Palm Treo 300
Average Ratings
Treo. No, no, no
Too big, short battery life, internal battery hence, no spare battery for a quick change.
Complicated to use on the phone side. Too many steps to take to get to the phone dial pad. Try using the phone for any length of time, big ear piece with a lip stabbing you right on your ear... Ouch! The 2.5 mm jack will not accept today's standard headset. You have to use the slightly large one it comes with. No voice-activated dialing, single band, no charging stand, no auto-answer, no TTY, terrible speaker phone. Keep an eye on the stylus, it'll slip out.
Now for the good news. Good color, large display. nothing arduous about the qwerty keyboard. Simply flip a switch to go to silent ringer i.e. vibrate. Plenty of speed-dial buttons.
To sum it up, the Palm portion is good, but the phone portion seems like it was an afterthought... all this for 500 smacks?.! For that money you think you would get a lot better phone.
Handspring-- back to the drawing board.
kyuk99
I have owned this phone for a week now and I can't say enough about it. I am convinced that it is the best PDA/phone available. I would even recommend it to people who wouldn't usually use a combo device because this phone is better equipped to take advantage of 3g services and speed. The full internet browser is good and the ability to run Palm OS programs (games, AIM, etc) comes in handy. The BEST feature of this phone, however, is its full QWERTY keyboard. I vow to never buy another phone without one! How did i ever get buy typing in letters on a normal phone pad? This phone isn't as big as you might think if you've never seen it in person. It easily fits in my pocket. The one major drawback is the fact that the battery is built in and you can't replace it yourself. That makes me a little nervous. Overall, I think this phone outclasses most others on the market today and I think it might be a while before something significantly better comes out.
Great PDA phone
This is my first phone with Palm functionality built in, and I have to say I am very pleased with how well it works. I will admit that some functions aren't quite as user friendly as they could be (I'm soooo tired of using the jog dial to get to speed-dial buttons). However, considering the alternatives (Samsung I300) this is light-years ahead of what is available.
The integration of the Palm functions is slick and easy to use for the most part. Nothing is better than being able to type in a memo to myself regarding something I'm being told on the phone. The web browser (Blazer) is also incredible...downloading maps off Mapquest makes all my road trips much easier to accomplish. The battery life is incredible, I only have to charge mine every three days even with heavy use. The speaker phone works better than any other phone I have used. Having all my contacts on my phone, along with all my company documents, makes it much easier to travel with less equipment. The ear piece with the built-in off button is also great and makes using the Treo with the flip closed super-easy.
Complaints? Handspring slapped me in the face when they made it non-Mac compatible. Bastards. The screen quality is nowhere near a Palm M505. 3G settings can be easily messed up, and it takes Sprint forever to get them working again. I wish the screen would stay on, at it's dimmest setting, when you have messages, or at least emit a beep to let me know. As it is, I have to open the flip to see if I have missed any calls, or if I have voice mail. Annoying annoying annoying.
Overall, I really love this phone and can't figure out how I lived without one for so long. The minor annoyances are far outweighed by the fact that I no longer have to carry a full laptop with me on every trip to accomplish my duties.
Best PDA/Phone Period !!
Once you own this little gem you will never again own, want, or need a seperate wireless phone and PDA. The Treo 300 combines both devices into a small unit that easily fits into your pocket. The screen is sharp and the color vivid. Audio is clear and crisp and you can run thousands of existing Palm applications. The keyboard is an extremely useful feature. I will NEVER go back to a phone or PDA without a full QWERTY keyboard. Service from Sprint is the best of all the carriers in my opinion here in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe area. This is a winning combination. Get rid of your old technology and get a real phone - a Treo 300.
Not a good phone
Pros - Very cool display and keyboard. Keyboard is good for one handed operation. Speed dial very convenient. Very likeable phone (if quality was there).
Cons - Quality is not good in this phone. The paint started wearing off before I had the phone a week, just from being in my pocket. The battery life was dismal. With any type of normal use, it would need to be recharged. I thought it was unusual, so I bought a new battery. It was only slightly better. By the way, you have to take it apart to replace the battery. When I did this I noticed that 1 of the 4 screws used to secure the casing was stripped. Before I had it a month, the casing was loosening up and the keyboard would not operate properly. On top of this, the sould quality was not good at all. When I would call Sprint, the automated voices were completely distorted.
Luckily the Ebay store I bought this at had a good return policy. I exchanged it for a Samsung i330.
The Treo 300 is good, but the Treo 600 & 650 are WAY BETTER!
