Treo 700P: I Love My Phone Again
After two happy years with a Treo 600 and a couple of false starts with a Nokia N70 and a Blackberry 8700g, I have finally upgraded to a brand spankin’ new Treo 700P. I had to switch from T-Mobile to Sprint in order to use it — which wasn’t a thrilling idea — but we’ll get to that later.
Following is a mini-review for anyone considering a Treo, as well as a custom skin to make the device a bit more Mac-like:
Interface, interface, interface
The single most important thing to me in a phone is its interface. Not just how the buttons are arranged but how the device interacts with me. Many Palm detractors complain how about little Palm’s interface and operating system have changed over the last several years, and they are right… but in my view, that’s a good thing. There simply isn’t much that needs changing. I loved my Treo 600 interface, and the 700P isn’t much different. Faster and more powerful, yes. Confusing and more complicated, no.
The 700P’s keyboard is a slight upgrade from the 600’s and virtually the same as the 650’s. If you aren’t very good with T9 typing and you want the best QWERTY keyboard in the business, this is it.
The phone interface itself is typical Palm simplicity. While the iconography and typography could use an update, the navigation is easy as ever. Nothing is more than one-level deep, the menuing works much like it does on a Mac, and most functions are available by using either the touchscreen or key commands.
Since the built-in interface widgets and dialpad appearance looked a little dated to me, I used a combination of two programs and a little Photoshop love to fix the situation.
First off, grab yourself a copy of Palm Revolt and choose the “Aqua Skin” to decrappify the interface widgets a bit. Then, to complete the transformation into a more Mac-like interface, download a copy of Skinner and install this custom dialpad I designed:
Voila! You’ve got Mac!
* Note, the above copy of Skinner is a beta for the 700P. It appears to work fine. If you have a 650, you can download the official release here.
The hardware
Treos have never been small devices so if you’re looking for something you can slip into that fifth pocket in your jeans, you’re better off with a trendsucking RAZR. That said, however, the Treo has always felt great in the hands, due to its curvaceous posterior and balanced weighting. The 700P is heavier than the 600 and about the same weight as the 650. While it’s certainly heavier than most Blackberries, it just somehow feels more comfortable.
The device is outfitted in steel gray and silver giving it a sharp, professional look. The screen is extremely crisp and bright, sporting a 320×320 resolution — much better than its Windows counterpart, the 700W. I haven’t even had to turn the brightness up past the halfway mark which should do good things for battery life.
The camera is also decent. I haven’t historically taken a lot of cameraphone pics, but I might start. Below is a sample snapped from Mike Industries Headquarters (click for the full-resolution version):
Call quality
So far, the voice quality on the 700P has been impeccable. I made a call to test out the speakerphone and the person on the other end couldn’t even tell he was on speaker. Your results may vary depending on your carrier and coverage zones, but so far the 700P has been a big upgrade over the 600.
E-mail and applications
One of the main reasons I ended up returning my Blackberry was its inability to handle IMAP email syncing properly. The Blackberry is a great device if you use the Blackberry Enterprise service, but for syncing with regular e-mail accounts, it (like 99% of other phones on the market) doesn’t work too well. The Treo, however, syncs perfectly with both my Mike Industries and Newsvine e-mail accounts via the magic of Versamail’s built-in IMAP support. No software to buy, no monthly fees… it just works.
Sprint’s EVDO high-speed data service has made the Treo’s Blazer browser a bit more fun to use, but I must admit I’m still not a huge fan. I installed Opera Mini for comparison and although I like it a bit better, it crashes every time I try to modify preferences. For some reason, Pocket IE still seems to be the best mobile browser on the market, perhaps recently eclipsed by Nokia’s WebKit-enabled browser.
Oh, and did I mention I can also watch TV on this thing? Did I also mention I can’t imagine myself ever really doing so?
Other nice applications I’ve installed so far include KMaps (a mobile interface into Google Maps) and Traffic (a live map of current freeway traffic conditions).
Syncing
Syncing is unfortunately where a lot of phones fail to deliver, at least in terms of interfacing with a Mac. The 700P, however, syncs flawlessly with no additional hardware. Not having to use a cradle is a nice improvement over the 600, but I do wish there was a way to sync over the air. It’s just data, right? You’d think someone could design a conduit where both your computer and your phone would sync to a repository stored somewhere on your server.
Sprint
I had been with Sprint before switching to T-Mobile a couple of years ago (ironically enough, in order to get a Treo 600) and they weren’t bad, but I didn’t really like the idea of leaving T-Mo. Maybe it’s subconscious lust for Catherine Zeta-Jones or just the fact that the company’s customer service was always great to me, but I felt bad for leaving. My final phone call to T-Mo was almost like breaking up with a girlfriend (”It’s not you. It’s me.”).
While the call quality and data speed of my new Sprint service seems very good, all dealing with customer service thus far have been atrocious. I don’t even want to get into it but let’s just say that I’ve already had to physically go to a Sprint store three times because customer service told me to. During all three visits, I’ve been told to call customer service from the store, and during one of the visits, I was actually told to walk 5 blocks to another Sprint store because they couldn’t look up my account.
This is not just a question of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. This is the right hand not even knowing that it’s a right hand. I could go on and on about how awful Sprint customer service is, but so far my actual phone service has been great, so I’m just going to hope I don’t need a lot of support in the future.
