryption. POP3 email accounts provided by SBC, BellSouth, Yahoo, Earthlink, Comcast and AT&T Worldnet are all compatible with the 650's email client application. IMAP and Exchange-based email systems are also supported, and you can view photos, HTML, Word, Excel and PowerPoint attachments.
Vital Statistics
The PalmOne Treo 650 weighs 6.30 ounces and measures 4.40 x 2.30 x .90 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 6 hours of digital talk time, and up to 300 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the 800/900/1800/1900 GSM/GPRS frequencies. The phone comes with a one year limited warranty.
What's in the Box
Treo 650 handset, lithium-ion battery, USB HotSync cable, headset, AC charger, user manual, software CD-ROM.
1 Great Phone - Great Provider
First, let me state that I am not a consumer user on Cingular. While it is my personal cell phone, I got an employee discount plan with Cingular. So, the one time I've had to make a customer service call to Cingular, I used their business customer service number and got immediate and usefull help. Plus, Rollover minutes and the great coverage really do make Cingular worth it. I can get a single for both calls and data in so many places were other providers don't work at all.
As for the phone, I love it. I've had it about 3 months now (bought it direct from Cingular when it came out) and as time passes, I use it more and more. There are a few programs for the phone you can purchase that I feel should be included, such as voice dialing. But all in all, it does just about everything I want it to and more.
2 Great PDA Phone despite Amazon Reviews
There are many on amazon giving horrible reviews for this phone and influenced me to hold off purchasing the Treo for some time. However, after much deliberation, I decided I could wade through the technical problems others had. THANK GOD! Not only did Amazon improve the in stock availability of the phone, so you receive it in less than 2 days, I have easily integrated all of my previous phone, palm, and computer information into one handy do it all machine. Do your research if you plan to buy this phone and look for other reviewers. There are sites that specifically review Treo's as well as providing extensive helpfull information to improve your experience.
There are three problems I have encountered, two of which (and most likely the cause of third) seem to be a problem with the locked palm software.
1. Is the bluetooth for wireless headsets has a volume issue and requires a patch to improve the headset volume. The problem is that if you exit the call screen to look at your schedule etc, while on the phone, the patch no longer works and the volume drastically decreases. This is a software glitch from palm and there is no known correction at the present time.
2. The palm comes preloaded with Real Player. The installation CD requires you set up your real player on your computer for easier access to all your media files. The problem is that I can not get the audio to work on any video files that I record or synch to my palm. Not quite where the problem is unless I'm missing codecs therefore I'm not sure of a fix.
3. I have experienced a few soft resets when fiddling with various phone settings. I'm not quite sure of the specific problem but I imagine it is the way the new flash drive works on this palm or it could be a software glitch. It happens very infrequently and I have never experienced a reset out of the blue.
Even with these problems and they are minor, the bluetooth being the most annoying, I can not be happier with the Treo. My pockets are empty and I have my phone, mp3, and pda all in one. Like I said, do your research and dont base your purchase solely on the reviews on Amazon.
3 Much Better Than I Thought (After Reading These Reviews)
Don't let the reviews on Amazon scare you if you're considering this phone! I purchased it, and after a billing issue was quickly resolved by Cingular's customer service, I was enjoying crystal-clear call quality. I then left on a vacation to the eastern United States and the call quality was great in both urban and rural settings. The icing on the cake is when I used Treo's email feature to close a valuable deal for my company! This is a great phone -- packed with useful features. You won't regret buying it.
4 Best smart phone/PDA you can buy
Smart phones do three things: PDA functions, phone and e-mail. Blackberry probably does e-mail best of all, but the Treo is great for people who want a PDA with good phone capabilities. There are better phones, but they don't do the PDA job as well. And the Treos run Palm software, so there are vast numbers of add-on programs you can buy.
I've had a Treo 600 for a year and recently upgraded to a 650. The PDA/phone integration on the Treo is superb -- you synch all your contacts with Outlook, find them easily on the PDA and then you can dial them with the push of a button. All the wirelss carries except Nextel have it available (April '05).
The main difference between the Treo 600 and 650 is the 650's high resolution screen. On the 600 it was hard to read maps clearly except zoomed in. The 650 cures that. The keyboard is also improved vs. the 600, although you still have to use your thumbs and trim your nails. But the keyboard is a lot more accurate and versatile than Graffiti. (Graffiti doesn't come with the Treo but you can buy Jot as an add-on.) And the 650 has Bluetooth capabilty so you can use a Bluetooth wireless headset. Palm changed to fixed memory in the 650 so you don't lose your data even if the battery runs out.
The web browsing capability is OK in a pinch, like when you want to find a flight or the weather or get a Mapquest map or a phone #. Memory is adequate but not overly generous. Buy an SD card to store large files (maps, in my case) and MP3 files. Also buy an add-on security program like Teallock - Palm's built-in security application is weak and clumsy to use.
All in all, the Treo has everything you could want if your priorites are PDA - phone - e-mail (in that order). It lacks WiFi capability for web browsing and e-mail at hot spots, but maybe that will be available in the next version, or maybe the carriers will have deployed high speed digital cellular technology by then.
5 Great phone,but don't use Cingular with it.Use Sprint PCS
The New-Age Treo's are the best smart devices ever made! I have used the T-Mobile Sidekick, the AT&T Motorola MPX, a Nextel Blackberry, a Samsung i600, and even an older style Treo in the form of the Treo 300. And out of every smart device I have ever used, the Treo 600 and 650 are 1000 times better then any of them!
