Poor 700W Experiences - Feedback Wanted

[TJA]

I've had my Treo 700W for 18 months now, and have had two replacements in that time. So, I'm on my 3rd Treo 700W in 18 months. Not good.....

I have been a Verizon Wireless customer for 13 years and have generally had good luck with them. However, when I took a chance on the 700W I've learned to regret it ever since. I can be shoulder-to-shoulder with another Verizon customer holding a cheap flip-phone and he'll have 3-4 bars when I have one or none. This happens ALL of the time! Is that common for other 700W users? Please enlighten me.

I have had incredibly bad luck with external (wired) headsets. They seem to short my phones out and then that is probably why I've had to replace my 700W twice. Blue Tooth ear pieces lose their pairing too frequently, but I'm stuck with my Jabra BT 250V, which works best of all that I've tried. Anyone else have any worthwhile experience to share?

And, the speaker phone feature on my 700W sucks - big time! Sound is distorted (on all three that I've had) as is the reported sound quality on the other end - to the people that I'm trying to talk to. Words are so often dropped that having to repeat sentences is a routine necessity. Anyone else have any worthwhile experience to share?

I'm looking for feedback because I'm doubtful that I'll stick with a Treo model when upgrading at the end of my two-year contract. The newer models have eliminated the stumpy external antenna - and I fear that reception will only be worse as a result. Anyone with useful feedback on any of this?

[josie]

I just got my treo 700 wx a week ago and I am probably going to return it. Even with an Opera browser, the internet experience is terrible - and after spending many hours trying to work with the sprint folks to set up my comcast email and install programs, my comcast mail does not accept incoming mail and I have learned only by surfing the net that there are very few freeware applications ( looks like no utilities) for the wx.I did have a blackberry for a short time,loved it but did not want to pay the 40 dollar a month internet fee- but after a week with the palm, I am probably going to trade back for the blackberrt,

[TJA]

You and I may be comparing apples to oranges in some respects. My ability to receive pop3 compliant e-mail on my 700w with Verizon is flawless. No problems there. Verizon Internet access is pretty fast also, though the size of the Treo really doesn't lend itself to heavy Internet browsing - too much scrolling!

My major beef (although there are several others) is signal strength. People with flip-phones and Verizon accounts can stand next to me with much better reception, almost everywhere I go. I wish we could still get telescoping antennas on mobile phones!!!

[josie]

I concur on the internet scrolling. And the fact that if you miss your target with that little stylus everything you were trying to do is totally lost - it is no fun. It seems to take a little while with sprint for the internet pages to come back - reminds me of a 5600 baud modem...or worse. I am used to a cable modem on my home pc, and sitting watching those little messages that it is connecting or pulling images or whatever it is doing is not my idea of fun.

The sprintpcs email address we set up seems to be working - there is just something different about the comcast server, according to the support folks, but they cannot give me a clue where to start with it. I fear that the comcast people will just say it is not their problem- so I dread making that call. I had hoped that someone on the message board would have experience with comcast mail and be able to assist..... May have to dump my comcast email address and go with yahoo or something. Jonahan tried to give me some assistance with the contacts list - so I will try his suggestions.

I have not tried to make any calls yet - if/when I use it as a phone I notice anything in particular about the signal strength, I will let you know.

[steelcityk9cop]

I’ve been running on Verizon with my Treo 650 for two years and just got my 700WX last week. The Treo’s phone ability has always been pretty bad. My 650 had a terrible time switching between towers and signal strength with my 700 is just as bad.

Phone quality is how Motorola’s “Q” gained so much popularity.

[josie]

Sorry about your treo problems. To be honest, I have tried to give mine a chance - have surfed the net for software, gotten on this forum to try to get assistance ( and Jonahan did step up to the plate on that), and messed and messed with the phone. After I saw your message about signal strength I looked at my signal strength and I did not seem to have any "bars" but it did allow me to make a call.

This morning the battery was completely dead and the phone would not turn on, so I plugged it into the wall outlet so that I could check my mail. I had to manually connect the phone and the internet, but they immediately cut back off. I guess it does not work unless charged, even when hooked to the juice. GEEZ.

And yesterday I started experiencing the same problem that some other folks have reported on the forum: the backlight goes so dim that you cannot see a thing.

I will be giving up the 15 dollar a month internet ( with blackberry it is 40 bucks a month) and the camera and the ability to edit microsoft office docs ( good news is that documents to go will be available on the Blackberry within a year) , but I have just about decided to trade it for a Blackberry. I had a Blackberry briefly before and I immediately "bonded " with it - but then found out what the internet would cost and traded ot for a treo. And the Blackberry gps capability is built in ( on the palm you have to buy a chip).

Everything is a trade off, but reliability is more important to me than some of the gizmos ( like the camera). Even when I called the Palm folks, they indicated that they are still trying to get some of the issues with the wx squared away - this being the first palm with windows mobile.

[jeffrey.williams]

Hello
I agree about wired headsets. I have gone through numerous cell phones as well. When you drop the phone you grab the headset cord and eventually the plug shorts our.

I currently have both a Treo600 (personal) and 700W for company. I bought a Motorola Hs700 based on reviews and its totally unreliable. It either will not connect or connects with such shrill static that its hurts my ears.

What about the Jabra BT? I take it from your comments that it works well for you. Would you recommend it others?

I would appreciate your comments.

jeff

[jfa]

well as a 750 user for about four months the internal antenna is great phone quality is very good the only time I have problems is when I am outside walking around in traffic and cant hear. I have had no complaints about call qwuality from people I have talked to. Reception is much much better than my treo 650 got and dont even get me started about call quality on the treo 600 I had.

[charlietldd]

I have had the same problems, the old phone may have 3 or 4 bars while the treo will have 1 or 2. The time zone changes every day, it is getting to be a real pain. I may go back to my old phone. Also, the speaker is much better on the old one.

I've had my Treo 700W for 18 months now, and have had two replacements in that time. So, I'm on my 3rd Treo 700W in 18 months. Not good.....

I have been a Verizon Wireless customer for 13 years and have generally had good luck with them. However, when I took a chance on the 700W I've learned to regret it ever since. I can be shoulder-to-shoulder with another Verizon customer holding a cheap flip-phone and he'll have 3-4 bars when I have one or none. This happens ALL of the time! Is that common for other 700W users? Please enlighten me.

I have had incredibly bad luck with external (wired) headsets. They seem to short my phones out and then that is probably why I've had to replace my 700W twice. Blue Tooth ear pieces lose their pairing too frequently, but I'm stuck with my Jabra BT 250V, which works best of all that I've tried. Anyone else have any worthwhile experience to share?

And, the speaker phone feature on my 700W sucks - big time! Sound is distorted (on all three that I've had) as is the reported sound quality on the other end - to the people that I'm trying to talk to. Words are so often dropped that having to repeat sentences is a routine necessity. Anyone else have any worthwhile experience to share?

I'm looking for feedback because I'm doubtful that I'll stick with a Treo model when upgrading at the end of my two-year contract. The newer models have eliminated the stumpy external antenna - and I fear that reception will only be worse as a result. Anyone with useful feedback on any of this?

[Darth Sensei]

My experience with my Treo 700WX with sprint has been underwhelming as well. Reception is spotty, and I cannot seem to find a bluetooth headset to work properly with this darn thing.

I too bought it because of the internet possibilities, but what good are they anyway? Net surfing on the thing feels like work, the camera is underwhelming, and my black light keeps resetting for no apparent reason.

Yeah, I'm less than thrilled.