Final analysis
If you already like Treos, you will love the 700P. If you hate your current smartphone, you may also love the 700P. It’s probably the best device Palm has ever produced.
That said, however, there will be some detractors. I’m sure you can probably do 1000 more things on many WindowsMobile-powered phones. Which of those 1000 things do you really need though? For each feature you add, you also add complexity and more things that can break. I look at all the things I’d ever need to do on a phone and they are all already there on the 700P: Phone and camera functionality, e-mail, texting, web browsing, high-speed data transfer, music, video, calendaring, syncing, Bluetooth, and a nice interface. What else is there?
The more I use this Treo, the more I’m convinced that when Apple releases its first phone, I probably won’t jump to get it. I envision it being a much simpler, much less powerful device, and I’m just not a simple flip-phone guy anymore. If there is a more business-oriented model in the lineup, that would be eye-opening, but until then, I’m sticking with this bad boy.
I have the same experience with Sprint — the service is basically great, but the support is lousy. It pains me to say this, given that my father is a rather high-up exec in the company, but it is what it is.
Looks like I’ll have to upgrade once my contract is up in October 2007 :P
Is Sprint GSM?
KMaps huh?
I don’t have a SmartPhone but have noticed that Google is touting their maps mobile interface at http://www.google.com/gmm
Does that jive with the 700P?
Sigh.
In another life I’m a trainer for Sprint Customer Service (*2) so I apologize for you having to deal with that.
On the upside, the Treo 700p kills the 700w, and I’m glad your back, even if it was for the device and not the service.
Oh! and Sprint utilizes CDMA technology like Verizon.
And we have another new term from Mike D: “trendsucking”. Love it.
And no, Chris, Sprint is not a GSM carrier, and the 700P doesn’t have a SIM card.
Mike, you should be able to sync using Bluetooth (even without crappy $40 software). I wroteup a little tutorial way back when for doing so with the 650, which may still work for the 700P. It might be worth a shot.
It looks like you will need to make a slight modification to your “ten things” now!
Dammit, still can’t trade in my phone (Justine and I got matching phones last fall when I added her to my plan) for quite some time without paying with my first born.
I’ve been drooling over that damn phone for some time - trying to get the IT OPS department to pony up for it.
You should checkout http://www.chatteremail.com/
IMHO it’s the best email client available for the Treo- it runs in the background– with ssl — and provides true push email support.
I can second your opinion of Sprint customer service. At first it wasn’t bad, but by the time I was ready to upgrade plans and get new phones at the end of my contract the support was horrible. I swear, you could die of a heart attack in a sprint store around here and no one would help you. Needless to say I’m not with Sprint anymore. I hope that Cingular get’s the 700P by the time I’m ready to upgrade.
Thanks for the review.
I have had a 650 for a while — and one of the things I first show people when they undoubtedly ask about what it can do …
Mike Tyson’s Punch out vs Mike Tyson — and Super Mario Brothers Stage 1-1 ..
Yeah it makes phone calls too ..
I switched from Sprint to T-Mo three years ago when I lost my phone and Sprint wasn’t willing to do anything to keep me as a cutomer—couldn’t have have made a better choice.
T-Mo has been great and in all ways. They even worked hard to keep me as a customer when I was looking for a new phone, I went with the Samsung T-509.
Mike, or anyone -
Have you used the 700p in your automobile with a hands free environment? I will be getting an Acura TSX which comes standard with hands free calling as long as your phone is blue tooth-enabled. Since Acura’s system also syncs your address book, etc I was wondering how well these two systems coexist…
I’m thinking of getting a 700 — but with windows.
Can anyone give me a good argument as to why I should go 700p instead?
I use windows on my laptop, home computer, etc., so I’d been assuming the 700w would be the way to go, but would welcome additional info.
thanks
Aw, man. I was hoping you were going to stick it out for the E70 - I was hoping to see what you thought of it.
I have the 650, on Sprint, and I just can’t see myself going for the slight incremental upgrade (EVDO and 1.3 camera) when the things I dislike about it (still too big, no wifi, Palm OS still flaky, bad phone usability) need a drastic change.
Mike,
Have you tried LauncherX as a replacement for the Palm application launcher?
http://www.launcherx.com/launcherx/
It features tabbed categories (I have mine across the top…don’t like them on the side), and drag-and-drop functionality. Want to beam something to a friend? Just drag it to the beam gadget.
If you like the simplicity of the Palm interface, you should love LauncherX, which keeps the simplicity but adds much needed functionality.
@Kevin: do you by any chance have “Enable Local Network Time” checked in the Time & Date preferences? When I first got my 650 (Sprint), the Palm OS seemed flaky. I kept getting reboots at random (and not so random) intervals. Found out the enable local network time was buggy and causing all sorts of other problems. I turned that option off, and haven’t had a reboot in over a year. It’s been solid as a rock.
What pains me about the 700p is that its essentially a 650 with very few upgrades. It’s about 1.5-2 years since the 650 shipped and I want a Treo with a better OS, better UI, wifi, and EVDO that works with my laptop.
But no……..so I’m not sure what cell phone I’m going to get but it would hurt to chunk down the money for the 700p.
On a slightly related note: The first few Nokia e70’s have started showing up on phone sites and ebay.
Still only avaialable in 900/1800/1900 (850/1800/1900 works better in the US i guess) but it should only be a matter of time until the US version is out.
