Palm Treo 700w / 700wx
Average Ratings
annoying glitches, enough to drive you crazy
Pros:
battery life is excellent, even w/bluetooth
broadband internet great, IF I get reception
one hand functionality
easy to use interface
keypad makes few mistakes
decent screen
sd slot
wireless sync a breeze
OK voice quality
Cons:
Lousy reception through verizon
weak antenna, many, many dropped calls
Voice dialing "hiccups" and misdials too often
unit locks up regularly
too little memory
bluetooth fails to connect regularly
active sync 4.1 troubleshooting is a herculean chore
crummy speaker phone
This is a complaint review. See other reviews for the cool features of the 700w.
IF Verizon's service was decent, and the antenna wasn't so weak, I would probably complain a lot less about this unit. When it works, it's great. When it doesn't, you want to throw it against the wall. My biggest complaints, besides the awful reception and lousy antenna, include the unit locking up REGULARLY. Soft resets are common. The pitiful voice recognition software is nearly useless. Oftentimes it simply choses names randomly and asks to dial them. I've pretty much given up trying voice dailing. I do NOT know what the deal is with Active Sync 4.1. It works on my work computer, which is the SAME computer I have at home, but does not work at home. I've spent too many hours troubleshooting the issue to care any longer. I'm so frustrated with this phone. I did trade it in once, thinking I might have gotten a bum unit. Same problems with the replacement. A friend JUST got this phone as well...and registers similar complaints as I do. This phone is just too unreliable for me, since I NEED to rely on it for my job. I find myself using my personal cell phone for work. Am stuck till the company says I can trade it in...and that day cannot come too soon. Thank God they are the ones paying the bill.
Do Not Buy This Phone
I have used the Treo 700W for almost four months now, and this screen would not hold all the problems I have experienced. For brevity sake, I will break them down into general categories:
1. Sound Quality - I have never owned a cell phone with such poor sound quality. Every, and I mean Every person I speak to complains that there is substantial background noise on every single call... even when I am in a quiet room. The phone is virtually useless in the car as the road noise is louder than my voice.
2. Dropped/Missed Calls - The phone has a mind of it's own and sometimes for hours on end it simply refuses to ring, or even acknowledge that calls have come in... no missed call message, etc. On dozens of occasions, days later I receive a voicemail notification that I have 5 or more missed voice mails from prior days. I have missed numerous important calls because the phone just doesn't respond. Likewise, I have experienced far more dropped calls with this phone than any other I have ever owned.
3. Lock Ups - I have to do a hard reset almost every day. When the system locks up, it is usually from the simplest of tasks, placing or receiving a call.
4. Battery Life - It will not make it through a single day without a charge.
5. Alarms - I have almost missed several meetings when traveling. Just this morning I set the alarm for 6:00 AM. It decided to go off at 7:47 AM.
6. Response to Input - The buttons have a mind of their own. Just because you push the send button to place a call doesn't mean the phone will place a call. It may not respond, or may dial two numbers at the same time.
7. Keyboard size - The keys are simply too small to use. Dialing a phone number is almost impossible.
These are just a few, and I could go on. In short, avoid this phone at all cost.
Makes me wish I would have stuck with my last PDA/phone
As some users who have posted reviews here have expressed, I have also experienced various problems, lack of functionality that previous phones have had, and major battery life problems.
I've experienced buttons that stick, frequently lost Bluetooth connections, voice mail notification delays of several days, and frequent errors requiring a hard reset, the last of which de-activated my phone with my carrier for some unknown reason. (After a hard reset, all settings, photos, ring tones, etc. are lost and have to be manually re-entered one by one (my previous phone backed up this information and let me re-sync it back to the PDA/phone). The Treo 700w also has an inability to assign ring tones by contact category, and an inability to it as a modem for my laptop (unlike my Kyocera 7135 Smartphone).
Worst of all, the advertised battery life is a joke (Talk: 4.50 hours / Standby: 360 hours). When the phone and is on, I get about 8 hours of battery life (which means the phone usually dies before the end of the day, even after being fully charged for the entire night beofre), and that's with little or no talk time. No exteneded battery is available from the manufacturer. I tried a third party extended battery, but it ended up causing errors.(The battery on my previous phone, the Kyocera 7135 Smartphone - both a PDA and a phone - would last at least over the weekend with a the phone on, or up to a week with the phone off.)
I am also confused as to why there isn't compatibility for voice activation using Bluetooth headsets (instead of having to speak into the phone itself), and why pauses after phone numbers in the contact list cannot be added for phone number extensions, voice mail passwords, etc..
In my opinion, in many ways this phone is far behind the Kyocera 7135 Smarthpone that I previously had (but now can't reactivate because Verizon discontinued service for it). I feel like a guinea pig for a new phone that has some serious flaws.
Great product
Well let me start by telling you that I actually had to get service with Verizon because of the treo 700w and also maintain my GSM phone with Cingular/ATT/Cingular/ATT what ever they change it too.
First off, let me tell you whatever treo you have these last generation of treos 700w/650 all have the best built quality that I have seen. From the material used to the screen and all the buttons, everything is put together well and tight and very well. So as far as quality of the product goes, you get a 5 out of 5.
with respect to merging the Treo product with Microsoft's mobile platform, you have a pretty good unit with some shortfalls that I am sure can be remedied. For example when you are running media or mail, or any other function, unless you turn them of one at a time they continue to operate. You then have to go into the settings and memory and shut down each program individually or together. Which is a waste of time. Also, the phone function can be simplified somewhat. In other words, if you want to change ringers or set up your phone, unless you know your way around the Microsoft's mobile platform, you will have a hard time locating where and how to change the ringers.
