Palm Treo Pro Phone
Posted by admin | Posted in Smartphones | Posted on 04-09-2010
5
- Sreamlined smartphone with QWERTY keyboard and Windows Mobile 6.1 for access to push email, Office documents, and corporate security features
- Sprint Mobile Broadband Network via EV-DO connectivity; Sprint TV and Sprint Music Store enabled; GPS turn-by-turn directions via Sprint Navigation
- 2-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth stereo music; MicroSD expansion (to 8 GB); digital audio/video player
- Up to 5 hours of talk time, up to 250 hours (10+ days) of standby time
- What’s in the Box: handset, battery, charger, USB cable, getting started guide
Amazon.com Product Description
A great choice for business road warriors who want to stay on top of both their professional and personal lives, the Palm Treo Pro for Sprint features a new, streamlined design, Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system, and the blazingly fast speeds of Sprint’s EV-DO Rev. A Mobile Broadband Network. You’ll also be able to access open personal, corporate and hotspot wireless networks with the integrated Wi-Fi connectivity (802.11b/g).
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I originally went to the Sprint authorized reseller hoping to pick-up a Palm Pre. I am a Sprint customer with an employee discount, so I thought of upgrading to a Pre is a good idea. But one of the employee at the store said that Treo Pro can save you more money in the long run since it doesn’t need the Everything plans. I took his suggestion and got the Palm Treo Pro on June 14, 2009. I keep my old plan and added a data plan on to my account.
— The First Phone —
But when I started using the Treo Pro for the first 8 hours, I notice the phone restarts quite often by itself (At least 3 times in an hour). The phone would restart while running an application or when the phone is idle. I thought it was just because it was running Windows; since my old Windows 98 computer frequently crashes. But the restarts got so bad, that the phone is barely usable. I tried taking the phone back to the store to exchange it, but that same guy who sold me the phone first wanted to see the phone restart for himself. I was in the store for 20 minutes and the phone won’t restate unintentionally!
I ended up taking the phone back home tried to film it restarting to use it as proof. Interestingly the phone performs normally when it is under the camera lens’. So I don’t have any evidence to so to them that the phone restarts like crazy. Then I decided to call Sprint tech support and the first thing they suggested is to return the phone; since the phone is less than 8 hours old. But I asked if they could help me reset my phone, which they did gladly. Though the reset didn’t fix the problem, their tech support was great.
The following day right when the store opened, I tried to exchange phone. This time I was talking to the manager. She quickly exchanged my phone without any problems.
— The Second Phone —
——The Bad
Now I have a working Palm Treo Pro that hardly restarts! Though there are some cons to this phone.
- One of the most annoying cons is missing about 1/5 of incoming phone calls for no apparent reason. My Dad would try calling me and my phone doesn’t ring / vibrate/ or flash any messages. Then later in the day, he would call me again to yell at me. Though I was able to find a fix on Google, it’s probably not for technical challenged people.
- The battery can last me about one day. Active sync, which is connected to my Google account, is probably eating away the majority of the battery. Though I am willing to lose some battery life in order for my data to be in sync.
- About 40mb of ram is available to the user, which sort of limit some program’s ability.
- I paid $199 for this phone and it doesn’t even include a small micro SD card?
- The phone is a bit slippery. I decided to take my phone out to my local park (Golden Gate Park) to take some pictures of flowers. But I felt like the phone was ready to fall out of my hand at any moment. I guess glossy black and sweat doesn’t mix so well. Surprisingly on the back of the phone there is a little slot for a lanyard.
——The Okay
- Speaking of taking pictures, the camera is okay. I don’t think the Treo’s camera is as great as my cousin’s iPhone 3G camera, but I didn’t expect this camera to replace my Nikon D50.
- Most people would complain about the finger prints one would leave behind, but I hardly look at the back of the phone.
- I expected office mobile to look more like office 2007. But having Office support is the main reason why I bought this phone, other than it’s cheaper per month.
——The Good
- What I really like is the ability to install any program in the phone without any restrictions.
- You can actually read the screen in the direct sun light just fine.
- The phone application doesn’t freeze! (This was a big problem for my old phone)
- I believe the GPS is independent, since Google maps were able to locate me much faster than Sprint Navigation.
- It has a QWERTY keyboard plus a touch screen! I have tried using the iPhone’s virtual keyboard (in portrait mode) and I notice my fingers are too big. The touch screen can come in handy once in a while. There isn’t a dedicated left/right soft key.
— Things I Wish is in the Phone —
- Windows Mobile 6.5 is coming out in the next few months. No words from Palm if the Treo Pro is upgradeable.
- Support for Pandora on this phone.
- More RAM
- Better battery life.
- Faster Internet Explorer 6
- I think my Wacom tablet’s pen is better than the phone’s stylus. If only Palm could merge with the Wacom’s pen, then it would be a great stylus.
