The Palm Treo 700w Verizon Phone is the best phone in Pocket PC clothing to date. Its superb ergonomics and usability tweaks make it a joy for calls and one-handed operation. While not as streamlined as the Treo 650, Palm did a more than admirable job making the Pocket PC super phone-friendly. And the 700w isn't that far behind the Palm OS version in one-handed operation; just a keystroke here and there. Windows Mobile brings a great deal of power and strong networking muscle to the table, which is worth the small usability tradeoffs if you're hankering for a bit more than the 650 can do.
However, the 240 x 240 resolution is a big minus: most all applications are designed for 240 x 320 so you'll deal with basic incompatibility hassles if you're a third party software fan. While software developers are updating their software to support 240 x 240, nothing ameliorates the lack of screen real estate: you're seeing less on screen compared to other Pocket PC Phones, Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphones and the Treo 650.
The Treo's other shortcoming is memory: the device has only 32 megs of RAM when 64 is the standard these days. RAM is used by Windows Mobile 5 in the same way a computer uses RAM: it's where running programs live. Run too many and you'll get an out of memory error or slow downs. Though we ran IE, Messaging, File Explorer, Pictures and Videos while Voice Command was running in the background and had no problems. A caveat: WM doesn't actually stop a running program when you press the close box, it merely minimized it. After a few days, you may well have ten programs running without knowing it. Use the memory applet or a third party utility to close programs when you're done with them or plan on rebooting the Treo every few days to clear out memory.
Is the Palm Treo for you? That depends. The Palm Treo 700w by Verizon is a phone first and a PDA second, while competitors like the XV6700 are a PDA first and a phone second. If you're a heavy phone user and not an uber-PDA geek, the Treo is a fantastic choice. If you're a serious Pocket PC user who's accustomed to running several applications at once, like to watch videos, have a lot of apps that haven't been updated to support 240 x 240 or simply can't live with even less resolution than your current Pocket PC, then the Treo likely isn't for you.
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| Palm Treo 700w Verizon Phone | CellularCountry |
The Treo's other shortcoming is memory: the device has only 32 megs of RAM when 64 is the standard these days. RAM is used by Windows Mobile 5 in the same way a computer uses RAM: it's where running programs live. Run too many and you'll get an out of memory error or slow downs. Though we ran IE, Messaging, File Explorer, Pictures and Videos while Voice Command was running in the background and had no problems. A caveat: WM doesn't actually stop a running program when you press the close box, it merely minimized it. After a few days, you may well have ten programs running without knowing it. Use the memory applet or a third party utility to close programs when you're done with them or plan on rebooting the Treo every few days to clear out memory.
Is the Palm Treo for you? That depends. The Palm Treo 700w by Verizon is a phone first and a PDA second, while competitors like the XV6700 are a PDA first and a phone second. If you're a heavy phone user and not an uber-PDA geek, the Treo is a fantastic choice. If you're a serious Pocket PC user who's accustomed to running several applications at once, like to watch videos, have a lot of apps that haven't been updated to support 240 x 240 or simply can't live with even less resolution than your current Pocket PC, then the Treo likely isn't for you.
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