Palm Treo 750 Smartphone Image

Palm Treo 750 Smartphone

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 stars See 18 reviews
 

Consumer Review

Epinions

Good compromise between phone and PDA

by  shadowz85,   Nov 10, 2007

Pros:  5-way navigation button, one handed use, good signal

Cons:  poor cable connector, no insurance avail with AT&T

The Bottom Line:  Not a perfect phone or PDA, but a great combo unit.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars
 

Author's Review

I work part time as a computer consultant and use this phone primarily for business calls. I used a regular flip phone prior to the Treo 750 and was looking for a phone with a few bells and whistles. I have used PDAs before, both with Palm OS and Microsoft OS, but I ended leaving them at home because between phone, laptop and PDA, it was just one more thing to carry.

I think the Treo 750 is going to be a good compromise.

As a phone, I like the sound quality of this unit. I use it with a Jabra BT8010 bluetooth headset. The headset does both mono and stereo - so it matches up with the Treo for both work and play. The pairing with the headset went smoothly. There was one time when trying to turn off the bluetooth from the Treo that it locked. After a soft reset everything functioned normally

There is a strong vibration from the phone which is important since I am in loud areas periodically and I used to miss calls on my last phone. The selection of ringtones is nice and I can assign mp3s to events. I haven't found a way to assign mp3s to individual callers - but each caller can have their own ringtone.
The weight is a little heavy for a phone, but reasonable considering it is also a PDA. I worry about dropping it. I did drop my previous phone and it survived, but I can't tell with this one how it will do and I'm not going to test it out purposely. The salesman told me that I can't warranty the phone - apparently AT&T doesn't warranty most of their PDAs. I did take that into consideration. It is a refurb unit (another reason they don't extend the warranty) and I didn't pay much for it. While I hope it lasts the two year contract, I have a backup unit it mind in case my risk doesn't pay off.

Using this phone is not intuitive. Turning on the keyguard required searching the manual. Fortunately, the manual is installed as an icon on my laptop so searching for help is straightforward. It is also available on the phone; just easier for me to look up from my pc.

I love having a PDA at my fingertips. I can access not only my contacts, but I have my task lists, notes and appointments as well.
Because I am using a PDA, there are a number of programs and games available for download, many at little or no charge. Using Activesync brings my pictures and songs to the TREO easily. I can sync either with the USB cable, or through IR. If my laptop had bluetooth, I could do that too.
Good thing because the cable connector seems fragile and looks like it may not work the entire two years.
As a PDA, I like the touchscreen, the 5-way navigation button and the size of the unit. It really is a one-handed unit as it fits easily in my hand and I can do most everything except serious data entry without using both hands.
I have only had the Treo for two weeks, but I've used it pretty heavily to test out all the features I'll be using. It has crashed and needed a soft reset twice. I do run the included backup software so that should I have to hard reset it, my data won't get lost. I may not have the problems a previous reviewer had because the backup software restart the Treo as part of the backup process.
It easy to turn off the programs. One of the buttons is programed to a "task list" where I can stop programs easily. I don't think I'll need it once I've settled into normal use since there will only be a few programs I'll use daily.

One last pro about this, great for commuters, is the ability to listen to books on tape. More and more libraries are making available downloadable books. Windows handles the licensing and using a bluetooth headset makes hands-free operation a breeze. In the car I can listen on the mono headpiece. When a call comes in, it automatically switches to phone mode. When the call ends, it switches back to the story.
All in all, a great unit for the way I use it.
 

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About the Author

shadowz85
a member of Epinions.com
Reviews Written:  1
 
 

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