Rating: 3 / 5
Renewed 2-year contract with Sprint and paid $300 for Treo Pro.
Sometime this week (May 11)I will be receiving my FIFTH Treo. The defective one I purchased and 3 defective replacement Treo Pro’s (since March 20).
All four were/became defective or lost ringer/vibrate functions within a week or two.
When I spoke to Palm and Sprint about these issues, I was not given any answers or solutions–only several defective replacement phones. If you’re paying several hundred dollars for a device, it should work properly–
and based on the four I’ve had in less than two months, if you buy this phone, you will be buying a DYSFUNCTIONAL/DEFECTIVE phone.
I signed a two-year contract and paid $300 for a phone that loses functionality within 2 weeks of purchase–makes you feel cheated knowing you’ve signed a contract and paid several hundred dollars for a defective product.
Rating: 2 / 5
I purchased this phone after dropping my beloved Centro in water. I had been thinking about getting it, so since I needed a phone right away and couldn’t wait for the insurance replacement, I decided to try it free for 30 days. The first day I was completely overwhelmed going from Palm OS to windows mobile. Things began to get a little better with time and the discovery of some really cool features. Everything seemed so cumbersome at first but I began to feel my way around the phone. If you approach like you would a new version of windows on a pc, you can adjust faster. Everything is located where it would be on a pc. It’s just that sometimes, that’s kind of cumbersome when you’re trying to make a quick phone call to a contact, or quickly access your call history and dial from there.
As I said, there are some really cool features on this phone. I loved the voice command at just the touch of a button, not having to “train” the software or enter in any contacts — just speak the names already in my imported contact list. I also loved the fact that it worked with the blue tooth stereo in my car! This made it truly hands free. I also liked the way that it would verbally speak reminders while I had the bluetooth headset on, so I wouldn’t have to run to my phone whenever I got a “buzz” from a reminder. oh, and GPS was such phone while it lasted!
Since the Palm OS will be phased out (big sad face!) I guess if I get another smart phone any time soon, it will probably be the Treo Pro. But for now I will stick with my trusty, simple, straightforward insurance replacement Centro!
Rating: 3 / 5
I’ve had this phone about a week and I’m very happy with it. It replaces a Palm 800w that I never liked much. The Pro comes with Windows Mobile, which could be a dealbreaker for some. I got used to it on the 800w and it’s not ideal but not horrible either. For those of you who’ve never used WinMo, it makes simple tasks on most phones a chore. I had to google things like getting out of full screen (you tap the screen and then hold for the option menu. Nice work, MS mobile software engineers…). If you’re looking for a pocket-friendly qwerty phone with a physical keyboard and a touchscreen, this might be the best money can buy. The phone is made by HTC, and the build quality is exceptional, especially compared to the comparatively clunky 800w that’s twice as thick and has a substandard earpiece and even worse speaker. 800w users will also notice some software upgrades. This phone ships with a more advanced IE browser and is adobe flash-friendly, which is my non-tech savvy way of saying you can play videos directly from youtube. It comes with kimona freeplay, but I’ve had better luck watching videos directly off the youtube site. IE has a bad name, but it works well on this phone. I tried installing Opera Mobile, which seems to be on every expert’s favorite list, but this version of IE works pretty well, at least on this phone. Personal preference, I guess. The 3.5 mm headphone port is a nice addition too. On the downside, sending text messages requires navigation through multiple menus (didn’t have that problem on the 800w). I haven’t signed up for the everything plan yet, but look forward to using telenav gps and watching sprint tv in the future. One plus of having a WinMo phone is you get MS office mobile, which allows you to read, edit, and even write in MS Word. I have an external bluetooth keyboard that works reasonable well. Also, if you have a word file on your laptop that you need to send and don’t have access to wifi, you can save it on a Micro SD card, and slide the memory card in your pro and it comes up in office mobile (you can’t send attachments, but you can copy and paste in the body of an email and send as text). You might be able to do that with the Palm OS phones too, but you’ll need a cable (no memory card slot), and I’m not sure about Word compatibility. If you absolutely can’t live with WinMo, the Pixi and Pre seen to be good options (both run on a much more user-friendly Palm OS), but the Pixi seems a little cheap in terms of build quality and the Pre is a little too fat to slide in my jeans pockets. I’m giving it a 4-star rating because this phone really should have a better operating system.
Rating: 4 / 5
This has been the best cell phone I have ever owned. I have had and used HTC Touch Pro, Palm Treo 800w, Palm 700p and a bunch of other dumbphones and this one is better than all of them. Windows mobile isn’t the greatest but it works well with this phone. And there are a bunch of apps for it too, youtube, facebook, netflix etc all which work very well. These apps accompanied by Microsoft improvements such as Internet Explorer (which actually can play flash videos) and MyPhone (a PC based back up system) give this phone an edge. The only thing I would improve upon is a larger screen and maybe one of those tilt sensors….oh well those things I can live without
Rating: 5 / 5