It comes loaded with basic applications to manage e-mail, Word type documents and spreadsheets. It is also expandable through a flash card slot accepting MMC, SD and SDIO cards.
It is a handsome looking device in a metal effect casing with a metallic bezel. The main keys are easy accessed and have a reassuring feel to them in the manner of a good mobile phone. Physical dimensions are a little on the large side, especially in thickness. It still fits easily in a pocket, but one is certainly conscious of it being there, weighing in at 178 grams. The only real gripe is that it sports a large, thick, external antenna. Given the strides that have been made with this technology in mother mobile devices, and the overall size of the Treo, it seems odd that the makers could not have made the antenna integral.
Powering it on, the familiar Palm OS interface appears. Anyone who has ever seen the Palm OS will immediately be at home. Those who haven’t may be at a slight disadvantage. The Hotsync for example, that allows synchronisation of contacts, calendars and e-mail with a PC or Mac is difficult to set up, requiring a less than straight forward Bluetooth set up first. It took several efforts to get this one to even find, let alone connect to a Windows XP PC. Even after the initial discovery was made, the connections were less than reliable. When used to try to transfer images off the device, the Bluetooth connection eventually worked and was fast, but flaky even with the devices that had already been set up for Hotsync.
The VGA camera produces images that look good on the 320×320 screen, but when viewed on a larger screen show their lack of clarity, though colours were good.
The MP3 aspect was not tested, though it was bundled with Realplayer. This was due to the test MMC card having been donated from a mobile phone. The Treo saw that it was present but was unable to read from it
The calendar and contacts were very good, usable and clear, though the default alarm sound is a combination of piano notes that was reminiscent of the “Psycho” action sequence. Not recommended for a first listen at 06:25!
The preloaded productivity software lacked some advanced features which required a license to be bought. For example, Word had all formatting capabilities but a spell check will cost you.
The phone features were good and the touch screen controls were welcome in this mode. Reception was good too, due in part it must be said, to that large antenna. Texting was made all the easier by the Qwerty keyboard which was intuitive to use and left the impression that it would become indispensable.
E-mail set up through Versamail took a little fiddling, though no fault of the Treo. I set up my Vodafone and Gmail accounts and merely had to deal with their respective foibles to get them working. When they were working, it was useful to be able to check them where ever.
Web browsing was problematic due to the GPRS speeds and the small screen size. It was possible but slow and unrewarding.
In all, this device is perfect for those who will not get either a Blackberry or a 3G device from their organisation but still want the capabilities. It is a one stop shop in terms of being a phone, camera, mobile e-mail and productivity device with multimedia capabilities. The fact that it has default profiles for many popular web mail services means the technology self enablers can get it up and running without the need to bother the IT admin. However, the advent of 3G devices and the soon to be available HSDPA will leave such GSM/GPRS devices in the shade, irrespective of their stand alone productivity capabilities. If you are Palm fan, get one. If not but you can live with the limitations, it is a more than capable and widely expandable device, if somewhat pricey.
The Treo 650 is priced at €699.
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