palm Treo 700p Smartphone (Verizon Wireless)

Amazon.com Hands-On Review

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The Treo name has been synonymous with QWERTY keyboard equipped smartphones for years - and with good reason. The devices have long been packed full of the features that power users require, while still fitting in the palm of your hand. The new Treo 700p from Palm is no exception. Based heavily of the massively popular Treo 650, the 700p gets a few upgrades where they really count while not messing too much with the rest of the Treo recipe for success. The main upgrades are a 1.3 megapixel camera, twice as much built-in memory, and EV-DO 3G data connectivity.

A palm tree on your Palm, in your palm.

But first, the physical design of the 6.2oz Treo 700p. The Treo has long had one of the best built-in keyboards on the market, and that is still true today. The QWERTY keyboard's keys are made of a hard plastic, but still have a good feel. The 700p's keys get a new square shape, and has had its direction-pad controller and hardware buttons reworked a bit: the green and red call keys are now located directly under the display, where the home and menu keys used to reside on the Treo 650. The 700p's menu key is now on the bottom row of the keyboard, a somewhat questionable position for a key that is so important to the Palm OS.

Speaking of the Palm OS, the version used in the 700p is virtually unchanged from that found in the Treo 650. As such, the user interface appears a bit dated, even though it is being shown on a very capable 320x320 pixel, 65k color touch screen. The stylus that is to be used on the display is stored in the back of the 700p and has a very nice heft to it, making it nearly as comfortable to use as a regular pen. Thanks to some clever work on the UI, though, there are relatively few instances where you truly need to use it.

In spite of the Treo 700p's somewhat dated OS, it is still a very capable and amazingly popular system when it comes to 3rd party application support. In fact, the Treo 700p ships with a number of 3rd party apps to make up for missing pieces in the OS, such as music playback. Due to the popularity of the Palm OS over the years, if there is an application that can be written for a mobile device, chances are good that it has already been written for the Palm platform.

The 700p features one of the best keyboards on the market.

Now that the 700p has over twice the available built-in storage as the 650 (and still has an SD card slot for even more), you should be able to load it up with all sorts of programs, games, and media files without problem.

The Treo's default PIM type applications like the Calendar and Contacts manager are all very good. Through the use of the included HotSync application, information from your desktop PC can easily be synchronized with the applications on your Treo. Another bonus from the use of HotSync is the automatic backup it provides. If your Treo ever gets lost or ceases to function, you can easily restore your existing HotSync backup to a new device with an absolute minimum of effort and be back in business in no time at all.

If you are an existing Treo 650 user, the biggest reason to consider an upgrade is the new 3G EV-DO data support. When used in an EV-DO coverage area, the Treo 700p will scream along at speeds many people would only expect to get at home with their DSL service. The 700p lacks WiFi support, but for those that live and work in EV-DO coverage areas, that won't be an issue at all.

Pros:

Familiar form factor
QWERTY keyboard
EV-DO data

Cons:

Outdated User Interface
Somewhat large

--Reviewed by Michael Oryl, editor in chief of www.MobileBurn.com

Customer Reviews:

Warning- worst device ever!.......2007-12-30

I am on my fifth Treo 700P, my friend went through 8 before getting her new Blackberry. I am waiting to finish my service contract to get ANYTHING but a Treo. Be warned! The only good thing about it was that each time it froze, lost sound quality (which is poor to begin with) or erased data, Palm and Verizon were good about sending me a new one (although I would have preferred anything else.) The sound quality is extremely poor - from either end. The devices seem to work for a short time, and then freeze intermittently, and finally, just fail. I have spoken with several people who have had similar problems. There is a great deal of functionality, but not worth the frustration, or worse, when it fails.

700p is junk.......2007-12-23

I have had the 700p since they first came out. I love the palm platform and the features that this phone offers. Unfortunately, the 700p is a dud. I had to exchange the phone twice before I got one that actually worked. Then within the last month my Bluetooth function stopped working. I spent 2.5 hours in the Verizon store yesterday while they tried to troubleshoot the problem. Even after a hard re-set, the phone would not pick up any Bluetooth accessories. They then decided to give me a new 700p. Since Verizon failed to activate the phone, I had to make a stop at another Verizon store so I could actually use the phone. I was able to make calls but could not receive calls. I had to go back to the original store to get another new phone, which sees Bluetooth only when it feels like it. This makes 6 phones in less than 10 months. All of them with problems. The 755 is supposed to be out within the next two weeks. I will be without Bluetooth until then because this 700p I still have is going back.

Buy at your own risk (and major source of headaches). If you are like I am and depend on your device for business uses, don't risk it. Wait for the updated 755.

I love this thing!.......2007-12-19

I love my Treo 700p! It does everything. Very easy to use and intuitive to learn. Much easier to use than the Windows version, which I made crash within 5 minutes of using (typical of Windows). Especially with the recent Palm update, I've been able to use the internet easily and quickly and GoogleMaps is priceless! Adding programs and applications is easy, and removing ones I don't like is even easier. I absolutely recommend!

