Treo 650 -why should I buy one?

[dlee300z]

I've read all the reviews and love the way it looks but I'm still skeptical of the features and usability.

I have a few questions and would like all your honest opinions.

My boss has told me that if I could convince her then they will provide me with one instead of the blackberry.

I have found all the specs but now it comes down to email synchronization.

With the blackberry-email is automatically synched up but how about the TREO?

Also, how about the signal strength?

I'd like to be able to present the pro's and con's and hopefully they will see that the TREO is way better.

Thanks in advance.

DL

[Shady]

I've read all the reviews and love the way it looks but I'm still skeptical of the features and usability.

I have a few questions and would like all your honest opinions.

My boss has told me that if I could convince her then they will provide me with one instead of the blackberry.

I have found all the specs but now it comes down to email synchronization.

With the blackberry-email is automatically synched up but how about the TREO?

Also, how about the signal strength?

I'd like to be able to present the pro's and con's and hopefully they will see that the TREO is way better.

Thanks in advance.

DL

My honest opinion after using the Treo 650 for 4 days. I will compare to my Kyocera 7135 Smartphone PDA I used for the past 3 years before they obsoleted the phone.

PROS's - 650 Quality feels good, great display, fast interface, I'm starting to really like the keyboard vs. the graffiti on the 7135 to input, reception is far better than 7135, more stable(no resets yet, this was a daily occurance on 7135). Camera, camcorder, and BlueTooth are great to have on phone. Geez, how much stuff can you get into this little thing.

CON's - Can't use as DUN or dial up networking or wireless modem, can't highlight a phone number from calendar and dial it by pressing send, full cases are protective but too bulky and holsters don't protect screen and camera. I'm very paranoid about dropping this Treo. Treo should have a flip built in. Oh ya, camera is nice but it won't replace a 3-5MegaPixel camera, not even close.
Can't play MP3's out of the box for ring tones.

CONCLUSION - Other than the case issue(which is only my opinion), only the DUN issue is not resolvable using a 3rd party app. The DUN issue may even be a Verizon issue, and not Palmone.

REAL CONCLUSION - If you got the money and want the best, this is it. The features are all very usable, not just features to have features.

[Shady]

dlee300z, just one more thing, sorry I didn't compare to Blackberry. Never had a blackberry before.
But one comment on signal strength. I use Verizon and I am getting good to very good signal strength and reception where my previous Kyocera had no signal.

It's great

[narbeauchamp]

I have always been a big Palm fan from the first pilot.But as a long time blackberry user,my only concern was the timing with email.Email has become a critical component of my businesses-probably due to my use of blackberry devices. Yet,even with my most recent blackberry ,I still preferred my Palm PDA and still used it to manage my schedule (the last Palm PDA that I had purchased before the Treo smartphone was a Vx,prior to that I had just about each version since the original,with the exception of the IIIc I think).

Anyways,I tried the VersaMail client included with the Treo and it was okay,but didn't work for my needs in terms of mimicking the push functionality of my blackberry.Also,given the volume of mail recieved,I thought that I would really like being able to store my messages to a memory card.I downloaded,on the advice of others,the trial versions of Chatter and Snapper-I actually never got to use Snapper,I tried chatter and I was hooked.Also it made sense from a pricing point of view-with the version of snapper I would need being almost twice the cost of Chatter.One major advantage to sticking with VersaMail is the memory situation,whereas VM is in ROM,Chatter and Snapper use precious RAM-but both offer SD card support.

I have no problems with signal strength.I prefer the form factor of the Treo to the last couple of blackberries that I had,I always found them awkward to use as phones,if not for the keyboard,I probably would have considered the 7100 series.

I don't really use the camera or video features.If I need to take a picture,I take my digital camera from my briefcase .I've been experimenting with various Bluetooth headsets ,and just yesterday stopped to chat with an Audi salesman,I was planning on getting a new Audi this year,but if the integration with the Treo 650 is as it is touted to be,I know exactly which car I'll be buying ! I have some Bluetooth headsets that I use with my other cell phone and I wish some of them worked better with the Palm and that I could use voice dialing while using them,but overall in the scheme of things I am satisfied.

I love having many of my trusted palm apps on my device,and that I can easily customize my device thanks to what seems like a seemingly endless possibility of downloads of free and reasonably priced software.I thought I would miss graffiti,but love the fact that I can operate my treo with one hand,usually run most things with my thumb ! I also use my Treo as a modem for my laptop sometimes when I am in an area with no wi-fi signal.

Overall I am glad to have a Treo,and am glad to finally have liberated myself from my army of blackberry devices-and its nice to have a palm device I can communicate with reliably.I still vividly remember using my Vx with OmniSky and all the agita that caused !