Palm Treo 680
Average Ratings
Great Phone For First Smartphone
I just got the phone and have been playing with it non-stop. As a first time smartphone user the Palm OS is very user friendly and easy to use. No freezing like others have said but I will give it a few weeks to see if anything happens. Its very stable now. I listen to music, schedule my days, play some games, maybe take a photo or two, and keep track of school and a busy life as a student. This is a great phone for students, good price, great features. Its a little on the thick side but I love the touchscreen, and the 5-way navigation can be used also instead.
I did not like Win-Mob because it seemed less user friendly and not as easy to use. Also, most don't have a touchscreen with this price. I would have liked the phone to be cheaper but it has everything I need. Palm, Apple, and Windows recently have come out with new OS's for smart-phone but I would rather see the kinks worked out in a year or two before getting any new OS.
I am not a internet or email user, I find it distracts me from what I need to get done and there is always a computer at campus. Plus it kills your battery no matter what phone you get.
The SD drawer is a little flimsy but I can deal with. The keyboard was surprisingly easy to type on with the keys being so small. But try it first.
I'm a technology and gadget person who would love to have the latest and greatest. But this does what I need and I see this industry booming in a year or two, and by then I can upgrade again. If you are looking for the basics of a smartphone then go with this. The iphone is coming out but so will iphone 2 a year or less after. I will keep this phone for probably 2 years and get a new one, by then alot of our phones will be smartphones with WiFi and everything included at a reasonable price. For scheduling this is the phone for you.
Also, great reception and clarity on the phone, speaker is mediocre but usable.Thats all I can think of, I will get back to you if anything comes up.
Buyer beware
The phone is great, maybe not an upgrade to the 650 but good features. However if you drop it or bang it hard, the screen WILL CRACK. This is a non warranty fix and you will be out another $199 to get it repaired. I have also heard that the SIM cards get damaged easily on drops too so be careful. I had one that cracked while in a leather case after just 2 days of usage. You will be paying again or stuck with a useless phone!!
The Next
The New Treo 680 is an upgrade over the highly popular Treo 650. Along with its Jampacked features like Games, Processor, E-Mail, Internet, it also has a new Size & Shape. The new design is better with more enhanced size buttons and the display is well thought up and the more memory makes this phone a great upgrade. If I had to recommend a business phone/PDA with a QWERTY Keyboard it would be this one because you can learn new things everyday as well as to add new programs, get SD Game Cards etc. the list just keeps on going.
The Greats!!!
1. New Design (Sleek, Appealing, Smaller)
2. New QWERTY Keyboard (Bigger Buttons)
3. Touchscreen (Nicer Stylus)
4. PTunes (Even Better Than Real-Player)
5. Bluetooth
6. Endless Applications
7. Games
8. Features
9. Can Create MP3 Ringtones
10. Can Use Your Own Wallpapers
11. Better Speakerphone (Crispier, Louder)
12. More Available Internal Memory
13. Screen & Screen Resolution
14. Infrared Port (Beam Pics, Music, Games)
15. E-Mail
16. Documents To Go (Excellent Business Tool)
Decent!!!
1. Web-Browser (Blazer is just okay)
2. Battery Life (Shorter Life Than The 650
3. Camera (Still Good But The 650 is Better)
The Bad!!!
1. Once Again Rare freezing/rebooting
2. Once Again You Have to buy the Apps lol
Overall, The Treo 680 is a GREAT Upgrade over the Treo 650 PDA/Phone and I give it a 5!!! You will love everything it has to offer and now with a more comfortable shape and size. Its Multi-Tasking in the Palm of your hand (No Pun Intended). I give it both my highest recommendation as both a PDA/Smartphone and better than the Treo 650.
Treo 680 vs. 650 vs cingular and other flips
The 680 is by far the best all in one and one handed device on the market. IF you drive like I do, you will love the ability to check appts, to do's make an initiate phone calls etc with one hand.
Pro's
Improved speaker over the 650
improved form factor
Cons
The only real problem I have is the battery isnt that great.
The only other minor issue I dont like is the new design doesnt include the same quick dialing feature, it does havea favorites feature but its not laid out the saem way.
COnclusion,
After trying many pda smartphones, I am 100% posistive this is the best all around device on the market.
