Product ReviewsPDAs/Phones
PalmOne must be feeling the pinch. RIM, which makes the BlackBerry range of devices, recently knocked PalmOne off the top spot for PDA market share, according to research by Gartner. PalmOne's reaction is to bring out the Treo 650, an update to the Handspring-branded Treo 600. The most obvious change is the screen. Gone is the lacklustre 160 x 160 pixel passive-matrix screen. In its place is a beautifully crisp and vibrant 320 x 320 pixel transflective panel, which is legible even in direct sunlight. The keyboard, too, has been subtly tweaked. It now follows a slight curve, and each key is more rounded. We were pleasantly surprised to find how easy it was to use; our only criticism is that it can become uncomfortable bordering on painful when typing long passages. Long-time Palm users may also bemoan the loss of Graffiti, as although a stylus is included, it is relegated to a pointing tool. The loss is less keenly felt than it might be, as most of the Treo 650's functions can be easily carried out using the navigator button. As a phone, the Treo 650 performs well. It is compact enough not to make you feel too foolish holding it up to your ear, and it has dedicated call-start and call-end buttons. Pressing the green call-start button launches the phone application. From here you can dial numbers manually either using the large on-screen keyboard, the physical keyboard or by looking up contacts. There are also five screens of 14 quick-dial slots, which can also act as shortcuts
The Treo 650 also supports SMS and MMS, and there is an option to tag text messages together into a 'conversation'. It is a simple matter to attach the predictably average-quality photos taken with the built-in VGA-resolution camera to MMS or email messages. Mobile email is the killer feature, and is the reason why the BlackBerry has done so well. Configuration is easy: many ISP's details are held on the device so all you have to enter is your username and password. The details of more ISPs are on the CD. The mail client is generally excellent and includes most of the features you would expect of a desktop client. You can choose only to download headers, impose a limit on message sizes and more to help keep costs down. It can be set to check for messages automatically, and also supports Exchange servers - not big news if you are a Mac-only organisation, but important for some enterprises. The included web browser is less accomplished - browsing on such a small screen was always going to be frustrating - but it does a decent job. Being a Palm OS device, all the usual PIM applications are included, and you can add third-party programs to extend its functionality. Documents to Go 7 is included for working with Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. The Treo 650 does not have built-in WiFi abilities. Worse, it does not yet support PalmOne's own WiFi expansion card. Bluetooth is now included, however, so it is easy to use Bluetooth headsets. Battery life is not great - we had to recharge every couple of days with moderately heavy use - but the battery is removable now so you could always carry two, and the memory is non-volatile so you will not lose everything if the power drains. Overall, we are impressed with the PalmOne Treo 650. The only thing that might stop us buying one is the price (which will drop when sold by network carriers) and the strong rumours of the PalmOne LifeDrive purported to feature both WiFi and Bluetooth, which you could use to link to a mobile phone. By Christopher Phin |
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