Treo 650: Widely Anticipated and Almost Here

Details about the new device have been leaking for several months, sothere weren't any huge surprises. That's disappointing to the extentthat PalmOne's decision to include embedded Bluetooth but no Wi-Fisupport is a significant limitation. If you are a real road warriorwho takes advantage of Wi-Fi hotspot services, you'll probably preferthe iPAQ. But most times when I am in range of a Wi-Fi signal, I amtoting my laptop anyway.

For those of you who were hoping that the device's SDIO interface slotwould allow for a Wi-Fi add-on, it doesn't look like that's the case.In a recent review, we were shocked to learn that PalmOne's own SDIOWi-Fi adapter was incompatible with the Treo 600 (reportedly because ofpower limitations and driver issues). We've not yet been able to verifythat the situation is the same with the 650, though the absence of anymention of Wi-Fi in the press release or on PalmOne's Treo 650 productpages would appear to confirm that suspicion.

But enough of the bad news. There's plenty of good to report, includinga faster processor, a much better display, a removable battery, animproved keyboard and the aforementioned Bluetooth support. The Treo650 uses a 312-MHz Intel XScale CPU, which doubles the clock speed of the600, so performance should be improved significantly. The display alsois much improved. Although it isn't any bigger--display real estatehas to be traded off for portability--it sports 320-by-320 resolutioncompared to the 600's 160-by-160. That should make navigating Webpages that aren't optimized for mobile devices a slightly less painfulexperience.

The removable battery offers about the same life as the old one (fiveto six hours of talk time and 12 to 14 days of standby time, depending onradio interface), but the modularity allows you to carry an extrabattery on the road, which could save you in certain situations. Thekeyboard is now backlit, and PalmOne has added dedicated keys forbasic phone functions--a small detail that will significantly improveusability. The integrated Bluetooth support should enable wirelesssynchronization capabilities, cable-free headsets and externalkeyboards while also facilitating the use of the 650 as a wireless WANmodem when you want to connect your notebook on the road. The integrated snapshotcamera, which is decidedly ho-hum, now sports a 2x digital zoomand the promise of better images in low-light conditions.On the software side, the 650 includes an upgraded version of PalmOS,version 5.4. In addition, the packaged e-mail application is nowPalm's VersaMail, which includes support for POP and IMAP (the latter awelcome addition for me) as well as improved support for Exchangeconnectivity. Many of the leading third-party e-mail vendors wasted notime in announcing that their offerings now are supported on the 650.That should make RIM a little nervous. For those looking for someentertainment value, the system also includes an integrated MP3player.

Repeating a market trend with the Treo 600, Sprint will be the firstcellular carrier to offer the 650, probably within the next severalweeks. The device supports the CDMA 1x standard, but it does notsupport the newer, high-speed EV-DO technology offered by Verizon.The news is a little better for GSM users. Although you'll need towait a little longer to get one, probably first through Cingular,the 650 not only supports GPRS but also the faster EDGE data standard.That should result in a notable performance improvement. But given Cingular's currentpricing strategy for this service, sticking with Sprint, whichoffers unlimited data for $15 per month, may be a better decision.

Dave Molta is Network Computing's senior technology editor. Write to him at [email protected]