A good, versatile unit but cranky with Outlook
Written: May 23 '08 (Updated May 25 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent sensitivity, many functions, well made.
Cons: Often very slow to respond to touch screen, finally stopped syncing with Outlook.
The Bottom Line: I can't recommend the Palm version of the 755p based on its eventual refusal to sync with Outlook after 10 months of proper function.
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| apowell's Full Review: Palm Treo 755p Smartphone |
I used a Treo 755p for about 11 months. I opted for the Palm version because I've used Palm software and PDAs for almost 10 years, and although I'm quite PC-centric, I really like the Palm OS. I didn't want a Windows mobile unit, and this was my fourth Palm OS unit. (I also had some problems with the Palm Tungsten C which are noted in a past review, but that didn't deter me from another Palm unit.)
I found the 755p to be well-made, and the touch screen to be reasonably (not extremely) sensitive. I bought a slightly larger capacity battery and was thereafter able to use it for 2-3 days without recharging. I also was able to pick up accessories inexpensively (mostly on Ebay) that worked well. There's plenty of aftermarket software that can be loaded as well, although if you start developing problems it's likely you'll have to unload programs until things work. The Palm OS just isn't very crash-resistant when you start adding aftermarket software.
In terms of phone reception, the 755p was one of the most sensitive phones I've ever used. I often travel in hilly, remote areas and the reception was consistently excellent; better than that of any other cell phone I have used.
The color touchscreen was an excellent addition, and it was very convenient. The only drawback of the touchscreen was that it was often slow to respond when the unit was carrying out background functions (more about that below).
One minor frustration was difficulty in locking the keyboard. When carrying it in a hip holster, the unit constantly would turn on when I sat in a car seat, and I'd hear it beeping as it tried to run whatever random function had been triggered by whatever pressed against it.
Another frustration was that the 755p would never maintain pairing with my Bluetooth headset. If I paired them and let more than 24 hours pass, when I tried to use the headset again I always had to re-pair them. I don't know what the problem was but it made the Bluetooth headset too much hassle to use.
The most consistently frustrating aspect of the 755p was delays in response to commands. When using the touch screen, if the unit was doing any background activity at all, it was common for its screen to not respond for 5-10 seconds. This resulted in my having pressed a command a half-dozen times or more. As a result, when the unit did respond, it would skip three or four commands into whatever function happened to be in the same screen position as the function I had been pressing. This caused me substantial frustration, as it sometimes happened as many as a half-dozen times in one day. It was a love/hate situation: I like the touch screen a lot, but I got very tired of the lagging response times.
I work at a university and Outlook is the common platform here. For most of the year, syncing was dependable. however, some of the Notes in Outlook never synced to the phone regardless of the changes we made. About the 10th month, for some reason unknown to me, the phone began refusing to sync the Calendar, Email or Contacts list! This left me with an expensive cell phone with no stored phone numbers.
Let me be clear that the problem was NOT the phone, as far as I can determine - it was something in Outlook. We have three other Treo users in my department (all using Windows versions of Treo) who have encountered occasional sync hiccups, but nothing as extensive as I ran into. Regardless, over the course of a month I and my IT Network Manager spent 20 to 30 hours trying to get this unit to sync. We checked online forums, worked with Sprint and Palm, and even deleted and rebuilt my Exchange account - with absolutely no results. This was a huge investment of time that came to nothing.
After a month of this nonsense, I abandoned the 755p and changed to a Blackberry Curve. It's more expensive on a monthly basis because of RIM's silly data charges, but it works flawlessly and synced with Outlook the first time - including the Notes that never transferred to the Treo. It's also thinner and therefore easier to carry in a pants or suit pocket.
I liked the 755p, and I note that I am the only one at my university that has had a sync problem this severe and prolonged. I do know that other Treo users at this university have had occasional problems of varying severity in syncing with Outlook, and I honestly do not believe that Outlook is very receptive to working with the Palm OS. Maybe it's more of an enterprise server issue than an issue with syncing to an individual user's machine, but that's just a guess.
If the unit had not developed this fatal problem with syncing, I would have kept the 755p. It's a good unit and I could have lived with its odd habits - but not when it refused to function as designed.
There's nothing wrong with the build quality of the 755, I like its sensitivity and functionality, but I advise you to consider potential compatibility issues before adopting one.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 450
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Epinions.com ID:
apowell
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Member: Al Powell
Location: Fort Collins, CO
Reviews written: 39
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Professional broadcaster. Educator and Ph.D. Technically oriented handyman, expert in electronics, automotive and home repair.
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