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Palm Treo 700w
Rated 3.0 out of 5 FREE Wireless Bluetooth Headset with purchase of the Treo 700W(Value of $79.99)! One device does it all. The Palm Treo 700w smartphone offers everything you need without compromise. It combines a smarter phone, broadband-like speeds, wireless email and web access, and rich-media capabilities all in one. Plus, it brings Palm's world-class ease of use to the Windows Mobile platform. The intuitive and comfortable form factor with 5-way navigation gives you single-handed control over the details of your busy life. And the integrated, thumbable QWERTY keyboard makes sending email and editing documents fast and familiar. The new Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 software brings the familiar Windows interface and file system to the Treo smartphone. Plus, you can easily use Microsoft's suite of mobile applications to stay on top of important documents and email. Thanks to enhanced security features, you can confidently carry your files with you. Non-volatile flash memory keeps your information safe, even when you swap batteries. Improved Microsoft ActiveSync technology is easier to configure and delivers improved synchronization accuracy and faster data transfer. The Treo 700w smartphone is simply the best way to run Windows Mobile. Palm innovations on the Windows Mobile platform deliver the ease of use and seamless operation you expect on a Treo smartphone. Search the web or access contact info right from the Today Screen. Personalize your speed dials by adding photos to complement customized ring tones. Manage your call all from one screen with speakerphone, conference calling, caller ID, and call timer. If someone calls when you're busy, send the call to voicemail and automatically respond with a discreet SMS. Plus stay on top of all your voicemail accounts with a single set of on-screen controls. It's a busy world. Keep up on an EvDO network with average download speeds of 400-600 kbps. Be more responsive, even when you're not at your desk. Access the web right from where you're standing using Internet Explorer Mobile. Download large attachments and access corporate data on one of the fastest networks available in the U.S. Purchase music and video files over the air and play them right on the spot. Plus, wirelessly download games, personal productivity tools, and more from Palm.com. Stay connected on your terms. The Treo 700w smartphone is your central point of contact for all your email, even when you need to be on the go. Send and receive email from multiple corporate and personal email accounts, with built-in support for Microsoft Outlook , Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL, and other POP3 and IMAP accounts. (Support for other accounts such as Lotus Notes is also available separately.) Wirelessly access corporate email, contacts, and calendar information with no middleware and minimal involvement from IT. Play your favorite MP3 files and other PlaysForSure audio content using Windows Media Player Mobile. Capture moments on video, play them back on the bright and beautiful screen, then quickly send them to friends. Plus, grab files off your desktop and play them on your smartphone. The Windows Media Player 10 desktop software automatically converts compatible audio or video files on your computer to mobile format before you synchronize, so you can grab what you need quickly.
Features of Palm Treo 700w:
- 1.3 megapixel camera to shoots crisp, clear digital images
- bluetooth phones
- camera phones
- e-mail phones
- integrated thumbable qwerty keyboard makes sending email3 and editing documents fast and familiar
- pda phones
- play your favorite mp3 files and other playsforsure audio content using windows media player mobile
- send and receive email from multiple corporate and personal email accounts, with built-in support for microsoft® outlook®, hotmail, yahoo!, aol, and other pop3 and imap accounts
- uses evdo network with average download speeds of 400-600 kbps
- video phones
Reviews:
| Palm = Yesterday's Technology in a Good Form Factor | Rating: 2 |
I've owned virtually every Treo since Handspring sold the ingenious device to Palm and unfortunately the company and its executives have done nothing but milk every dollar they can for their bonuses and kill the franchise in the process. I really wanted to like this phone and tried every workaround. Unfortunately it goes back later today for many of the reasons Alfredo Gomez refers to. Other than a reasonably good form factor and hardware - which other companies have now caught up - Palm has made very few changes. DO NOT BELIEVE MOST MAGAZINE REVIEWS -- they are half done hack jobs by people who barely use the phone and write up their experience on specs and a day of usage. It's not the normal experience and I will explain.
