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iPhone vs Treo 650

buymeaniphone

buymeaniphone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 8, 2007
303
0
San Antonio, Texas
I'm trying to think of the biggest differences between the features on the iPhone and my Treo 650. For the most part the only strong point I can think of is my DocumentsToGo app which lets me create excell spread sheets and word docs. Besides that I can't think of too many huge difference, what do you guys think?
 
Handyshopper.

I couldn't live without Handyshopper.

And the keyboard - but I text a lot. I don't have any desire to replace my 650 with the iPhone. Maybe something will come along and sway me - but right now, the Treo fits my needs the best.
 
My experience with Treos is that as a phone, the call quality is terrible. This is in a major metropolitan area, too. Hope iPhone is strong in this department.
 
buymeaniphone said:
I'm trying to think of the biggest differences between the features on the iPhone and my Treo 650. For the most part the only strong point I can think of is my DocumentsToGo app which lets me create excell spread sheets and word docs. Besides that I can't think of too many huge difference, what do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I'm on my fourth 650 (they keep having odd issues and I keep getting free replacement units). I can't wait to get rid of it. My Treo 300 was more useful and reliable. The 650 randomly reboots, the current one refuses to sync with either my Mac or my PC, regardless of the connection (IR, serial) or back end (Missing Sync, Hot Sync). I'm tired of rebuilding my contacts. In fact, I just quit doing it. Since I can't sync, Docs2Go is now DocsHaveGone.

Texting & the like if still tolerable, except that the keyboard on the latest one is going flaky on me.

The OS is, to put it politely, mature. My first Palm unit in 1997 was no less functional, and had better speed. The batteries did die in no time, but still.

I do NOT think the Treo line is bad, I just think that Palm/PalmOne/Handspring/Palm again have fallen behind by a good three years or so. I'm switching to the iPhoine for a number of reasons, but I already posted them here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/287934/

Personally, I would've rather see a co-branded Apple/Palm unit. Hell, Apple shoulda bought Palm and cleaned house on the competition a couple of years ago.
 
oooh, u can get refurbished treo 650 for $99, if thats a difference.

also, a LOT of 3rd party apps.
 
sooo right about Treo 650 vs. iPhone

You are sooo right about Treo 650: mine constantly needs to be reset, fails to sync with Mac etc. The problem is, unless I'm wrong, Cingular is the only phone service with iPhone and will not be unlocked, therefore, making it impossible to switch SIM chips when traveling. Any I doubt I will be able to connect to office server via NotifyLink or equivalent as I do now to automatically update calendar and contacts and get email. As much as I love iPhone, I fear it won't meet my non-phone needs. Do others have similar concerns?
JohnNotBeatle said:
I'm on my fourth 650 (they keep having odd issues and I keep getting free replacement units). I can't wait to get rid of it. My Treo 300 was more useful and reliable. The 650 randomly reboots, the current one refuses to sync with either my Mac or my PC, regardless of the connection (IR, serial) or back end (Missing Sync, Hot Sync). I'm tired of rebuilding my contacts. In fact, I just quit doing it. Since I can't sync, Docs2Go is now DocsHaveGone.

Texting & the like if still tolerable, except that the keyboard on the latest one is going flaky on me.

The OS is, to put it politely, mature. My first Palm unit in 1997 was no less functional, and had better speed. The batteries did die in no time, but still.

I do NOT think the Treo line is bad, I just think that Palm/PalmOne/Handspring/Palm again have fallen behind by a good three years or so. I'm switching to the iPhoine for a number of reasons, but I already posted them here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/287934/

Personally, I would've rather see a co-branded Apple/Palm unit. Hell, Apple shoulda bought Palm and cleaned house on the competition a couple of years ago.
Click to expand...
 
Skram said:
You are sooo right about Treo 650: mine constantly needs to be reset, fails to sync with Mac etc. The problem is, unless I'm wrong, Cingular is the only phone service with iPhone and will not be unlocked, therefore, making it impossible to switch SIM chips when traveling. Any I doubt I will be able to connect to office server via NotifyLink or equivalent as I do now to automatically update calendar and contacts and get email. As much as I love iPhone, I fear it won't meet my non-phone needs. Do others have similar concerns?
Click to expand...
The iPhone is a quad-band GSM device, and it includes a sim tray as noted by Steve during the keynote. If it was truly Cingular's intention to never give an unlock code, they could have just made the phone dual band to operate only on their network. I seriously doubt Cingular would not give you an unlock code when traveling overseas. It will probably be like it is now where you just have to call in, and have some type of history with Cingular, before they'll give you the code. I've done this on a couple Cingular branded phones with no problem. That coupled with the fact that you can't buy the phone without obtaining service should thwart casual unlocking which it seems Cingular's interest lie.

