Treo 650
After upgrading through various Palm Pilot PDA devices, starting with a US Robotics Pilot 5000, a long time ago. I’ve just recently purchased a used Treo 650 off Craigslist. I’ve retired my Palm Tungsten T3 after several years of use and can’t believe I didn’t make the switch earlier. Here are some of my first impressions of my new Treo 650.
No more Graffiti
I was surprised at how quickly I got used to the thumb board. I didn’t even realize that I wasn’t using graffiti anymore or bother to try and figure out how to write graffiti on the screen. I’ve since heard there is an app Write Anywhere that allows you to enter graffiti directly on the screen but I don’t think there is any need for it.
Battery life
My Palm T3 saw daily use for two years. The battery was showing its age. So when I stayed up late reading a book one night on my Treo and then used it a lot on the following day I was surprised that the battery was stilll hovering around 50%! My T3 was frustrating me because I be about 30 minutes into a book and then would see the battery warning messages.
Screen brightness
Try taking a Palm T3 out into direct sunlight and read it. The Treo does a fantastic job at being readable in all light levels. It also provides the option for turning the backlight completely off to extend battery life in bright conditions. My T3 couldn’t do this.
Screen size
The Treo has a smaller screen, but I haven’t noticed too much of a negative effect with this. Maybe I’ll miss the ability to watch widescreen movies at 320×480 resolution. But I rarely watch movies on my palm now.
Digital camera and video camera
One of my two dissapointments. The 640×480 resolution camera isn’t that great. No options for adjusting image other than selecting between 1x and 2x zoom. The video camera does an OK job at 320×240 resolution but the frame rate is noticeably slow and it doesn’t offer any zoom options.
Wifi card capability
Unfortunately the Palm Treo does not offer wi-fi built in. But I have a Palm WiFi card that I kept from my Tungsten T3, so I was excited that I could not surf the web on my Treo for free. That was until I found out the WiFi card is not supported on the Treo. After searching the web it appears that there were some hacked drivers that could be loaded but it sounds like they are no longer working with a recent patch offered by Palm updated the systems. If anyone knows how to get this to work, let me know!
Palm is offering a few new models, but the specs aren’t all that much better than the 650 so I’m not in any rush to upgrade. Most of my apps are stored on my SD card so I’m not worried about the 64MB internal RAM limit. The only thing that would convince me to upgrade is a better camera.
Keep an eye on this site. I’ll eventually upload some tips and tricks for the Treo 650 as I learn more about this device and eventually add my own top 10 list of favourite palm applications.
