PALMONE TREO 600

Now that Handspring has been bought out by its old rivals, Palm, the Treo has been rebranded along with all Palm devices. The new company is now called PalmOne, while the operating system all the products run on is now owned by PalmSource, but remains plain old Palm OS 5. Although this may seem all very confusing, the actual difference this has made to the Treo 600 is zero; it’s still the same handset we first reviewed back in the Christmas 2003 issue (issue 54).

Back then it was offered to the market by Orange, the sole service provider. Now, however, it can be found SIM-free, though Orange is still the best option where it can be bought for £120 (inc. VAT) with contract. It’s a pleasing device to look at, getting the balance between mobile phone and PDA sizes about right. Although it’s not a handset you would probably consider using to replace a mobile phone altogether, you wouldn’t feel too conspicuous holding it up to your ear during a call.

The fact that PalmOne has managed to incorporate a serviceable QWERTY thumbpad is truly remarkable and, after just a bit of practice, we found that we could enter text at a relatively fast pace. For those who can’t geta long with it – or if you just like to keep your options open – the small screen allows for touchscreen inputting.

The 16-bit colour display offers a resolution of 160 x 160 pixels. It’s extremely clear and bright; in fact it’s so bright that users could quite easily reduce the brightness levels to save battery life without loosing visibility. The144MHz ARM CPU and 32MB of memory capacity provided adequate power and storage capacity for most Palm OS applications, and users can add extra memory, if they need it, using the built-in Secure Digital slot. Although the screen is smaller than you would expect to find on most Palm-based devices, we found it was a compromise we were willing to make for the sake of having the thumbpad.

The integrated camera provides a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, which is good enough for leisure users hoping to email pictures or record images for personal use. The software set-up for the camera is extremely user-friendly, making this somewhat gimmicky feature a fun and accessible addition. However, in order to retain the smaller form factor, PalmOne has opted not to include Bluetooth in favour of the camera. Although this won’t bother everyone, we suspect there will be a number of users who would have preferred to sacrifice the camera for the sake of wireless connectivity. The Palm user interface is possibly the most user-friendly OS of the smartphones reviewed here. It’s hard to beat for its straightforward set-up. Although the phone section has been tagged onto the OS, PalmOne has managed to keep the same aesthetics and outlook, making it easy to dial calls and look up contacts.

Probably the Treo’s closest equivalent in this market is the Blackberry, since it offers similar touchscreen and keyboard inputting, and it makes an ideal email client. While the Blackberry would win for its push through email services, the Treo has the edge in terms of available software packs and its more typical mobile phone looks.

It offers an excellent compromise between phone and PDA, occupying a space somewhere in between the two. The smaller screen of the device may put some people off, but we feel that PalmOne has done a good job of fitting everything into one small handset. With an Orange contract, the Treo 600 is incredibly competitively priced and we would recommend that anyone looking for a hybrid device should give this serious consideration.

RATING: 8

PRICE: £102/£120 (INC. VAT) WITH ORANGE CONTRACT
PROCESSOR: 144MHZ ARM
MEMORY: 32MB
EXPANSION: SD/MMC
SCREEN: 16-BIT
SIZE: 60 X 112 X 22MM
WEIGHT: 168G
OPERATING SYSTEM: PALM 5.2.1
CONTACT: 020 7365 9820 WWW.PALMONE.COM