Next generation Treo ‘Ace’ rumours appear 100% true!

Posted on June 26th, 2004 by Chris Nolan

Treo Ace rumours appear 100% true!

This week the Treo 600 community has been excited by rumours of the next generation Treo smartphone being brought to market. What appears to be a photograph of an internal palmOne presentation slide have been leaked on the internet. TreoCentral published the photographs as part of a front page story by Michael Ducker that contained detailed specifications. Shortly thereafter the story was removed, presumably at the request of palmOne.

The Treo community is now buzzing feverishly and it seems increasingly likely that the Treo ‘Ace’ rumours are true! The device specifications, although still officially unconfirmed, are in-line with earlier leaked reports from palmOne insiders.

New features:

Screen: Transreflective 16 bit 320×320 - Slightly smaller than the screen in existing the Treo 600s. But greatly improved readability with higher resolution, contrast and dot pitch. With 4 times as many pixels on this new screen, surfing the web and reading documents will require less horizontal scrolling. It also means better image display capabilities for camera, mapping, and gaming programs.
Built in Bluetooth: For headsets, wireless syncing, and the ability for the Treo to act as a modem.
Smaller form factor: The dimensions themselves are not expected to be very different from the existing model, perhaps a couple of millimeters thinner and shorter. The Ace may be slightly rounder in shape than the 600. Current cases may not fit although cables and chargers are expected to continue to work.
Curved Keyboard: The keyboard has been curved into a upwards crescent shape but has more or less similar travel and key spacing as current Treos. Curving the keyboard up allows for the device to be smaller. Lastly, the menu key at the bottom right corner of a Treo 600 has been replaced by a second shift key.
Soft Buttons: Two “soft” buttons are above the four hard keys. These buttons are physical ones on the shell as opposed to digital images on the screen. They are expected to be context sensitive, akin to a modern cell phones. For example, one button will be speakerphone while in phone mode.
Send/End Buttons: The leftmost hard key will double as a green send button, where the rightmost hard key will act as a red end button.
1.3 MP Camera with digital zoom and built in video capture capability.
312 Mhz processor
32 MB RAM
Palm OS 5.4 “Garnet”
SDIO/MMC slot: This slot is not expected to support wi fi.
New browser that can display frames and upload files, and with an integrated download manager.
New Home Screen - The old home screen has been replaced by a “Today” Screen similar to a Pocket PC’s main screen.

The CEO of PalmOne indicated on the most recent conference call that new smartphones would be introduced during the Fall of 2004.