Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com)

19 Mar 2002

 

New site devoted just to Handspring Treo

A few readers have wrote with mention of TreoMB.com, a new site devoted just to the new wunderPDA/phone from Handspring.

TreoMB.com features the latest news on this popular device which is getting rave reviews by cell phone and pager warriors and even BlackBerry users. Pictures of the device can be found in the Pictures section with reviews in the Reviews section. Additionally TreoMB.com features user forums which focus on General, Service, Hardware and Software topics. The forums are pretty active and serve as a good place to gain insight into this new device.

Press Reviews of Treo

This page has the most glowing reviews of Treo by the trade press (Handspring), including reviews by Wall Street Journal writer Walter Mossberg and New York Time writer David Pogue.

Comments on Treo

In reading extensive reviews by real users we have learned that the Treo is not a perfect device and has some poor execution in a few areas. All of these problems can be solved in the next model upgrade and in respect to some users they are minor. These faults are:

• Poor Battery Life. Device not suitable for heavy cell phone users (very suitable for low to medium cell phone users - 10 short calls a day for two days per battery charge.
• Address Book Phone Number Lookup works with just First and Last names. No Company name lookup feature. {sure they will fix this, plus third-party support options now available}
• No Mac Support? - Some readers say so, despite conflicting info on Handspring site. We are not certain of this and actually want to verify it. The Handspring site goes into detail about Mac support so we think there may be some confusion here.

Reports on sound quality are generally very good, but occasionally some user will say the quality is poor. Reviewers at Amazon.com are generally very enthusiastic. C/net is also a good place to hear from real life users on this device.

We think that the device will fix these shortcomings with upgrades later this year, especially the battery life issue.

At the time of this writing Handspring and Sprint just announced that they are in agreement to jointly develop a CDMA version of the Treo Communicator for Sprint's nationwide CDMA network by mid-2002. GPRS networks will support the Treo by mid-2002 as well, allowing for always on email/always pushed to you email, just like the Blackberry.