1# The Treo's have large color screens with full keyboards, but are still small enough to fit in your pocket.
2# The battery life is insanely long! Both of the new Treo's claim four to five hours talk time, I have found even longer. I often lay in my bed at night surfing the web for hours and hours, and by the time I am ready to go to sleep, my Treo 600 and 650 still have enough battery life to go a few more rounds.
3# Because the Treo's are so popular the prices for accessories, software, add-on's, ect are Much cheaper then those for the other types of smart devices on the market. There is even talk by Palmone to start using Linux as the Palmsource software core, so there will be even more software available. And because Linux is open source, the phones will eventually be cheaper then those running the Microsoft Pocket PC. With the added bonus of the dependability of Linux!
4# Because the Treo's are of the Candy-Bar style design, they are much easier to talk on. Because there is no flip, or antenna to fumble with.
5# There is a software lancher called "ZLauncher" which has many features for your Treo's software interface. One of which allows you to see the exact level of signal strength. By using this tool you can so how much better the Treo's antenna and related components work, compared to any other phone on the market. I get a great signal with Sprint, but with Sprint and my Treo, my service is even better! I get signals with my Treo in places where my Sanyo and LG did not. In fact, I get better signal strength with my Treo, then my friends get with their phones!
6# Palmone has a patent on a new design of smart device that they are working to bring to the market. A design nothing like the designs currently available. A PDA phone that will be thinner and still able to have a large full color screen and keyboard. SO the next generation of Treo's will be even better!
The only downfall to the Palmone Treo's today, is price. That is because they are still new to the PDA phone market. Once they start making more and more phones, the prices will come down. And once they restructure their PDA manufacturing and company purpose in general, the prices will come down. I don't normally write reviews on phones, because I used to be a Die-Hard Motorola phone fan, and I guess still am. But if Palmone keeps making phones this perfect, then I will only buy their phones for the rest of my life! I can not say enough good things about these phones! Try one and see what I am talking about. Use it with Sprint PCS's $10 unlimited Visions access!
Russell
6 GREAT
I received the TREO 650 a few days ago and it's been working great. I figured out everything in one weekend (you don't have to follow it word for word, ya know).
I purposely did NOT get Cingulars Data package, because Wi-Fi devices will be coming out very shortly. Why pay them for something that shoule be free?
7 The phone itself is great. Cingular wireless however...
is in the clouds about everything. I gave this product two stars, but let me make clear that I'd give the phone 5 stars and cingular wireless 0 stars.
I've called Palm One on a few occasions and they've been more than happy to help. Whenever it was a service issue however I've had to deal with Cingular. I had Cingular a couple of years ago and switched to Verizon after only 3 months because of Cingular's horrible service. After years of being a Verizon customer, I decided after much deliberation to give Cingular a second chance because A- I wanted this phone and B- They've now joined forces with AT&T which should make their coverage much better than before. Well, Coverage is better, but customer service is just as Unacceptable. I've only had this phone and Cingular for 3 1/2 weeks now and already MAJOR PROBLEMS with customer service. First of all, I SPECIFICALLY asked for the 200 min. plan because I usually use my office phone anyway. Did I get that? NO. When bill time comes around I see they gave me the 450 minute plan and as expected I only used about 40 minutes this billing cycle. I SPECIFICALLY asked for an UNLIMITED DATA plan. Bill time comes around and I see that they actually put me on the 10MB Data Plan and as expected I used more than twice as much as that so I was expected to pay over charges. So I called customer service and once again asked them for the plan I wanted. They changed the voice plan, but NOT the data plan as I could see the account online. I called again and AGAIN asked them to change the data plan and remove over charges. I told them I need a data plan that is unlimited AND allows me unlimited data send and recieve (yes apparently these are two seperate things). They signed me up for PDA connect Unlimited. I asked what the difference was between that and their other unlimited data plans. They had no idea. So I decide to speak to someone else at cingular... who also had no idea. After someone assured me that Unlimited PDA connect was what I needed, I did some homework on their site (Keep in mind this information was not easy to find on their site. Their features menu has very poor descriptions of the features and some of the descriptions showed no difference between one and the other... besides price that is of coarse) and it turns out that unlimited PDA connect meant that I could use my wireless phone as a modem for my laptop, but I would still have to pay for data sent & recieved! At least as one representative explained it. A MODEM??!!! Uh...DID NOT ASK FOR THAT! So I was paying an extra $40 a month for a service I did not want! Best part is their website allows you to add all the features you want, but you can't remove them on the site unless you're replacing one feature in place of a simular one. Otherwise you have to get back in touch w/ their lovely know-nothing customer service reps. I got back to customer service, complained about being put on the wrong plan AGAIN. And asked if what I really needed was the Media Works plan whose details I stumbled upon in their site. The customer rep (who also doesn't know the difference between their media net and pda connect.) then tells me that they no longer offer an unlimited media works package. ON THEIR SITE IT SAYS IN BIG LETTERS THAT THEY HAVE MEDIA WORKS AT LEAST UNTIL 2006! I mention this and she remains silent. I ask if this means that the info on their site is just not updated. And she said yes... but who knows? Maybe she just didn't know what else to say! After putting me on hold for 7 minutes she tells me she put me on the Xpress Mail Black Berry unlimited package.... "But as I told you", I said, "I don't have a blackberry. I have a Treo 650." She tells me that it would still work fine for the Treo. But having my suspicions I spoke with someone in their data department who.. you guessed it... tells me that it won't work for my Treo that it is only for Blackberry pdas and that the other person didn't know what she was talking about. She, (like all the other reps I talked to beforehand promised me that this time I was on the right plan.) However when I next check my online account I see that I have two Data plans instead of one and each of them costs over $40 in addition to my $30 voice plan AND to top it all off... IT STILL SAYS I ONLY HAVE A 500 DATA 'MINUTES' AVAILABLE...NOT UNLIMITED. ALL I WANT IS UNLIMITED. THAT'S ALL I WANT! THAT'S ALL I'VE WANTED SINCE THE BEGINNING. You would think the representatives knew their own product, but they don't. So now I have to call YET AGAIN. Cingular Reps can't tell you what their features are exactly, but they sure don't have a problem telling you how much you'll be paying the company for those features...EVEN IF THEY'RE THE WRONG ONES. Keep in mind, that the phone itself is great. Palm One really needs to get on their ass because it doesn't reflect well on their products when service providers don't allow people to get full use of them. I almost didn't buy this phone merely because of my previous experience with Cingular. If I were Palm One that would concern me. Don't believe me? About 5 minutes of doing your own HW online will show you that Cingular Wireless has the most complaints to the FCC THAN ANY OTHER PHONE COMPANY. Not a title to be proud of. If you can avoid it, don't sign with them. I'm now debating on whether or not I'm going to keep this phone. I want to keep it and hope that I can, but a phone like this is supposed to make your life easier... not more difficult.
