Nice PDA - Terrible Phone
Written: Sep 30 '02 (Updated Sep 30 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice screen, 16MB, built in keyboard
Cons: Sprint, sprint, sprint
The Bottom Line: Great screen and tons of Palm apps make it compelling, but the phone is weak and it runs on the Sprint network, 'nuff said.
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| CreamChief's Full Review: Handspring Treo 300 Handheld |
Okay, so the phone itself, as a phone, is not really that bad, but, being that it is a phone on the Sprint Vision network, it is barely worth considering as a phone. Ah, so what is wrong with Sprint you might ask at this point. Great question - check out this review if you are wondering - http://www.epinions.com/content_76365860484 - and I will get on with the review of the Treo . . .
Pros
Oh, the screen is so nice to look at . I upgraded from the Samsung I300 (http://www.epinions.com/content_65235816068) to the Treo and there is just no comparison between the screens. The Treo is crisp, the colors are bright, and the screen is easy to see from an angle.
The texture of the screen is a little different, too. It is hard to describe, but the feel of the stylus on the screen seems to have more drag - almost softer. And, thankfully, the stylus has the little built in reset poker thing when you unscrew the tip. I found that I had to use it far too often, though.
The little built in QWERTY keyboard takes some getting used to, but it started to grow on me. If you are really proficient with graffiti already, then this will be a hard adjustment.
The built in battery has fairly impressive life to it, and the charging cable connects to the hotsync cable or by itself. In other words, you can charge the Treo by itself with the charging cable, you can sync it with just the sync cable, or you can plug the charging cable into the sync cable. Essentially, the USB plug splits into a Y - one for syncing and one for power.
16MB is pretty much a good amount of memory for this. The ring volume and tones sound nice, and the sound of the phone calls is pretty good, too.
Car cigarette lighter adapter included! Yippee!
Easy switch to turn off the ringer, see through flip lid, and lots of available Palm apps are the remaining random pros.
Cons, cons, cons . . .
Hmmm, I think I mentioned that Sprint is not so good, right?
The reception on this phone is just plain awful. In places where I used to make phone calls with no problem, I often could not get a signal.
No graffiti is fine if you really just want to use the keyboard, but many of us have been using palms for years. In addition, if you want to toggle between English and Asian languages, it is much easier to do with the stylus. Thankfully, there is a free program called newpen that allows graffiti input on the display part of the screen.
The lack of the standard application buttons really hampers the controls on some programs. It also makes it very difficult to get back to the main program menu and to navigate easily between the standard apps like memo pad and the address book.
No Web clipping support! Without going into the details, this means that you need to use a full Web browser or WAP browser and cannot tap into the dozens of specialized Web clipping apps available. At least checking email (POP or IMAP) is pretty easy with several apps available for that. My preference is Eudora for POP.
Upgrading from a previous model of Palm can be painful. You need to install the entire version of Palm desktop that comes with this phone in order to get the USB sync to work. I tried everything to get around this on two different computers. Ultimately, I had to save my old Palm desktop directory, uninstall my old Palm desktop and install the Treo version, then copy over the old data into the new directory.
I don't know what they did to the address book but the name display is different and more difficult to navigate. The little toggle switch on the side should make it easier, but the scrolling somehow does not suffice for me.
The phone display defaults to the speed dial entries whenever you switch back to the phone. I would much prefer having the standard phone keyboard as the default. At least dialing on the touch pad keys is much easier than the Samsung phone that seemed to miss strokes or detect double entries. And, on the Treo you can use the little keyboard to enter numbers. But, why should I have to press the "phone" button three times to get to the address book?
On interesting change in the address book is the seach feature. It will try to match whatever you type in - anywhere that it appears in a name. At first, it bothered me, but I soon found it to be an easier way to navigate. For example, if you type "john" all names with john, johnson, etc. will show up.
Finally, the Treo desktop software seems to be available only on the CD that ships with it. Handspring sends you to Sprint to download software. Sprint doesn't have anything useful, and their Web site is barely functional, anyway.
Some things that I am not sure whether they are pros or cons . . .
It comes with an earbud headset, but it is cheap and flimsy.
It comes with a registered copy of the Blazer Web browser, but that is not the best browser.
The OS is customized for the phone to take advantage of mobile phone needs, but several Palm apps end up unstable and crash.
In conclusion . . .
Gee, as a Palm clone, it's okay - a bit different, but okay. As a phone, it just does not cut the mustard.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 500
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Epinions.com ID:
CreamChief
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Location: Maryland
Reviews written: 57
Trusted by: 13 members
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