DailyTech - Palm Treo 700w now available

Submit News

Gadgets Palm Treo 700w now available
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - January 5, 2006 1:15 AM

6 comment(s) - last by bearxor.. on Jan 6 at 7:15 PM

Palm's first Windows Mobile-based Treo is now currently available to customers of Verizon Wireless

The Palm Treo 700w, Palm's first Windows Mobile-based Treo is now on sale. The phone is currently only available for customers of the Verizon Wireless phone service. The Treo700w utilizes the Windows Mobile 5 operating system and has a 1.3-megapixel camera and 128mb internal memory and built-in bluetooth. People interested in the device will have to spend a whopping $500 after rebates.

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

confrim

By sprockkets on 1/6/2006 10:39:14 AM , Rating: 1

Does this really have 128MB, because on the device itself it has 64MB for space and only 24 for the rest.

RE: confrim

By bearxor on 1/6/2006 11:21:30 AM , Rating: 3

I don't know how much you know about WM devices, or how much you know about how WM5 handles RAM, so I'll try to explain this.

The Treo 700w has 128MB ROM and 32MB RAM.

The ROM is what holds the OS and what you install programs to, and the RAM is what programs run in (WM5 speaking anyways).

Out of the box, only 60MB of ROM is available to install programs to and only 6MB of RAM is available to run programs in.

This is not a lot. While the 128MB of ROM is fine, phone device really need at least 64MB of RAM to run decently.

I think Palm is of the mindset that you won't be installing a lot of apps and just use the phone as-is, which to their credit, is probably true.

I have used a Toshiba 2032 and a Hitachi G1000 previously, and they were both equipped with 32MB of RAM. These ran WM2002, so understand that the 32MB of RAM was split between program memory and storage memory. I only had 32MB of RAM in which to install programs and use them. It was very hard and very limiting. I am now using a PPC-6600 with 128MB of RAM and WM2003. Same deal, the 128MB of RAM is program and storage memory.

I was interested in this phone, as I love the form factor but several things are going to make this a no go for me:
-Limited RAM
-240x240 resolution (I mean, WTF, the 650 has 320x320)
-No WiFi
-No WM5 phone app (the WM5 phone app is awesome, and Palm ripped it to replace it with their own phone app)

It's a step in the right direction I think, but not a big enough one. Palm has some cool custimizations for WM5, but these could all be done on other phones.

I think the bottom line is, if you are a PPC Phone user, you might like the Treo 700w, if you're coming from a Treo 650, you're probably best to wait on the Treo 700p.

Parent

RE: confrim

By Lord 666 on 1/6/2006 12:37:23 PM , Rating: 3

Right on, totally agreed. I have a Treo 650 from VZW and was drooling thinking about getting the new 700W. Had the credit card handy to pay the 619, but the 240*240 mini screen killed the deal. Just the fact of EVDO for bluejacking and I can check email and be on a call at the same time are huge.

But seriously, WTF Palm???!!! Go backwards? Are they just trying to have the larger screen on the 700P?

Parent

RE: confrim

By retrospooty on 1/6/2006 2:58:07 PM , Rating: 2

I have seen one. The screen is fine. At this size you really cant see much of a difference with the Treo 650.

This is mainly a corp contract unit anyhow designed to sell in high volumes to corp users, not primarily for consumers.

Parent

RE: confrim

By bearxor on 1/6/2006 7:15:48 PM , Rating: 2

True, the difference between 320x320 and 240x240 isn't as drastic as the Treo 600's 160x160 resolution. However, as a long-time WM phone user, I can not fathom using a PPC phone with a resolution lower than 240x320.

The 6600 I have does landscape mode, which changes the resolution to 320x240, but at that point it is just too short to use.

Also, one of the downfalls of the square 240x240 screen is my movies. I have them all nice and encoded in widscreen to fit the 320x240 resolution, so I would need to reencode all my movies for pan and scan.

Likely, long time palm users won't care, especially Treo users, since they're used to the square screen. I just can't wrap my head around it.

Here's hoping that WM5 update comes out for the i730 in due time.

Parent

RE: confrim

By bearxor on 1/6/2006 7:07:23 PM , Rating: 2

You can't check email and be on the phone at the same time. Simultaneous internet access/voice service requires EVDV, which likely won't be deployed by a cellular carrier in the US at all.

Parent