Regarding the treo 650...it's a POS. The form factor, and the OS is archaic. I can't wait to get an official release date, along with more iPhone details, so I can dump this thing on ebay. I sold my nokia e61 to gather up some money for the iPhone, then picked up a treo 650 refurb for $99. There still going for ~$200 on ebay so at least I can get some money out of the deal.:rolleyes:
 
I'm going to dissent a bit here - I love my Treo 650. The iPhone is dead sexy, no doubt, but in the cold light of day really offers very little over the Treo in terms of useful functionality - mainly, a much better web browser.

The Treo, OTOH, can be unlocked (or simply purchased unlocked) and does tons of things the iPhone doesn't - real instant messaging, not just SMS. Mail clients that support Exchange as well as POP and push-IMAP. real GPS nav (not just Google Maps, though there's an excellent native - not Java - gmaps client). ssh. games. mobitv. etc.

Note the common thread - 3rd party apps. The Treo being an open platform can do all these things because Palm and Cingular aren't gatekeepers deciding who can develop what apps under what conditions.

(Also, as a serious mobile email user, I love the tactile keyboard on the Treo. I don't think a virtual keyboard will be as fast and easy to use.)

The Treo is far from perfect - it's bulky and, for some users, unstable. My wife's Treo crashes every other day for some reason, while mine is rock-solid despite the fact I use it much more heavily. (I suspect tight hardware tolerances are the problem.) Still, when you have a stable Treo, it's a beautiful thing.
 
I think the 680(if your on GSM) is a little better of a product since the software version is newer. However, I had the 650(now my sister has it) on VZW and the call quality was better than my previous LG phone and it is very versatile. I like it a lot and the software is easy to use.
 
toneloco2881 said:
If it was truly Cingular's intention to never give an unlock code, they could have just made the phone dual band to operate only on their network. I seriously doubt Cingular would not give you an unlock code when traveling overseas. It will probably be like it is now where you just have to call in, and have some type of history with Cingular, before they'll give you the code. I've done this on a couple Cingular branded phones with no problem. That coupled with the fact that you can't buy the phone without obtaining service should thwart casual unlocking which it seems Cingular's interest lie.
Click to expand...

This is what CNET said about getting phones unlocked, apparently you have ever right to get the phone unlocked to use with whoever you want, although I doubt the iphone will work the same if not with Cingular.
 
Dumping TREO650 ASAP

I cannot wait to be rid of the Treo650 and SprintPCS. I've had 4 of them (always replaced for free) but really never liked it and only used it for phone/address/calendar. A few months ago it stopped syncing with my MACs and then it deleted/replaced most of my email addresses.

Hopefully, the iPhone will 'just work" with my MACs so, the day the iPhone is available, I'm switching!

After what feels like using PALM products for almost 10 years - bye bye!
 
I'm in the same boat.. I have a Treo 600 and I havent hot synched in over a year.. it sucks! I am just waiting out my contract with sprint at this point. The pins on the bottom get bent.. I am constantly sticking a steak knife in their trying to straighten them out.. performing surgery on my treo is a regular event around here... I too got sucked into oh boy this is going to be the best thing for me as I am not the most orgaized person (or best speller either). I bought doc to go and pocket quicken.. tried using excel.. after a while i said what the hell am i doing.. trying to read an excel sheet on a 2 inch screen..
 
Gotta say I love my Treo 650, and that I'm going to get the iPhone.

Syncing the Treo 650 is great via Bluetooth. Just start simple, get a sync going with nothing really set to sync, and then increase it from there. Often it's third-party crud that's messing things up. That being said, only this past 10.4.9 update changed something with iCal that causes a freeze. I'll try removing an Apple prefrence for the fix.

