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PCS Phone Handspring Treo 600 (Sprint)

PCS Phone Handspring Treo 600 (Sprint)

List Price: $669.99
Your Price: $479.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: No service available, buy at own risk!!!!!
Review: WARNING- BUY PALM & HANDSPRING DEVICES WITH SPRINT SERVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!!
We have bought two handspring PDAs and then two Handspring Treo PDA/Phones. We have used their products loyally for over 4 years. Things have changed.
Palm/Handspring has a contract with Sprint. Palm/Handspring makes the phones but will provide NO SUPPORT. You must go to Sprint for help. (Try calling ANY Sprint support number BEFORE buying this product and you will quickly be convinced not to make the purchase. If you can ever reach a human, ask them a simple question such as the repair coverage on the item that you are considering buying. I once wasted 2 weeks trying to get a simple question answered by phone with Sprint. I never succeeded. I did hear HOURS and HOURS of recorded rap music.)
When the phone passes out of warranty SPRINT will refuse any repair or replacement service. They tell you that you must buy a new phone.
I just spent a half hour with a very nice, young, foreign sounding man with Handspring/Palm. Despite every effort to convince them to let me PAY them to fix or replace the phone or to tell me of anyone who could fix the phone they politely refused any help whatsoever. Sprint must provide that, they insisted.
If you check around, you will learn that the cover (the ear-piece of the phone) breaks off on the Treo 300 and Treo 270 on many, many users. Unfortunately these are devices that often require service.
If you buy a Palm/Handspring device with Sprint service and it is one day out of warranty and it breaks, you must buy a new phone/PDA without any of those nice new service incentive rebates.
You lose. Palm & Sprint win. I suggest you take your business elsewhere.

UPDATE- The actual user of the broken phone made one correction to my report above- the phone is actually still under warranty and SPRINT still refuses to fix it. They say the cover breaking off the phone is due to wear and tear and they won't fix it, we need to buy a new phone.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Overall best phone I've owned
Review: My title is a bit deceiving, however. Yes, it is the best OVERALL phone I've owned, and while I gave it 4 stars, it's more like 3.5, but I didn't want to give it a 3, since it would seem that this phone isn't as good as it really is.

Pros: Built-in camera, SD card expansion, Palm OS 5, spacious color LCD, built-in QWERTY keyboard, good reception, good organizational functions (from Palm OS), small size, easy-to-use keypad/keyboard functions

Cons: Low-res LCD, LCD difficult to see in sunlight, lack of Bluetooth/Wi-Fi connectivity, certain Palm apps don't work properly, poor quality camera, ridiculously high price

While the Treo 600 has a TON of great features, screen is so bad that it really took away from the functionality of the phone. With technology where it is today, where almost all Palms and Pocket PCs have a 65,000 color hi-res screen, you would think that at this price (before rebates), they could have slapped on one the Treo. Certain Palm OS apps require a hi-res screen and the low resolution was a hinderance in viewing certain documents and most definitely was a pain when trying to view pictures. While it may not seem like that big of a gripe, one should remember that even regular camera phones that cost half as much sport LCD displays with a good enough resolution to enjoy your pictures. And if the poor screen resolution wasn't enough, it is also difficult to view in direct sunlight.

As for the camera, my complaint is NOT with the resolution of the photos. I knew that the pictures were VGA quality (640x480), which are obviously not intended for printing, and I already own a good digital camera, so I just wanted something to take pictures of on-the-fly to send to my fiance or post on the 'net. However, this camera is a piece of junk in low-light conditions. The pictures come out grainy with a lot of discoloration/artifacts in dimly lit situations. Even indoors, with artificial lighting, many pics come out blurry with a lot of noise. While most CMOS sensor VGA cameras aren't the greatest, this is by far the worst I've seen. The cameras in the Sony Clie TH55, TJ27, Palm Zire 71 and Nokia 3650 all blow away the camera on this phone and they are all CMOS VGA cameras. Again, while I don't expect much from a camera phone, I expected it to be better than this for the price I paid.

Those gripes aside, this phone is perfect for when I'm on the go and need to input contact information, write messages, browse the 'net wirelessly, play Bejeweled! and just generally keep myself occupied and productive.

Don't let my 3.5-star rating fool you--I don't think I'll ever find a phone that is a 5-star item and this is the best phone I've ever owned. It is a great marriage of PDA and phone with a lot of features to please people on the go who don't want to carry around two devices. It is no wonder that most online reviews (CNET and others) say that this is the best hybrid device out there, but I feel that for the premium price I paid, the screen and camera should have been better.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This phone / PDA rocks
Review: I'm at a loss for words. After my Samsung I-300 died Sprint replaced it with the Treo. I thought the I-300 was the ultimate PDA/cell device when I first got it about three years ago. Boy was I wrong. This thing just rocks.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Jack of all trades, master of none.
Review: Overall I am pleased with my Treo. The combination of features is very convenient. I like the fact that I can talk on the phone and look up a number from my contacts list, call a second person with the press of a button, and schedule a meeting on my calendar, all in the same conversation with one device.
It falls short on the camera function, however. I have found little use for the photos because they are of such poor quality. They are dark and grainy.
I also find the sound quality from the earpiece provided with the phone is poor.
The overall convenience more than makes up for the few shortcomings.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Novice really likes it
Review: I had not used a cell phone much before I purchased this. It is quickly learned and logically made. The internet use is incredible. I cannot imagine this phone being improved soon. The price on amazon.com is amazing. I could not be more satisfied with this product.

