I am an obsessive soul when it comes to buying electronic things ( a diseases only cured by poverty) and am happy to announce the complete review on my brand new acquisition of the ultimate value PDA+Mobile Handspring Treo 270.
Treo is a GSM mobile phone AND a Palm OS based PDA(Personal Digital Assistant) which is simply HiFi word for digital diary. I had seen some digital diaries before but when I got gifted one, I got really hooked to it. My love for the same ended when my 127 addresses disappeared due to a battery mix-up. After this I graduated to a PDA from Handspring (which is like a better version of Palm PDA ) three years back. The great thing about PDA is that they keep a copy of the data on computer and you can update information in both computer and hand and then Synchronize them. Again I retired this PDA because it had another battery ?accident?. In any case I had avoided taking a mobile and was keen on finding a common replacement, if possible. It is only for last 2 years or so good PDA/Phone combinations are available. After a exhaustive search for a ?Cheap and best? Solution I have finally acquired Treo 270 from Handsping. This replaces my old PDA & mobile both and on top of that has a Colour screen.
Size, Shape and Weight : I suggest that you google the images of Treo 270 by as it is an unexpected shape. It is flat, wide and squarish and has a flip open design. Looks more like a palmtop getting a cover. Of course it is great that the cover has a transparent plastic so that you can see the screen. It is definitely not what you call heavy (183 gms ) and stays comfortably in either pockets. My pet peeve is of course the antenna which is jutting out ( I hate them), the power button which keeps on getting pressed accidentally in pockets. Treo has a nice colour screen which is very appealing to the eye as it has a large size. The screen can be easily be used as a torch in the night but isn?t too good under direct sunlight. The unique thing about Treo is a Full scale keyboard on the top apart from a jogwheel on the side. The Palm PDAs were originally working of graffiti which was a cumbersome method of input for characters. The new keyboard has small keys but one can get used to it and I am now fairly quick with my SMSes. This is really nice feature as typing on mobiles is a unmentionable pain. There is very cute backlight on the keyboard which activates on selection phone or by double clicking power button.
Treo as Phone : Using treo as a phone is a charm. You have three ways by which you can make a call. Opening the lid activates the phone and one screen shows the 50 speed dials which you can access with Jog wheel on the side. If you wish toggle phone switch and see on screen a ?normal? number pad which you can tap on. It is of course far easier to simply type the numbers on the keypad and connect. Third option is the best whereas you simply type of first/last name of the person and the entire address book is searched and matching name and phone nos are displayed. I have about 450 contacts in my book and I get my numbers normally within 3-4 characters. The voice clarity is clear and volume is good. SMS is great to do on Treo. The screen is wide and you can read even the longest SMS in one screen. Writing is easy as you have the entire keyboard and I am by now reaching a good 20-25 WPM speed. Treo is smart because whenever the message is too long, it automatically splits it into 2 parts and send it. Since Treo has a 16 MB memory (100 times available in phone) you can keep all your favorite SMSes and a very long call memory. MMS is possible from Treo using only a special additional software. So far I haven?t found a free one but seems that it will work easily. Ringtones is an area where there hasn?t been too much thought. Although the ring quality of treo is good ( Sweet but not equal to polyphonic ) there is no easy way to control ringtone. The standard nokia tones don?t work on Treo but there are zillions of tunes that are available for free on the net. Treo has also a speakerphone functions which is very convenient for handsfree operation. Treo has handled roaming well and it has a facility which informs you that the call is in roaming mode. Battery lasts for 2 days easily for normal use and can be recharges withing 1.5 hours. My model is of GSM 900/1900 which is a world phone however another model with GSM 900/1800 is available which makes more sense in India. The phone ?software? is good but different when you have had experience of Nokia phones. There are some very intuitive things but some obvious functions are missing like saving draft SMS, saving last dialed number and others. I would put Treo as a phone which is a very good combination of PDA functions.
However it is clear that it was still was originally a PDA. The next version of treo, 600 model is an excellent improvement in design but buying a 700 dollar phone is well beyond my reach. Treo as a PDA : Treo works well as a PDA and has all the basic items like alarma, to do list, memopad, contacts and expense reports. This is common in all PDAs and Treo does this well. The fun begins when you realize you can put software into treo. So far I have put a dozen games in it, put in a Ebook reader to read novels, graphics software, photo display software, a dictionary among other things.
There are hundreds of free and thousands of commercial software available which can be installed and by god, they work. Palm do not tend to crash like Windows and programs are very compact. You can buy equivalent of MS word and excel to view and export your word/excel files in treo. It is even more interesting to know that Treo can handle both an email and a web browser. For this Treo has GPRS capabilities and can also work as a wireless modem for your computer (speeds are miserable 20-25Kbps) . There is no point of details as Orange has informed me that GPRS specifically for handhelds is 500 rupees/month against 100 for normal phone. If GPRS is available cheaper, Treo will become almost a computer providing all the access of the world in your hand. (of course web browser does not have java but one cant get so much from a small box)
Value for money : This is a major issue as mobiles add too much premium for style which adding nominal utility. This Treo is available for about 200$ on ebay auctions on ebay ( 20-22k on Baazee) and is the cheapest option for a combination devices. It actually beats some of the PDA & phones as well in price. The value of the device is excellent if you really need to have contacts/data in your hand along with the connectivity. It is not ideal for people looking for tiniest/latest mobiles or who just want to receive/make calls. For all power users/geeks, have a look at this beauty. I am sure you will love it. But beware it has only the heart of a mobile and has the body of a PDA.