1) Just not enough RAM -
If you are in any way using this phone as anything more than just pulling an email account and occasional surfing, this phone is not for you. In addition to Microsoft themselves recommending 64MB of RAM and the fact that EVERY PDA and phone for the past year and a half has at LEAST 64 MB of RAM, Palm foolishly decided to go with HALF that number -- the same 32 MB of RAM that was available to users in their Treo 600 released in 2002!!! This was greed. With Windows Mobile this even more of a problem because it was built to multitask -- keep your applications open in the background and called to the front on request. Opening and closing bulky applications is SLOW in Windows Mobile. With the 700w you get about 14MB of RAM to run applications before you put in the necessary minimal add ons, which will reduce your memory by at least 1-2 MB. But the real problem are memory leaks in WM 5 which will reduce that number even more. Add the fact that the 700w will QUIT applications when you get to the 5MB level, this will mean that your device will not multitask and you might have 2 apps open at the same time, maybe even 3 if they are not memory intensive. If you have open your email program and may have surfed using Pocket IE recently then opening your contact manager like PocketInformant will take you at least 5-10 seconds. You will hate that rotating colored ball. THIS CANNOT BE CHANGED as there are no RAM upgrades. I need to reset the phone at least once a day to clear the RAM.
2) SMS and Email problems: If you will use SMS or email frequently, this phone can make you pull your hair out. There is a bug (feature?) in SMS and PocketOutlook where scrolling down means the cursor goes to the bottom of the page view. Thus if you have a 14 line email or document you are editing, the only way to get to line 5 is to whip out that stylus or scrolling a few hundred characters to the right until you get there. Unfortunately the same goes for SMS which is NOT THREADED. This means that you can't see the ongoing conversation you may have with different people. It is by date, end of story. There aren't any suitable alternatives right now unfortunately. Nothing for SMS and the best email program I have seen is Web IS Flexmail which itself requires several keypresses just to delete an email -- unless once again you want to whip out that stylus. One handed operation is better than other WM devices but NOT EVEN CLOSE to the ease of using the Palm OS.
3. 240x240 screen is barely adequate if you use the web and infuriating with the limited number of apps that work with the 700w. On a whole it's better than I thought and not really a problem for most apps that use this resolution. Reading ebooks is a tad fuzzy but perfectly acceptable, even at smaller fonts. But squeeze that IE page into your tiny screen and the little fonts will be illegible. Want to view a power point for example? A word doc you received in email? With a 240x320 you see just enough to view a whole page and make it out. Not so with 240x240. It's just a little too coarse and you have to zoom everything. It's also a lot of info to cram into that tiny screen.
3) Windows Mobile has advantages and nice things about it but it is still NOT an optimal OS for mobile use. It is amazing that many tasks still require you to use a stylus or take an absurd number of keypresses. For example, if you want to simply save a number in your phone log you can just navigate and save. You must pull out the stylus, point and hold, and wait for save as to appear. Sure this isn't horrific but it becomes very noticeable when you do this regularly. If you ever used a Palm OS phone you will wish you could go back. Knowing Palm they will not improve the system in time and in a year or two Microsoft will FINALLY get this right.
WiFi is OK but very weak and almost useless with the external card. Bluetooth is adequate.
On the pros the battery life is reasonably good. Form factor is ok and the build quality is better than other phones like the xv6700. The screen clarity and contrast is also very good. As a phone it is acceptable.
So the end result is that unless you are a basic user that only wants to check an email account, doesn't get a lot of email, doesn't use SMS much, doesn't really use the PDA much, then this phone is not a solution for you. It will be nice to experience for the first 2 weeks and then you will begin to see the problems tear you apart soon after becoming familiar with the phone. It is sad that virtually all of these problems can be traced to Palm executives greed on trying to milk out just one more sale from an old phone that had a form factor that was the best for a long time. At this day and age consumers have a choice and need for more than just a phone that feels good in your hand. Don't be stupid. If Microsoft recommends that any application they provide needs 64 MB of RAM there is nobody stupid enough to even try to run it with less. That is the Palm Treo 700w. |
| Do you want to buy headache, buy this!! | Rating: 1 |
I was looking for something that is compact and PDA phone, web access together. Had cell phone and ipaq and it occupied both my pockets.
So go for the best, I thought! Trusted on the Palm name and put over 500 buck; little that I know I was purchasing a nightmare.