Bruce Hines

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It's great as long as you get some accessories
Review: This is my 4th palm OS PDA and 5th cell phone, and I'm very impressed so far. I definitely recommend getting a cover that has plastic over the keyboard. It provides friction necessary for thumbnail typing. Using your nails is necessary for visibility because the keys are spaced so closely that a thumb covers NINE keys at once. But it's still significantly faster for me than graffitti. Also get the combination power cord/USB synch cable. This is a beautiful, small design that gives hou everything you need for your phone as long as you have your laptop with you. No problems so far, but it's only been a few days...

To the reviewer who thinks there is no number lock, just hit the option key twice.

Yes, the camera is silly. Also, the phone is hard to locate on your ear, thanks to a bulge rather than the standard recess. The good speakerphone mostly makes up for that. I would much prefer a flip phone style for ergonomics and durability, but the Krussel flip case I have makes up for at least the durability part of that. After using a Clie and a tungsten with hi-resolution screens, it's painful to go back to low-res, but not as much as I was afraid of. The screen is nice and bright.

My cell phone reception is as good as any of the phones I have used, and when it's in range, it sounds great. The phone has a nice, solid feel to it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: They Keep Geting Better and Better - Treo 600 Sprint
Review: The best PDA - Phone combo yet. They keep getting better and better (this is my third one and I've had numerous Palms too). There are of course some drawbacks but it's a do it all machine and you have to pay the price that goes with that. The phone part is improved but dual band would be an even better improvement. The PDA is excellent if you like palm softwear and I do. I do have a couple of gripes! Why can't the industry get together on some standards??? It's so stupid to have to keep buying new chargers, car chargers, cradles, headphones and car kits every time a new phone comes out. The 300 cradle doesn't even work with the 600 ( well one of mine does to a degree but used too much force with the pliars on #2 - it broke). I also agree with some of the camera resolution complaints. Poor quality just makes it a toy. It will take hundreds of pictures in memory but who wants to save them due to the poor quality?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I can't live without my Treo!
Review: I have used a PalmV, a Palm Vx, and then a Clie NR70, and the Treo is easier to use than all of them as a PDA... plus, it's a great phone.... plus it's an mp3 player...plus you can take pictures and short videos with it (yes video with free online software)...plus you can easily surf the net and get your email...plus you can send email and SMS messages...plus you can listen to Audible books on it...All that adds up to the greatest convergence device I have ever seen!! And a great community of Treo users online at treocentral.com to help if ever something doesn't work right!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Everything you need in one device.
Review: As stated many times before, the Treo's keyboard is really too small, causing you to constantly correct your text. True, in most instances you do not need to use the keyboard and can opt to use the touch screen or the handy predefined function buttons to navigate, but it is greatly annoying to constantly be forced to use the backspace button.

Many of the previously mentioned limitations can otherwise be dealt with, through upgrading and adding additional software. Such as the camera's resolution can be increased to a fairly acceptable format (default compression by Treo is 65%), although the storage size each picture requires will increase as well. This is not a dramatic issue, since the device seems to have 24MB of space available and the SD memory card slot is upgradable to an additional 512MB.

The battery life is quite impressive and easily recharges witin a couple hours.

I have measured the internet connection to operate at 128k/sec according to repeated tests on bandwidth.com. It is fast enough to stream audio from sites such as shoutcast.com. The browser display will allow you to view Web pages either optimized (fitted to the screen width) or in wide screen mode, which utilizes the 4-directional navigation button and displays the web page in a "mosaics" format. This is a great option for those sites that just get too conveluted in the "squished" resolution.

Overall: this is a great device -- flexible and generally very user friendly and intuitive. Since it is running on Palm OS 5, there is plenty of professionally designed software and support out there. This device is e-mail client, web brower, phone, an mp3 player, a camera and offers your standard PDA functions. What more can you possibly need?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 4 out of 5
Review: I bought this smartphone because I wanted a newer phone and I also wanted a new palm pilot. I read reviews about the Treo 600 last summer and bought it in November.
I'm thrilled about this phone. Its the answer to all of my handheld needs. The reception is better than my older phone, the size and volume is good, its fast, easy to use, and has some great features. The camera and screen resolution could use an upgrade but other than that what's not there can be added by installing various software and there's plenty available for its Palm OS. However let me share with you the most annoying problem... the obvious issue of an exposed keypad. The keyguard feature with the Treo 600 was in fact not a "true" keyguard, in that 3 keys besides the center button would either silence and\or answer the phone erroneously. If I had the phone in my purse or pocket and one of those buttons were pressed when a call came in you'd never hear the phone ring because it had been silenced and answered by the depressed keys.

THIS IS A DESIGN FLAW.
1. if a call comes in and a button is somehow already depressed it shouldnt answer.. that should require a "change in state"
2. the Treo 600 keyguard is supposed to do just that... guard the keys from inadvertent key presses

This happened OFTEN and led to several embarrassing situations. To make matters worse I contacted Sprint on 3 separate occasions but their support seemed to know next to nothing about the phone. I then contacted Handspring and was told that this wasnt a design flaw but rather was "intended". FUNNY... I'd combed through the manual and it's very clear on the keyguard function. It states ALL keys except the center key are locked. There is no mention of those 3 keys (space, backspace and return) being active when keyguard is turned on. I was frustrated and on the verge of returning my Treo to Sprint. After getting blown off by the manufacturer I turned to the internet and user forums. I found that many more Treo users were having the same problem. Finally 3rd party vendors caught on and created a "fix" which I was happy to purchase. This is a fairly expensive phone. My problem is that Handspring or Sprint should have issued an official patch to owners as this IS a design flaw. I'm not thrilled with the marginal\poor support and owners should not have to comb the internet seeking support or high demand accessories for that matter.
If you dont mind paying a bucks for patch to fix the keyguard issue, are somewhat savvy in using the internet to seek out accessories or information, and are looking for a great smartphone this is the one for you.


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