Sweet! That’s what i want to hear…
Interesting write up, and a fun read. I just recently switched from Sprint (after 5 years of loyalty) to Verizon for the specific purpose of getting the HTC Apache XV-6700, which I beta tested while overseeing Geek Squad agents in the field. It’s a solid phone running Windows Mobile 5, but you hit on the key points:
A) Too many features makes it too easy to break (I’ve bricked it a couple times) and,
B) It doesn’t sync with Mac.
Needless to say I will seriously entertain the 700p once Verizon gets it (presumably in the next month or so), and if necessary, put my 6700 on the eBay block. I like it, but it leaves quite a bit to be desired.
On a similar note, I always get a kick out of how you can be a top-level snazzy exec and still indulge in the fun little things like tricking out a phone interface or tweaking Myspace. It’s a nice reminder that maybe I’m not such a loser after all. ;)
Are there any skins available for this version of Skinner? The 650 ones apparently don’t work… :(
For the syncing: Doesn’t it have an SyncML client? That’s one thing I love in my W810i SE phone: it makes a daily backup of all my contacts, to a server. Only strange thing is that there don’t seem to be many software syncML clients for syncing back to your PC…
I’m still resisting and keeping a regular size phone, but maybe i’ll move one day and buy one of those little marvels.
It can be handy to rip things to DivX and play them on the Treo with TCPMP. My 1G card will hold a whole movie, or two episodes of Doctor Who — nice for travelling, when you’re tired of reading and crosswords, and it’s not convenient to have or use your laptop.
Devon (or anybody) … how do you know when a phone will be released for Verizon? Are there any even remotely decent phones for verizon service?
I still just can’t get myself to use a phone with full qwerty keyboard. That thing looks nice, but it’s a total Mike phone. I prefer my Nokia E60 (and don’t give me crap about the E70 coming out. Again, I hate the qwerty, call me a freak).
Thanks for the sweet UI, Mike. I have the 600 and am counting the days until my “new every two” deal with Verizon, so I can trade up to the 700 (presumably they’ll have the 700P by August, when my contract is up).
Not long before Apple does start making phones. Or, if they don’t, not long before they start making phone firmware. I’d be neat to have an Apple phone.
Great thread, glad I found it as I’m about to take the plunge and upgrade to the 700p.
Currently with T-Mo and have been for 4 years, going to switch to Sprint this week in spite of the support woes of many.
My Treo 600 was acting up and I called T-Mo to replace it as I’ve paid for equipment protection since day 1. They tried to replace with SDA, and I insisted on Palm OS and some form of Treo. T-Mo no longer carries any Treos. They said sorry. I requested a refund on the equipment protection I’d paid, they said sorry. I asked they remove the equipment protection if they wouldn’t stand behind it, and the next month I was charged again. After calling T-Mo about this to request a final $6 refund to cover that month’s equipment protection, they turned me down. I asked, “are you willing to lose my $85/month payment and lose me as a customer over this $6 issue?”…..they said sorry!
Pretty unbelievable, couldn’t believe their kindergarten dropout math and the lack of backbone for standing behind their equipment protection (they blamed it on the insurance agency). Sadly, leaving them (I cannot pay them another cent after such a ridiculous series of experiences) and will be with Sprint by the end of the week.
Nice blog. Would read again. I am getting the 700p soon in about a few weeks so this just reassures me of my decision.
What I’d like to know is, where is the cheapest place to get it from?
Got my 700P and I’m in love all over again! I know that people are complaining about Sprint’s $39.99 EVDO/PAM (Palm As Modem) plan, but it’s not all that bad when you consider that you get the best of both worlds: A high speed data connection for your phone AND mobile internet access for your laptop. I’ve been using my PAM plan via Bluetooth with my Mac and its been plenty fast (at least for me). The cool thing is, I can still make and receive calls while online. The 700P will pause my Internet connection while I’m on the phone and resume in the background undetected. I’ve updated my settings so that my phone connects as Modem anytime I hit “Enter” in a browser (as when typing a url). I connect in seconds and I’m off and surfing… No more $10 Wifi days at Starbucks. I’ve truly got a portable laptop in my pocket that’s capable of making calls and providing me with highspeed internet access. I’m in awe!
Did I mention that I’m using my PAM on my Mac to write this? Sweeet!
msSwitch, you only pay $39 for the EvDO and how many minutes? What plan is this and how much did your phone cost?
That’s actually the standard unlimited Phone - as - Modem plan.
Oh so very fricking cool! I have drooled over the whole treo thing for years now, and you had to go and post about being able to customize the screens - now I HAVE to have one. No more living with the clie’ and nokia - it’s treo time.. thanks!
Thanks for the review. I’m with Sprint and I’m searching for a phone that will work with the Bluetooth integrated into my Acura and this is one of my options. You may have swayed me from the Blackberry 7130 to this. Thanks.
I have a BlackBerry 8700g right now, and let me tell you; even a Treo 650 does more than this thing. The only thing a BlackBerry does better than a Treo out of the box, is email, and that is ALL. The BlackBerry’s browser can’t render anything. I keep getting socket/trunk errors with my BlackBerry. The Treo 650 my friend has can redner all kinds of web content, and it displays it much better than my BlackBerry can. I can image how great this 700p is. This is why I just bought one through sprint. I have T-Mobile now, but they won’t tell me why I keep getting TCP/IP errors on my BlackBerry, so I am leaving them.
