Follow-up questions to Treo 680 review on mytreo.net

[RayT]

The memory problem in the 650 is pretty terrible. Most users found a way around it with a large capacity SD card but I have found that some programmes I like don't run well off the card. Over the last couple of years, I've had 3 or 4 replacements, the reliability of the 650 has been pretty terrible. Mine, which is only about a year old after the last replacement, has a sticky keyboard, a corroded charger connector which never cleans up properly to connect easily to the cable, it gives a memory error every day when I try to use TomTom which means a soft rest at least one or twice a day and finally TomTom has stopped working altogether.

I can't see that the 680 could be any worse, and hopefully design experience means a more reliable product, but the memory will be the biggest improvement. And it gets rid of that STOOPID antenna.

Ray

[shmoo27]

Some additional observations:

1) Button Mapping Issue with Agendus
I installed Agendus Premier v11 (which I use on my Treo 700p) and it seemed to think the Phone button was mapped to the Calendar application. Ignoring that, I mapped Agendus to the Calendar button. But I discovered that now the Phone button really was mapped to the Calendar program and so was the Calendar button. I went into the Prefs to modify the buttons and again assigned Agendus to the Calendar button. But it also said the Phone button was mapped to the Phone app and I'm not allowed to change it.

This was also an issue with Datebk5/Datebk6 at one point on the 600/650.  The author or DateBk6 (CESD) created a little application to reset the phone button to the correct value.  You might want to check out his site (http://www.pimlicosoftware.com) to see if you can find it.  I think it's called "ResetPhoneButton.prc", or something intelligent like that.

Of course, I also recommend getting rid of Agendus and just using DateBk6, but that's a topic for a different thread.

[cmazalu]

John _ I have a question: I currently own a Treo 650 CDMA (Sprint) and I ordered today a Treo 680 for my international travel (upgrading from an old Nokia 6310i phone). Will the Treo 680 work with the Palm soft the I am already using on my computer with Treo 650 ? I will be able to synchronize both phones using the old Palm software or the new one that comes with 680? I would like to be able to synch both phones as I am using the info stored in my MS Outlook both in the US (with the Treo 650 CDMA) and internationally (with the new Treo 680). Do you think it would work ?? Thx !!

[vosgerrit]

John, How is the camara quality in comparison with the 650.In th hardware review you do not mention anything about the camara and in the specs, the picksels are not mentioned as well.

Thanks,Gerrit

[Antoine of MMM]

I am a treo 600 user and I am looking forward to change it. In Amazon right now the treo 650 it is on 415 US (unlocked) and in palm store it is 399. My doubts are:

1. How it is the phone reception in treo 680...better or worse (even with hidden antenna?) than 650? because in 600 model it is bad inside buildings or some city areas. I will appreciate if you could get further into this topic in your review.

2.- In your review you suggest that differences between both (650 vs 680) are minimal but for people that are comming from other brands it must be better to buy the 680 rathen than the 650. Is that correct? Even for a treo 600 user you will recommend 680 over 650?

Thanks anyone for your contributions!!

The reception and ability to hold a signal is much better than the 650 in my testing. Its quite nice to have CIngular's ad not feel like its lying when traveling backroads and the signal doesnt drop but in the lowest of valleys.

The 680 is a replacement for the 650. Its a better device in everything except battery life. I would recommend it to anyone looking at Treos and coming from another phone that is not a high-end smartphone.

[Antoine of MMM]

John _ I have a question: I currently own a Treo 650 CDMA (Sprint) and I ordered today a Treo 680 for my international travel (upgrading from an old Nokia 6310i phone). Will the Treo 680 work with the Palm soft the I am already using on my computer with Treo 650 ? I will be able to synchronize both phones using the old Palm software or the new one that comes with 680? I would like to be able to synch both phones as I am using the info stored in my MS Outlook both in the US (with the Treo 650 CDMA) and internationally (with the new Treo 680). Do you think it would work ?? Thx !!

You can use most of the same software, however I would not recommend using the same user name for both devices. There are device specific files that are backed up at each sync and because they are different ever so slightly, you might end up with a software conflict with one or both that would render at least one of them useless.

That being said, I am syncing both a Cingular 650 and my review until 680 to Outlook, and having no issues with that aspect of syncing (still two separate user names for the devices). I also am using Pocket Mirrior Professonal XT and have not had any issues, except with my inital sync where everything was synced to my root directory in OL for my contacts.

[JAndrews]

Thanks for the review!

I have 2 different cradles for my 650 (one Seidio and one Palm), plus a proclips car mount.

Any idea if the 680 will work with these, and how well? If I had to replace these, it would add about $100 to the cost.

Thanks!

I have two different sync/charge cradles:

Seidio INNOdock - Works fine, but the connection is a bit tight compared to my 650. However, I have the same issue with my 700p. Also, I haven't tested to see if the 680 has the same problem as the 700p with this cradle and can't play audio out the audio port on the cradle.

Seidio USB Crade (http://mytreo.net/store/product.php?xProd=297&xSec=114) works, but since the back side of the 680 is shaped differently it doesn't fit in as easily as the 650 does.

But the more form-fitting a cradle or dock is, the less likely I think it is to work well with the 680. I certainly wouldn't assume that all 650 cradles will work with the 680.

