Palm Treo 680
Average Ratings
Super Great Phone
I have had the Cingular 8125 and the Cingular 8525 and I must say the Treo 680 blows both of them out of the water!!! This is a superb Smartphone. In most cases a smartphone is not the best device when it comes to actual phone use. But this one has great sound quality and in my opinion is a lot easier to make a call while driving (I know not the smartest thing.)If you have any doubts on what Smartphone to get, then just get this one. Go actually look at it in a retail store, it is not that stupid orange color and it is actually smaller than I thought it would be.
Some assembley required
Here's my frame of reference for my review: I've been a long time Palm PDA user, and I've been using a Lifedrive together with a Razr V3 on Cingular. I use these devices together as a PDA and a communicator for voice/e-mail/messages/data/podcast.
So I'm asking a lot from my device(s)
PRO's
1. Integrated PDA and communicator. shave my cable load in half on trips
2. LOUD SPEAKER PHONE :)
3. LOUD RINGER (yes, they even have a auditory warning on this thing!)
4. Versa mail is a lot better, the filter feature works nicely with SpamAssassin.
5. GPRS seems to be faster then on the Razr V3i...no hard data though
6. Keyboard feels nice. The shape of the buttons is what makes it work. I though I'd miss graffiti, but it turns out not to be the case (does this make me a bad person? I don't know?)
7. 3rd party software: AAC player, Opera, IM clients, ...just about all the goodies you'd expect from Palm's realm.
8. Not having to bounce between two device to keep up a chat session ....priceless
PAR
i. Signal quality is similar to that of my old V3i (San Francisco, CA - Cingular)
ii. Didn't see any improvement in Blazer.
iii. Google maps - w/out UMTS/HSDPA it just ain't the same.
CON's
A. No integrated voice dial (3rd party s/w)
B. No integrated MP3 alarm (3rd party s/w)
C. NO WIFI or UMTS/HSDPA (it would be nice!)
D. Stylus feels flimsy, I keep thinking I'm gonna break it!
E. SD door also feels flimsy. I've had it for a weekend and I notice the tolerance of the fit going down hill just after some not-too-rough handling.
F. Power hungry + small battery = bad
The biggest problem is going to be the battery capacity. There needs to be a bigger battery for this thing. I can't see a reason why a thicker battery can't be substituted if a different battery cover design is used.
Overall it meets my existing needs with a more compact package. There are features I'd like to have, but hey, I'd like an Aston Martin DB5 and a Shelby Cobra in my garage too.
Nice Treo
Still happy with the palm treo line of smartphones.This is a great phone with much better sound quality than the 650,on cingular service. a step up on internet speed,nice phone app.3rd party apps. will catch up i'm sure. I keep it pretty simple, phone,email (mostly text),minor web browsing,calender,text,pics. no major office docs.
pros.
more memory
good rf
volume
price
cons:
I'm sure i would like faster web
camera so.so
it's still early in the game.
Good for businesspeople.
The Palm is good for what it does, which is basically for business people, not teenagers. I got mine about a month ago and I am not pleased with it.
The phone screen annoys me with all the little tabs, and the way they address book set up annoys me as well. I also hate you have to import ringtones from third party sites. Also, I don't use the internet on the phone so all the memory for that goes to waste, instead of using it on something like pictures or texts that I do.
It hasn't had any actual problems, it's just not a good phone for me. It's actually an excellent phone if you're a big business person. But not if all you are looking for is text messaging, calling your friends, and taking pictures/videos.
I should have gone way simpler, it was my mistake. However I'm seriously looking at the Samsung Sync, i've heard good things about it.
Sweet phone and pda
Had this a long time ago. I came from a 6340i I believe was what phone I was using so I got a lot more. The camera was awesome, it worked great for a pda was durable and i liked it
Good phone overall but unsupported
Good phone overall.
I have used it for almost 2 years.
Not a heavy user in terms of software and so.
Synchronization and backup with my Laptop was a pain until I learned how to do it (instructions very now works flawlessly, however I keep receiving messages about incompatible software, but as it does not tell me WHICH software is incompatible, message is useless...
However, it keeps freezing and one has to restart.. this has never stopped happening. NO Palm support for this problem, A SHAME.
Short battery life (more than 24 but less that 48 hours).
Pros: great phone and it freezes.
Cons: low battery life (even after upgrading software)
freezes, freezes, freezes
Love hate relationship
I had this phone for 2 years now and all these years I've been looking for something better as the device constantly hangs, freezes, restarts and turns the phone off without any of my input. It is normal to press a button and wait for 1-3 seconds for the phone to react to it. Reception is very bad though I think it is ATT's, Cingular and now yet again ATT's fault. Regardless, this phone is like a democracy, the worst except for anything else out there. Its phonebook is brilliant! You can type first letters of first and last name of a person and it pull the phone number right up. Calendar is a gem! Very simple to use: you can switch from day to week to month with a press of one button. I do not use email, but a friend of my does and she says that it is unusable, a pity.
Love this phone, but will jump to anything else that will come close to its usability without hanging all the time.
Pros:
Very easy to use
Phonebook search
Calendar is great
FULL KEYBOARD
SWITCH TO VIBRATE ONLY (not a software setting)
Cons:
Freezing/hanging ALL THE TIME
Reception (ATT's fault?)
great functions, but has problems
I'm no phone expert, I'll start with that. I got this phone because I'm a text addict and needed to text faster than T9. I don't really use it for internet browsing, emails and such. I used it more for texting, pictures, picture messaging, calendar/appts managing, memos/notes and actually making phone calls.
Pros:
1. lots of features
2. touch screen feature was cool at first (see cons)
3. great display
4. easy to navigate
5. love the recordable ring tone feature!
Cons:
1. round text buttons make it hard to press, especially for females with nails. I was constantly making corrections. The keys should have been flat and easy to press!
2.sorta bulky and heavy, not sleek
3.display would get smudged and hard to clean around edges due to casing
4. would freeze up all the time
5. touch screen is what killed the phone. It is so sensitive! And because I dropped it, the screen cracked and the phone was useless. I'm now searching for a new one and it won't be a Treo 680!
Treo 680.
Truth be told, I bought this phone for the sake of saying that I've had it. It's not too bad. It's much better than the 650 was, CDMA or GSM!
Like:
Reception: I gets it everywhere!
Comes with instant messaging (after download from palm.com/us.)
Not bad camera/video. It works well in the dark, unlike my 8125.
Internet Explorer.
Dislike:
Battery life sucks, but what PDA has a really good battery life.
The signature doesn't stay in the threaded SMS. It's only there on the first reply.
The E-Mail isn't as easy to set up, but am working around it.
No WMA format? What is up with that?! That blows majorly, because all of my music is mp3!
Great phone, overall. I'd choose this over the Centro.
good model, same problems
I have to say I was so impressed with my Treo 650 that I had almost two years I had to get the newer version. Overall I am not to satisified but it's common problems I experienced with my 650, just earlier in it's life.
PROs:
speakerphone is very loud
very durable
sound quality is great
CONs:
battery life, although I was used to the 650 that was amazing life, but not making it even 24 hours without using any apps..not pleased!
completely locks up often when attempting to answer a call, especially if call waiting is used. A major pain when you have to take the battery off and wait the minute or two for it to power up and find service. It happens between 2 and 6 times a day, not good for a phone of this price thats only a month old. Very annoying and stressful especially when you use your phone ALOT!
Overall I enjoy it, just has the same old quirks of the 650, maybe a little worse! I did purschase it off ebay but it was sealed in box and Cingular(ATT) branded so can't blame the seller and it's not a refurb