Updated Phone & PDA Works For M.......2007-12-15

I have been using Palm Pilots/PDA's for years. My first was a Palm m100, then a Zire 71, then a Tungsten T3, and most recently a Treo 700p.

I've had my Treo for a little less than a month, and I am very happy with it. I was tired of carrying a separate phone and pda, so I decided to go with the Treo 700p after researching it, the Blackberry Pearl, the Motorola Q and the Treo 700wx. I am more familiar with the Palm interface, and I actually prefer it versus Windows, as I use my Treo for a calendar and a phone instead of email and internet. With the position at my employer, I find this phone to be alot easier to use than scrambling for my calendar while on the phone. With my Treo, I can just use the calendar while I am on speaker phone to confirm appointments and meetings or look up an alternate calendar for a client or co-worker. I will check my work email when traveling, but I can always use free wifi for a laptop or use a hotel computer instead if I need too, as I'd rather have a full screen for replying on email.

The Treo is great for texting, and the screen is wonderful for photo and message viewing. The camera isn't the greatest, but for a "camera phone" it's not bad.

I occasionally have problems with it freezing, but not enough that it's a big concern. There are not mp3 ringtones that come with phone, but was able to transfer all of my old mp3 ringtones over to my phone with a free program called MiniTones. The speakerphone feature is fabulous, and with Verizon as my network, I get great customer service if I need it.

I definitely recommend this phone to anyone looking for an upgrade, or just to combine your phone and calendar in one.

One word - JUNK.......2007-10-29

I was so excited when I bought my first ever smartphone this past Valentines day; I was finishing my last semester of law school and so many plans for it - but now, I am so disgusted with it I have been working off my frustration by sharing my experience where ever I can to save others from making the same mistake. The hours I spend writing these posts and reviews is nothing compared to the hours of frustration my Treo has caused me.

Hotsyncing: when you plug the hotsync cord into the phone, it does not lock in at all. The prongs are only 1/4 inch long, so if you so much as bump the cord, or if you are not extremely careful when setting it down, it will break the connection and the hotsync will fail - it is not uncommon to have to do it a couple times. Any for example, just now when I unplugged the cord from my phone to measure the short prongs, it caused the phone to reset... And of course, the Palm Desktop/hotsync software does not work with my new laptop with Vista - no surprise there, just another reason for the piece of junk not to work. Also, I have a 1G SD card which I rarely use, but have saved some photos and few short videos of the kids on it; but of course, when I try to hotsync, it locks up when it gets to "Media" - so I have to had to use the option in the Palm Desktop to disable Media backup (either that or I can eject the card before hotsyncing).

When the you receive an incoming call, the name and number of course show up, and there are two large buttons on the screen "Answer" and "Ignore" - great, but if something happens to brush the screen around the Ignore button when taking it out of your pocket, you miss the call. I have missed several important calls this way (expecting a call, like for a job, and it finally comes, but you miss it, and by the time you work through the slow process of returning the call it can be busy when they are calling someone else - just one example of the type of call you can expect to miss).

I missed fully siding it into my shorts pocket ONE time this summer and it fell on the floor, the vibrate has never worked since (I am only 5 foot 7 so it wasn't much of a fall).

When entering your passcode for voicemail, or entering numbers in one of those systems like when paying the phone bill or utility bill over the phone, it is not unlikely that the numbers you enter will be read back to you wrong. For example, your screen shows that you entered 12345, but the system reads back that you entered 12354 - this happens on a regular basis and on totally unrelated phone systems.

I called Sprint a couple of months after I bought it because I heard that insurance is offered on phones, on of course they told me you have to have to get it in the first 30 days - of course no one told me that when I bought it, likely because they lose so much money replacing the pieces of junk that they don't want to tell anyone.

Ever try to win something by calling into a radio station? You know, when you call the first time and it is busy so you hang up and try to call right back to try again? Forget it with this thing, it is rediculous how long it takes to place a second call, and there no redial function, you have to go to the call log screen and redial from there - and even if you have it on speedial it is no faster.

The phone has crashed or spontaneously restarted when I was right in the middle of something so many times that I lost count long ago. I could go on and on even further about the misery that thing has caused me, but I think you have the idea.

The disk that comes with the phone has links to tech support, etc., but if you click on them, they cause Internet Explorer to lock up... Why should I be surprised...

Whoever says the Treo is great, or even good, piece of equipment is a liar - they either work for Palm, get paid as some kind of support for it, have other phones that they also use so they really haven't used it full time, got it for free (for writing a review or something) or are the type who won't admit what a mistake it was to waste so much money on it and come up with excuses as to why all the problems are somehow worth it.

If you are still considering buying this piece of junk, then you are a fool. Ever seen the movie Office Space, as soon as I get a replacement, I will do to my Treo what the guys did to that fax machine!

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