Treo 800W

[bluedaze]

I had the chance to get my hands on the new 800W and I have to say it seems like a good phone. I am not a big fan of the Windows Mobile phones but if I had to have one it would be the 800 The body of the phone is alot like the centro except just a tad bigger. It feels like a more solid device. The screen looks great. They have change the plug on the device for the first time the only plug it will have will be a mini USB port on the bottom of the device. That will be used to sync, charge and for mini usb headphones. This will work with navigation but again since its windows mobile sprint navigation might not work correctly as far as being recognized as being included in the plan you have. I have a different rating system for Palm OS and Windows...so for being a Windows OS...I give it a 8

[benjie]

I just purchased mine via Sprint Telesales and was told it will be delivered Friday (tomorrow), which means it is being shipped from Honolulu. I ordered an SanDisk 8gb/class 6 SDHC card from PCUniverse, $60.99 plus $31.98 shipping, should be here Monday.

[chris]

I just purchased mine via Sprint Telesales and was told it will be delivered Friday (tomorrow), which means it is being shipped from Honolulu. I ordered an SanDisk 8gb/class 6 SDHC card from PCUniverse, $60.99 plus $31.98 shipping, should be here Monday.

Just curious if you received your 800w along with your opinions on the device.

[benjie]

It failed to show on Friday, should be here Monday. I picked up a card locally and need to get a car charger and extended battery. The car charger I should be able to get at Best Buy.

From my extensive reading (I have read everything every place), the vast majority of humans love the device. Some are complaining about compatibility issues with the resolution (320 x 320), failing to understand that is not a Sprint/Palm issue, rather a developer issue. Screen brightness may be an issue, as the default setting is a tad bit low; a higher setting appears to be ok. Not as loud as some wanted. Bluetooth and Google Maps appear to work together. Voice dialing via BT does not appear to be supported. Battery life with all the extras running.

If I do get it Monday, serious play time will begin Wednesday, due to my schedule. Oh, another thing, I hate Outlook!

I have had 3 WM devices and frankly never gave any of them much of a chance, as each had issues that I was not interested in over coming. This one though hits the highs - plenty of memory, an updated OS, one-handed operation. I have all ready downloaded HanDBase (use it for hours at a time almost every day), SPB Weather, StyleTap and a couple of other animals. What I am going to miss though is ChatterEmail; I read though that FlexMail may do what I want and that is IMAP push - love it! I will also miss DateBook 6, TakePhone, 2Day & 4Cast. I understand that StyleTap does support most of the Palm OS applications I use and those applications are normally a tad bit quicker than their WOS counter parts.

[chris]

It failed to show on Friday, should be here Monday. I picked up a card locally and need to get a car charger and extended battery. The car charger I should be able to get at Best Buy.

From my extensive reading (I have read everything every place), the vast majority of humans love the device. Some are complaining about compatibility issues with the resolution (320 x 320), failing to understand that is not a Sprint/Palm issue, rather a developer issue. Screen brightness may be an issue, as the default setting is a tad bit low; a higher setting appears to be ok. Not as loud as some wanted. Bluetooth and Google Maps appear to work together. Voice dialing via BT does not appear to be supported. Battery life with all the extras running.

If I do get it Monday, serious play time will begin Wednesday, due to my schedule. Oh, another thing, I hate Outlook!

I have had 3 WM devices and frankly never gave any of them much of a chance, as each had issues that I was not interested in over coming. This one though hits the highs - plenty of memory, an updated OS, one-handed operation. I have all ready downloaded HanDBase (use it for hours at a time almost every day), SPB Weather, StyleTap and a couple of other animals. What I am going to miss though is ChatterEmail; I read though that FlexMail may do what I want and that is IMAP push - love it! I will also miss DateBook 6, TakePhone, 2Day & 4Cast. I understand that StyleTap does support most of the Palm OS applications I use and those applications are normally a tad bit quicker than their WOS counter parts.

Not sure if you've found Duke's blog. He's a moderator here and a long time Palm OS stalwart. He recently made the jump to an HTC Kaiser (branded as AT&T Tilt) and wrote up his first impressions. You'll also find some of the software choices he made.

-Chris

[benjie]

I looked it over and enjoyed the read.

I got mine Monday evening and charged it Monday evening - did nothing else. Tuesday I purchased the correct 8gb/class 4 card and car charger. Last night after a couple of hours of work related home work, I began playing. Mind you, I did not read the directions. Just plunged right in. Had I read the directions, life would have been a bit simpler.

I did the sync thing and found the phone had to be turned on in order to name the device. Once that was done, everything else fell in to place. I installed a few applications (HanDBase for Winslow, HandBase for Palm OS with Style Tap). I added a few contacts.

Call quality - not loud, but ok. The headset paired with the Treo; however, due to the configuration on my laptop, pairing is done, but must be manually started on the lap top side - a pain, but security...

Mail - using the default mail program, it will not do GMail, as I have GMail set to use IMAP - I gotta get off my rear and change it on the web site. It does hit Everyone.net very well and it does send/receive fine. Opens the attachments fine.

The contacts - wow, really different from Palm. I use to enter a phone number with a remark next to it, that cannot be done with the 800W. I liked the keys on the Centro better, this takes a bit to get use to. In the hand: I got use to the Centro and it does feel bigger. Weight is not that different. Performance has been good and with up to 8 apps working, I noticed no slow ups. The added memory sure beats the 3 other WM devices I have had.

Sprite backup - I did nto read the directions. Started it this morning, it reset like it should and when it came back up, nothing happened. I watched it for 15 minutes. Nothing on the today screen - really getting upset here. Almost read the book. But I did not. I started the Sprint backup application and gosh, it ran fine and the device came back up properly.

The Excel function - no num-locks like DTG has and that is a bummer with the amount of time I spend with it. Setting formulas with DTG is also a bit easier, but functionality is all the same. More later.

[chris]

Mail - using the default mail program, it will not do GMail, as I have GMail set to use IMAP - I gotta get off my rear and change it on the web site. It does hit Everyone.net very well and it does send/receive fine. Opens the attachments fine.

When you initially setup Gmail using the setup wizard, change the email address to username@mail.com. Since it won't find a preset for settings, it will prompt you to enter the various settings. You can then enter your IMAP settings. When finished, just got back and edit the original email address. Even without editing the original address, it started retrieving emails using IMAP since your username, etc is username@gmail.com.

Bit of a workaround, but it works.

-Chris

[benjie]

The work-around worked fine. I really need to work on my contacts list though. Ben