Treo 650 and a MacBook Pro = great DUN internet modem. It's actually so easy to set up via on the Mac that it is easy to miss.
Bascially, use "Internet Connect" with "Bluetooth", username is empty, password is empty, and the phone number is #777. On the Treo, click on the bluetooth symbol at the top to get to the bluetooth screen, just turn on "Dial Up Networking". Now go and "connect" using Internet Connect on the mac to get the connection. It's a little flaky, but so helpful in a pinch. The Treo can even turn off with an active connection and it still works.

The Treo proably makes a far better phone than the iPhone. Dialing a contact out of a thousand names takes three seconds -- power on, a few initials, green dial button. It's also good for one-handed use, while the iPhone is not.

But the Treo lacks multi-threading. Spending two minutes getting to a web page and then having to look at a note, thereby losing the web page -- forget it. Bring on the iPhone!
 
Hey guys, if your TREO is crashing a lot, there's usually a dodgy app to blame. The next time it crashes, go to the phone screen and enter:

#*377

Quite often this will come up with the dodgy app. I had Ringo Pro installed on mine and it kept nuking it. But when I found this code and entered it, Ringo Pro showed it up so I deleted it. Now I rarely get a crash and if I do it's usually due to some other 3rd party app I've added recently.
 
buymeaniphone said:
I'm trying to think of the biggest differences between the features on the iPhone and my Treo 650. For the most part the only strong point I can think of is my DocumentsToGo app which lets me create excell spread sheets and word docs. Besides that I can't think of too many huge difference, what do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I gave you $0.75 :)

I hope you get your iphone!

The Stig
 
Treo 700P is fine...!

No where near the problems the 650 had, mine has never needed to be reset, only freezes once in a while during sms and resolves itself in seconds...
The Treo is a buisness tool, the iPhone is a glorified iPod, they market themselves as such. I think those pretending the iPhone is a PDA or Newton are decieving themselves and will be dissappointed.
Personally I don't have a choice since my family is w/ VZW...!!! My Treo is a solid, if lackluster, tool and phone, and plays divx+mp3s perfectly! And my ipod is, well, a top of the line ipod and limited to doing that one thing well.
 
Take two products with identical feature lists, and the one that's quicker and easier to use is FAR better in my view.

Most of the world thinks that "what I'm used to is good enough" until they actually TRY something easier. This applies outside of the tech arena as well :)
 
My Treo 650 contract with Verizon is up in June. Perfect timing. I would be apprehensive about switching to ATT. But the real problem is that I need voice dialing and my Treo does that well. I also have TomTom in my Treo and really like/use it. I deleted one buggy app and Treo has been stable ever since. I hope that iPhone eventually has third party software that adds the functionality that all those apps give to Treo. I do think that adding functionality to Treo is too complicated and too fraught with potential unstability. Reminds me of the old days with the Mac OS and all the conflicts. You have to be a geek (and I mean that in a positive sense) to make a Treo do alot of things and to keep it stable -- too much work for most, I think. So I can see why Apple will want to keep close tabs on what they allow onto an iPhone.
 
I don't understand why whenever anyone thinks of a cellphone, they automatically think of it for business. I for one don't use my cellphone for business and it's also my ONLY phone (no landline).

I don't think people should try and compare the iPhone to other traditional 'smartphones' that focus on 'features' for businessmen. IMO the iPhone is focusing on consumers, not business.

I really hope I don't see every suite carrying an iPhone like they do Treos now!
 
jeffreyfort said:
My Treo 650 contract with Verizon is up in June. Perfect timing. I would be apprehensive about switching to ATT. But the real problem is that I need voice dialing and my Treo does that well. I also have TomTom in my Treo and really like/use it. I deleted one buggy app and Treo has been stable ever since. I hope that iPhone eventually has third party software that adds the functionality that all those apps give to Treo. I do think that adding functionality to Treo is too complicated and too fraught with potential unstability. Reminds me of the old days with the Mac OS and all the conflicts. You have to be a geek (and I mean that in a positive sense) to make a Treo do alot of things and to keep it stable -- too much work for most, I think. So I can see why Apple will want to keep close tabs on what they allow onto an iPhone.
Click to expand...
a http://www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/nvbackup.shtml solve all ur worrisome

and yeah, i doubt apple can build up a 3rd party app pool as palm/wm's that easy in short time.
 
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