When the new specs of the Treo 650 came out, I was giddy as a kid in a candy store. The main things missing from my Treo 600 (and the 300 that I had before that) were Bluetooth and the high resolution screen. Those are the two things that I thought took major points off of the 600 because they were already mature market products and limited the ability to use the Treo to its full potential on many an occasion. When the 650 was finally released, I raced to get one. In fact, I ended up getting one through Sprint and also through PalmOne. The second one I received, I was going to give to my wife because I thought it would be a good upgrade to the phone she is currently using.
I opened the box and was in love. The slightly changed design and wonderful screen were awesome. It was a much needed upgrade from the old 600 (which is the phone that has lasted the longest with me - ever). Many of the original complaints that others had (problems with memory and running certain applications) didn't effect me. The switchover was smooth and painless. The biggest change for me was the higher resolution screen. I use the Treo often to log into a number of FreeBSD and OpenBSD servers that I use to manage my ISP. The 120 x 120 resolution of the 600 worked but could be quite cumbersome when commands that were a number of lines long were entered. Plus, it was difficult to make out the font on the screen because, in order to take advantage of the screen, I had to reduce the font so that it was barely legible. It was fine because I knew what I was looking at, but if I were logging into a foreign system, I would have had troubles. Moving to the 320 x 320 screen was fantastic. It is the best I could have wished for. I don't know of any other device on the market (other than the high resolution Windows Mobile devices) that had a higher resolution screen on a phone with a keyboard. I had looked at the Blackberry, but the ssh client I needed was quite costly and didn't make sense to pay for seeing as the underlying code was free (I don't mind paying the author for the work, but this program was $150 - that's crazy).
The next step was to start using some of the new features. That's where I started to realize that what I bought wasn't worth what I paid for it. Bluetooth: I had been using the Motorola V710 for a few months as a bluetooth device (not really as a phone), and loved it. The connections between my computers and the phone, my pda's and the phone, and headsets and the phone worked flawlessly. If it weren't for unlimited data from Verizon being so expensive, I probably would have switched to them and found a reliable, smaller PDA that had Bluetooth. The gist of the above is that I had something to compare the 650 to. Well, the 650 performs absolutely and inexcusably miserably with Bluetooth. I have tried 6 different headsets and none of them resolve the fact that I can't be more than 2 ft. away from the phone if I want to use the headset without it crackling like crazy - meaning I have to hold the phone if I want to use the headset - this defeats the purpose of having Bluetooth in the first place. This notwithstanding the fact that DUNS was disabled and it is only a hack that allows us to use it. The whole Bluetooth side of the phone only partially works. I have found that since I bought it, I have used it a handful of times. While I understand the DUNS hack is a hack, it also causes constant problems - the phone locks up and I have to reset it. So, great - I have Bluetooth, but can't really use it.
My other two complaints are relatively unimportant, but still complaints. The keyboard is way to bright and the memory problem is, um, a problem. I can't believe that a $500 device only has 32MB of memory. Really...
I'm going to keep the phone because the money is sunk and I can have it on a business account for an extra $10 a month. What will I use now? I purchased an HP iPaq HX4700 to use as the brains of a spectrum analyzer that I bought for Anywhere Technology - and I actually like it. I have had a love-hate relationship with Windows Mobile devices for some time. But, I finally am fed up with the inconsistent design choices the Palm OS manufacturers are making and I'm really sick of the crippling of Bluetooth on phones for the US market. With the HX4700, I have access to WiFi networks, connections to Bluetooth devices and other computers with little problems. I still find the interface cumbersome at times and the device to be a bit big, but, it works. HP is bringing out a new Windows Mobile phone called the HW6500 that looks to meld the keyboard with the phone for which I have always appreciated my Treo. If it works anything like the HX4700, then it'll be a winner for me. I have my doubts, however, as to how long it will take to actually deliver on the device. HP has the money to develop and test the device more quickly than I imagine other companies do, but that still doesn't mean that it will be available any time soon. I have learned all to quickly how funny wireless devices can be - and how unexpected behavior may crop up at any time.
The bottom line: I would recommend staying away from the Treo 650 until PalmOne can resolve these glaring issues. I think it is also time that the handset manufacturers and the carriers recognize that crippling device behavior is not something the market is going to be too keen on for any amount of time. I fully understand the financial reasoning behind this, but it is analogous to my complaint of Windows - works on everything, but only so-so. In this case, yes, it has Bluetooth, but I wouldn't call it a working version of it. It is sad when the newer version of a product is only marginally better than its predecessor.