8 A Waste of Time - Literally
While this phone has a lot of features, the time, and learning curve that it requires to access and use the features is enormous. Just answering and making calls requires multiple steps and button presses. To sum up the learning process of the phone/PDA, Palm (in it's owners manual) recommends that you learn about the device in the following steps: 1.The first day, read and learn X Chapters, 2. The next day, read and learn X (more)Chapters. 3. After One Week, read and learn X (more) Chapters. 4. Then, after One Month of use, read and learn the remaining chapters of the User Manual. Simply put, the time expended just to learn and USE this device is tremendous. Then, once you learn how to use it, you learn that TO use it also requires time and multiple button presses; no matter how simple of a task you want to do. By the way, these problems/deficiencies should not be taken out on Cingular. They don't make the device. Rather, they sell it because there are people (unlike myself) who have lots of time, and patience, to learn and use devices such as this, and who like electronic devices which are challenging. As for me, I have more important things to do. (By the way, I am not 'electronically challenged.' In fact, I own a business which installs and supports electronically sophisticated devices.)
9 "We're experiencing higher than normal call volume"
You can read elsewhere about how cool this little device is, and I concur with everything they've said; it's cool. You can take pictures, record your voice, talk on a mobile phone, keep your schedule, etc...and all in beautiful 320x320x65K resolution.
HOWEVER. Be aware that if it breaks, you'll have a hell of a time trying to get it fixed. Mine quit syncing; I swapped USB ports, reset the device, uninstalled and reinstalled Palm Desktop, etc., etc. What you'll find is that when you call palmOne, they tell you to call Cingular. When you call Cingular, guess what? You guessed it: Call palmOne. Round and round we go.
Eventually I managed to get them to send a new sync cable, which didn't work any better than the old one. Next step: a new device. So concluded a palmOne rep, so I asked her to call Cingular with me on the line to tell them. After 30 minutes or so I got stuck in the same voice menu you get when you call Cingular on your own, and no sign of the rep. Now, two reps later, I haven't gotten any farther. I don't have to guess where the call centers are located; I asked the rep. India; where else?
So do you want a cool PDA? Sure, buy this one. But if I were you, I'd buy four or five of them, so you don't have to go through this hassle when one breaks. Or you could just look elsewhere. I'm sorry it has to be this way, because in every other way I like this thing. But I hate wasting hours on the phone because a company is too cheap to provide the service it promises.
Go ahead, order. Just don't say you weren't warned. Do you speak Indian? *sigh*
10 Love the phone, service needs lots of improvement
This is an awsome phone. Iused to have an m515 from palm as well as a nokia cellphone and the consolidation of pda to cellphone was a great thing Palm did. Its pricey but if you buy it online with new service its cheaper. I didn't give it 5 stars because customer service with cingular needs so much improvement. I won't go into too much detail but They have about 15 different separate phone numbers that they give you for different depts and with technology the way it is today all those depts should be linked so the customer only need to just call the one number to have access to everything. It was also a painstaking task trying to get cingular customer service to migrate my old number to my new one, long hold times on the phone should not be tolarated by any customer paying what we pay for service. I have more to say but you get the gist of it...
All and all, as far as the phone is concerned, get it. Its great and even has features that my old m515 didn't have. so for the phone I give 5 thumbs up. Cingular service I give only 3.
11 Buyer Beware ordering this phone from Amazon.com
I placed my order on Feb 21st and it has since been delayed twice. About a week ago, a rep told me that my order got messed up. The email assured me that it would be shipped by March 23rd (Today is March 22nd and my order still has not shipped).
They even offered overnight shipping for free. Wow, but that doesn't help considering I've been waiting for almost a month.
I don't believe I've ever waited this long ordering anything online before.
If you can be without a cell phone for 4 weeks, then by all means order from Amazon. If Amazon takes care of this matter, I'll be sure to post a follow up to this review.
12 Ok PDA, poor phone.
The Treo 650 is the flagship product from Palmone. My review is based on a 14 day experience with this Treo.
