The first thing you notice about the Treo 600 is how much more like a phone it looks and feels. The Treo 300 looks and feels more like a PDA (which I don’t mind), but there was evidently an effort made to make the 600 more like a phone. There is no more “flip lid” to worry about. Rumor is that many folks had the lid break off of the Treo 300 so Handspring eliminated it. Gone also is the jog wheel. It is replaced by a 5 way toggle button located on the face of the device. The toggle controls the screen prompts and cursor in all 4 directions while pushing the center of the toggle activates a function the same as tapping the screen. This control makes the Treo 600 simple to use with one hand, just like a phone.
The Treo 600 uses Palm OS 5 and has 32mb of memory. There is also a SD I/O slot which allows you to expand the device’s memory. Another added feature is a built-in 640 x 480 digital camera. The resolution is minimal, but I found the ability to snap a quick photo of something and then immediately e-mail it directly from the Treo 600 to be easy and addictive. There are often times I’d like to have a camera available for a quick shot of something and this proved to be just the ticket.
The screen size is 160 x 160 and a bit easier to read in bright sunlight than the Treo 300 (although there is not a tremendous difference).
The keyboard is a bit smaller than the Treo 300 which is a function of the fact that the overall size of the device is smaller than the 300. This smaller keyboard took a bit of getting used to, but once you become accustomed to it, the feel is good and it is easy to use. The buttons have been redesigned and have a better “feel”.
The phone is Sprint PCS Vision enabled and comes with Handspring’s Blazer Browser version 3.0. This new version of Blazer is Java compliant (something I’ve wanted for a long time) so almost all websites can be accessed without a problem.
The phone quality is good and the integration of the Palm address book is just as good as it is in the Treo 300.
I only have two complaints worth mentioning about the device. One is that there is still not a removable battery. It would be nice to be able to carry a spare battery or two even though the battery life is better than in the previous version. The other is the jack for the headphone which is located on the bottom of the device. With the camera and SD slot located at the top of the Treo 600, the designers probably didn’t have many choices on where to put it, but placing it at the bottom makes using it a bit awkward.
Overall, I rate the Treo 600 as a great device and worth the investment. It’s definitely a step in the right direction of convergence of devices.
