Treo 600: Impressions After One Month's Use
Owning a WiFi-capable Toshiba e740 for 9 months convinced me of the usefulness of a wireless PDA. In fact, it wetted my appetite for wireless to the point where I wanted it to be available all the time. This meant moving to some kind of PDA/phone combination device. After doing some research on available converged devices I was led to the Treo 300. I liked its keyboard, the fact that it worked with my current cellular carrier (SprintPCS), and the favorable reviews I read about how well the phone and PDA functions are integrated. I was able to pick up a new Treo 300 at a very good price through eBay.
After using the Treo 300 very happily for 4 months, Handspring released the Treo 600. At first I was not all that interested in upgrading, but then Handspring offered a limited-time $150-off upgrade deal for Treo 300 users. I just couldn't turn down that offer! With some slight misgivings I went ahead and placed the order. After one month's usage of the 600, I'm really glad I did. The Treo 600 is a major improvement over the 300, and it's simply the best PDA I've ever owned, and I've owned quite a few. These include the Atari Portfolio, Apple Newton, Sharp HPC-4100, Palm IIIc, Sony Clie NR-70V, Toshiba e740, and the aforementioned Treo 300.
So here is my breakdown in terms of pros/cons. Let's start with the pros:
1. Compact size. The Treo is really very small for a PDA, and medium-sized for a cell phone. The power button is easily accessed on the top of the Treo next to a blinking light that tells you whether you are connected to cellular service or not. There is also a sound switch on top that makes it easy to shut off the ringer and alarm sounds whenever desired, with a vibrate function available to replace these sounds. Underneath the screen are the standard Palm menu buttons. Lastly, there is a 5-way navigation pad that provides good support of one-handed use.
2. Speakerphone. This is one of my favorite features of the Treo. You can just answer the phone by pressing the center button on the 5-way navigation pad, press the space bar to turn on the speakerphone, put the unit face-down (the speaker is on the back) and start talking. The sound quality is very good and the speaker is very loud. Your caller usually won't even be able to tell you're using the speakerphone function.
3. Ease of setup. The phone is very easy to setup on existing or new phone plans. It takes about 3 hours to charge the phone, install the software on your PC, and call Sprint to activate service. Activation with Sprint takes just a call to "*2" and about 5 minutes of time.
4. Support for the PCS Vision CDMA 2000 Data Network. Since the Treo is CDMA 2000 enabled, the phone can download email and access Web pages at a faster rate than a dialup modem. PCS Vision service is very reasonably priced at only $15/month for unlimited usage.
5. Keyboard. I found the keyboard to be very fast and accurate for just about any kind of data entry. It supports what I'll call "anti-N-key rollover". This means if you end up "fat-fingering" multiple adjacent keys, it only recognizes the first key hit. It's also illuminated when the phone application is started, when entering data, or manually whenever desired. Overall, I found the keyboard to be quite good, although it's definitely smaller than the Treo 300's. It actually took me a couple of week's usage to become proficient with it, but now it's a pleasure to use.
6. Phone/PDA Integration. Integration is very good. For example, when someone calls you and asks you for a phone number, you can simply look it up in the Address Book application while you continue talking. With my old Samsung cell phone, I'd have to hang up, look up the number, and call the person back. The Treo has 32 MB of memory, a color screen, USB HotSync capability, and all the typical Palm OS functionality merged with very good phone functionality.
7. Battery life. It's excellent, especially considering the color screen, the need to support phone service, and support for the CDMA 2000 data network. In general, I found that the Treo can go at least two days between charging with my usage: 2 hours of talking and/or data network access, standby for the phone and data network throughout the day, and about 3 more hours of continuous PDA use/day. I'd say the battery seems to last roughly twice as long as the Treo 300 battery. I actually end up charging it daily, nevertheless.
8. Phone Functions. When you hit the phone menu button, you are first shown "dial pad" screen, with the option to quickly move onto Favorites, Web, Contacts, or Pictures screens by using the 5-way navigation pad. The Favorites page allows you to quickly create up to 50 "speed-dial" numbers, or links to applications, or links to Web pages, or a combination of all of them. It's easy to access Favorites one-handed using the 5-way navigation pad.
If you start entering letters of a person's name while in the Contacts page, either first, last, or combinations of first initial and last name, the Treo displays the appropriate matching entries. Pressing the 5-way navigation pad center button or space bar will automatically dial any selected phone number in the Contacts application.
Cons
1. Screen resolution. Its resolution is only 160X160 pixels with 12-bit color, but nevertheless it's very bright and readable. Handspring has stated that they limited the screen resolution to extend battery life. I have to agree, the screen is really very readable and I'd rather have longer battery life than a 320X320 screen. By the way, it's much brighter than the Treo 300 screen and so is much more usable in outdoors in direct sunlight.
A Minor Issue And Resolution Of It
The unfortunate thing about any Palm device keyboard is that many Palm OS and application functions normally require the use of the stylus. It is REALLY ANNOYING when you use the keyboard to start a function but then need a stylus to complete the function. The provision of a menu key and 5-way navigation pad on the Treo alleviates this quite a bit, but at the time this is written there are still many programs that don't fully support the 5-way pad. Agendus is a good example of this, although they have announced the upcoming release of a beta version that will fully support the Treo's 5-way pad.
There is a solution to this problem, however, in the form of pToolSet, which allows you to perform ANY operation through the keyboard that would normally require your stylus. With it you can select buttons, pop-ups, selectors, check boxes, and push buttons. You can pull down menus and select items from them. If all else fails, you can cause the pPointer (a small square containing a cross-hair) to appear on your screen. It can then be maneuvered across the screen and used to click on any location in a simulation of a stylus tap. pToolSet also provides a category editor and even a very nice date selection function.
The Bottom Line
I simply love this device. Somewhat surprisingly to me, it has replaced all of the functions previously provided by my much more expensive and sophisticated WiFi-equipped Toshiba e740 Pocket PC. I recently sold my e740 because I never used it anymore. I carry my Treo 600 with me at all times in a Handspring Form-Fitting case attached to my belt. It's my phone, my PDA, my email system, an entertainment center (with games, Audible books, and Kinoma videos), and I use it to access the Web when away from home. The Treo 600 has exceeded all of my expectations for it!
2:19:05 PM 
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