The 650 works fine as a Palm PDA but more like entry level Zire PDA's. However one can have a better PDA experience even with mid priced PDA's like Tungsten E. The file system issues are so serious with this that Palmone is offering free SD cards (although not the right solution),
http://web.palmone.com/support/sd.jhtml
The phone side of 650 is very disappointing given the amount of time Handsrping/Palm/Palmone have been working on the Treo series. The phone part is simply not yet ready for use as an everyday cell phone. Lots of calls get dropped even in perfect signal areas (other cell phones don't have this trouble in same areas). The battery life is nothing stellar if you use it for long calls. The reception is below average and so is the sound quality. The volume even at its max is not loud enough for most people, forget about using this in noisy streets of NYC etc.
People on the other end also had troubles with the Treo, many complained that my voice was too low on their side. Also a friend thought I had hung up on her, when it was my Treo that got disconnected without any warning.
The other gadget features like camera, mp3 playback etc are all secondary to me. If a phone doesn't work as a phone reliably then its no good. Constant soft resets and reboots are not my expectation from a cell phone. So I am back to my T|E + T616 combo and the Treo is back with the retailer.
I feel that Palmone put all their eggs in one Treo basket and failed. They haven't made any new PDA's (apparently they are focusing their energies on Treo line) and neither have they created a working smartphone. If I were a Palmone or Palmsource shareholder I had dump them asap.
Ofcourse Treo fanboys (and fangirls?) won't like my review but truth is that this device is too expensive for it does (or claims to do). Imagine dropping a $600 device on the pavement (like it happens with most cell phones) and ending up with a paperweight? Nothing will loose money faster than this overpriced "smartphone", it costs almost as much as new entry level laptops!
Palm OS lovers would be better served by choosing a reliable cell phone and a bluetooth enabled Palm PDA to hook them up. Atleast you will be able to make your phone calls!
13 Fantastic
I moved over from the Motorola MPx200 and AT&T service to this phone and I couldn't be happier. Where I used to have no signal or two bars at the most, I now have a good strong signal. Integrating with a bluetooth headset was a snap. My only complaint at this point is that the sync cable that ships with it doesn't charge the device. Looks like the only way to get this is to buy the cradle for over $50...
14 Nice Try
This phone doesn't have enough memory so it can't do everything that it should. Unless you want to spend many hours managing memory, buying expansion cards, and learning what applications can work on expansion cards, wait another year for a better model.
15 Great Device, but not quite terrific.
I got this Treo 650 (Cingular) about a month ago. I love this device and Amazon's price is great, too. I already had a Palm device so I was familiar with all the applications. The only 3rd party software I use was AvantGo. I love it and the latest version works well with the Treo after I got the install kinks resolved. The Treo 650 seems to have good reception, even at my house which sits in a small valley where Sprint reception was always a problem. The buttons are easier to use than I expected, but I still make a few mistakes keying in data. It is strange that the operating system on this Treo sometimes make you use a combination of the keyboard buttons and buttons on the screen. That's unnecessary fumbling around. I have run in to that several times. If I am not going to be given the option of Grafitti, then I should be able to do everything through the keyboard or Grafitti, but not both.
Unfortunately I had a few problems right out of the gate.
Number 1. Amazon's website didn't prompt me to indicate that I wanted to port my cell number from my old carrier Sprint to Cingular. Then, when I got an email from Amazon indicating the unit had shipped, Cingular followed up a couple of hours later saying my phone had been shipped already activated and assigned me a number. I would up having to go to a Cingular retail store to get a new SIM card if I wanted to keep my Sprint number. Fortuntely there is one 5 minutes from my house and Brandi, the employee, was super nice and helpful. I was done in about 20 minutes, questions and all, but I still had to go in. Not as good as it could have been but not awful.
Number 2: Amazon's box did not include the slip cover like the website promised. I contacted Amazon customer service and they shipped me one. They responded to me quickly and were apologetic.
Pros
> I love having all these functions in one unit so I don't have to carry around multiple devices
> The Palm calendar application now shows the people invited to meetings when you sync with Outlook (older versions of the OS didn't)
> Keyboard is wonderfully lit
> Screen is beautiful except in bright sunlight
> Camera is better than I expected, but Palm can do better
> Video capture works well for a cell phone, like when you could use a video camera but don't have one.
> Battery life is better than I expected, too. I can get about 3 days on one charge with moderate amount of phone usage.
> Battery gauge seems to be linear and accurate
Cons
> The Treo resets itself without warning. Sometimes it crashes when I am scrolling. Sometimes I find that it has reset itself overnight or when it's been in the slipcase. What's frustrating is that the phone doesn't always turn back on after the reset, so there have been times when I find that the phone is off when it wasn't deliberately turned off.
> The vibrate feature is so soft that many times I have not felt it vibrating in my own pocket or in the slipcase. Now I have to leave the sound on so I can hear it ring. The vibrating needs to be much stronger.
> The speaker sounds like it is shot already, and the unit is brand new. Whoever Palm is buying these speakers from needs to improve the quality. Most of the sounds crackle like the speaker is ruined.
> HotSync process using the USB cable that came with the device was **AWFUL**!!! It worked for about a week, then all of a sudden it stopped working. I uninstalled and reinstalled the software several times, took out the memory card, everything and nothing worked. I contacted Palm's support (in the Philippines) and over two different phone calls was on the phone 4 hours, including 1 hour collectively on hold waiting to talk to a technician. You would think they could afford more technicians! After going in to the bowels of the Windows registry, they decided it was a problem with the cable and shipped me a cradle since they didn't have any USB cables to ship me. Now with the cradle it works great, but the cynic in me is waiting this to stop working. The infrared sync works well, but it takes longer than the USB cable and it eats up more battery power. Nowhere does any of the documentation say how to get that working inside Windows (uncheck all the file sharing boxes).
