Other Connectivity > Cellphones, Providers, and Plans > Treo 600 vs Blackberry

Treo 600 vs Blackberry

nice review!

Personally, I am starting to look into the smart phones or whatever they are called that come installed with windows. Its probably not comparable to a PDA or even a hybrid PDA / Phone but its small, functional as a phone (which is what I really want) and can sync my address book and calender. I think that would fit my needs well enough but then again, I am not a power user. Hopefully we will see a better selection of all phones in 2004.
--
There is no pain greater than love.

reply to justin
Very nice review, I for one will keep my devices seperate, just waiting on that damn Motorola V600....
--
"I am just like a clock upon the wall, always moving but never really going anywhere"

reply to justin
I had the Treo 600 for about one week and I sold it. The phone worked fine on Sprint but the CDMA version had that awful bulge on the earpiece that was very painful to use at times. Having used the Nokia 3650 on ATT, I think that it was better than than the Treo. The treo is still an excellent phone though.

reply to justin
Great review Justin. I was going to get one of those but have been balking at the price, which is a little too high for me now. I've been using the Sony Ericsson T616, which is a nice solid phone -- not nearly as capable as the Treo, but much cheaper, too.

Anyway, Dan Gillmore of the San Jose Mercury News did a write up on the Treo you might find interesting as well:

»weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/···l#001608
--
bobrk.com

reply to justin
Sorry but I love my T600.. I have nothing but praise for it. Yes the camera sucks, but like I said in a post a while back about the t600 this is aimed mostly at business people that don't need a high quality camera. I personally think that it was an afterthought to include it (maybe just to help with marketing).

The keyboard was an issue for me at first, but after a couple weeks of using it I got it down pretty good and can type decently fast with great accuracy.

"he love me" How in the world did the "bulge" bother you? The "bulge" its about 2mm tall and is on the part of the phone that is actually over your ear canal area, not actually touching your skin (I just held my phone up to my ear and tried to put the bulge to skin and when I did I couldn't hear any sound).

I love the t600 had one of the first ones shipped

It was an akward feeling on my ear that i wasn't use to. I chose to go with the nokia 3650 through ATT. The T600 was aimed at business users and the nokia was for the casual user, so I chose casual over business. The treo is still a great phone, it was just my nit picking.

reply to justin

I look forward to someone writing a mail server add-on that will generate SMS messages to users when their account gets new emails, that in turn would trigger a treo 600 application to accept the incoming SMS, and initiate a data connection to pickup the waiting emails. This is not a complicated bit of software to write. If this kind of software can be offered, the remaining plus points of a blackberry vs the treo, are the scroll-wheel, and the better keyboard.

I bought the Treo 600 the week it came out. I never thought that I could be away from a computer and still get so much done with it. It's a great cell phone. I installed the mail program that Handspring issued out..it's beta but I have had no problems with it. I used the POP access to get my Yahoo email....scheduled a download every 3 hours. Sending out emails was instant. I use the included software from the CD that came with it. A small powerpoint type program. A small wordpocessor and a spreadsheet are part of the PDA side of the unit. I've added a small chat interface that integrates AOL,MSN,ICQ, and Yahoo IMs ...all on the same screen. I've also installed a 512 meg SD card and added PM3s as well as important documents and games. The camera was not the best but after viewing the images on a computer screen...it aint bad. I had a recent accident when someone ran into the back of me and pushed me into someone else. I got out and started taking pictures of the whole scene. Then called my insurance agency and sent them the pictures of the accident scene......all right from the Treo 600. I sent text messages to friends and told them that I would be late and left email with the partner to see if I needed to pickup anything from the office before I headed home. All.....from my "wonder-treo". Believe me...this phone is tops....YOU NEED THIS!!!!!

IGO

Hey Im suffering with my second treo 600. I really want the P900 and use it with Sprint. What do you think? Will Sprint ever have a P900?

Thanks!

By the way I liked my Treo 600. No bluetooth and yes the camera... But It when it worked not bad.