At least I get high speed EV-DO with Sprint, whereas I only get EDGE with T-Mobile. With EDGE I was downloading at around 20-50KB/s. There were a lot of pauses during the downloading phases as well.
The quality of the image for that aqua skin looks really low. Is that just a sample image or is the quality really that bad?
hudson: Thanks. I just installed ChatterMail. Money.
bigDee: Yep, that’s a dirty snapshot of the phone skin. The real skin is crystal clear.
@John:
Google Maps mobile interface doesn’t work with Palm. Who knows if they’ll ever get there. (Not that I’m bitter!)
Verizon in DC now offers the 700P, and my partner and I are getting it. Thanks for all the feedback.
I went to chatterbox.com, but I didn’t see any email program or sign-up. Just a bunch of links. What am I doing wrong?
Chatteremail.com is the url
I love my 700p with Sprint. It is quite nice and very fast. The EV-DO service is the main I upgraded my Treo. Couple of things for people that would like to change to Sprint:
1) Look for ’sprintnetwork’ in eBay. I bought the treo 700p from them for $100 and it rocks! I was surprised that others are charging nearly $500 for it.
2) I have a hack for the PAM plan. I don’t believe that you should pay $40 for the PAM plan, especially if you dont use it heavily. I shall post the hack if there are enough requests.
Enjoy your treo.
Any idea when Palm 700p would be available on the Alltel network? In SW Fla, overall, Alltel seems better than most when one analyzes the different tradeoffs, even tho Alltel is a lower market area provider. The main providers domestically, don’t offer much here. Thanks, how about cc: my email? Dirktirk@aol.com
@ venu
I am very interested in the hack for PAM plan, please let me know. I would love a step-by-step.
Just got a 700p, and mostly love it, but connecting a laptop to the Internet via the phone has been a royal pain.
@msswitch: Sounds like you’ve had a much better experience than I. Any tips you care to share?
@venu
I also would be intrested in the hack for PAM plan. Please post.
Thanks
Just google for the hack.
Syncing. Yikes.
I’ve never had a Treo before. I thought the Palm Desktop software was going to be obsolete when Apple released iSync. Is this how you still sync your contacts? Is it not possible to sync to Apple’s Address Book?
I’m also quite disappointed that I have to plug it in to sync. What is the Bluetooth good for then?
Treo rookie.
Yeah. Palm Desktop software is obsolete.
I don’t know why Apple doesn’t support Palm directly with iSync. You can buy the Missing Sync software from Mark/Space Software. It works quite well over USB. (Not a shameless plug; I don’t work for them.)
As for Bluetooth, it works for headsets. That’s about it. Kinda lame.
FWIW, I returned my Treo yesterday. I’ll miss the PDA aspects of the phone and the relatively decent browser. A key requirement for me is connecting my laptop to the Internet through the phone and the Treo completely failed me in that regard.
Mike, how’s the Treo treating you now that you’ve had it for awhile? Any annoyances you’ve run into?
Eric: I’ve had no problems whatsoever with either the synching (via Bluetooth even) or the phone-as-modem stuff. I humbly suggest that you may have configured things incorrectly. I had a few false starts during initial configuration but after that, everything was fine.
Jeff: See above. Synching with Bluetooth works fine.
Brian: I would say that after a month, I really only have three things that kind of bug me but they aren’t that bad. Firstly, the interface could be just a tad snappier. Occasionally there will be a lag between button presses and actual action. It’s not that bad and it happens on almost every advanced phone but it’s just a minor annoyance. Secondly, I’m not a big fan of KMaps and I wish there was a better Google Maps program for this thing. Google’s own GMM doesn’t seem to work. And finally, the phone kind of feels like the last Mac I bought that ran OS 9. It’s kind of that feeling like “This OS is definitely long in the tooth and it feels like it’s about to be replaced, but it’s still better than any alternative out there.” Know what I mean?
Mike, I know exactly what you mean, and that’s one of the things that was holding me back from buying a palm. The last time i bought anything with the palm os, OS9 was the latest and greatest. I’ve heard both that Palm has come a long way since then and that it really hasn’t, so that made me a bit nervous. But like you said, it’s still the best option out there. I’m glad to hear that so far you’re still lovin it.
Just to confirm your other comment, you don’t need that Mark/Space app to sync w/ your mac?
What exactly do you need to sync with a mac, via bluetooth?
bigDee: I didn’t really need anything. Worked right out of the box with a little bit of configuration. It uses a combination of iSync and Palm’s HotSync software.
brian: Yep, no Mark/Space app necessary. In fact, syncing worked *less* well with the Missing Sync app, in my experience.
The one feature I wish my Treo 700P had inherited from the Palm OS Samsung SPH-i500 was when a new call came in, the SPH would ask me if I wanted to add it to my contacts. If I said OK, the phone opened Contacts and copied the phone number. All I had to do was put in the name of the caller. With the Treo, I have to open my call list, highlight the call, hit the copy button, open Contacts, and paste in the number. This is painful, and my only complaint.
leslie: That’s not true. The 700p has the functionality you’re talking about. It was on by default for me… perhaps it somehow got turned off for you. It’s in the preferences.
Mike I have been with Sprint for over 10 years and recently purchase the Treo 700P and I agree the Sprint Customer Service is the worse that I have experienced. The Treo team could not fix me Sprintpcs email issue neither could the store clerks. They had to give me a new phone to get my sprintpcs mail to work.