I haven't had to deal with Cingular that much yet, so I can't comment on them. Beyond the number porting issue above, I haven't had any other problems. Cingular's coverage in metro Atlanta is quite broad.
I love this unit, but I'm giving 3 stars because I think most of these problems could have been avoided.
16 Could have been a great device
I was really shocked at how little apps were bundled into this thing. I owned a Clie prior to this phone so I expected as much if not more. What I got instead is nothing new but actually contains less features. No wonder Palm lost market share to the Clie. For example, the Treo 650 does not even allow the use of MP3s as ringtones. Oh wait a minute, it can. But you have to spend $30 on a stupid application that enables this feature. How outrageous! The PDA works great otherwise and I have yet to experience the random resets (only owned it for two days). It was easy to sync with my OSX Entourage (Mac version of Outlook) via bluetooth. Maybe it was easy only because I am a computer engineer and I know my way around computers. Cingular coverage is horrible around the bay area. That combined with the lack of "bonus" apps with the Treo 650 might be enough for me to go back to a regular flip phone which is a few hundred dollars cheaper. In my opnion, is it worth it? No. PalmOne needs to step up and add more multimedia features on this device (mp3 player--realplayer doesn't count, vid player, mp3 ringtone manager, etc.) People should consider the Sony Ericsson P910a before buying this device. I definitely will look into one now. They are just so hard to find in the stores around here.
17 Great if not for the bugs in it
My Treo 650 has sync problems that are heavily documented in the Palm support forums. For some reason, it makes my outlook server repeatedly duplicate old email messages and have them show up as "unread." No help so far from tech support. Did I add that it is nearly impossible to find a Palm tech support number or email address? Buy this phone only if you have time to endlessly troubleshoot all the bugs that come with. This phone is not for the computer-illiterate. You have to be tech-savvy to have any chance of making it work fully.
18 If you have the TREO 600, DON'T UPGRADE
I have retired the 4th Treo 600 due to device problems, freezing, loose headset jack, and bugs in the software causing an orange blob to move across the screen.
The 650 takes some getting used to, but freezes like the 600. NONE OF YOUR 600 ACCESSORIES WILL WORK WITH THE 650. I had to buy a new case, car charger and cradle for the office. I now have a box of 600 accessories that are useful with a broken device.
FORGET ABOUT CALLING THE PALM SUPPORT CALL CENTERS, THEY HAVE A LOT OF MISINFORMATION AND A LACK OF TRAINING WERE OF LITTLE HELP.
I would wait until the TREO becomes more stable and they build more reliability into the product.
19 The most complete PDA phone out there
I'd tried several PDAs and several phones and the Treo 650 finally seems to have closed the gap between the two very well. I went from a Motorola V600, which I found to be very reliable and I like the bluetooth headset arrangement. The Treo 650 added bluetooth to the Treo line, and it's compatible with my Motorola headset. It seems to be even more clear than the V600 was. The only other phone function I was concerned about missing was the voice dial. While it's true the Treo doesn't come with this installed, it does come with an upgrade option that works far better than anything I've used before. The voice dial software actually works on any contact in your PDA database without a teach-function requirement. One more thing - I did have several problems with the first Treo 650s I tried (FIVE IN FACT), but it seems that the later production runs have been better set up as there are none of the initial software glitches I was having with the first few units. I'm very pleased with it now and highly recommend the phone.
20 Good phone but has some problems
Hi,
Just got a phone from Cingular yesterday. Let me get to some of the problems right away. We all know that it is an awesome phone.
1)Voicemail is set up incorrectly. The number set is your wireless number.So when you try to access your voicemail you end up leaving a voicemail. No body at Cingular knew how to resolve it. I called Palm One and they told me to tell the Cingular rep to send an over the air signal. The rep did I turned the phone off (press red button once then again)and turned it back on and it WORKED!!!
2)The phone froze on me a couple of times. Called up Palm one and the rep did a hard reset. Basically deletes all the data and brings the phone back to factory condition. I had data saved so doing a hotsync brought it all back. According to her the problem should now go away. I will monitor it.
3)The volume on the spr and the regular is a tad low. I would have liked it if it were a little louder but it is not bad.
I have not tried most of the other features but will keep everybody posted.
--VJ
21 good phone, full of bugs
In principle this phone is awsome. You've seen all of the great reviews and features, and I agree that its a great phone when it's working, but the problem is that it's got a ton of bugs. This is the second phone I recieved from Amazon.com, the first one's mic and speaker wouldn't work in phone mode, and the thing resets a random intervals when using the phone. This is awful if you're recieving a call and the thing suddenly decides to reset its self. The other problem is no customer support from palm and complete idiots behind the phones at Cingular. No body in cingular or PalmOne has officially acknowledged that there is a serious problem with many of the phones even though the user forums are abuzz with stories of similar soft reset problems. In my case the phone still doesn't work after replacing the sim card (with an Axalto 64k card) with one that should work and performing a complete software re-install with hard reset of the device. Even so, amazon.com is reluctant to send me another phone because I believe they're afraid they'll send another bad one and have to eat the shipping charges.