[justageek]

John

Great to read such an in depth review.  I'd kinda made my mind up to buy one before the review and what you said hasn't put me off.

One question RE testing, I use an SD Margi Card to give presentations sometimes, will the card still work, even if it's plugged in the side?

You gotta have a card to test of course!

[Alli]

You can use most of the same software, however I would not recommend using the same user name for both devices. There are device specific files that are backed up at each sync and because they are different ever so slightly, you might end up with a software conflict with one or both that would render at least one of them useless.

Definitely don't use the same device name if you're planning on keeping and using both devices. However, if you're upgrading (which is what most average people would be doing), you will definitely want to keep the same hotsync name so that you can keep all the apps you have registered without a) contacting all the companies to change your registration keys, or b) buying all new registrations.  (The apps are registered to your hotsync name, not the device.)

[JAndrews]

John

Great to read such an in depth review. I'd kinda made my mind up to buy one before the review and what you said hasn't put me off.

One question RE testing, I use an SD Margi Card to give presentations sometimes, will the card still work, even if it's plugged in the side?

You gotta have a card to test of course!

Unfortunately, I don't have one of those cards!

But since the side of the  680 is angled and the edge of the slot is indented a bit, any SDIO card that overlaps the edges of the card slot could have a problem fitting into the slot because you won't be able to push them in far enough for the to lock into the slot.

You might want to take the card to a Cingular store that has the 680 on display and try it out before buying the 680 just to confirm.

[JAndrews]

John, How is the camara quality in comparison with the 650.In th hardware review you do not mention anything about the camara and in the specs, the picksels are not mentioned as well.

Thanks,Gerrit

All of the specs (including lack of references to EDGE support for the 650) came directly form Palm's marketing material, so where numbers wheren't mentioned it was because they weren't provided by Palm.

That said, the VGA quality 680 camera appears to be (as expected) 640x480 resolution since that's the max reslution that appears when using the camera.

With the actual difference in picture quality between the 650 and 680, it's hard to say. My personal opinion about the Treo cameras (650, 680 and 700p) is that while they are all better than nothing, asking how about the "quality" of these cameras is like asking how "good" different turds smell.  ...they all kind of stink (the cameras I mean).

But since you asked, I decided to hold the 650 and 680 side-by-side with the camera application open and the picture on the 680 definitely looks "yellower" in lower-light conditions, at least when viewed on the Treo's screen. I was a bit surprised, but I actually think that the clarity and colors on Treo 650 camera looked slightly better than the 680, but I didn't hotsynch the pictures to my PC to see if this is actually a difference with the camera or a difference with the screens on the different Treo's.

[fireworksfx]

What about transferring software and info from a 650 to a new 680?  I would like to start with as clean an install as I can so how would I do this?  I assume that a normal Hot Sync will transfer everything?

Fred

[Alli]

What about transferring software and info from a 650 to a new 680?  I would like to start with as clean an install as I can so how would I do this?  I assume that a normal Hot Sync will transfer everything?

Fred

http://mytreo.net/forum/index.php/topic,42409.0.html

[JAndrews]

The review says: All three Treos in fact are using the exact same processor, the Intel PXA270. XScale is Intel's name for this processor line, which was inherited from DEC's StrongARM series when Intel acquired that part of DEC's operations back in the late 1990s. (Intel recently sold the XScale business to Marvell.)

The review also says:As best as I can tell, Bluetooth 1.2 does not play a role in how many devices can be talked to at a time. 1.2 enhances the range and immunity to interference. Even Bluetooth 1.0 devices can talk to up to 7 at a time in theory, so any limitation here would be in the Palm software. It would appear that Palm is still not supporting the A2DP profile which would allow the use of Bluetooth for playing audio.

Lastly, I find the varying wording about the camera confusing - is the 680's camera indeed identical to that of the 650?

Steve

All specs in the table were pulled directly from Palm's site or collateral, so I was just referring to the processors using their terminology. This included the lack of reference to EDGE for the 650 though others have pointed out that the 650 does support EDGE. As far as your statement that all 3 processores are really the same even though the one in the 700p has a different name, that's interesting and I'm not sure why Palm would describe them differently if that was the case. I'm not saying you are wrong and you may very well be right, but it's just strange that they would do that. Additionally, I've had some Palm developers tell me that they had to update their programs to work with the 700p due to diferrences with the processor (not just the device, but specifically the processor).


Regarding BT 1.2 and multi-device support, you may be correct that this isn't necessarily a BT 1.2 featue as much as a feature of Palm's BT 1.2 implementation. Regardess, being able to use multiple devices at the same time is functionality that should be available in the 680 and is not available in the 650. I still need to confirm that it really is available in the 680, but I'll be surprisd if it is not.

As far as the camera is concerned, the max reslution available in the Camera aplication is 640x480 which is the definition of VGA resolution. But again, the info in the table was pulled from Palm's site and collateral and under the short timeframe I didn't want to make assumptions that I hadn't had a chance to validate firsthand while writing the review.

[Jimbrady]

Just curious, while we're waiting - has anybody tried Earthcomber on this yet? Especially the over-the-air map downloads? Be interested to hear how it runs and does map displays, combing of favorites....

Thanks... Jim