Palm Treo 650 Smartphone

The 650 is the best shot we have at a truly "smart" phone. But it has its bugs. But I love it in spite of its flaws.

OVERALL
This is probably the best phone I've ever had. After some thought, that isn't saying very much. This phone has everything I need in terms of information and communication at my finger tips. But what a ride.

THE WEB
Now I'm ALWAYS connected. I can get my email at any time now. Period. The built-in email software allows you to natively download your email and look at it. It's fantastic for me to be able to keep at least some of my most recent emails with me for reference. I've had too many instances where I left directions or addresses located in emails at home. Now I can have them with me and not lose any opportunities to forgetfulness. But the best part is that you can actually click on phone numbers inside of those emails and dial them directly. You can actually do this from just about any palm program.

The web connectivity is okay. But the web isn't really designed for this device so it doesn't really make sense to use the web a lot. It has a surprisingly fast connection, but it's not fast enough to download a "heavy" web page reasonably. But you can still check CNN or ESPN to get updates - even before the page fully loads.


PHONE IS OKAY
The phone function doesn't seem to be necessarily special. I mean, I make a call, it goes through, I talk. The beauty is that I can use my bluetooth headset to talk while looking through my to-do list. It's also easier making calls while I'm driving (which you're really not supposed to do). But I can, with one hand, find someone on my phone list without looking at the screen and dial the number with a quick glance and one click. Normally, I can take care of this before I start my car. But, if nothing else, I can get it done at a red light.

Now, there are some interesting ring tones you can download to get an incrementally better feel. I like the Rough Rider's Anthem, personally. But there's a myriad of songs you can choose from.


PERFORMANCE IS LACKING
The main downside to this phone is its reliability. My phone resets itself way too often. When I first got the phone, it got itself into a reset loop that lasted indefinately. I had to do several hard resets (where all of my data is erased) to get it to stop. A few times a week, my phone will reset itself when I'm trying to make a call. I was calling a ride from Oakland airport two weeks ago and it took me 5 minutes from the time I pulled out my phone to dialing. It reset three times before I could get going. That's way too long. What if it was an emergency? I had a friend die on a football field because someone couldn't get to a phone fast enough to call an ambulance. I would hate for someone else to have such a great phone like the 650 is and not be able to come through.


MS OUTLOOK DOESN'T SYNC
This was a glaring failure for this device. It can only sync with MS Outlook through a bluetooth connection (I've only seen this done with someone using Outlook 2000 - I haven't checked it on my computer which uses Outlook 2003). That's a bummer because I live and die by my schedule. The reason isn't clear to me - and frankly, I don't care what the reason is. They should have fixed that problem before releasing the product. Now it just sucks. This device would get another star if it fixed this problem.


GOOD CAMERA
I didn't think that I would even use the camera, but I've found it surprisingly convenient. It's great for taking pictures at birthday parties,etc. I've even gotten a few good blackmale pictures of some of my classmates. The pictures are sharp with no noticable distorition. Of course, there isn't a flash or any zoom, but you can't have it all. I have a Sony 5 MPixel digital camera for that. But for a spur-of-the-moment photo, it's great.


IT'S STILL A PALM
At it's heart, this is still a regular, trusty Palm. I've used them for years now (except for my foray into PocketPC which is also good - I actually use both devices). You still have all the great calendar and to-do list programs. It also has a pretty good picture and video viewer.


NOT A FUNCTIONAL MP3 PLAYER
The 650 can play MP3s. However, it doesn't have a standard headphone jack. I suspect that there is a connector jack that fits one of the headphone ports, but I have yet to find one of these. So I can't connect it to my car to play my songs while I'm driving. I had an iPod shuffle to come in off the bench given this set back. However, the shuffle died on me just this week and I need to come up with a back-up plan.


SHARP DISPLAY
I'm most proud of the Treo 650's sharp display. I can show digital photos that are about as crisp as on my laptop. If you're a proud uncle of 3, you'll love showing of pictures of your nieces and nephews to all of your friends. I love having pictures with me and sharing them with other people. This lets me do it without carrying around any flip-out wallets like in the old days.


So what's my recommendation? Get it. You'll love it in spite of its flaws. And who knows. Maybe the next incarnation will be the turning point.