Which by the way is still not working.
Question, why won’t my motorola bluetooth earphone work for outgoing calls on my treo 700p? It will receive incoming calls, but all outgoing calls stay with the phone, and are not routed to the earpiece.
thanks for the review - the technology just gets more and more confusing for me. Doesn’t seem like a big request to have a cell phone with email access but sometimes feel like a fool to pay top dollar since i’m uncertain. as i get older the small buttons on all these devices don’t really thrill me Do you think all cell providers will be offering the treo700p soon? should I wait?
Why didn’t you just sign up with T-Mobile? As I understand it (from the gal at the T-Mobile store today) you can pay full freight for the Treo 700p and get your service with EDGE. Some employees of mine in a former startup got service through Sprint and when I had to deal with the low-life scum at Sprint, (who lied to me repeatedly) I vowed that I would never use their service–and that was 6 years ago and I “share the love” every opportunity I get. T-Mobile coverage is superior to all other carriers in the Bellevue, WA area. I have had Cingular, Verizon and T-Mobile. When my employees had Sprint, they were always losing signal. Just as important, T-Mobile treats me like a human being.
Alex Modelski
Alex: As I mentioned in the first paragraph of the article, T-Mobile does not support the Treo 700p. T-Mobile is GSM and there is no GSM version of the 700p at this time. Believe me, I would have loved to stay with T-Mo. They are great.
T-Mobile is a great company and they have good people. Unfortunately they don’t have a high-speed data network. At least not as speedy as the competition from what I understand. If that’s not a critical feature, and you like T-Mo’s phones, then T-Mobile’s the one for you. If the 700p or higher speed broadband are the critical features, then it’s gotta be Sprint or Verizon.
That said, I just got my Treo 700p the other day (w/ Sprint) and I’m lovin it so far.
Mike, thanks for the words of encouragement. I went back and tried again (this time on Verizon). It’s working much better (though not perfectly) for me now.
This message coming to you via the MacBook Pro + Bluetooth + Treo. :-)
I think in my area (Kitsap Peninsula), Verizon’s coverage is just enough better than Sprint’s to make the difference.
watch out for http://www.emoze.com for over the air syncing. I used it with my Horrible and I mean Horrible PPC-6700. It worked flawlessly except that it only synced the past two weeks and you had to always leave your desktop computer on. However Palm support is still in the making and coming soon.
Two months ago i purchased my Treo 700p for almost 600 bucks at sprint. I’ve been playing around with this phone and so far I like it a lot, I’m able to send and receive email, play clips, movies, ect. One thing that I did not like was the fact that Palm OS looks cheap compared to that of Windows OS but there are more interesting programs for Palm OS. I only wished the Treo 700p had more programs to run instead of buying them on your own. One thing that really hate is that you need to pay to use the voice command - sprint, it really sucks punching those tiny bottons or misdialing while using the LCD. Besides all, the hands-free speaker sounds great when you are driving =) I also added a GPS (earthmate bluetooth) and works just fine, I have the entire Bible on my treo too, that way i can show of my treo at church too…. heheehe jk…. and for school I got a periodic table for my chem class its so cool!!! if you got the money, buy your self a treo.
“Before, I used to forget my cheap phone (nokia3588) at home, now that I got my Treo, I’m always forgetting my keys inside my car” RICO45
Have you tried teh Motorola Q phone. Ilike it btter than my Treo 650.
hey does anyone know if you can get a sim card insert for the top slot on the 700p?
thanks
brishaver21@yahoo.com
I just got my Treo700p and love it. What I need is for someone to help me with a small problem. The treo came with a set of earphones to listen to music but they suck bad. I went to Best Buy to purchase a new set made but Body Glove. It had the same jack used by the original earphones but only the right side would work. I tried another brand and it did the same thing. I really like to listen to the Sirus music channel offered on sprint tv but would like some earphones that don’t fall out of my ears all the time. YES…you can listen to sirus radio on your treo 700p. You are limited to certain channels but still great!
Hey, glad you like the 700p. I will stick my my 650 Trio from verizon, the coverage is great. When I go into a medical office or hospital, no signal loss, unlike sprint.
Treo 600 was my first mobile. First and probably the best ever. Treo 700 is newer, but I still like 600 more.
I have had my Treo 700p for a few weeks now. The only thing I have found lacking is there is no support for Macromedia / Flash. This means that many of the streaming videos from the net are not playable. Other than that, I love the thing…
I have had the Sprint 6700 for over 6 month now. HATE IT!!! I turned in my samsung i500 for it because the i500 did not have bluetooth and I got a new Acura with handsfree kit installed which I wanted to take advantage of. The 6700 constantly turns off and goes into flight mode without any warning or visual cue that the phone is off. Phone reception in my area on the 6700 is weak. I am a mac user and after waiting 6 months for markspace to come out with a wm5 patch, all my data is at risk of being lost forever and I still can’t sync. Has anyone who is a mac user made the switch from the 6700 to the 700p and been happy? I feel that I am going back in time technically but palm just seems like it works better with mac.
Sep 15, 2006 Still waiting for Alltel to have evdo in the SW Fla. area, supposedly set for 60 days away…Verizon 4k, 8k, 2k …etc just too slow for ppc 6700. Anybody…does Mozilla make the browser control the window framing problems better on this type of device? Dirktirk@aol.com
I am a college professor and teach at several different campuses.
