Palm Opens Orders for New Treo 680

Palm today began taking online orders for its new Treo 680 smart phone, the successor to its popular 650 model that was announced on Oct. 12.

Palm says an unlocked version of the quad-band Treo 680 will be available for $399 as of Dec. 1, both online and from U.S. retailers. The 680 should thus work with almost any carrier's GSM/GPRS/EDGE network. Cingular Wireless is offering a locked version of the phone—one tied to a specific mobile carrier—for $199 and a two-year service agreement.

The unlocked Treo 680 comes in four colors: artic, copper, crimson, and graphite. Locked versions are available only in graphite. For a limited time, the Treo 680 comes with a 30-day free trial to Yahoo's Music Unlimited To Go and Music For Mobile services.

The phone includes a variety of welcome enhancements. The 680 comes with 64 Mbytes of memory, twice that contained in the Treo 650 model that it replaces. It weighs 0.8 ounces less than its predecessor and is 0.1 inches thinner. It features Bluetooth 1.2 support and accepts MultiMediaCard, SD, and SD I/O cards. It also includes voice memo recording, unlike the 650.

Best of all, the 680 is more pocket-friendly than the 650. It has shed the stubby antenna that's often a thorn, albeit a blunt one, in the sides of 650 users.