Treo 650

The palmOne Treo 650 is a combination hybrid PDA/cellphone officially announced on October 24, 2004 as the successor to the company's hugely successful Treo 600. It began shipping in November of 2004, and is widely acknowledged as one of the most advanced smart phones on the market today.

Specifications

• Mobile phone, GSM/GPRS model with 850/900/1800/1900 MHz bands, CDMA model with 800/1900 MHz bands.
• Intel™ PXA270 312 MHz processor
• 23 MB user-available stored non-volatile memory (22 MB multi-lingual)
• Removable rechargeable lithium ion battery
• Palm OS® 5.4
• 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.9 inches (11.3 x 5.9 x 2.3 cm)
• 6.3 oz. (178 grams)
• 16-bit Color 320 x 320 TFT touch-screen display
• Supports SD, SDIO and MultiMediaCards
• Bluetooth functionality.
• 0.3 megapixel (640x480) VGA digital camera with 2x digital zoom and video camera capability

Documented problems

After its official launch, problems regarding the unit's new FAT-based nonvolatile file system cropped up for some users. They report much slower loading times, larger file sizes, and difficulty transferring files from their previous PDA platforms. The main source of the difficulties is that the Treo 650 contains the same amount of memory as the Treo 600, but uses a different file system that causes files to take up more space. The advantage of the new file system is that it is non-volatile, so data is not lost even if the unit runs out of charge.

In response to these issues, palmOne has released a ROM software upgrade (see below), while giving out free 128 MB SD flash cards to Treo 650 users.

Some users are also reporting problems with the unit's microphone. They claim that voice clarity on the recipient's end of the connection is poor, akin to talking "inside a cardboard box." (koreth, Slashdot). Using bluetooth-enabled wireless headsets seem to be an effective work-around, however.

On March 22, 2005, palmOne finally posted a firmware upgrade for Sprint-branded phones that addresses both of the above issues. An upgrade for smartphones from other carriers has not yet been released.

See Also

• NVFS File System
• Treo Smartphone Line

External links

• Official palmOne Treo 650 Homepage
• Everything you ever need to know about the Treo 650
• Review at CNET
• Slashdot article on file system problem
• Slashdot article on file system solution
• Slashdot article on microphone problem
• Freeware and Shareware downloads for the Treo 650
• Treonauts.com is the blog with daily news, views, links and reviews dedicated to your Treo