My advice to the buyer is this, hold off for a little while and watch the palmOne website. Only when they finally acknowledge the problems and post a fix should you consider getting one of these phones. Sure you may get a good phone the first time around but is it worth the time wasted and $500? I would hold off...
22 Great Phone, Soft Resets Few Times a Day. Cingular Sucks!
Treo: Got this phone Feb 22. I have been a Palm User since III, went on to Visor, Tungten, Garmin and now the Treo. Overall, I like it. It still has all the soft reset issues of typically all Palm based devices. Since you expect to get more use out of a Phone PDA than a regular PDA, you will also expect to get more soft resets with it.
Cingular: I moved to Cingular from T-Mobile because I wanted this phone. I should have just bought an unlocked phone at a higher price and stayed with T-Mobile. With T-Mobile, 1 call and things get done. With Cingular, you get transferred to 4 other people then finally get disconnected. It can take more than 2 hours to resolve anything.
I bought the phone from Amazon with an Unlimited Media Works package that according to Cingular expired already. So the Cingular manager did an override but for some reason, the computer keeps erasing the entry.
If you even talk to Cingular about anything important, give them your e-mail address and ask them to send you a summary of the discussion by email while you wait.
23 Great PDA-Phone needs a little work.
I had had a palm for many years and I decided to get a combo pda/phone to reduce the number of gadgets I carry. The treo 600 was not tempting but the treo 650, I thought, had everything I wanted. The screen is immaculate with all the applications fully using the colors well. I have not issues whatsoever with the PDA side. For the phone functionality, the headset jack induces a lot of static. I have tried 2 different wired headsets and will try a wireless bluetooth one later. The speakerphone is fine if you are in the office or at home; however, if you are driving, it is barely audible. Keep in mind I have had this unit only 5 days now. I am hopeful Palmone will resolve the issues with the phone portion.
24 I am waiting for the right phone
My wife's palm M515 no longer holds a charge and she lost her cell phone last week so I ordered Treo 650 from Amazon (2 birds, one stone). I did not realize it would take two weeks to get the phone until I checked the order status the next day. My wife couldn't wait so I bought a Treo 650 from the corner cell phone store. I am waiting for my dream phone from palm, but was excited to try the Treo 650. Especially since I am not the one who has to use it.
The phone seemed to work pretty well. The speakerphone and phone book features were very spiffy. The phone was a good size for me. We were both very disappointed to find out there is no Graffiti functionality. We are both adverse to the Key Board because we are old-fashioned palm users.
When my wife got the phone home she loaded the software and initiated a Hotsync. The phone began a continuous soft reset loop. We tried a hard reset as prescribed in the manual. We tried the contortionist reset described online (press the on button, the up arrow, and the Hotsync button of the USB Hotsync cable then hit the reset button with a stylus held in your teeth); My wife and I did have fun taking turns with the latter. The phone continued with its never-ending loop. We took the battery out to save power. I can confirm this phone has at least 180 minutes of continuous loop time with one charge.
Cingular was no help; they told us to call Palm. My wife and I took turns waiting on hold for almost 2 hours then we were disconnected; it sounded like someone picked up the phone at palm and then hung up.
My wife instructed me to return the phone and get her a regular cell phone. She wants a regular palm too.
Here is my dream Palm phone:
1. No Qwerty Key Board; Keep the phone the same size but make the screen bigger.
2. Voice Dial. My old Motorola V60 color has it. I record a name and then tell the phone to dial the name and it does.
3. GPS system build in. That would be cool. "How do I get home from here, Palm?"
4. 360 minutes of talk time. 150 is too little for this size of a phone.
5. More memory
6. Voice recognition for email and document creation. I want to dictate an email on my palm phone.
7. Transporter Service; "Beam me up Scotty".
Oh well maybe next year.
25 POOR SERVICE BY AMAZON AND PRIVATE SELLER
I ordered a palmone tres 650 pda from a seller on amazon.
They confirmed my order and charged my card and the next day they send me an e-mail stating he can't do the transaction at this time. To me, thats simply very bad business. They always say, when it looks like a good deal something is wrong!!
They were right. I will never again use Amazon.
Thanks for the great experience.
Xtremesynthetic.com
26 CHOP DOWN THE TREO. DO NOT BUY THIS DEVICE
I got a Cingular Treo 650 a couple weeks ago. The call quality is reminscent of the early 90s...remember your Motorola brick phone? Feedback, dropped calls, and now device-initiated soft resets.
The call log does not track to contacts.
No voice dial (pay extra)
No voice memo (pay extra)
No Palm service - Cingular only. I made 4 calls today and got - you guessed it - four different answers to the same question.
This device is not ready for prime time.
27 great smart phone
If I could "rate this item" with 4.5 stars I would.
What I like:
-relatively fast internet access
-bluetooth connectivity (though I've had hotsync problems I have to work out)
-decent resolution for camera
-stylus is not needed as most applications can be used well using the built-in keyboard
-phone is small enough to fit in pocket and reasonably light-weight
-with appropriate software this becomes a very powerful device (I'll mention what I use in the end)
What I don't like:
-the volume buttons on the side of the phone can't be used in a different context i.e. i can't use them to scroll, which seems like an intuitive use for the buttons. The scroll buttons on the front of the phone are ok, but I would still like to be able to use the volume buttons to scroll like I can on other phones.
