Treo 700p (Verdict: Solid)

Yesterday afternoon, we were sitting around doing what bloggers do, when all of a sudden the door whipped open, slammed shut, and we were staring at a new 700p. The bearer of this device was out of breath, a little disheveled, and, in our opinion, sketchy. We assumed the police must have been hot on his trail, and we immediately regretted joking about getting the 700p “off the back of a truck.” Luckily, we learned that this was a demo device, that it was totally legit, and that the only thing that could be considered “hot,” was the laundry list of fab-features.

So here we go. Picture this; you’re using your Treo 650 when all of a sudden you have an epiphany. You decide that you are going to write the sequel to War and Peace on your Treo, that you are going to start it right that second, and that you are going to post your chapters to your blog as you write it. Well, this little vignette is mere fantasy because it is impossible on the 650! As we all know, the 650 is notorious for crashing when using documents to go, has horrendous battery life, and most importantly, has some of the slowest web-speeds possible; making it impossible to post to your blog your voluminous chapters, let alone, write the damn thing.


Ok, how’s the 700p any better? So you’ll notice right off the bat that the form factor is almost identical to the nefarious 700w, with the exception of a 320x320 screen vs. the oh-so-laughable 240x240 Windows device.


The buttons have a solid feel, less play than the 650, and a cleaner depression than the 650; all in all, making typing, a breeze! Here you can see the minor differences between a 700w key layout and a 700p layout.


As we discussed, the screen is big, bright, and beautiful. Writing a native word document, something that was never possible with the standard pre-installed Treo 650 software complement, is a pleasure on this screen, regardless of the lighting situation.

Something that we simply love about this device, which we think everyone else loves too, is the fact that for once and for all, you have high-speed EvDO support. WTF does this mean? Well, picture being able to download War and Peace, in one piece, as a PDF document. This device has blazing fast connectivity with speeds of 400Kbps-700Kbps, affording you full-fledged internet functionality, all within the palm of your hand. Also, if you read the above paragraph carefully, you’ll notice we referred to a PDF. This is the FIRST Treo to be able to open PDF documents with its native software. This thing is hot!

If you happen to live in Bumblefu*ck USA, don’t worry. This device is backwards compatible with 1xRTT. Meaning, you can use your puny internet when at home, and blaze the web when you’re visiting the city folk.

Before we move on to other features, we have to harp on the EvDO for a few more thoughts. The power of the high-speed connection goes way beyond the device itself. Verizon finally had the common sense to have a device that allows the phone to be used as a dial-up networking (DUN) adapter. Essentially, using a USB cable or Bluetooth, you can connect to the web on your laptop using your unlimited EvDO plan. What’s the big deal? Well now you can go to Starbucks and say FU T-Mobile, I come with my own network. So instead of paying every time you’re in airport, or hotel, or hourly-rated motel, you can just hook your computer up to the phone, and you’re good to go. Productivity maximized and cost minimized. GENIUS! (btw- incase you’re worried about battery power, when plugged in via USB, you actually are bus-charging the device, so it’s a win-win)

Something that we just love about this device is the fact that you don’t have to worry about missing calls while using the EvDO. As opposed to those of us that have spent an hour using m.gmail to only learn that we have 14 voicemails waiting for us, calls received while on the EvDO network are acknowledged on the phone, and the user has the ability to choose to answer the call and suspend the data session, or push the not-so-urgent call to voice-mail. So now you can watch your porn and not have to worry about missing a call from mom. SWEET!

Something else that’s been jazzed up with respect to receiving calls is the fact that you can ignore a call, or ignore a call with text. This allows you to send a SMS to the caller while sending them to voicemail. Our favorite SMS was “Will call in 20 mins, in the middle of #2, you don’t want me to answer, trust me!” A message like that is typically well-received and affords you the piece and tranquility that you deserve instead of someone calling incessantly because you keep sending them to voicemail.

To quickly wrap-up, we love the fact that you can assign ringtones to groups of contacts as well as individual contacts, allowing you to have you’re coworkers ring in to the theme song of He-Man and for family members to ring-in to the theme of Facts of Life. Versamail 3.5 is awesome with preset setting for GMail and memory of recently used addresses. We didn’t get a chance to use any streaming video applications, but we expect to have an in-depth review of MobiTV in the near future.

We weren’t too impressed with the battery power. We found that screen brightness was most definitely the limiting factor in the longevity of the battery power, and that using the EvDO did not significantly change the power usage when compared to the 650. We also were a little annoyed gentle hum that was present when the screen brightness was on the second to lowest setting. We’re not sure what that’s about, but if it’s anything like the MacBook hum, someone will probably post about it and you’ll be thrilled to death with everyone’s story about a humming 700p.

Other than that, it’s a solid device. More memory is always a plus, Palm OS 5.4.9 is a must, 1.3 mega pixel camera is cute, and the not so fast, yet to be updated 312mhz processor is a disappointment when coupled with EvDO!

So, in conclusion, we love it. It’s better than the 650 hands down. It’s more stable, it doesn’t reboot all the time, it has a cleaner feel, it supports 2gb cards, and it’s by far the most desired phone on the market.

However, we also believe that this is a work in progress. We expect to see revisions with WiFi support via SD, a processor bump to 624mhz, a memory jump to 256, Bluetooth voice dialing support, and battery power that rivals the Blackberry.

So, until we our dream device is released, this will do, because good luck finding anything better, and anything hotter than this!