Palm has clearly failed. They tried to build a spaceship and landed up building car,ship, plane combined that doesn't work. When I use this phone, I feel anyone can manufacture a product, ask customers to test for themselves and
then charge them a hell lotta money. Let me clarify with my experiences
The phone has small screen not so good browsing web but that is something you don't blame them. Here is a list to blame them
1. The phone hangs a lot of times and you never know its dead. I get people telling that you don't answer your cell. To reset it, you have to open back cover. Wow, you are driving and wanna make call, do you want to open cover take out battery?
2. The phone memory is 64mb. give me a break, with ram only 25 mb. most of the time with minimum applications you see only 1 or 2 mb left.
3. For basic stuff its ok, but people taking half grand phone expect more and to setup that is nightmare. I spend countless hours with tech support for sync problems, email setup, vpn (never worked)
4. Unfortunately I believed that phone does what is says and I tried syncing with lotus notes at office. My IT helped me but somehow it writes some long logs who knows why?
5. The MS voice command is not reliable. Sometimes works sometimes doesn't.
6. As I said before there are many factors combines here so at tech support microsoft, varizon and palm point to each other saying 'we are ok, its theeem'..
7. I have to say for most part, I got good support quicky and some support analysts indirectly agreed that this product has issues. But how do you explain that there are things not in the manual that you need to do.
8. The nevobackup does not work unless you reinstall everything again.
8. This tops it all - at the end of month,my 700w showed over half memory full and took a long time to sync even though I had a very few applications/information stored(you guessed correctly, I took my old ipaq out). So after trying few things with varizon, they transferred me to palm. This person was fast; immediatly he asked me to go to windows/temp and asked me to delete all files there -over 2400.
I asked him why the files are not automatically deleting? He goes 'its your responsibility to delete it'. 'Where is it written? in the user manual/website?'. 'No sir, you can call us and we'll tell you that'. It took long time to delete them. So I summerize that if you dont call you'll never know how your memory and speed die out.
I can go on with specific problems, but in short, be careful! |
| Handy way to combine phone and Palm in one device | Rating: 4 |
| I have used Palms since the days of the Palm Pilot Professional, and there have been times when I've headed off to work or to run errands and realize I've left the darned thing charging or still hooked up to my computer. The same holds true for my cell phone. And with the two devices competing for space on my belt/waistband or in my purse, having both a phone and PDA was starting to be stressful. My husband solved the problem by getting me a Treo. It's taken a little practice to getting used to the thumbpad, but now that I have everything in one device I'm a happy convert. The very first day I had it, my doctor saw me puzzling out the odd beep and quickly whipped hers out and gave me a quick how-to tour! I still haven't had the time to sit down and go through the user's manual, but the Treo is very straightforward and easy to use, so chances are I may never need to read it. A great electronic assistant for those who are tech savvy as well as those who are a bit on the tech-phobic side. |
| Terrible quality control | Rating: 1 |
| I have had TREO phones for about 4 years and will never buy another one. The quality control on their products is terrible. I have never had a phone last more than 9 months before it became unusable - The TREO 350 had a flip up lid for the screen and that broke off in 2 separate phones and once that happens, the phone is worthless. Treo and T-Mobile refused to replace it again and forced me to buy another phone without any kind of upgrade discount. The second model was a Treo 600 which I bought 15 months ago. It was replaced because it continually freezed up and required a manual reset about once a day. Many phone calls were missed because of this. The replacement phone also locked up, but to a lesser degree, but this phone appears to have suffered some type of internal heat damage and the screen is becoming unusuable. The company only warrants replacement phones for 3 months and I had this one for 5. Once again, they refused to offer me a discounted upgrade and T-Mobile would do nothing. So I am forced to buy another phone - my 3rd in 4 years - and it will definitely NOT be a Treo. I am forceed to stay with T-Mobile or face a $200 early termination fee for both my cell phone and my air card. I have filed a complaint with the State of Florida, where I live, against both T-Mobile and Palm, but I'm not holding my breath that anything positive will happen. But beware, neither one of these companies appears to care much about their customers. |
| Need to be a Computer Savy | Rating: 4 |
You need to be a computer savy to use this Phone. If you can operate your Computer well, buy this.