My students keep in touch with me via e-mail and sometimes phone,
but I am never able to get them info they need in a tiimely manner.
I am interested in this treo 700p because I think I would be able to
e-mail and send materials from my computer to them.
I don’t know much about this technology, so could someone take the
time to let me know if this phone will be a good investment for
me.
Thank you for your time.
Debe Betts
It seems that there are plans to develop flash content for all mobile devices
http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/flashlite/
Hi
Call me stupid but I cannot get my new 700p to sync with my laptop (windows xp) I have gone through everything with a fine tooth comb and a connection will not establish through the usb. I am extremely frustrated although I do love the phone. Can anyone help me or should I just buy a bluetooth to sync? I just want to be able to exchange my pics and videos to my computer! Also if I can’t sync there’s obviously no way too download skins or programs, correct? Sorry for my ignorance but I am fairly new to palm and syncing devices. Thank you!
I Love My Phone
Ok…I’m in love with my 700p, upgraded from the 650 to get more memory. I use it for about everything, but it has 2 major probs> it will not sync with Outlook and no matter what bluetooth headset I use, it won’t route the outgoing calls to the headpiece. It will occasionally answer, but it shows as “on” all the time. Usually, the little headset is in “standby” mode. I’m seeking someone to help me figure this one out! thanks
If anyone can tell me the cheapest way to aquire the 700p it would be greatly appreciated. The end of my 2 year contract is up in April of next year with Verizon but I’d really like to get one soon. I feel really guilty spending that much for a phone when I’m so close to an upgrade that would save me a little bit of money. Any comments would help.
Thanks,
Chris
I have the new Mac Mini, new Treo 700p, new Verizon account and much frustration.
Syncing is poor - no past events are synced and only some current events are synced. All 3 above claim it’s not their problem. Question: should I do a hard reset? Very nervous about this as it took me 2 weeks to get this far.
Email: the Treo 700 picks up all the emails on the server. My Treo 600 only picked up recent emails that were not on my server. How do I change that?
I would appreciate any input.
Are you using The Missing Sync? If not, I recommend it.
I actually found The Missing Sync to be worse than useless… but some others seem to like it. Everything syncs just fine for me without it, and when I tried to use it (based on some things I had read) I started getting duplicate Contacts and Events all over the place. I returned it, asked for a refund, and since then have just synced the standard way through iSync. Works great.
Mike:
Thanks for the write up on the 700p. I loved my 650 and upgraded to the 700p, which I love a lot less. If you’ve got a 650, my advice is: KEEP IT. The 700p isn’t that much better and too many things about it simply suck.
I’ve been able to work around a lot of the deficiencies by adding some good third party software.
1) LudusP puts the menu button back where it belongs. The Palm/Sprint designers decided that the Phone button needed to be duplicated and the menu button was relegated to the bottom by the SHIFT key. LudusP puts it back. If you are used to being able to turn the phone back on, say after an airline flight or meeting, by simply holding down the phone button, you can kiss that feature goodbye. You can only turn the phone on by making a call.
2) The third party DirAsst app does what Sprint 411 fails to do. It looks up a number and either dials it, gets a map using Google Maps for Palm or adds it to your contact list. After calling Sprint 411 and having them text you the number, there is no easy way to get it into your address book. And Sprint 411 cost $$$$ every time you use it.
3) I have yet to get Sprint Voice Command to work reliably. Most of the time, after asking it to “Call XXX-XXXX” I get either “I didn’t hear anything” or “Could you repeat that”.
4) Phone as modem via BT works, but Sprint has put in a time out system. So, if you stop to browse a web page or read your mail, by the time you want to surf again, you’ve been logged out by the Sprint servers. For $35 a month, it should act like a real modem and stay on until I explcitly turn it off and hang up. It doesn’t work that way.
5) If you’re like me, you might want to keep two rows of favorites at the bottom of your dial pad. In the 650 you could scroll right to the top two rows of the other 6 colums available. Not in the 700p. You must bring your favorites full screen before you can scroll right to reveal other columns.
6) If you like to use a BT headset, get used to the fact that the phone will lose the pairing after every HotSync. It’s a bit of a pain to constantly have to re-pair the headset.
I use Missing Sync for Palm and like it. But I have noticed the duplicate effect. Once you get everything cleaned up, though, it’s pretty good at adding and deleting events or contacts, no matter where the entries are made, on the Treo or the Mac.
I use Splash Photo to manage my photos. Pretty easy to send a batch of pictures on the 700p compared to the 650, where you had to add each picture one at a time.
The On Demand feature is one of the best things about the 700p. I wish all the other apps worked as well as OnDemand. It is flawless for news, weather, sports and stox.
Sprint Customer Service still sucks. Not quite as bad as Comcast Customer Service, but still pretty much horrid and vastly understaffed and poorly trained.
