Treo 650 replacement?

March 9, 2007 1:39 PM

I'm looking at replacing my treo 650. Is there an alternative that still has the same level of task/contact management on both the mobile as well as the desktop?

I've been using a Palm for quite some time and upgraded to a Treo650 a year ago. The experience as a whole has been great although the phone itself has been less than reliable (I'm on my 3rd replacement!). I'm contemplating jumping ship to another PDA / smartphone but don't want to lose the functionality I have with the Agendus desktop component. I don't use Outlook although I can if necessary and I do use the email rather heavily (IMAP).

I've seen the other smartphone thread but that posters needs seem to be quite different from mine. I would welcome any suggestions for an alternative that will still give me the same functionality as I have now without forcing me to be mobile-only and make do without a decent desktop component. The organizer and email aspects are the most important to me.

posted by Umhlangan to technology (13 comments total)

I switch from a Treo600 to a Cingular 8525 (HTC Wizard), and what I've found so far is that it's a far better phone and a slightly worse PDA, but far more stable on the whole.

Windows Mobile 5 is decent enough. The biggest problem I've had is running too many apps at once and running out of memory.

I tend to destroy things that go into my pockets, so a hard case is important. Still haven't found anything as good as InnoPocket cases.
posted by plinth at 2:05 PM on March 9, 2007

Just a slight aside - I'm on to my fourth Treo 650 (each time replaced by Palm for the myriad issues they originally shipped with) - I was ready to throw it against the wall and never use a Palm product again.

When you get one that actually works, however, it's worth hanging on to - it's really quite a satisfying unit.

I would suggest that if you're still having difficulties or experiencing any sort of bug - send it back and get another (you're almost there).
posted by strawberryviagra at 2:22 PM on March 9, 2007

I switched from a Treo 650 to a Nokia E61 (E62 in the US). It doesn't have a camera, and it's great as a phone (which my Treo wasn't good at - I had a GSM one on Orange in the UK and it frequently crashed when I tried to answer a call), but:

- diary management is crap on the E61. I can't create all-day events that don't happen from midnight to midnight
- I miss having a camera, even a really bad one
- the web browser is really good
- No threaded SMS. Not even a threaded SMS third party app. I never realised how much I'd miss threaded SMS, and now I hardly use SMS. It's amazing how much it matters.

I'd dearly love Palm to release a 3G Palm OS device, but it looks like that won't happen. I'm coming to a sad and inevitable realisation that I cannot cancel and must allow.
posted by danhon at 2:37 PM on March 9, 2007

I hope this isn't construed as an unhelpful answer, but I feel the need to warn you: I recommend that you do NOT get a Treo 680. I've returned mine twice in the past month, and the only reason I'm trying to stick it out is because I've had a rough time finding a PDA phone that plays nicely with the mac platform. (There are others who haven't had any issues with the 680, but in looking online for solutions to my issues, I discovered a passel of disgruntled 680 owners who complain of the same problems.)

If you use a PC, the Nokia E62 is pretty awesome, and I'd get one if I could. (And I've heard good things about the HTC Wizard, too.)
posted by veronica sawyer at 2:48 PM on March 9, 2007

Hold tight for a while longer and go for an iPhone?
posted by browse at 3:07 PM on March 9, 2007

I really like my Pearl. It's easily the equal of a Treo 650. It works great for mail --- my provider (Rogers) allows up to 5 pop accounts on the device.
posted by bonehead at 3:13 PM on March 9, 2007

I was just about to come reccomend the Palm 680. I've had some SIM card trouble with the phone not staying connected to the network, but that's a Cingular problem, not a Palm one. Otherwise, I totally love the thing.
posted by youcancallmeal at 4:26 PM on March 9, 2007

I have heard good things about the Motorola Q, although Treo-converts sometimes say that adjusting to life sans a touchscreen drives them batty.