-lack of good memory use - though to palmOne's credit they ship 128MB SD cards to people that request them FREE
I use this device with ACT!2005 and Agendus Pro (AP). I recommend purchasing AP with this product as it is a far more robust application that the default PalmOne software. i.e. The history of every call is recorded with every contact; I can sync both ways with ACT! 2005; etc (you should check out the free demo of AP if you're serious about purchasing the treo)
I also purchased a Motorola HS820 bluetooth earpiece. I like it a lot, but sometimes I am unable to answer the calls using the multi-function button on the earpiece which can become annoying. I don't know if this is a flaw in either device or user error, but I tend to think there may be connectivity problems at times.
All in all I am very pleased with this product, and will recommend it to anyone wanting to purchase a smartphone.
28 Shazzam!
This item is indeed everything it's cracked up to be. My comments below addresses in turn the Cingular service that comes with this particular Treo and the Treo itself.
I am a "legacy" AT&T Wireless customer, so the phone I actually purchased was not through amazon.com but directly through Cingular/AT&T. The company had a terrible time guiding me through a complicated migration of service for three different cell phones, and the addition of data services to accomodate email, Internet, and messaging on the Treo. Others with less complicated migrations, or starting from scratch with Cingular, may not need to spend the four hours on the phone that I did. Once the GSM service (soemthing the Treo needs) was finally in place, I noticed a great improvement in clarity in phone calls. I'd give Cingular two stars for upgrade customer service and five stars for quality of actual calls once the upgrade is completed.
On to the hardware. The Treo has replaced: my Palm m515, which I thought was pretty hot stuff when I got it; my foldup keyboard, which was always the subject of great admiration at meetings, and my cell phone. It has also eliminated my need to purchase a cheap digital camera and a cheap mp3 player. That's a lot of stuff I don't lug around or need to start lugging around. The Treo is heavier than the m515 without its aluminum case, and about the same weight as, but smaller than, the m515 in its case.
Among the excellent new features: a switch to turn off the ringer on the phone without going through a software tree (much appreciated by someone who regularly goes into a courtroom where phones must be silenced instantly). Non-volatile memory, so you can let the unit's battery run out completely without losing any data. You can similarly swap out the battery for a spare battery. Smooth synchronization with Time Matters, my database, which meant that I could install my several thousand contacts, including both all phone numbers and email addresses, in a moment's time. Compared to a BlackBerry, its most likely competitor, the Treo can import much more information (tasks and events) from a database because it is a true PDA as well as a phone.
Minor annoyances: the charging/synchronizing base is not compatible with the m515, so my old car charger is useless. This is unfortunate, because it is easy to drain the batteries quickly with the PDA functions. I used up the initial charge on the unit in about three days of experimenting with all the features. This is probably significantly heavier than everyday use. I checked two stores in my urban area and they were both out of the car charger, from which I conclude that many people are buying the new Treo.
I have moved from the Palm III to the m515 to the Treo 650 in the last, oh, five years or so, and Palm products keep getting stronger and stronger. This is a wonderful product.
29 TREO 650 - One of the best things to come to market
I just bought my TREO 650 and I love it. Its a little on the heavy side but I can deal with that. Its better than carrying my Dell lapop around thats for sure.
A year ago I bought a Nokia 6800 with the full QWERTY keyboard and got attached immediately. I recently upgraded to a Audiovox SMT5600 and found that I missed the keyboard more than I thought I would. I did, however, like the functionality of the SMT5600 enough that I was willing to do without the keyboard and attempt to learn T9 text. THEN, I saw the Palmone TREO 650. I used to use a Handspring Visor years ago and got rid of it because I was tired of carrying around a phone and PDA. I did like the syncing capabilities of PALM OS (Groupwise, Outlook,etc.).
The TREO 650 has got it all. Full qwerty keyboard, MP3, memory expansion, full pda and phone, speakerphone, touchscreen, high resolution screen, .3 Mp camera, replacable battery, all in a fairly compact unit. I have done some research and found that there are 3rd party porgrams for Voice dial and other handy features. It will sync wirelessly with mail servers(provided your company has an exchange server or similar system). All in all I like this phone the best so far.
A couple things I am not liking...
First, it is a little heavy. But they have packed quite a bit of stuff in this little thing.
Second, the keypad is VERY bright. You can dim the screen but the keypad is blinding when you turn it on in a dark room.
Third, in order to sync wirelessly (calendar, tasks, notes,etc.) you have to have access to an Exchange server (normally provided by the company you work for). It will however, sync email wirelessly without any extra stuff. (I may be wrong on the Exchange Server thing - but Ive been researching for a while and I have not found a real easy way to sync wirelessly to Outlook Calendar, Tasks and Notes - if anyone knows Id love to hear how!!)
It is considerably smaller than a standard PDA, and slightly larger than a "candy bar" cell phone. Its only a little over 1/2 inch wider than my SMT 5600 and taller only due to the antenna stub.
I am looking forward to really digging into this device. I was a little hesitant about the small keyboard, but I have found that it is really actually very nice. I have big thumbs and I have no problem typing quick and accurate. I never owned a Treo 600 so I cannot compare to it, but when your looking for an all-in-one unit I think this ones going to shine above the rest for functionality.
30 Best convergence phone out there!
Up until now, PalmOne is the only company that has successfully integrated the PDA and mobile phone. Neither the phone or PDA functionality has been sacrificed in the Treo 650.