The P900 is a GSM only phone, it will never come to Sprint as SonyEricsson makes very few CDMA phones for the US, but tons for Japan.

reply to justin
I want to thank you for writing such an informed review!
I'd appreciate getting your insight on Treo 600 and e-mail, more specifically "push" e-mail. I understand that the Treo supports Good Technology's GoodLink. Isn't GoodLink a "push" type e-mail solution? If not, then is BlackBerry the only "push" option? And is there a chance that Treo 600 will eventually support BlackBerry's e-mail technology? (I understand that RIM is creating an e-mail application for Palm OS that will arrive later this year).
Thanks very much in advance.

You might want to check out »www.treocentral.com/content/Stor···98-1.htm
about the "blackberry service" comming to Treo's, also
»www.treocentral.com/content/Stor···02-1.htm , about "push to thlk" ...
--
Madness takes its toll...Please have exact change ready !

excellent! Thanks so much for the quick reply. On the same note, I just came across the following on "Could 2004 be the year push email takes off on Palm, Pocket PC and SmartPhone devices?" (»www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=1819)

reply to turquoise
Another point, elsewhere someone pointed out that although taking pictures looks bad on the Treo, actually they are bearable on a PC when transferred. In other words, if you take a picture with the treo and send it to a friend with a better color screen on their phone, it'll look quite good! I've found this to be the case. But not low-light pictures (restaurants, indoors).

I had no idea that treo supported goodlink, but I figure the treo fan boards will light up like a christmas tree when someone gets a reliable blackberry-like email solution going on it. Right now, there isn't one.

reply to justin
As for a clock function, In the phone buttons display, put @time for one of the button names. I haven't gotten a 600 yet, but the 270 did this, so I assume that the 600 does too.

Gary

reply to justin
No contest..

Only from my cold, dying hand will they ever pry my treo 600..

There's something surreal about being stuck on a plane and being able to pull out my phone and watch Survivor or listen to MP3s.

great thread indeed. couple of points, but first i will premise with:

i own a blackberry 7210 (at&t wireless), i am a very heavy corp email and bloomberg message (forwarded to Inbox subfolder) user. i owned a Treo600 for 3 days and decided to return it.

1) Treo600 (sprint) os software does NOT ALLOW for Inbox Subfolder synch/viewing/access. NO software exists for this topic. software does exist for the viewing/synch of other "subfolders", but NOT a subfolder of an Inbox. if you don't want a mickey mouse work-around or having to setup imap email (more hassles in my eyes), and you must have subfolder Inbox', this smartphone is not for you. end of story.

2) Blackberry 7210 battery life: 4 days with heavy data use. Treo 600: 1 day. pathetic.

yes, the Treo 600 is full of bells and whistles and all the trimmings, but if a phone and email, coupled with a decent calendar/address book is what you need, the Blackberry is the obvious choice. I personally could care less if the thing "doesn't look like a phone" or "feels less sturdy compared to the 600", i just want it to perform the tasks that i need well. at the end of the day, you have to determine what kind of user you are and what your needs are, then decide on a product to match those needs. these are two very distinct and different products.

regards

1. Wrong...I can and do access subfolders of my exchange mailbox all the time, and yes these are subfolders of the inbox, not a folder at the same level.

2. Yes, you do get better battrey life on the blackberry, but I get 2 - 2 1/2 days on a charge, and this is with using the phone, voice memo recordings, and streaming audio from the web, and listining to some mp3's

I have a GSM version, with some updated firmware, and have had it it since the first day that it was available. Prior to this I had a Treo 270, and had obtained it the first day that it was available. I would not have any other device.
--
Madness takes its toll...Please have exact change ready !

reply to justin
Justin, really interesting review! I've only read the first few paragraphs, but I was wondering if you looked at the Sidekick? It now has an SSH client. Of course there are lots of disadvantages, but your seemed to be fixated on that feature

By the way, I did a similar side by side comparison between the Blackberry and the Sidekick last September and your review motivated me to update it today. You can read it here:

»twelveblackcodemonkeys.blog-city···8458.htm
--
Please Join the Broadvoice Yahoo! Group