I was long time user of Treo 600 and was in a dilema to Swtich 650 or 700w. My roommate got a 650 through Sprint, the phone is great , but still old palm OS. 700w got Windows Mobile, but poor hardware compared to 650. I want to try Windows Mobile, and bought this Amazing Thing.
The screen is Only 240X240, But still not bad. I didnt see much difference between 650 and 700w.
Need to close the Application right after using them, Like closing in "Task Manager" in Computer Windows. I have no idea why Windows Mobile doing that.
The Camera is really Cool. 1.3 Meg Pixel , I am not a Camera Phone Fan, But started using this Cam.
The Key Pad is better than 600 and 650.
Option to install lot of Applications, Comes with Windows Office, I installed MS Pocket Streets and its working Really amazing.
Bluetooth is Okay.
No Wifi, That very disappointing.
Sending Mails or Internet, Directly Connects to Verizon Broadband. If you dont want to use VZW Broadband, Check manual and change it.
Too bad, No case is delivered.
*** I am from FL, Got a phone number from CA, Verizon cannot transfer Phone numbers from West, I was upset, But still i got to compramise because of the phone ***
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| Pretty Happy | Rating: 3 |
I've been using the 700W for about a month now, and I'd have to say that I am pretty happy with it. I have never used a Blackberry, PDA, or other hand held, so I can't compare to these devices. But there are features of this phone that I really like, which I won't go into because they are probably things that any first time PDA user would be happy with (being able to import my entire Outlook contacts, e.g.) I will say that I am a gadget freak, so I am pretty demanding on technology tools/toys.
There have been a few frustrating things:
- The web browsing is not very good. Seems to connect very well, and fast, to the list of favorites that come standard with the phone. But try typing in any website thats not in the favorites, and you have a 50/50 chance of an error and/or a lockup.
- Even on "High Quality" setting, the 1.3MP camera does not produce very good pictures. Although I probably shouldn't expect much from a camera/phone. I do notice that you have to keep your hand incredibly still (as well as the subject) to get a decent picture. I've checked this on various settings thinking it had something to do with the exposure speed, but it's pretty much true on any setting combination.
- Oddly enough, the call functions on this phone are not great. When both dialing out, and when answering incoming calls, there are frequently LONG pauses after hitting a button and before you either get a ring on outbound, or get to talk to someone on inbound. This can be very annoying.
- The free Motorola bluetooth earpiece that Amazon includes for free apparently sucks. Everyone I have spoken to when I am using this device says they either cannot hear me, I sound like I'm under water, or they can hear every other word I say. I see this earpiece on people all the time, so I don't know if it's just a combination with this phone, or I just got a dud.
Overall I really do like the phone, despite the items above. It has made me more efficient when I'm not in front of my laptop. It is easy to navigate and intuitive. I would recommend it to anyone. |
| Great AIO device! | Rating: 5 |
| Got this a little over a week ago...I've never used a smartphone before...Therefore, I don't have any prior experiences with any other product. So far, the device has been as advertised, it's everything that I've been looking for. For people who are familiar with the Windows platform, this phone will be an easy transition. It took me about a day to discover all of the features on this phone. Our organization run Exchange 2003 SP2 with FE/BE topology and the email setup took all but 5 minutes. The "push" technology is also as advertised! I actually get my emails faster on my phone compared to my desktop Outlook! Operation on the device can be done with mostly one hand, MS and Palm did an excellent job on the usability of the O/S. There are some shortfalls though...The screen is smaller compared to the 700p. Start of some programs is a little slow (Windows Media Player). The 700w seems to be a little short on memory, although I've only had to reset 1 time in 10 days of operation. Battery life is a little short. However, overall, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who's looking for a smartphone. |
| looked good on paper - junk in real life | Rating: 2 |
bought this phone 6 weeks ago direct from Verizon, I just received my 4th replacement and it still has problems. First unit crashed, second unit had a dead keyboard right out of the box, in the third and fourth units the modem won't hang up automatically so if you use it to automatically check e-mail it will stay logged on until you remember to turn it off. Tends to block calls and burns up battery. When the phone does work, it is very slow. I could tolerate that if it was stable.
I am trying to get my money back from Verizon. |
PalmOne Part Number Treo 700w |
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