Great choice for Sprint PCS Vision users
Written: Aug 26 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: One device takes the place of your cell phone and PDA
Cons: Big for a cell phone. PDA power users may want more horsepower
The Bottom Line: The Treo is a good combination device. I would recommend it to anyone who needs a date book, address book, mobile e-mail and IM and phone.
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| wombat2's Full Review: Handspring Treo 300 Handheld |
I sold my iPAQ and bought this item when I decided that Sprint may never get their act together and release a Bluetooth cell phone. My goal with the PDA all along has been to use it online, for e-mail on the go. Wi-fi goes just so far (there are only two or three wi-fi spots in my town).
The Treo works well with Sprint to get me online, from anywhere I have a digital signal. It's also a pretty decent cell phone and a pretty decent Palm device.
* As a phone - the Treo is fairly big. It's also single-band (digital only), so in rural areas, you could be stranded.
However, it has good incoming and outgoing sound, and solid overall features. You can dial out of your Palm address book or a "recent calls" list, both of which are pretty easy to get to.
Personally, I feel a bit silly using the Treo as a phone, due to its size when the flip is open. I have gotten a few chuckles, and if I care about appearances, I prefer using the headset. However, that's a matter of personal taste. It's not nearly as large as the Hitachi Pocket PC phone. It's one or two sizes larger than a Star-Tac.
Several features are best done using the touchscreen, which may make some people nervous. It's awkward if you use the stylus to hang up the phone, for example. I tend to use a fingernail instead.
Overall, I'd say it's pretty good to average as a PCS cell phone.
* As a PDA - the Treo runs Palm OS 3.52 on a Dragonball 33 MHz processor. The screen is color, but is 160x160 resolution (compared with 320x320 on new PalmOS devices other than low-end models). It does not have a memory card slot.
Coming from a rather high-end PDA background - my previous PDAs were an iPAQ 5455, a Tungsten C and a Tungsten T - I was worried about the Treo's performance and flexibility. However, I find myself not missing the horsepower I gave up, at least not much. I'm so pleased that my phone can now e-mail and run AOL IM, as well as some basic Web browsing, that I don't mind not being able to run Age of Empires or play mp3s. Besides, I sold my iPAQ for so much more than I paid for this that I bought a separate mp3 player, anyway!
I am a fan of built-in thumbboards, and this one has a good thumbboard. That makes entering data (e.g. writing e-mails) much more practical than using character recognition or the software keyboard.
The screen looks okay - not as nice as my previous PDAs but acceptable - and programs seem to run at reasonable speed.
* As an Internet device - I use the Treo for IM almost as much as for voice communications. It's great that I can send or receive calls on the same device that allows me to very quickly connect to the Internet and check messages that way. Sometimes, a phone call is best, and sometimes, an IM or e-mail is better. It takes less than a minute to connect to the Vision service. Speeds seem about the same as using a modem on a PC. (Forget the touted 144 KB/sec maximum. You won't get it.)
I'd like a more full-featured Web browser than the one built into the device, and it would be nice if Handspring bundled a free e-mail client instead of trying to charge extra.
Using Vision does eat through the battery a faster pace, but I find battery life to be tolerable. And 10 minutes plugged into the car charger seems to charge the battery 30%. I plug it up driving to and from work, and on trips, and battery life is rarely an issue.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 195
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Epinions.com ID:
wombat2
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Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 1 member
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