palmOne Treo 600 PDA Phone (Verizon Wireless)

Rating:
Summary: Believe the Hype
Review: First of all. The Treo technology is, as the other reviewer commented, a PDA first. It is on a push/pull technology. If you don't log off of the internet (that does not mean ending the internet session by closing the phone or pressing end) then your phone will continue and remain online. You must log off. That is where those $1000 + bills come from. The treo uses a 1x/and broadband technology, which is the among fastest wireless technology in the country. It is faster than your home dial up. Yes you can use the treo just along with your regular plan, but if you got one of the megabyte 1x plans it will be alot faster when browsing the internet. Those plans are 24.95 for 5 mB and 44.95 for unlimited. that is unlimited internet access and downloading etc. I pay more for my home computer internet and I gotta stay in one place with that. I also recommend the Verizon Wireless Treo, because the coverage area is so much greater than any other carrier. Not only does verizon cover more that anyone else, (including Cingular and At&T combined), but they have more towers than any other company. The Treo as a phone has camera speaker phone, stylist and a letterpad. It is smaller than most PDA phones but has a screen that is just as big, if not bigger. The people who I have talked to who also have the phone have hardly had any issues at all with it. It is the highest selling Verizon Wireless PDA phone. There is a reason for that.

Rating:
Summary: Great Phone NOT WITH VERIZON
Review: I purchased this phone about 7 months ago and quickly returned it. I then purchased the same phone thru sprint. I pay 100 dollars a month. this includes 2000 any time minutes, FREE internet, FREE nights and weekends, FREE to and from anyone on the sprint network, FREE messages and more. by the way this is for 3 phones all sharing this plan.

The phone is so good I am planning to upgrade to the treo 650 in the near future.

Rating:
Summary: Actually, for some people Verizon is a great deal
Review: The Verizon sales people won't tell you this -- and indeed I didn't find a sales person who even knew it -- but you don't need to pay for data at all. If you have a national plan (America's Choice or National Access), you get something called NA-MOU (I think that stands for national access-minutes of use), whereby data usage is charged as minutes, and the night and weekend usage comes from all those free minutes.

The catch is that the daytime Internet usage comes from your allotment, and the Treo does not automatically disconnect. If you see arrows, gray or green, over the status bars, you are connected, even if the phone isn't doing anything. This means unless you're fanatical about disconnecting from the data session, after every email check, every Web search, etc., you can easily end up with a $1,000+ bill. (Some programs like Snappermail have an option to disconnect automatically.)

There is a $5 shareware program called Battery Doctor that, among other things, disconnects after a set amount of time. Well worth the $5.
[...]
(There is another program Treo600 Connection manager with similar functionality, but it didn't work for me. It was originally written for the Sprint network, which probably explains why.)

So, this is great if you are like me and don't use the phone for Internet much during the day. I wait until 9 p.m. and then download my email and RSS newsfeeds. I also check sports scores on the weekends.

This is very bad if you want push email or instant messaging.
[...]

Check your minutes with #646 to make sure that the Treo is disconnecting properly.

Bottom line: I have the 400 minute America's Choice plan, no data plan, plus two extra lines for my wife and parents and my bill last month was $120. Caveat: mileage may vary. Apparently this doesn't work for everyone.

And, oh yes, the Treo 600 a wonderful gadget that integrates the PDA and phone halves very well, minus one star for deficiencies like poor camera, too easy for Secure Digital card to pop out accidentally, and no Bluetooth or Wi-fi. (The new 650 fixes most of that, but who knows when Verizon will get it.)

Rating:
Summary: overpriced!
Review: Verizonwireless was the last carrier to release the treo 600...and lo and behold, it IS EXACTLY LIKE ALL THE OTHER CARRIERS TREO 600'S!!! The biggest mystery besides NO bluetooth or Wi-fi. The issues with downloading costs. Is this, no one at verizon knows anything about this phone. Best of all, this phone has no voice dial. In a time when the government is trying to stop the use of cell phones in cars, these guys come out with a phone that is impossible to dial unless you are focusing on it. Of course they have phones for $9.99 that have voice dial, but not this overated Treo. I have just found a 3rd party software company that for $19.95 sells a voice mail download, but you need to hold the phone directly in front of your face and you still are not certain to get the right person. The company is Grover Industries, and they are trying. More than I can or will say for verizon. No Graffiti. Anyone who likes this phone either has a chauffer or uses it to play games or look like a geek. As a business person, this phone is an expensive piece of junk. Again, the worst issue is this, call verizon and ask them if they have ever used, held or seen a Treo up close, and the answer is always NO. Forget this phone. Save your money. And if you are determined to buy it, make sure that you mark the day on your calendar because you have only 15 days in which to return it. Also, pay the extra for insurance. In the first 4 weeks mine was replaced 3 times for different defects. Good Luck.

Rating:
Summary: Great phone - just don't buy it from Verizon!
Review: Well, as an early adapter, I guess I should be used to taking it hard. I bought Verizon's PalmOne Treo 600 the first day it came out - over a year after most other carriers released it. My plan is 400 anytime minutes, unlimited in-network calling, unlimited nights and weekend, and $5 for Internet access a month. Unless I go over, it should cost me $49.95 a month. I just got my first bill.

$1,641.66.

It turns out that the connection to the Internet doesn't shut off - even if you chose "Disconnect" from the web browser's menu. Even if you turn off the unit. It continues to ping the Internet looking for data every six minutes. Hence my bill show some 1023-minute calls.

Steve in Verizon's data division said they've received a lot of calls on this issue and isn't sure why they even offer the $5 web-only feature, when customers need to get the $49.95/month unlimited data transfer or deal with $1,000-plus monthly bills. When I asked if there was a way to stop the pinging every six minutes, I was told no, "it's a data phone first and a cell phone second."

Interesting, as my friends who have the phone with other carriers have never had this problem. Interesting, as I was never told this when I bought it. All I wanted was a freakin' cell/PDA combo, so I don't have to carry both with me, making me look like I'm sporting a chubby in two pockets at once. With Verizon, the cost for doing so is $44.95 plus your calling plan a month, which for me will come to about $100.

After 58 minutes, I was told my bill should be adjusted within 24 to 48 hours.

Also, on Verizon Wireless's PalmOne Treo 600 Smartphone web page it lists a 5 MB transfer for only $24.95. When I asked the technical rep about that option, he said getting it would still cause a Treo 600 owner's bill to be over $1,000 a month. He said it was up there for use with other phones. He had no answer when I said there are no other phones on that page.

Now, I probably could return the Treo 600 - except I already sold my old phone and Palm on eBay.

Of course, if I could just get a free minute for every time I heard "Oh, that's the new phone. I'm not familiar with it" none of this would be an issue.

Buy the phone from a differnt carrier and don't deal with the problems I had with Verizon Wireless. The phone is great!