Treo 600 or 650

[Chip NoVaMac]

I am in the market for a new cell phone. Decided on the Treo series I think.

I like the idea of a bluetooth headset, but not sure of how you answer calls with them. I know some wired head sets allow for answering. My concern is that this will be the only phone (deciding on going landless) - that BT might take more power than the 600 option. Plus I am looking at $100 to $150 extra for the 650, and other than BT - can't see why one over the other.

Thanks for the help.

 

[G-Prime]

I am getting ready to get the Treo 650. Besides Bluetooth the 650 has a better keyboard, a 320x320 res. screen vs. 160x160, better camera, a revmovable battery. I don't know what carrier you have but the GSM version has support for EDGE data network. I'm sure I'm forgetting some other features but those are the big ones.


Bobby

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

I am getting ready to get the Treo 650. Besides Bluetooth the 650 has a better keyboard, a 320x320 res. screen vs. 160x160, better camera, a revmovable battery. I don't know what carrier you have but the GSM version has support for EDGE data network. I'm sure I'm forgetting some other features but those are the big ones.


Bobby

Thanks so far. Though they were the same. I am also trying to decide between Sprint and Cingular. So far I have seen no pricing for the DC area on the EDGE network. Sprint is only $15 for their Vision network

 

[Abstract]

There are also other options for PDA phones, like those offered by O2.

Anyway, I would definitely get a 650. The screen and size simply make it more pleasant to use. I'd say the Treo 600 is definitely not worth the asking price right now.

 

[G-Prime]

You should also check out Everything Treo. They have a nice forum that helped me out.

 

[Advance The Man]

I got the Treo 600 the day it was released in 2003 and the Treo 650 the day it was released in 2004. Both had a rough start. Most recently with the 650's internal memory problem. It was so bad Palm gave away free 128 SD cards to help with memory backups.

There is no better Treo forum than www.treocentral.com and click on 'discussions'. There's even a group for Apple users and how to optimize the Treo with it.

I would absolutely not get a 600. Simply look at the keyboard form factor and the screen and you will decide on the 650. I just got my apple last weekend and set it up with the 650 via Bluetooth internet. I have Sprint PCS Vision (unlimited) and if I'm without internet I can use the 650 as a modem. The speeds were surprisingly fast.

Regarding Bluetooth as a wireless headset, I wouldn't recommend it. I bought the Jabra BT250 and the Cardo 500. It sux. The Treo is not ready for primetime with Bluetooth headsets. It's so bad, it defeated the purpose of having it. I would have to hold the phone up above my shoulder to avoid interference. I do have it set up in my car through the car speakers. Other cool things, it has a low res camera, video, audio recorder, utilize SD card for MP3's (via Ptunes), put full-length dvd movies via several different utilties, Word and Excel, Pocket Quicken, monopoly, internet, seamless email, etc.

Overall I like it, but it still has bugs. I think since Palm relies on 3rd party vendors they will always have soft reset and sometimes even hard reset problems. I get two soft resets a week. I do have a backup utility that backs all data so I never lose anything.

 

[jemeinc]

I've got the 650- I like it . But it's not without it's problems. First of all the NVFS memory is a bear to deal with with only 32MB ram. You can have a battery go dead with out losing all of your data, which wasn't the case on the 600, but you can't fit nearly as many 3rd part apps on it- which is why we want the Treo over the blackberry to begin with.

Second, as a mac user, get ready for some troubleshooting- this thing is unstable- esp. with the 3rd party apps installed. First thing you should get, and install is an uninstall program- followed by a backup program. Than a mail app. because versamail causes it to crash on a reg. basis. Snappermail is a good that offers push mail, not as good as Blackberry's mail set up, but better than what it comes with.

Overall, after spending the first few weeks troubleshooting and tweaking my 650 I think I've got it pretty solid. I haven't had a crash since April 11th. If you don't mind fiddling around with it you can enjoy it- if you're looking for user friendly, right out of the box- this phone isn't it.

 

[mkrishnan]

Hmmm, I'm interested in this thread too...the Treo 650 is definitely on my shopping list. I just can't decide if I want to satisfy my tech-geek-lust (and get this or a phone-style Blackberry) or my fashion-lust (and a RAZR).

I like the idea of a bluetooth headset, but not sure of how you answer calls with them.

They have a button on them typically, which works in a similar fashion to the one on wired headsets. The headset will have to be on (in a standby mode, but using some power), and the phone will have to have bluetooth enabled (again, with some small additional power drain) to answer a call with the headset. The button can typically also be used to initiate calls by voice dial, to hang up, and to redial. This is all based on my Jabra BT220 (older).

To be honest, at some point, my Jabra ended up sitting in my apartment and my wired headset is sitting in my car now. I should get that thing out and give it another go. I didn't have interference issues with it (although I can't get anywhere near 10 m away from my cell with it), but I had issues where it would sometimes fail to answer the phone properly, so that it would instruct the phone to answer, but I would not get audio.

 

[MacInTO]

Nice Thread

I've currently got the T600. I've owned it since early 2004. I've had no problems whatsoever with it. The only drawbacks are lack of BT, low res screen and so-so camera.

I'm planning on getting the T650 next year when the bugs(?) are worked out.

That being said, I'm sure you can get a cheap used T600 on eBay or elsewhere and get the T650 later.

I like http://www.mytreo.net for my Treo info.

Good luck!

 

[Bear]

Just make sure...

A lot of places do not allow cameras to be brought into them.. including cell phones with cameras.

This includes among other places many companies, so depending on where you work, you might not be able to have your cellphone on company property. (Which for some companies includes their parking lot.)

So before you decide on a phone with a camer, make sure you'll be able to have it with you in places where you would use it.

 

[rowanhall]

the treo 650 is meant to be good, but i have had no experience with it.

i had the treo 600 from late 2003 and had nothing but problems, i had 3 replacements in the space of 14mths! completely unreliable. good features are the chat style text messaging and the web browser, but thats about it.

the ring tones are too quiet, the camera is pathetic (horrible brown hues), the phone functionality is useless. its like a basic palm pda with a crap phone duct taped to it! the 2nd replacement one develloped a problem that when you answer a call the phone crashes and restarts, erasing it and starting fresh didn't help. none of the treos i had were ever dropped. and in all of them the aerial became loose and call quality suffered!

another problem, but i'll leave this aside, was that then internet rarely connected properly, but this i feel was a problem with orange and not the phone as it was cleared when orange finally released a software update nearly a year after a got the phone. since then the internet connected perfectly every time.

a positive note about the keyboard. i thought it was really easy to use and super compact. people complain that the keys look too small and hard to use, but infact they rather good, probably due to them being rounded instead of flat.

i definately would not let anybody endure the amount of annoyance that i had with the treo 600. its the first time i broke away from the nokia trend, and since i have gone back. i now have the nokia 6630 and apart from no support currently with mac, is an excellent phone!

rant over!

Rowan