Great Phone that does it all
I have been a palm fan since I can remember. I have had treo's for as long as I can remember and I hate Windows Mobile with a passion. I have visited alot of other forums that have bashed this phone, saying that is was outdated. I beg to differ. Unlike other treo's that I have this one has not frozen or locked up at all. The one update that I have noticed with this phone is the PocketTunes instead of the RealPlayer that was mandatory with this phone for many years. Overall I love the phone so much and wouldnt even consider the Treo 750 when it comes out at all. I would really recommend this phone to all that are looking for a phone that will store your contacts, tasks, calendar events and memos. Great buy.
Perfect For Non Hard Core User
Have owned the 680 for two weeks. My first smartphone since the Motorola MPX200. This phone fits my needs just fine as a non "Crackberry" type. If you have heavy duty email/media needs, then you can probably do better elsewhere. If, however, you have moderate needs and like the Palm operating system, then the 680 is for you. Battery life is not that bad, all things considered, unless you're emailing/texting/browsing all day.
PROS:
Touch Screen
Full QWERTY (Small keys are OK)
Size just small enough for pocket
Sound quality excellent
Speaker is adequate
Palm OS (not Windows)
PDA functions are awesome
No real cons, except that there are obviously devices that are smaller, thinner, faster, etc.
Best PDA out there!
I recently returned my blackjack disappointed that the phone did not do all of the things I hoped it would do. I found that the Blackjack was based around video and Internet. When I was looking at the different phones to pick it was between the Blackberry Pearl The cingular 8125 and the new Treo. The Pearl was a sharp phone but aside for corporate e-mails the phone really didn't do that much. They also did away with there trade mark full keyboard, and added an MP3 player. My father has the 8125 and he loves it. This would have probably been my choice if I hadn't started messing with the display Treo. I was blown away by everything the phone could do. It had Express e-mail, An address book and calender that was fantastic. The combination touch screen and full keyboard was really easy to use. Internet to me was still pretty fast. Cingulars 3g's capable phones are fast but realistically there not.
Hears why, 3G phones download actual web pages as if you were veiwing them from a computer which is nice but downloading 15 times the information at 10 times the speed still worked out to hold ups when surfing.
Pros
-Touchscreen still great
-Houndreds of programs available at palm.com
-Key board lightning fast to type
-Address book very detailed and easy to navigate
-Calender great
-Call quality perfect
-Battery life is not great but pretty good for a phone that does so much
-Full SD card rather then micro SD
-Pictures are crystal clear
-With no card I have 860 available pictures and hounreds of phone #'s
Con's
-None for me!
As a side note my review of the blackjack was supposed to have a 5 rating but when I submitted it, it came up a 2. Even though I returned it for this phone I still thought it was great for what it did.
Treo 680
I have used the treo 680 for 2 weeks. I love it. It syncs perfectly with my laptop (mac:phonebook, calendar, notes etc..) It is the best phone I have purchased to date. The only thing I would say at this point for Cons is the poor battery life. I purchased a second battery that I keep charged in the cradle. If I take calls or use other programs on the PDA for work, I notice that the battery life just is not what I expected. I hope that some work will be done to improve this without having to purchase another phone. The last issue is that I am not able to load a mp3 ringtone on the phone and use it for a specific contact. Is there some 3rd party software that will allow me to choose my own mp3 soundbites on to the phone to bu used on the treo 680 ringtone?
"Battery life is good"
Perfect Smartphone!!! Both looks and over-all performance!!!
For those worried about the battery life - I think one of the most important things to do is properly condition the battery before use (or even after use, as in my case) ie. FULLY discharge and recharge at least twice (without using it in between). My phone performance (battery wise) seemed to improve remarkably after this. Trust me after conditioning your battery you'll not REGRET.
Unfortunately the conditioning of the battery is not mentioned anywhere and Palm should take complete responsibility for taking its consumers for granted.
Palm you can do a better job.
would have been a good pda 2 or 3 years ago
Two or three years ago (when the released the Treo 650) this would have been a pretty good device. But it lacks some very basics that are standard on even the most basic of non pda phones. no out of the box support for java or caller groups. customization of menues is great. browser is the slowest i've tried (out of 8125, blackberry 7130, 8700, nokia e62, blackjack)... so, here goes.
pros:customized menues.
address book
size
CONS:battery life battery life batter life.
no caller groups
no java support
extra slow browser
sync options.(prefer blackberry and nokia pc suite)
smaller keyboard.