January 4th, 2006
Palm Confirms: Windows-Powered Treo 700w for Sale Tomorrow
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
I earlier indicated on Dec. 19th that based on emails from Handango to developers, it appeared Palm would release the Treo 700w in January, and it looks like that was correct. Today Palm confirmed that the Treo 700w will start selling tomorrow.
The new device will be under close scrutiny by fans of the Treo 650 … it will have Windows Mobile 5.0 and 128MB of memory, with about 60MB free. It will have a TFT screen, 240 x 240 with 65,000 colors. It supports Bluetooth 1.2 and has a 1.3 megapixel camera for photos and video. No wi-fi, but there is MMC, SD and SDIO card support, so you could get an add-on card.
The Treo 700w is available for $399.99 when purchased in conjunction with specific two-year service agreements from Verizon Wireless.
The phone offers EV-DO access for high-speed data transfers and, like the 650, the Treo 700w is fitted with a replaceable battery. Some newer features include voice dialing and several functions that allow a consumer to dial by name directly from the Today Screen as well as ignore calls. Source: News.com
We Say: This is the phone I really wanted when I purchased my Siemens SX66. The SX66 is an HTC Blue Angel variant, and as such suffer from the same things as the other variants … poor Bluetooth support, which is my only real issue with the phone. I’d love to get one of these, but I know I could never convince my wife to switch carriers (why change if what you have works is her motto), so I’ll have to wait until the exclusive deal with Verizon ends to even consider changing. And who knows what other PDA phones will be out by then?
Alice says:
Does anyone have one yet? I just read bad reviews from Walt Mossberger at the Wall Street Journal and one from the NY Times panning the device this morning. They say the interface is *really* buggy and takes three times as maany clicks to do things the Palm OS can do in one. I am looking into is more because the web surfing speed is suuposed to be very fast but alas, it’s an early Microsoft product…..
January 5th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Michael Santo says:
Dunno anyone who has one, but yeah, PC Magazine really liked it as opposed to the other reviews. There’s more stuff I’d really like to know, that would probably only be available as a result of real user testing … like how well or poorly does it work w/ different Bluetooth headsets, how much does it crash (my SX66 today needed a reboot: it would call out but no one could hear me … I could hear them, though), etc. etc.
January 6th, 2006 at 10:33 am