Several weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get a private briefing and demo of the new Palm Treo 700p…and to lay my hands on a shiny new Treo 700p. My guide was Michelle White, Palm Inc.’s Director of Wireless Product Marketing; who was lead on both the development of the 700p and the Treo 650. Obviously, a lady who knows whereof she speaks.
During the briefing, Michelle was generous enough to answer some questions about the 700p, and its development. One subject we discussed was the story about WiFi and the Treo line of devices. Michelle told me that when Handspring was developing the Treo 600, they were also customizing a ‘smartphone-specific’ version of Garnet for it. The version of Garnet that the Treo line uses is unique; and, during its early development, some data structure decisions were made that now preclude the ability to run WiFi (Michelle goes into detail later in my interview with her).
Over this period of time, the Treo 700p has given me the very positive impression, and I believe it will become a favorite of smart device buyers. Suffice to say, that like all new products, the Treo 700p will have most people cheering, some perhaps feeling incomplete…but very few feeling uninterested.
IMPRESSIONS OF THE TREO 700p
The Treo 700p is an identical twin to its WinMobile brother, the Treo 700w. Like that device, the 700p is currently available only as a CDMA device, and on the Sprint and Verizon networks. My first impression of the 700p is that it is fast.
The speed of launching or switching between apps, browsing the web, and getting email is a quantum leap from the 650. The reason is that Palm, Inc. (not PalmSource/ACCESS) tweaked the daylights out of the smartphone version of Garnet (v5.4.9), Versamail and Blazer. While making some important changes under the hood, Palm was smart enough to make sure that things like the crisp 320x320 display and removable/rechargeable batteries were left alone.
The result is a device that truly delivers a broadband experience in the Palm of your hand, with almost no compromises:
* EvDO (dual-band CDMA 2000 radio) for true, Broadband data speeds
* 128MB of RAM, with 60MB available for the user
* Intel Xscale 312MHz processor
* DUN support from both Verizon and Sprint (DUN users may incur higher data charges)
* Certified support for 2MB SD cards (higher cards are being tested now)
* Improved Bluetooth (v1.2)
* Improved wireless access to MS Outlook (via Exchange ActiveSync)
* Wireless access to Gmail, AOL mail and Y! mail, with new easy set-up
* Pre-installed Documents To Go v8. That provides out-of-the-box support for MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Adobe pdf documents
* Streaming video and audio
* PocketTunes standard version (with a new UI) has replaced RealPlayer as the default music application
When I spoke to Rob Haitani at Palm’s 10th Anniversary, he defined the ‘Zen of Palm’ for Palm Addict readers. I am here to tell you that the Treo 700p delivers a big increase of Zen to its users, through a variety of nice touches:
* I found the handset volume & quality are much improved for phone conversations
* Improved management of the flash memory
* Enhanced Blazer v4.5 web browser provides intelligent caching, improved java-script support and auto-formatting of non-optimized websites, along with greatly increased speed
* The camera has been boosted to 1.3-megapixels, along with a more intuitive UI and improved video capabilities
* “Ignore with text” SMS feature for when you can’t answer a call, but want the caller to know why
* When the Treo asks if you want to save a new number, you can now save it to an existing Contact, instead of having to start a new Contact file
* The ringer switch will now vibrate when you move it to the ‘off’ position. No more having to look down or take it out of its holster
* Voice memos, which are saved as individual .wav files
* The screen backlight will now dim (instead of turning off) when you are on an active call
* Use personalized ring tones for different caller categories or individual callers, including .wav files from the voice memo application
* The Photo Viewing app now allows the creation of digital albums, slideshows (with transitions, music and voice recording) and direct emailing of pix from within the application
* New UI provides for a simpler MMS experience, improved addressing, sorting and scrolling
Obviously, I really liked what I heard and saw of this new Treo. I think Palm realized that they have a very successful design, and then carefully listened to the many Treo 650 users. The result is a device that carries over everything that was ‘right’ about the 650, improves on a variety of key weaknesses, and adds a lot of features/functions that were strongly needed.
This is an evolutionary, not a revolutionary device; and, Palm is obviously not courting the Motorola crowd, who demand a newer, slimmer ‘sexier’ phone every 6 months. With the ‘old’ Palm, it was always about form following function, and keeping the functionality almost invisible. I am happy to report that the Treo 700p is a worthy successor to the best that Palm has ever produced.