31 The TREO for the road warrior
The TREO has evolved into a excelent integrated PDA. I bought the 300 and then the 600 and was happy with both given the alternatives. The added Bluetooth feature and the improved screen make the 650 worth the wait. I liked the 600 but with a compatible Bluetooth headset from Jabra I love the 650. I drive about 1000 miles a week, with the 300 and 600, I was constantly getting the seatbelt, tie & headset cord tangled. The wireless headset solves all of that. The improved screen makes e-mail and web browsing easier to use in all environments. I do not load my PDA with secondary apps. or files so I can't speak to the memory issue, however, I do have a database of over 1,100 contacts and have plenty of remaining memory. My only disapointment is that they changed the connector forcing me to buy a new car adaptor and desktop cradle (not yet avaiable) The cradle should have been included or been available when the unit went on sale.
32 Cingular Palm 650 is great
The Palm Treo 650 is in my opinion a compact PDA telephone that can replace a cellphone, laptop(in a pinch) and PDA. The only complaint I have is with Cingular not Palm...the first and secong tier Cingular support people could not help me set up my Xpress email package and I am patiently waiting for a internet support team member to come to my rescue. In the past Cingular or AT&T have never failed me but at the cost of a lot of phone time.
But I digress from a revue of the phone. I really like the keyboard and control layout. I had a Treo 600 which I turned back in as being too pricey ($499). I got the Treo 650 at a really outstanding price with the $50.00 rebate. The phone's Outlook sync works extremely well and I think marketing brought the phone to market to fast for the accesory dept.. The phones capabilities are too great for a 67 year old Mech. Engineer to comprehend. Bluetooth, mp3, camera & new color screen are simply a few. It shook hands with my earpiece the first time, not something I could ever get to work with my old Tungsten t-3, Motorola earpiece and my Sony-Ericcson bluetooth phone.
It's performed well and I am even using the aftermarket voice recognition soft ware. I simply like the capabilities of the phone.
33 HUGE MEMORY PROBLEM! 30% TO 60% MEMORY WASTED!
I have been a loyal Palm OS supporter for more than six years, ever since my first Palmpilot Pro. I currently have a Treo 600 and I was looking forward to a higher resolution screen and better camera.
Well, the screen is much nicer (in fact beautiful) and the camera works much better than the Treo 600, but there's a dirty little secret that PalmOne is trying hard to sweep under the rug. The new Treo 650 uses an unbelievably inefficient memory filesystem that expands Palm Database (.PDB) files from 30% to 600%!! My old Treo 600 had about 8MB of free space with all my applications and data, so I was using about 15MB of space, but when I tried to get all my data on the Treo 650, I found that I would need over 34MB of memory to store it all in the new filesystem. The worst effected files are the data files, which usually *cannot* be stored and used from an SD memory card, so PalmOne's "poo-poo, just use a memory card" is almost laughable.
If you can use a memory card, by the way, they *are* giving away 128MB SD cards for free to try to mollify their customers, but many applications cannot run from an SD card, and very few can access data stored on a memory card.
If you're using more than about 8-12MB on your current palm or most of your usage is PDB files, then DON'T BUY THE TREO 650 without taking this into account, or you'll be sending yours back (at your expense) just like me.
For reference, my contacts database went from 150KB to over 850KB and another database I use went from 400KB to 3.5MB!!!!
On the other hand, if you don't need to store much data or use applications that can directly work with the SD card, then the Treo 650 is pretty sweet, although very pricey.
34 Nice phone, but mine only worked for 12 hours.
Got my new Treo delivered yesterday. Figured I had all weekend to get it set up and working just the way I want. Spent a couple hours learning how to use it last night. This morning I went to setup the Versamail application to access company email. Deleted one of the email accounts I created in account setup. The system reset itself and has been caught in an endless loop of booting up, displaying the Palm Logo, then resetting itself ever since. No way to get out of it. Even tried removing the battery, but when I plug back in it picks up right where it left off. Boot up, logo, reset. Boot up, logo, reset.
By the way ... good luck with Cingular's customer service. I spent over 4 hours on the phone (most of it on hold) trying to find out how to get this fixed, and spoke with 6 different people before finding one who provided anything resembling customer service (thanks, Michael).
Nice phone, but either the hardware or the software still has some major bugs or quality control problems. At this price one expects something that works a bit more than 12 hours.
35 Very Buggy for the price and wait
I got this phone from the Cingular store the day it came out. I love its concept however, I am really disappointed because the phone is so buggy and constantly soft resets itself randomly. I have yet to install any 3rd party software on it given that the OS is so unstable.
Things I like:
Camera despite other complaints I think is pretty good.
Size and general appearance is very nice
The way the phone should work is a great feature
Problems I am having:
Voice mail speed dial randomly changes its number. You cannot change the voice mail number so sometimes in gets into a freeze and will dial some international number or just 50 zeros in a row. When this happens there is no way to clear it or change the number. After waiting a couple of hours the voice mail number is back and it dials find.??
Versa Mail program when entering it causes the palm to soft reset itself. This has happen for hours on end. I finally had to hard reset the entire phone and reinstall all the software to get the phone to allow me to enter versa mail.
Phone randomly freezes for 10 seconds.???
Dropped calls and sometimes when people call in on call waiting the phone will do a soft reset. In fact touching any key while on the phone sometimes causes a soft reset.
Besides all this I am really annoyed because I paid 600 dollars out the door for this phone and a bluetooth headset. You would think for that price the OS would work. Especially since Cingular had the phone 3 months after Sprint and released theirs. On a somewhat simple OS like palm these types of bugs should have been worked out.
I am going to keep the phone hoping that a firmware update soon will solve the problem but I am disappointed because this problems should have been caught and fixed during the beta testing since I am finding all these problems and all I am using is the preinstalled software that came with the phone.
