Info on Treo 700 phones?

Question

Looking to buy a treo 700 phone. Any info on its features & reliablity will be helpful.

Answer 1

My wife and I each bought a Verizon Treo 700p. We buy the same phones so we can share expensive accessories.

This is my wife's first PDA, while I upgraded from a Tungsten E. We both had basic Kyocera Cell phones.

My wife is delighted. To her, it is a powerful cell phone that allows her to get herself organized, and take 'happy snaps' with the rather primitive camera built in. The camera will also record video, but the quality is not that great and its pretty 'choppy' While I really like not having to carry 2 tiny geeky devices on a belt holster.

It also records audio only, so you can use it as a voice memo device.

I had a bit of trouble in the transition from Tungsten E to Treo because the Treo doesn't have handwriting recognition, just the keyboard. I got very proficient using the stylus as a pencil to take notes and do data entry, the tiny keyboard felt unnatural to me at first. It's getting better for me, but I wish it could use Graffiti right out of the box.

I have since discovered that the freeware product GraffitiAnywhere v1.58 works just fine with the Treo 700p. This adds the handwriting recognition back into the Treo. It's a bit harder to use since there is no dedicated handwriting area on the Treo Screen, but it's fast and just as accurate as regular grafitti. Apparently from reading the GraffitiAnywhere documentation. Handwriting recognition IS built in to the Treo 700p, its just the user interface that was removed and GA adds it back in. It seems stupid for Palm to not take advantage of something they are paying good money to build in.

In addition to scheduling note taking, etc, I also use it for reading ebooks and I'm happy to say that even though the screen is smaller than the 'E' it is a higher definition screen and text is quite legible to my middle-aged eyes, even at the smallest text settings. My Mobipocket Reader software works just fine with the Treo.

I have long used Datebk5 and Cryptopad as replacements for the built in Datebook and Memopad, because they have extra features that I need. My older versions of the two titles had problems on the Treo, but both authors of those had newer free updates of the software that were Treo friendly. I opted to upgrade to DateBk6 for $11 because it had even more calendar features that I wanted. (also recommended if the built in Calendar isn't powerful enough for you, an excellent replacement program) Cryptopad is opensource software so it's always free, go to the sourceforge site for details. To experienced Palm users, your current software will probably work, but if you haven't kept up with the patches and updates, you may need to add patches or upgrade to newer version.

Battery life is OK but not outstanding, you need to recharge every night if you can; certainly every couple of days, if possible. (I could go all week with my cell phone and every 3 - 4 days with my 'E' - less on the 'E' if I had heavy ebook usage, so the Treo isn't TOO bad in this regard.)

Build quality is VERY good, it's one of the most rugged devices on the market.

The headphone jack is the ultra tiny sub miniature type so if you like to play mp3s on your PDA and don't want to use the tiny and tinny speaker or if you want hook it up to a stereo device, you 'll have to buy an adapter (about $6 US dollars) or special headphones. The headphone jack also works with wired telephone headsets without an adapter.

The speaker is small and not very good for music but it's very good for use as a speaker phone speaker. The microphone is sensitive enough to use as a speakerphone mic. I'm surprised to find how often I use this feature.

The Treo 700p can use up to a 2 gig SD card, if you need extra storage capacity.

I would definitely buy it again. Also note this review is for the 700p (Palm OS) NOT the 700w (windows mobile) which internally and OS wise is a different beast altogether (even different screen resolution)

Answer 2

I personally wouldn't really recommend it at this point... It doesn't offer much EXCEPT for 1) some more internal memory 2) Hi-speed internet 3) a better camera

Other than that, it is basically the same as the 650. I tested it out at the store the day it came out, and was really disappointed, except for the internet & camera.
Having more internal memory doesn't really help out that much, since so much is stored on 2 GB or even 4GB SD cards these days. The processor is the same as the Treo 650. Unless a better camera and high-speed internet are worth you spending hundred$ extra to upgrade, then it isn't really worth it. I still have my Treo 600 from 3 years ago that is still alive & kicking. I will wait for AT LEAST another year before the 700P comes down in price. It is just a big waste of money for me. But Cingular just came out with a 680 last week... so if Palm offers one for Sprint/Verizon, that may drive down the price of the 700P in a couple of months or so...

Answer 3

2

Answer 4

You can find lengthy reviews of all variants:

Treo 700p (Palm OS):
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=12256

Treo 700w (Windows Mobile):
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=2804

Treo 700wx (Windows Mobile):
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/treo-700wx.htm