Two Weeks with a Treo 650

I've now had my Cingular Treo 650 for two weeks, it is without a doubt worth every penny. The 650 is a HUGE improvement over the 600. Among other upgrades it offers a much better screen (compared with the 600 it is the equivalent of switching from a black and white television to a 52" plasma HD-TV), bluetooth, faster speeds using EDGE, a much nicer backlit keyboard and a much improved camera. On the downside, it is incredibly unreliable. It seems that it either locks up or reboots itself several times per day. The folks at TreoCentral.com claim that a firmware update is on the way, I'll keep my fingers crossed. In addition, bluetooth dial-up networking is missing from the bluetooth control panel (though www.shadowmite.com has an unsupported version of the bluetooth application that does enable DUN, use it at your own risk). Overall I'm happy with the 650. As a previous 600 user I already had the "how did I ever live without this?" feeling. Being able to access mail, calendar, and contacts from anywhere is an amazingly useful capability. The 650 just adds to the enjoyment. With the improved screen as well as the bundled "Documents-To-Go" application, I can now easily create, edit, and read Word documents as well. If you are a road-warrior or you just want mobile access from anywhere at anytime, the Treo just might be the solution.

Comments

[Laura GH]

Good luck buddy and hope you don't go through the nightmare many Treo 650 users are experiencing.

Here is a recap of what I sent to ConsumerAffairs.com where a class action law suite has been filed against Palm for their defective product.
Within one year’s time I have gone though 4 – now soon to be 5 Palm 650 Treo phones. Initially I worked with Cingular whom replaced the phone 4 times, but they indicated that if the 4th replacement phone did not function I would need to contact Palm directly.

Within a few hours the 4th replacement phone produced the exact same problems over and over again. The issues include:
Extremely poor sound quality:
oRecipients of calls cannot hear me and I cannot hear them.
oLoud blaring buzzing sounds heard by recipients and by caller.
oZapping sounds then calls cancel out or are dropped instantly.
oVoice quality is extremely low and choppy.
oSpeaker quality – non existent.
Dialing issues:
oIt takes me anywhere from 4 to 6 attempts to connect a call.
oCalls keep dropping.
oCan’t use the phone in an emergency situation.
oCalls received are lost/dropped.
oI basically can’t use the phone at all.
Screen:
oPhone freezes
oPhone freezes and goes completely white.
oData transfers incorrectly from phone to pc and vis-a-versa.
oThe phone has frozen to the point where not even removing the battery and replacing it will “unfreeze” it.

The problems with the Palm Treo are so bad that I cancelled the Internet and e-mail services with the hope this would help. It didn’t help one bit. The problems simply keep getting worse and worse as time goes by and they have grown to be more frequent.

I initially worked with Cingular and aside from having the phone replaced 4 times they also replaced the batter, the SIM chip to no avail. By the way, Cingular refused to allow us to by an insurance/extended warranty when I first bought the phone a year ago.

Today, upon calling Palm they gave me the run around and made me pay $26.44 to have this garbage of a device replaced for a 5th TIME! When I asked them what they would do if the problems continued with the replacement phone they said “nothing.” When I asked them “So are you telling me if the 5th phone is defective you won’t do anything until I go away and get tired of asking for help with this defective product?” Valery’s reply was “Yes, that’s correct.”

I’ve asked for my money refunded by both companies and they refuse to give me back the $499.00 spent on this defect product. One year and 5 phones later Palm refuses to take responsibility for the defective product.

The impact has meant loss of business opportunities; inability to conduct business virtually and via telephone – the main reason I bought the stupid thing; inability to obtain assistance in emergency situations; extreme frustration – mental distress and hardship; inability to receive emergency calls from family members – family members have had to be hospitalized or were calling me while they were in distress but I couldn’t receive their call for help; extra financial cost for the numerous attempted calls that failed; plus additional cost from Palm for replacing the defective device for a 5th time.