However, in the interest of helping all you Sprint customers get better service, here is the phone number for Sprint Executive Relations: 877-875-7505. Call JoAnn Stanford and tell her your Sprint CS horror stories. (I have her e-mail, but it would be cruel to list it here to be harvested by spammers) So, just call her. She’s nice, she listens, she seems to care. Apparently, she is pretty high up in the organization and has the ear of some of the suits at Sprint. Of course, the suits listen to her and do nothing, but you’ll feel better having an opportunity to at least be heard and join the chorus of unhappy customers. The more calls she gets, perhaps the more she will realize how bad the situation really is for Sprint customers. The Sprint coverage is actually fine, as long as you never ever have to communicate with them about anything.
your motorola bluetooth may not work because it is 1.2 technology and your treo is 2.0
it may work temp or partial (incoming only) but eventually it will fail
can anyone tell me how to turn on the flash on the camera.
for $499, please tell me it has one.
and can i record a phone call?
i didnt see these two in the users guide.
bgowz@aol.com
I’m so frustrated with my 700p. It’s a real love hate thing going on.
I think that for upcoming Treo revisions Palm should consider putting the reset button on the ouside of the phone. At least that way everyone in the room won’t know that My Treo just crashed and I’m resetting; embarrassing.
Ant
I have a mac and a Treo 700p with Verizon for the past 2 weeks. How do I read unread messages only?
Every time I get messages on the Treo, it downloads the 50 emails/day that I’ve deleted from the server. It’s now up to 600, when I really only want the latest few. I have checked past 1 day only, but still don’t like getting 50 emails each time.
The Treo600 had a function to receive unread messages only. Palm, mac and verizon say it’s not possible. It doesn’t make sense that treo would downgrade their application. Please help.
I should clarify a bit re the sync. I upgraded from a 650 which also did not sync with Outlook OR Palm desktop properly. I did several hard resets w/the 650 and reinstalled/repaired Outlook at the same time. It syncs everything but the calendar. I have never been able to get my calendars to sync even though I upgraded the phone to the 700p, and bought a new computer (HP Pavillion dv8000). The only thing left to do is manually re-write all my contacts to the address book of one or the other, and w/over 200 contacts, I’ve simply not had time to do that. I narrowed down the problem to one of 2 things….either categories or birthdays/anniversiaries. I read somewhere that palm OS didn’t like the never ending recurrances, so I terminated everyone’s life in about 50 yrs, and it still won’t sync it.
As for the Motorola headset, would someone explain 1.2 vs. 2.0? I’ve had nothing but bad luck with headsets, spent over 300$$ trying to get one that works, and I’m ready to chuck them all. I use PrintBoy software for the printer and IT works fine, but I can’t talk on the printer. :)
Also, I’m sorry you all have had such bad Sprint experiences. I will tell you that since the Nextell merger, the stores have gone nuts. What most people don’t realize is that the stores and customer service are NOT the same. I hate the stores. I had to replace my 650 after 3 mos. and the stores insisted that I would get a refurbished phone. At the time the 650 was $600. I declined that solution, and while it took me 2 months, I finally got a NEW 650 going thru the myriad levels of Sprint customer service. Mostly, I call in and know more about my phone than the entry level support personnel do, so I go thru some technical stuff they don’t understand and request/demand tier 2 or the treo support team. That usually gets me where I need to be, and I have found that they are extremely helpful even if they can’t immediately solve the problem. I’ve been with Sprint since 1998 and they’ve always treated me right although it took a little work on my part sometimes. T-mo sold me a phone that supposedly did fax, modem etc…ti68 w/bluetooth…some years ago. It did NOT do those things, and when I finally got through to the development team, they even wrote me an e-mail stating that. Then the phone speaker broke up…one day I was talking on it and poof. I took it to their store, and the little brat at the counter called me a liar and refused to even look at it. Said I dropped it because that was the only way the speaker could POSSIBLY break up. I closed the account that day, switched my number to a second phone at Sprint, and was charged an exhorbitent amount of money for “cancellation of contract” which I had NOT renewed. However, during the ongoing situation trying to get the phone to do the fax and modem thing it was supposed to do, they had added and deleted services to my account each time, and then considered that as a contract renewal each time. I fought them for 4 years. Finally, I settled with them for about 1/2 the amount, simply to get it off my back, but that was an experience I never wish to repeat.
Thanks…
Well, I hate to be the detractor on this one. I have used every smart device Sprint has been able to bring to market. I swapped from the 700p to the 700wx. The 700wx is a far better phone, now if the only thing you want to top everyone on is the resolution, then maybe its not for you, but that aside, only an amateur would side with the 700p. First of all, the interface programming for Palm applications is anything but modern, and 98% of Windows programs will work flawlessly with your 700wx. Windows media player is probably the best overall application, as it converts many of the features that the 700p lacks. I dont have to buy a seperate MP3 player, or worry about video intergration. I can buy one program that shrinks all of my dvds down to a 3-500mb file and fit 4-8 movies on a single 4g SD card. The picture viewer is as well built in without having to decide what to convert the file from or to. The over the air sync feature will work with bluetooth to any server you designate, but with the 700wx, it will configure the settings for you if it is a windows based server. (priceless, no IT nerd needed, hehe!!) I didnt have to buy a different program to add to the phone for my spreadsheets or worry about reconfigurng the file from phone to powerpoint as the 700wx as all the windows office programs pre loaded and formatted to work with XP AND PRO!! So in closing, if you are a current WINDOWS user, this is the phone for you. If you are a MAC user, you may want to wait, but I know why, PC vs MAC is the best debate created. Oh and just to mention it, buck up and buy a GPS reciever and use the great GPS features built into this phone, there isnt a program out there that wont work with it, its already preconfigured, you tell it what port to run and what program, run the reciever calibration and BOOYAH!!! Hopes this helps, contact me if you have any other questions, I do consider myself a high end user of phones and get a new one just about every time one comes out!!!