I have used the Treo's 300, 600 and now the 650. Not to mention a T-Mobile Sidekick, the AT&T Motorola MPX, a Nextel Blackberry, a Samsung i600, and Treo's are the absolute gods of cell phones!!! The Palm source OS software is very stable, much more then Microsoft's Pocket PC. The battery life on the Treo 600 & 650 is insane! Often times when I'm home laying in bed, I will search the Internet for hours and hours and these phones will still have more then enough battery power to go for a few more hours. When it comes to talk time I have gotten more then five hours talk time on the Treo 650. There is so many programs for the Palm source software, that you will be able to max out the performance on these phones. I use a program called "Speedy 5.0" which allows me to check the MHz rating of the processor at any given time, and most of the time I am running 310MHz, and can peak at 325MHz which is faster then the 312 MHz listed as the standard. I also use a program called "ZLauncher" which allows me to see the exact signal purity in any given location, and I have found I get signals in places where my LG and Sanyo would not. And because I use Sprint PCS's $10 unlimited Visions access with my Treo 650, I never have to worry about going over any data plan rate. I just purchased my Sprint Treo 650 the other day, and I am so mega happy with it! I will remain a loyal Palmone and Sprint PCS customer for a long time to come!
The only problem I have with PalmOne is over price. I wish the Treo's were cheaper. Other then that, I have never had a major problem with my Treo's.
Treo, great concept but substandard hardware and customer support
I have had my Treo for 10 months and while I think the concept and execution of the concept is incredible, the quality of the product and the support network is the worst I have ever seen.
I have had 3 replacements for my original Treo. Each time the unit malfunctioned and became unusable. This last one lasted 3 months without a major malfunction (a record).
I have had to become very familiar with the reset function on each of my units as all continue to crash.
Each unit had unique problems. One was the display, another mysteriously siezed. One even came without cellphone software. Each time one went back for a new unit, the replacement had more serious, annoying problems than it's predecessor.
The people at Handspring are so hard to deal with that one has to become enraged for them to act. They are nearly impossible. They want to charge you for tech support after 90 days and they constantly ask for a credit card number to provide replacement warranty service.
Don't even bother to send them an e-mail, they take forever to reply!
I love the design and execution and have become reliant on my Treo BUT it is horribly unreliable and Handspring is awful to deal with!
Maybe Palm can help these bunglers out!
Best Smartphone Available
This phone is the bomb-diggity. The longer you have it the better it gets. Start with the bad... as afore-to mentioned battery life is an issue. This baby does a lot, so the trade-off works for me. No bluetooth - I'm a bluetooth fan so I got the adapter. If you simply want a phone, this device is not for you. If you don't enjoy configuring a device to do exactly what you want, this device is not for you. There are tons of free programs to personalize your Treo experience. It is a strong Palm OS platform. The phone has great reception. The voice command option makes the phone side virtually idiot proof! There are numerous headphones available, you just have to look around. My personal favorite is the Jabra Freespeak for Non-BlueTooth Nokia Phones. I paid $150 for my phone (after the $150 rebate from Amazon.com and $200 from Sprint). The price is right. If you are carrying around a palm and a phone it's time to consolodate. If you're a tekkie or a tekkie wanna be or just like cutting edge technology I'd take the plunge... you won't be disappointed.
Great PDA/Phone, but with Sprint, no-go...
Very nice gadget, a few enhancements would make it perfect. However, unless you live and do all of your traveling in areas covered by the Sprint network, you are basically out of luck. This phone isn't capable of working with other networks, so here in Massachusetts there are too many areas with no coverage and so you have no phone. It's a shame.
Pros: Nice color display, the keyboard is a huge plus, the unit performs nicely, not too big.
Cons: The Sprint-only (spotty) service, the lack of a removable battery, the lack of a slot for add-ins.
I'm going to have to switch to another phone with another carrier so that I can get better coverage, and I'm sorry to have to do this.
Treo- I like it...... but it can be a lot better.
For me this is the best integrated phone/PDA available......FOR NOW.... Feb/March 2003 .....and I have come to rely on its features. The unit makes me grateful for what it does .....but still wanting a lot more ...... and I expect there will be a better unit available in the next few months
Still, I love the "integrated" concept and don't think I could go back to carrying two devices
Bottom line is ....the device has made me more productive......mostly due to the PDA abilities. At last, I have all my contacts and critical data with me when I need it for a call.
Its compact and lightweight even though its twice the size of most current cell phones...its smaller and lighter than other phone/PDA devices.
I like the thumb-board very much and have grown pretty efficient with it.
IT CAN BE OPERATED WITH ONE HAND..UNLIKE MOST PPC DEVICES ...I like very much the ability to lookup a contact by only a couple of letters. Dialing from the contact list is very easy and well integrated with the phone .....unfortunately though...... it takes third party software (iDial) to dial a number from any app other than the address book.
Worst feature is the phone software and its unfortunate inability to multi-task with the other apps...it ALWAYS defaults back to the speed dial screen at the end of EVERY call. Not where I want to be usually. And it takes two clicks just to get to the main phone dial screen. Awkward.
HARDWARE MINUS: No expansion. No battery replacement. No Bluetooth. Battery seldom lasts a whole day with lots of cell phone use. Cheapy "Plastic-y" feel.
