The Treo 650 is my third Treo. I previously have owned a Treo 300 and a Treo 600. I have also owned various PDAs, including the Tungsten C, Tungsten T and iPAQ 5455. For my needs and desires, the T650 is easily the best phone on the market.
Anyone reading this review presumably knows, at least in general terms, what a Treo 650 is. I will focus on comparing it with the T600, rather than attempting to describe the phone from the ground up to an unfamiliar audience.
First, a word about what I value - explained so you can decide for yourself which of these things are important or unimportant to you.
FULL KEYBOARD. I would never buy a Smartphone that did not have a full keyboard, because I want to use the device for inputting data, composing emails, and IM/text message conversations. The way that you use a device without a keyboard is, in my opinion, fundamentally different, and more limited. (On the other hand, the lack of a full keyboard would make the device more pocketable and "normal-looking.")
PALM OS or POCKET WINDOWS. I don't want a phone that adds some PDA-like functions. I want to be able to use standard software, and those two are the standards. I don't have a preference. I find Palm OS devices generally simpler to use, PPC devices generally more powerful.
FITS IN A PANTS POCKET. I might put it in a coat pocket most of the time, but sometimes, I won't be wearing a coat. The device, including case, has to fit in my pocket. I have used setups in which I carried a separate phone, PDA and either folding keyboard or snap-on thumbboard; I ended up wearing a sports coat all the time, with heavily laden pockets. When I switched from my iPAQ setup to the T300, I entered a state of bliss, despite the loss of power and resolution. Carrying the device was no longer a chore.
With that out of the way, here's my quick overall description of the Treo 650, followed by a comparison with the Treo 600.
What is it: a moderately powerful Palm OS PDA, which is also a telephone, with a build-in thumb board. I use the Sprint version, and via the Sprint PCS service, the device takes on its third role as an Internet tool (hence the name Treo - three roles). You can keep your contact list, calendar and other Palm OS programs on it, and get/send mail via pop servers, use AOL IM or (better yet) Verichat for full-speed instant messenging ... wirelessly get 5-day weather forecasts for most zip codes in the U.S., or updated currency exchange rates, using WorlMate Pro ... almost anything you can imagine within the context of Palm OS programs. There is also a wussy little camera built in (more on this later). Don't buy it for the camera, though.
TREO 650 VERSUS TREO 600
(Again, I have the Sprint version; other carriers will vary in some details.)
LOOKS: The 600 is mostly gray, with silvery plastic accents. The 650 is mostly dark blue, with silvery plastic accents. On the 600, the number buttons are white with dark lettering on them for alternate options, while the other buttons are dark with white lettering for alternate options. That is reversed on the 650, meaning the buttons appear better backlit. The buttons are also placed at more of an arc angle, allowing each button to be slightly larger. The phone looks more high-tech and toothy. The basics are mostly the same, with a few tweaks here and there - including a small silvery mirror next to the camera lens to help with self-photos.
BUTTON LAYOUT: PalmOne wanted to make the Treo look more like a phone, and did so, in part, by adding a green "phone" and a red "hang up" button. The "phone" button starts the device and puts it into the telephone program. The "hang up" button turns off power; if power is already off, it turns the device on into whatever program it had been running before being turned off most recently. The other "main" buttons (by default: calendar, mail) also turn the phone on, into their respective programs. There is an additional button on the side of the phone beneath the volume rocker that, by default, starts RealPlayer and functions like the main four buttons, except that it doesn't turn the phone on. I set mine to invoke Notepad, instead. The "home" and "menu" buttons have been moved from the bottom of the keyboard to near the five-way navigation. The power on/off button on top of the phone, which PalmOne considered redundant, has been removed, leading to great puzzlement until I figured out the new layout (but now it's very natural). This layout seems better thought out, and the green and red phone icons will be more comfortable to people who ask to borrow your phone to make a quick call.
SCREEN: definitely improved. 320x320 shows four times as much information as the previous 160x160, making Web pages far easier to view, and also helping in many other tasks. The screen also seems a bit brighter, from memory, though I am unable to compare the two side by side. The previous screen wasn't bad, but the new one is head and shoulders better.
PHONE RECEPTION/VOLUME: Seems about the same. I have seen complaints on treocentral.com about low volume until the device is patched; I have not experienced this problem. However, I didn't buy my phone until January, a couple of months after they hit the market, so maybe mine had been tweaked already? I get one bar of service with this phone at my parents' house, where I previously got no service most of the time, but this could also be a fluke due to temperature or whatever other factors affect such things. I haven't noticed my calls sounding different, and no one else has mentioned me souding different.
INTERNET CONNECTION SPEED/RELIABILITY: Seems exactly the same. Again, the improved resolution makes Web pages easier to read and navigate, and also fits more text on your screen when you're checking email, so the Internet experience is improved in this way. However, I don't think the actual connection is any different. I can check email from my parents' house, too, but I don't know whether that's due to improved reception in the phone or other factors.
BATTERY: A big step forward. The T600's battery seemed to need charging every night when I made heavy use of the phone for calls or Internet. I didn't see it as a problem, as I figured that's just how it was. But the 650's battery seems to last through two days of heavy use. It also seems to recharge more rapidly. And, it's user-changeable, so if the battery goes bad, you don't have to replace the whole phone. Also, you can carry a spare if you want, though I find the battery life so strong that it's not necessary.
CAMERA: Still .3 megapixels, which is disappointing. Still no LED flash, which is disappointing. However, pictures from the phone somehow look a lot better, especially in indoors lighting. The T600's camera was all but useless unless you were in VERY bright light (e.g. sunlight). The T650's camera is fully useable indoors. The video clips are a nice touch. The Sprint version allows you to email video clips of under 256K similarly to how you'd email pictures.
BLUETOOTH: I wasn't among the legions waiting for this feature. I don't plan to use the phone as a modem for a laptop, and I don't make much use of headsets. However, this is a big plus for those who do use those features. It's also fun, and potentially useful, for Bluetooth chat/drawingboard programs that you can share with fellow Bluetooth PDA users. And, you can send files back and forth via Bluetooth without needing to establish line of sight.
CPU and MEMORY: The specs are higher, but I don't notice an improvement, frankly. I didn't need all of the memory on the T600, so that isn't an issue for me. The faster processor probably allows the phone to handle video and some other tasks it simply couldn't do before; however, I think that in most cases, the advantages have been frittered away with OS inefficiencies (see below).
ROM SOFTWARE: Okay, here is where we take a step back. Take a picture, click the button to email it, and some screen flashes up too rapidly for you to see, and then you get to the screen where you type the recipient's email address. Looks sloppy; in fact, it's a bit embarrassing when you're showing your phone off ("uh, it always does this, it's working fine"). Tap the button to call a number out of your contact or quick-dial list, and wait ... about three seconds later, the Call In Progress screen will appear. These may sound like small issues, but when you make heavy use of the device all the time, they are really irritating. The T600 and T300 did not have these problems, and they really are inexcusable on a $600 phone. At times, I have wished that I had my T600 back, as I waited for the phone to get around to making the call I told it to make.
SUMMARY: I prefer the 650 to the 600, but not by as wide a margin as I expected to. Quite simply, the software problems and slowness in the phone application is irritating, and sticks in my craw EVERY DAY.
That said, this phone is better than the T600 in almost every other way, without sacrificing much. I might grumble, but I wouldn't sacrifice the 320x320 resolution and the video capabilities in return for improved phone functionality. If you want a device that is a phone, a PDA and an Internet appliance, and you want to be able to type in text rather than just reading text, there is no other option worth considering, unless you can find a T600 for a bargain.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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