One of the definite advantages of Window's mobile platform to the OS system on the 650 is that you are able to download large file attachments directly to your unit. Whereas with the OS system, you are limited to 2.0 megabytes.
Whether you are looking for the Palm OS or Microsoft mobile system, the Treo is one of the best PDA's the market has to offer. As long as they maintain the quality and integrity of the product without getting cheap on us, they will outsell the market.
The only other operating system I find comparable and as interesting is the Symbian operating system being integrated in many of the Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones. But, for now, I think I will stick to my Treo. If you accept that these are imperfect units, then you will have a great tool/phone/entertainment unit.
oddly missing features
I use Verizon. I went from a Samsung i700 to the Palm Treo 700w last week and I am sending it back to get the Samsung i730. I make a lot of calls outside the US and so I use a calling card. In every other phone I owned I could put the calling card number in the address book, followed by commas or other characters to create a few seconds of pause, and then the real number to dial. I never had a problem. With the palm Treo you cannot add any pauses after the phone number in the contact list. There is a feature called speed dial where you are allowed to add other characters for passwords and such. You can dial the calling card number, put a few seconds of pause and then the real number to dial and it works---BUT only for the first entry. When you put the second speed dial number in and tell it to dial, the software reverts to the first entry since the beginning phone numbers are the same (the calling card.)
Another missing feature is talking to the phone through the headset. On my Samsung i700, which does not have bluetooth so I have to use a converter and bluetooth headset, I can initiate a voice command to make a hands free call. I say the name or number to call through my headset and I hear the phone through my headset so I don't have to move the phone to make a call. In the Palm Treo even though it is a bluetooth phone and I have bluetooth on and my headset on, I have to say all the voice commands into the phone---not the headset---and the phone talks back to me through the phone and not the headset. To me that seems to negate the entire purpose of bluetooth for a phone.
Aside from these missing features I have to give palm credit for the great size and feel in the hand of the machine. Also, it has a great battery life, good reception, and sound.
Great Phone
I find it hard to find any fault with this phone. I finally tired of waiting on the Moto Q and was afraid my poor little V60 was going to die at any moment, so I took the Treo plunge. Other than the size, I think it is a great solution for business people on the go. Of course, I am not someone who is encumbered by memories of the "wonderful" Palm OS. My first experience with Treo is this phone. To me, this phone: works flawlessly, integrates with my desktop and is great for accessing email. I love having a phone, pda and blackberry all in one sweet device. Plus, having broadband access on the go is great.
Pros: Runs Windows O/S
Easy to learn and use
Feel good in your hand
Excellent call quality.
Cons: Relatively large size
Limited internal memory
External antenna.
700W - Finally a worth PDA & CELL Combo
I had the Treo 650 with Verizon and Cingular and returned both. Verizon's Treo 650 just flat sucked as a cell phone, I could barely make calls due to low/no signal etc. Just horrible. Then I tried Cingulars 650 - the signal strength was much better, calls were clear but volume lacked and it dropped calls like it was going out of style (2 different phones later I found it to be a Cingular problem in this area, not a phone problem).
Palm sent us a demo of the Treo 700W that I was able to use for a few days myself before giving it to the CEO to try out.
The 700W really met my expectations of what a combination device should be. Signal strength has been just as good as or better than other straight cell phones. It's loud and I actually had people I was talking to tell me I sounded better when I was using the speakerphone (not that normal was bad, just that speaker phone was that good!).
EVDO & syncing up to an exchange server over VPN was flawless and the device is smart enough that it automatically connects to the vpn before trying to sync with exchange without me having to figure out how to make it do that; it just did it.
Using junefabrics.com pdanet to tether my laptop with the 700w was also quite nice though I wished bluetooth had been ready to go for this, the cord is just a drag - but it worked and worked well.
The keys are of course a pain since they are so small, but I can't make up my mind which is more of a pain, the small keys or having to slide out a larger keyboard like on the XV6700 - I'm torn...
The camera, what can I say, it's a cell phone camera, if you want something that takes nice pictures buy a real camera.
PDA functionality was as expected, same as most others.
If you want a good PDA that can stay connected all the time for email etc and a good cell phone, finally there is an all in one that really does work; the 700W (though someone I know has a XV6700 right now and they seem to be happy with it for the same reasons).
700w is good but buggy
I have had the device for a few days and have been back and forth with Verzon trying to get everything running smoothly- after a few hard resets everything seems ok.
they definitly slacked in a few areas and now I just found out there is a bug with the EV-D0 connection that palm is working on. I would be more than happy to pay more for a phone that just worked right out of the box without going through all this B.S
Overall its pretty good- if Microsoft is going after Blackberry for email they better go back to the drawing board. I just had the 7130e and its email blows this thing away. However everything else about it was weak so thats why I went with this thing
Excellent Phone/PDA
I can not believe it. Finally I got great phone/PDA with Windows Mobile but looks so different and easy to use. :))))))
Treoriffic 700!
Great phone! Finally the integration needed from the best of the best Palm & Pocket PC. I had the Samsung I730 since August, 2005 and was somewhat pleased other than the horrible battery life--2-3 hours tops! The Treo merges the PocketPC platform that I've enjoyed since the first IPAQ combined with the excellent qualities of Palm and you have an excellent communication device as well as PDA. This phone has been worth the investment thus far!
