Smartphones - what do you think

**Richard1** · September 8th, 2005, 04:10 PM

Well I finally did it. I bought a PDA/Smartphone. Personally I love gadgets, all different kind of things. I have been specifically waiting for this particular purchase. I think we have all known for a while that the best product would be the handheld that does it all. Well manufacturers have been listening in their own special way. With recent entries like The IPaq h6315, the Palm Treo 650 or the Sony Ericsson 910i, it's easy to see this. These devices do most everything you want from a handheld, MP3 player, organizer, cell phone, third party apps, full HTML browser, e-mail and more. Problem is these units cost upwards of $400.00. I couldn't rationalize spending that much money on a something that may wind up just a toy.

So that was my task, find one that does everything I want for between
$200-$300. Well I have looked for over a week and not really came up with much until today. At first I used T-Mobile's website. They only list 4 smartphones on their site and not even the one I originally wanted which was the Treo 650. Next I went to all the local T-Mobile dealers, only to find out that not one of them was really an authorzed dealer. They are what's called an indirect dealer. Their prices are almost twice as much as an actual T-Mobile store. Their actual store was about an hour away from where I live so I said screw that. Next I searched the web, eBay, PriceGrabber, Tiger Direct and they had some OK deals but nothing that really swayed me.

I called T-Mobile one last time, in vain I thought, but they put me though to one of their specialists. This guy then offered me a Treo 600 which has all the features I want for $174.00 . The difference between the 600 model and the Treo 650 is processor and memory. The 650 has a 312 mghz and has 23 megs of available memory, while the 600 has a 144MHz and 32 megs of memory. The 650 also sports sharper resolutions. From what I've read that's about it. Both have the Palm OS, both use regular sd flash memory and all the standard features. Anyway I accepted the deal. It should be here by Monday and I can't wait.

Let's hear it from the smartphone/PDA users.

**confus-ed** · September 9th, 2005, 06:27 AM

..Problem is these units cost upwards of $400.00..

All the uk readers are sat thinking 'ha-ha-ha !'

.. over-here with the advent of the 3G network (& it not quite going as well 'uptake' wise as expected) means they are giving stuff away like this !! (well they aren't really as they smack you with monthly rental charges, but 'in theory' at least, they are Free !).

**Richard1** · September 13th, 2005, 01:31 PM

Hey -Ed just a small update. I got my Treo and it is a really sleek piece of hardware. So far I don't have anything bad to say with the exception of the camera res. Surprisingly to me, I have been really liking the Palm OS.

I am going to Europe next year and maybe even London. I hope to pick up a GSM model that's not available here in the US so I can taunt my friends when they ask me where I got it.

**confus-ed** · September 13th, 2005, 01:38 PM

..got my Treo and it is a really sleek piece of hardware..

So what's it do then ? , 'smartphone' is a bit of a vague term, glad you like it though, definately a gadget man myself too

**Richard1** · September 13th, 2005, 02:26 PM

Well let's see. It's my phone & voicemail and my MP3 & video player
(using sd/mmc data storage 1gig). It allowed me to enter my entire contacts list into it, addresses and all. It can access my VPN, edit basic HTML.
I installed Tetris classic and a standard Casino game that I grabbed from Jumbo. Setup was really simple and so far, as much as I've messed with it in the last few days it hasn't had any errors or lock-ups. The PalmOS software seemed pretty intuitive but I read all weekend about it while I waitited for my phone to arrive.

Cons: Clearly browsing the web on these devices is limited at best but I was able to log onto WinDrivers last night and view the site as well as a few others.

There isn't really a way to make a phone smaller and have a bigger a screen, that having been said a bigger more high-res screen would be better. This Treo is 160x160. Perhaps we will see some new innovation from the inventors of that foldable screen we've heard about in the news.

**NooNoo** · September 13th, 2005, 03:32 PM

I'm waiting on one of these

**Richard1** · September 13th, 2005, 04:01 PM

Yeah it comes free when you buy your new Ford JetPack that runs on oxygen.
I've already sent some guy I never met before a bunch of money and he promises to get me on the waiting list.

**confus-ed** · September 14th, 2005, 01:13 AM

Pah with yer jet packs

..

..The i-mate JASJAR offers the most advanced set of features yet including a full VGA screen, 520MHz Intel processor and 128MB of Permanent Memory, built-in Computer Associates eTrust Antivirus software, Skype internet telephony software..sports a full QWERTY keyboard and brilliant VGA screen..