Jody, if you don’t mind having Windows so close to your body, then I suppose the 700wx is a fine choice. Me? I like to keep my distance. I’m keeping my 700p and continue to be very happy with it.
For those looking to purchase at Sprint: I am a current Sprint customer. At their store last week a salesperson said he could sell me a Treo 700p for $299.99 after thanksgiving.
Now a question: Anyone syncing between Exchange via Entourage, .Mac via Mail and their Treo 700p? If so, does it work well?
I had a 600 for 2 years. I counted the days until Sprint got the 700wx, thinking that the Palm OS was ancient, and that the Windows Smartphone would be a huge step up. I had the 700wx for two weeks and finally had to trade it for a 700p. If you are a previous Treo user, you will be sorely disappointed with the 700wx. The Palm OS makes a Treo a Treo.
There’s nothing you can’t do with a 700p that you can do with a 700wx (besides multitasking, of course). The 700p is media rich, and ‘Documents’ does more than the Pocket Office Suite. Has Sprint TV, and the higher resolution. Plus, I used Ultrasoft Money, which syncs MS Money in it’s entirety (Budgets, Upcoming Bills, etc). I thought it would be great to use Pocket Money on Windows Mobile, but MS doesn’t support Pocket Money on WM5 at all! Third Party apps for WM5 don’t sync budgets and bills. So, in order to use MS Money on my Treo, I had to get the Palm OS version!
Threaded SMS was another reason for wanting the 700p. I never realized how great this was until it was taken away from me.
I previously thought the Palm OS was too simple, but in fact it’s that simplicity that makes the Treo great.
Ultimately, I was giving up way too much to ‘upgrade’.
The only thing I regret now is not getting the 700p when it came out. I kept the 600 for too long as I waited several more months for the 700wx.
I have a treo 700p and SE HBH-GV435 bluetooth headset. I had a problem with the treo not routing outgoing calls to the headset at one point and I got it to work doing the following. (I only tried this once and I don’t want to break it by re-testing it so some steps below may be redundant.)
If you already paired the headset, do all the steps below. Otherwise, skip to step 3.
1. Reset the headset – follow the instructions from the headset manual.
2. On the treo, delete the headset from the Bluetooth Trusted Devices.
3. Soft reset the treo. (You only need to do a soft reset so you won’t lose any data)
4. Go through the Hands-free Setup wizard to establish the Trusted Device pair with your Bluetooth headset. IMPORTANT: After you enter the passkey on the treo and when you get the screen informing you that the setup is done. WAIT at least a minute before pressing OK. (I suspect that the pairing is not completely done when the screen comes up, so waiting the extra minute allows the pairing to finish)
Good luck
I had the 650 and now iam stuck with the 700p and i cant wait to get out of it the phone keeps on freezzing up on me and whats wierd i had too replace my 650 for the same issue and now iam about too replace my 700p for the same thing. trust me i did everything i bought 512sd card i hardly do anywork or go online anymore on it. and i only had this phone for a least 8months. i think iam going with blackberry? but does the blackberry have this same complaint about it freezing up?????help
i had the treo 650 and i just had bad luck from the get go. it kept on frezzing up on me . After switching two devices and still had the same issue . i went and bought the 700p and guess what i still have the same ssue i called support and they say to do a soft reset wich iam doing everyday and it dont help, then they say buy a sd card ok i go on a buy a 512sd card and still same issue. i give up on palm. iam thinking iam going to switch to a black berry ? but do tehy freezz up too ???
I am trying to setup a bluetooth connection betweeen my Palm Treo 700w and my laptop for ActiveSync. Now that I have my bluetooth enable on my phone, how do I figure out the correct pass key to use? Did a certain passkey come with my phone? thanks
Well, I’ve had my Treo 700p for about 2 months now and I must say it’s gone far and beyond any expectations I could have ever imagined.
I upgraded from a 600 and I’m totally digging how much has changed. All for the good.
I will say that having been with Sprint now for about 6 or 7 years, the IQ level of the customer service has gone down quite remarkably. I used to feel so special knowing that I’d get a tech with a brain when dealing with Treo issues, but now they’re just as stupid as first tier. Don’t know what’s up with that. However, they do seem to be paying attention.. I’ve noticed that my Sprint Power Vision website now understands that I’m a Treo user, and I don’t think it did at the beginning. Also, don’t wast your money on Power Vision Plus unless you want a few extra crappy Sprint TV channels. The only “plus” I saw was the free song download which is pointless since the Sprint Music Store is incompatible with the Treo 700. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. (I’ve had three “techs” lead me astray)
BTW, I’ve taken a few photos and was astounded at their quality. Sure they’re not super-uber-megapixel, but they look really nice.. the only thing I would wish was a way to increase the DPI as 76 is pretty terrible if you’re trying to blow up a picture. Still, it’s a phone, not a camera…
BTW, Ant, http://www.treonauts.com sells a battery cover with an exposed reset hole, so all you would need to do is turn your phone over..
Oh, I forgot to mention.. I downloaded a Google Maps application directly to my Palm and it works like a dream, so I wasn’t sure what people were talking about earlier about how it wouldn’t work. It may be a newer program though.. but it’s AWESOME…