Palm Treo 750 - Review

Having owned a Palm Treo 750 for a few months now I thought that I'd share my
experiences with you guys.

It is a combined NextG/PDA which works well together.

Good things about it:

1. Sync with Outlook. No need to run multiple apps for email, contacts,
calendar, etc.. Don't need to carry around two units (phone and PDA).

2. Full qwerty keyboard which is surprisingly easy to use.

3. Able to run shitloads of apps including opening and editing Word and Excel
documents.

4. WM5 allowing a mobile phone to run superior calendar, contacts and other PDA
functions than what dedicated mobile phones, such as the Samsumg A501 which my
Treo replaced. Although I've seen Motorola's latest NextG phone which has an
excellent calendar program built in.

Bad things about it.

1. Windows Mobile 5 has much the same "character" as its big brother. Needs the
occasional reset, and some apps do the "failed to respond" thing, requiring
WM5's version of Task Manager to terminate their processes.

2. Not enough memory. Have to use an expansion card which can't often be read.
But that may be the card.

3. Bluetooth doesn't work, or I can't get it to work. Have tried it with a
laptop that can connect with my wife's Nokia and with a Mio C510 navigator which
again connects with my wife's Nokia, but not the Palm.

4. Doesn't come with any sort of protective carry case. No Telstra shop that I
have visited has any for sale. Nor have they any other accessories such as a car
charger or hands free kits for the Treo. Easy to scratch the screen or to damage
the unit. If it was a fliptop design it would be an excellent product,
ergonomically speaking. Also, dodgy way of locking the keyboard. Sometimes it
works, sometimes it doesn't.

5. Screen could be larger. It's about 3/4 the size of a standard Palm or other
brand PDA. Still readable, though I wouldn't like to use it for prolonged
viewing.

6. Phone functions OK, but reception can be a bit dodgy.

7. USB connector feels like it's about to rip the guts out of the phone every
time I disconnect it from the phone. it seems to snag all the time. I fear that
its longevity may be shortened by those who aren't easy on it. Also, its power
connector is a separate plug, which means that you require two cables going into
the unit. Other PDAs that Palm made had cradles where you merely sat the unit in
for it to connect to the computer for "hotsync/activesync" and for charging the
battery.

8. Activesync software flaky. Have problems at times trying to sync software
apps, although Outlook seems to work Ok in this area.

9. OS is slower than the PalmOS that I'm used to. If Palm made a smartphone that
used PalmOS rather than WM5/6 then it would be a far superior and more stable
product.

10. Difficult process to convert old Palm contacts for import into the Treo.
Ended up doing it in a 4 step process which included a lot of manual editing
both before and after migration of data. If there's an easy and simple way of
doing it, then it alluded me.

11. Finally, its retail price is way overinflated. At around $1,100 you can buy
two equivalent WM5 based PDAs and a couple of good fliptop phones thrown in for
good measure. Had I not gotten mine off Ebay for around half retail price I
would have perservered with my existing, but aging setup - Palm Zire 71 and the
Samsung A501.

--
The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the
morning and doesn't stop until you get to work.