I have also heard some newer Qs are coming out, so it might be worth waiting.
posted by 4ster at 7:35 PM on March 9, 2007

I love my 650 but am also foaming at the mouth for an iPhone (the marketing worked). It seems just as robust on the PDA side as the 650 but with many obvious other goodies. Of course, you'd lose the ability to add nearly endless apps.
posted by moonbird at 7:34 AM on March 10, 2007

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm also wary of the Treo 680 but that is based on a small sample of friends who are having problems with them.
My biggest concern about the WM platform is that I won't have a desktop to work on - I don't us Outlook. This is the beauty of the Agendus Palm desktop for me. I'm certain there is an alternative but I haven't found it yet.
What are all the Mac and Linux folks doing for desktops with non-palm PDA's?
posted by Umhlangan at 9:31 AM on March 10, 2007

I've been a hardcore Palm user since the Palm Personal came out (Personal->Pro->III->IIIcx->Vx->TT->T3->680). I bypassed all previous versions of the Treo since they seemed pretty buggy, plus they sacrificed little things like Voice Memo functionality. Kept my separate phone, with a 100% functional Palm. I LOVED my Tungsten T3 above all...perfect Palm.

Then I heard about the release of the 680, and after waiting a couple of weeks to read the reviews, which basically said it was a "650 done right, but without the stubby antenna", I got one. It has knocked my socks off. Yes, I had to get the first one replaced after a month when the headphone jack stopped working, but no problems with the second one. And for a while I was madly trying out every piece of Treo software out there, and had my 680 very unstable as a result. When I got the replacement, instead of just installing from backup I manually reloaded the desired apps, and it's been steady as a rock. Opera Mini browser (and the java to support it) was left off...I think it was one of the main reasons for my prior instability.

The battery life sucked for the first 2 months, but Palm released a patch to fix that mid-January. Before, I was down to 10 or 15% battery by the end of a heavy day. Now, I charge ever 2nd or 3rd day depending on use.

My very favorite feature of the 680 is that it supports the new SDHC standard. So for about $80, I have 8 gigs of storage in my phone. 7 gigs of music, 1 gig of docs/files. And with a $10 app called CardReader, all of this is easily accessible to my laptop via my synch cable, no different than a thumb drive.

When I got the 680, I didn't initially get a data plan. I just didn't see the attraction of email/web on the little screen. One month in, I decided to try Cingular's $20/month plan, and now I get it. I travel for my job, usually weekly. In the past, I'd get into the hotel at night and unpack my laptop immediately. Since getting the 680, I only bother unpacking the laptop about one night a week. It's just sooooo easy to kick back on the couch/bed w/ the 680 and catch up on RSS blog feeds, news, and email.

I now very much understand the love people have for their 650's, 680's, etc. And even though I'm a heavy Microsoft user due to the corporate IT world I live in, I'd never consider a WM device. Too many great apps out there for Palm.

(btw, nothing personal, but Agendus didn't impress me. I'm a committed GTD user, checking my Palm Tasks/Calendar several times an hour. I did a trial of Agendus, and it took about 8 seconds for it to load on my 680 every time I needed to peek at my next Action Item. Very frustrating, since Agendus looked sexy. I perused their support forums, and people were talking about doing data purges to clear old Tasks/Calendar items, etc., to make the Agendus performance adequate. Screw that. Those databases aren't that huge, and if the Agendus folks can't figure out how to access them efficiently, I'm not bothering to use their app. The native Palm apps work just fine, and very quickly.)
posted by Bradley at 9:16 AM on March 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

Oh, and with 16gb SDHC cards right around the corner (and 32 gigs forecast by the end of the year, I think I read), I have no idea why Apple is bothering to bring a 6- or 8-gig non-expandable iPhone to market in June. I'll happily upgrade my 680's storage as soon as each new bigger card gets below $100 or so. With mp3 playback costing me only about 5% of battery life per hour on the 680, it won't be long before I can leave my stuffed 40gb iRiver mp3 player at home.
posted by Bradley at 9:23 AM on March 11, 2007

Meh. The iphone always comes up in every discussion about new phones, but people will be very disappointed with the lack of third-party apps and removable storage.

The E-series Nokias are supposed to be good, but honestly, if you're used to the palm OS, just stick with that, via the 680 or something. It's probably not worth your time to re-learn a new OS.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 12:15 PM on March 12, 2007