iPhone vs Treo 650

[uscmeche]

Not necessarily a "feature", but after using the 650 for a couple years and then getting the new BB 8800, the size!

I know the iPhone and the BB are different in size, technically, but compared to the Treo both are much slimmer. It is nice to wear jeans and not have my 650 happy to see everyone, if you know what I mean.

That being said, I am ditching the BB as soon as the iPhone comes out. I hate having to sync with a USB cable, eh, I want BT sync--I hope they have this option for the iphone until the whole dotmac things gets figured out.

 

[princealfie]

I really love the Treo 600 for the typewriter but I suspect that I want to have both phones! Woot.

 

[ToddW]

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!

i kind of feel the same way. i think i will wait and see what all the iphone has first and how people really like it. there is currently i lot of hype surrounding it and i want to make sure all the money invested in my treo and everything i do with it can be done on the iphone.

 

[b1NARY73]

I have owned a treo 650, and a 700P.... and i went balckberry and never looked back. I think treo's are overrated... but that is just me. I too hope the iPhone's quality as far as calls go is better than the treo's.... and some blackberries. I had a 8703e, but switched and now have a pearl and love it!

 

[Mariowii]

i like iPhone .i like Apple .

 

[pastrychef]

I also used a Treo 650 for a long time and dealt with the quirks, restarts, and bugs because I loved the keyboard, ability to access the internet, and the ability to install apps of my choice.. I doubt Apple would ever release something with as many problems/quirks. It's too bad that the first iPhone revision won't support the 3G network of Cingular's.

For what it's worth, about 3 or 4 months ago, I took the plunge and purchased a Cingular 8525 and it has been great...

 

[daneoni]

Been using a 650 for 2 yrs now and its been rock solid and syncs flawlessly with PC/Mac and has hardly reset unless i start adding dodgy third party apps. Gave it to my brother and now have a Treo 680, same thing, rock solid dropped it several times but still knock on wood. Syncs flawlessly via bluetooth although a tad slow as its only 1.2 non EDR?.

Overall top notch. Call quality is pretty darn good, SMS, Email, name it it does it well. Battery life could be better however and its heavy. These are the tradeoffs.

The iPhone is obviously a great phone but its not a phone i see myself using everyday, probably a social phone, which is why i don't see myself getting one, at least not initially. Because i need to edit and exchange Excel/Powerpoint/Word docs continuously, which the iPhone thus far lacks.

Also maybe i'm the weird one but i like my tactile feedback hence i like the Qwerty. The touchscreen thing, whilst i'd get used to it eventually would be pretty annoying initially.

 

[wongulous]

Treo 700p, and soon the 755p (Garnet, body of the 680, power of the 700), are awesome. I have an iPod video already and I really like them separate. Especially with a Jawbone headset, the Treo kills every phone on the market in terms of quality, convenience, capabilities, software, life integration, etc. I sometimes wish the Palm software were more transparent, but hey. It's better than nothing, or having to pay for third party capabilities. Or, worse, having it be super-easy to sync but having to PAY for ringtones, have NO 3rd-party apps, and having to BUY all of your games from Apple. Ridiculous.

I do wish it had multitouch, but I'm still unsure that on a cellphone and text-message-phone that I'd want no tactile feedback. Apple could have at least put in haptics so you FEEL like there is tactile feedback. Give me my Qwerty. (Now, in the case of my iPod, I'd rather have a full touchscreen than the wheel. I'm so over the wheel.)

 

[standog]

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 worked hard to get a Treo and plunked down $299 to get it and have regretted it every since. Most of what i hear is about reading documents on Docs to go, Unlocked Treo and 3rd party apps. I have a 1g card and hardly ever use the docs to go since I hate looking at or even typing on documents on the tiny screen. Ready for .pdfs on the apple.

Unlocked phone, I really don't care cause I'll go to whatever carrier offers me the phone. I presently have Sprint and though I can't really complain about the service, I have a friend t hat has AT&T/Cingular and I believe you could bury the guy 20 ft deep and he'd still have 4 bars on his signal. That's more important to me than being unlocked.

3rd party apps, while nice, aren't really critical. I mean, other than my password app and the one I use for my checking account the rest are useless for me. Welll there is the one that you can use to block unwanted calls. Now if the iPhone has that, slam dunk.

Lastly, the one handed thing. I hardly ever use mine one-handed. I'm usually whipping out the stylus and while the keyboard is nice, the one thing I'll be glad to get rid of is the junk around the screen. That huge indentation where the screen is sunk in just locks in grease and dirt and it's hard to clean. iPhone wheeeee one wipe and it's all clean.

All in all, when you add the iPod capabilities, threaded voicemail, better screen and syncing, picture dialing, network switching and full browser, iPhone will kill anything on the market...as long as the call quality is good. People need to stop finding a reason to hate the iPhone. I'm sure people will hate on me when I get mine. They'll make their calls while I'm watching movies, listening to music and talking on a phone that doesn't crash 20x a day and doesn't feel like a brick in my pocket.