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I recently decided to take a foray into the world of smartphones (basically phones that act as a PDA and allow custom software to be installed). After reading some online reviews and figuring out the features I wanted, I settled on the Treo 650 from palmOne. It is by far the coolest phone that I’ve had. It satisfies the geek in me.

The Treo 650 looks like it is a bulky, cumbersome brick when you see pictures online, but in person it is actually a lot smaller than you’d think. The entire phone (minus the antenna) is less than 4.5 inches tall, and only 2.3 inches across. It fits in my hand better than I thought, although it is no ultra-small fashionista phone that would be carried by Derek Zoolander.

The Qwerty keyboard at the bottom is very tiny. If you have large fingers it may take some time to get used to the size and typing solely with your thumbs, but after a few hours I found my typing speed increasing to a usable level.

The phone feature itself is passable. You get an onscreen dialpad with numbers big enough that you don’t have to reach for the included stylus just to type in a phone number. Alternatively you can use the keyboard to type in a number.

I’m not a big fan of the contact list. It really is just a list of the contacts you have on your phone, with no “dressing up” to make it easier to visually seperate entries. There are third-party solutions to replace the Contacts application, but I haven’t tried any out as of yet.

One thing I absolutely love about this phone is the Bluetooth capabilities. Using Bluetooth I can wirelessly synch up my phone with my Mac. I have it synching with Address Book and iCal and it works like a champ. I was actually surprised because I thought I’d have to end up using my Windows PC to synch everything back and forth. Kudos to Palm for not forgetting the Mac.

I was also able to use Bluetooth to pair my cellphone up with my iBook and use the phone as a wireless modem. That means Internet access pretty much anywhere I can get a cell-phone signal! Woot!

The phone has a camera, taking pictures at VGA quality (roughly .33 Megapixels). The lack of a flash prevents you from taking good shots in low light situations, but the picture is clearer than a lot of cell phone cameras out there. In fact this camera takes better shots than my previous phone, the Samsung MM-A700, which boasted a 1 Megapixel camera, even though the image is a lot smaller.

The Treo 650 comes with a wide selection of pre-loaded software. It has PDA software such as a Calendar, Memo, Contacts, and Tasks applications. It also comes with Internet applications such as VersaMail 3.0 for getting e-mail from a regular POP3 server or Exchange, and a web-browser called Blazer, which is pretty decent although I’ll probably switch to Opera Mobile when it is available.

The phone also comes with a Palm OS verion of RealPlayer for playing MP3 files that have been synched to your phone’s internal RAM or onto an SD card. It provides basic functionality that will work for most people.

The phone comes with a bundle of pre-set MIDI ringtones. Since I’m on Cingular it comes with that annoying Cingular ringer that everyone has. You know, the one that makes you want to go postal when you hear it in public. It’s only less annoying than perhaps the default Nokia ringtone or the Crazy Frog ringtone.

Anyway, Palm did something stupid by not allowing you to use MP3 files as ringtones or alerts out of the box. To do so, you need to install special third-party software such as LightWav or Ringo. This is kind of annoying, because there isn’t a lot of free software written for the Palm OS. Most of it is shareware that costs anywhere from $5 to $40 with most of the software hovering around the $15 price point.

Another bad thing about the phone is that the SIM slot tends to become loose. I noticed that my phone was turning itself off at random times. After a bit of research I found out that the SIM card isn’t sitting snugly where it should. Cutting a few pieces of paper down to size and putting it under the SIM card in the holder helped keep it in place and the phone hasn’t turned itself off since.

Another problem is the volume of the phone and microphone. It is pretty quiet. A third-party application called Volume Care helps boost the volume, but I haven’t tried it out yet.

Here is a list of some of the software I have installed:

Adobe Acrobat Reader - This was included on the setup CD included with the phone. It allows you to view PDF files on your phone. It works well.

Butler - This application allows you to tweak a lot of settings with the phone, from button behavior to controlling the LED. The main features, though, are the advanced alarm functions, and the ability to assign MP3 files to alerts (such as when you get a new e-mail message).

Documents To Go - Open Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files on the phone. The CD included a full version of Documents to Go Pro, so I don’t get to do a lot of advanced features, but it works as a passable preview of documents until I can get to a real computer.

eReader Pro - This is the BEST purchase I have made for this phone. It allows me to read books on the phone and it has a snazzy and easy-to-use interface. I can use any free eBooks I find online or I can purchase them from their website. For $5-$6 a book for most of their selection, that’s a good price. There is a free version of the software included on the CD but it doesn’t have the ability to use reference books (such as dictionaries) or advanced features such as autoscrolling.

IBM WebSphere Everyplace Micro Edition - This is a Java runtime environment that lets you use Java midlet applications on the cell-phone. I have written some applications for my previous phones and this lets me run them on my Treo 650. This is a free download from Palm.

LightWav Pro - This application lets you assign MP3 ringtones to events such as receiving a call, receiving a voicemail or SMS, or even ejecting your SD card. My only gripe with this application is that there isn’t a way to assign MP3 ringtones to alerts (new e-mail, etc.). That’s why I have to use this and Butler.

pSSH - With this I can remotely connect to my Linux machine via SSH. It’s a very neat program and one of the few free ones out there.

Pocket Tunes - If you get ANY application for your Palm device, this is the one to get. It can play MP3, WAV, WMA, and Ogg Vorbis files. You can also listen to online radio stations from Shoutcast or live365, install “skins” to change the look of the application, and maintain a variety of playlists. Think of it as Winamp for your Palm device. Pocket Tunes has an API that a lot of other applications use… So if you want Butler or LightWav to work properly, you are going to need Pocket Tunes first. It is well worth the money.

Solitaire - Included on the CD is a version of solitaire much like what comes with Windows. It’s kind of neat to use the stylus to drag the cards around.

Zap! 2016 - This is a shoot-em-up space fighter game that should bring up a bit of nostalgia in any old-school gamer out there. The graphics are well-done and it is very fun to play.

All in all, the Treo 650 is a really solid phone, but has a few problems that are fixable with some add-on software. It has all the features I’ve been looking for and I definitely will keep this phone for a while. I recommend it to people who like to tinker, customize, and have all the latest features. If all you are looking for is a phone and maybe a camera, this is not for you. But if you want bells, whistles, and a way to be productive on the go, this is the phone of your dreams.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 9th, 2005 at 11:08 am and is filed under blog posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.