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Palm Treo 650 Smartphone (Sprint PCS Network Only)

80

Very Good

  • Pros
  • Vibrant 2.5-inch display
  • Cons
  • Small keys can be hard to use for typing
  • Small amount of accessible memory
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Palm Treo 650 Smartphone (Sprint PCS Network Only) Review

by Tom Mainelli

We found plenty to like about this aging but well-conceived PDA/cell phone.

The Treo 650 from Sprint combines the venerable Palm operating system with a nicely designed handset that includes a fairly usable QWERTY keyboard and a vibrant display. It's not perfect--some design quirks and a high price are among its drawbacks--but there's an awful lot to like here.

The first thing you'll notice about the 650--which has been around since late 2004--is its excellent 2.5-inch (diagonal) 320-by-320-resolution display. The touch-sensitive screen's crisp rendering enables the familiar Palm icons to pop off the screen, and it makes reading everything from Web pages to e-mail messages reasonably easy.

The unit's small keys aren't exactly comfortable to type on, but they suffice for punching in quick e-mail responses. You can also use the stylus and an on-screen keyboard; unfortunately, Palm's familiar handwriting-recognition software doesn't come installed.

In addition to Palm's old standby apps such as Calender, Contacts, and VersaMail, you'll find features like a Real Media player, a Pics and Video player, a 0.3-megapixel camera, and a camcorder. Palm's Blazer browser is included, too, although Sprint's sluggish data rates make browsing a painfully slow experience.

As a phone, the Treo works quite well. It offers good sound quality, and it fits comfortably in your hand. There's no avoiding the smudge factor of holding the screen against your face, but that's hardly a deal breaker.

The Treo 650's greatest weaknesses involve hardware limitations. For starters, it has a ridiculously small amount of accessible memory. With this model Palm moved from dynamic RAM to Flash memory, which means that you won't lose your data if the unit's battery dies. But as a result of the switch, the Treo 650 has just 32MB of memory total--and only 23MB of that is user accessible. Other shortcomings are the unit's lack of built-in Wi-Fi and its undistinguished talk-time battery life of 5 hours, 32 minutes.

Finally, there's the price. Our test unit, from Sprint, sells for $500 (as of April 7, 2006, with a two-year contract). That means the Treo 650 carries roughly the same price tag as a value-priced desktop PC. Carrier rebates bring that price down a bit, but it's still a sizeable investment. That said, you'd be hard pressed to carry your value desktop on the train so you could respond to e-mail messages during your morning commute.

Tom Mainelli

User Reviews for Palm Treo 650 Smartphone (Sprint PCS Network Only)

  • Reviewed by: kburdier

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: great product

    Weaknesses:

    Overall Evaluation: The treo works perfectly fine. i would recommend it to any one thinking to purchase it. The bluetooth works works good. The speakerphone is audible. You can't assign specific ringtones to contacts, however. however it does work well

  • Reviewed by: Edwin966

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Great battery life, smart design, keypad, great sound for phone, mp3 player.

    Weaknesses: VGA camera.

    Overall Evaluation: I have carried a cellphone and a palm pilot for the last 5 years. This past year I just got tired of carrying them around so one by one I started leaving them behind. I was trying to wait for the next generation of Treo to come out. Last week I decided to get a Treo 650 and I have not been dissappointed. Coupled with stereo headphones and a Ridata 2GB SD card($140), I have a phone, pda, wireless web, mp3 player(I started to say ipod), voice recorder, and on the go camera/video. I can't believe the camera is only .3 megapixels but I guess the thinking was to have a camera for sending pictures over the web. OK that makes sense. If you buy the treo definitely get the biggest SD card available and a good case. Bluetooth stereo headsets are a great asset but not a necessity. I used the included mono headset to make calls as well as to listen to music on my commute. Over all, this is the smartest phone on the market.

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