Treo 700w arrives on Verizon Wireless

Holla! Verizon just announced availability of the first Windows Mobile-powered Treo, the long-awaited Treo 700w. The specs are exactly what we'd figured, but we'll run 'em down for ya again: EV-DO, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, 128MB of memory, Bluetooth 1.2, removable battery, an SDIO expansion card slot, and a 240 x 240 pixel display (which is lower res than the 320 x 320 display found in the Treo 650). They're selling it for $399.99 with a two-year service agreement. Anyone ordered theirs yet?

[Craig @ Jan 4th 2006 5:09PM]

Looks like a nice piece of hardware.

[tmd @ Jan 4th 2006 5:12PM]

After my horrible experience with my 650, the last thing I want is another product from Palm...

[Blake Bowen @ Jan 4th 2006 5:13PM]

Boo, boo I say to that resolution! It should be 480x480!

[brandon @ Jan 4th 2006 5:20PM]

I'll keep my Treo 650 and wait for the updates for that Palm model rumored to happen this year.

[Gleb Serbin @ Jan 4th 2006 5:26PM]

just ordered up a pair of em and a samsung 730. new phones for the whole family, yay!

[Rick @ Jan 4th 2006 5:30PM]

240x240?!?!?! thats Uberghey! why downsize? its the US of A for chrissakes! i guess i'll have to wait til they get it right (which, going by their track record will be quite a while).

[Treo-wanter @ Jan 4th 2006 5:38PM]

Wait...so if they're available and someone above ordered 2, where's the link to buy them? Checked verizon's website and there's just some garbage about signing your life away to be notified.

[JerkyChew @ Jan 4th 2006 5:40PM]

Um, is there a link to the Verizon store that I'm missing? I can't find where to purchase it.

[Treo Cell Phones @ Jan 4th 2006 5:42PM]

Treo CellPhones are great! For sure the new treo 700 it will be also a very good product.

[Jimmie Geddes @ Jan 4th 2006 5:44PM]

Windows Mobile, never. I am waiting for the Treo 700p that will debut on Sprint before the end of February. A Treo running Palm OS with EV-DO:)

[Zoli @ Jan 4th 2006 5:53PM]

Yeah where's the link? it's not on Verizons website...



Does anyone know if it will come without a camera, because here in NY camera phones aren't allowed into courthouses.

[Michael @ Jan 4th 2006 6:01PM]

399? Wheres that info from?

I called VZ yesterday and they said 499 for 2yr, and $619 retail.



you guys probably mean 399 with 2yr AND new every 2....$499 for the rest of us :(

[Steven Grimm @ Jan 4th 2006 6:04PM]

Wake me up when they come out with one that's not a step down in screen resolution from last year's model. I already have a 650 -- I'd buy a 700w if it had the same resolution (Windows Mobile is much more stable and feature-rich than PalmOS) but I'm not going to pay that kind of money for 44% fewer pixels on the screen!

[Mu Doggy @ Jan 4th 2006 6:04PM]

Dammit! I am sitting here waiting for a new phone/service (hopefully verizon or cingular) and every time a new phone comes out everyone complains about it... WHAT PHONE SHOULD I GET?!



Features I am looking for:

*PDA for data storage, email and running programs like media players and such.

*Expandable storage like MiniSD or something like that.

*Integrated Wi-Fi for web surfing on the run.

[murph @ Jan 4th 2006 6:11PM]

anyone want to buy a i730 for $399 :)

[John @ Jan 4th 2006 6:20PM]

The Treo 700w does come with a 1.3 megapixel camera, so #11 can't bring it into a NY courtroom.

[dr @ Jan 4th 2006 6:24PM]

I tried windows mobile once and will never, EVER, come back to it again.

Well.

Maybe with windows mobile 2010.



PalmOS,albeit very a simple OS as is, get things done and is tightly integrated with the phone and data connections. With the help of some rather amazing 3rd party apps all the original limitations of PalmOS are gone!



And before you call me a Palm "Fanboy", the treo 650 was the first time i ever tried palm os. And i had at least 3 PPC phones before it so, yeah, PalmOS rocks, At least for me (its not THAT great as is though, its the 3rd party apps that do the magic)



So yeah, Count me to one more on the waiting list for the 700p!

[Matt @ Jan 4th 2006 6:37PM]

I think it's only currently available for b2b customers. Regular retail availability should be in ~2 weeks.



Also, I fail to see why people get so excited about having wifi on a phone that has EV-DO.

[Reg Muffet @ Jan 4th 2006 6:43PM]

@Rick: "240x240?!?!?! thats Uberghey! why downsize? its the US of A for chrissakes! i guess i'll have to wait til they get it right"



Agreed. Love everything about it except this.



But it's a limitation of Windows Mobile 5.0, which doesn't support 320x320 for square screens.

[Peter @ Jan 4th 2006 6:47PM]

240x240? I'm out. I'll look at the other devices. Maybe the Moto.

[Billy OCean @ Jan 4th 2006 7:06PM]

As far as I know the 700w cannot be had from anywhere until tomorrow, Jan 5th. I've called their b2b and local Verizon Wireless shops and they confirm for tomorrow or deny completely. In other words, if someone says they ordered one their likely full of it.

[gork @ Jan 4th 2006 7:19PM]

Sold.....I am buying one, however I have to wait until my new every 2 in August. I like the price point. For what I want to do, the 240x240 is just fine. I will still have my old iPaq 4355 that still works just fine. I want this!

[dingoboy @ Jan 4th 2006 8:06PM]

I've got one already and so far, it's really not all that exciting. My main problem is that Microsoft's native solution for getting email isn't competitive with either GoodLink or BlackBerry. That'll change when MS releases "Messaging & Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5.0". GoodLink will run on top of the 700w but it's an extra thing to deal with and it's not as nice as the native applications (and you loose the integration between the built-in apps; phoning from the contacts list, for example). And GoodLink does one thing that's incredibly annoying: it forces you to use the stylus when you're entering the GoodLink password. Crazy...



So far, I prefer the BlackBerry 8700. I will say that the 700w is lighter and seems better made than the 650.

[Rodney L. @ Jan 4th 2006 8:12PM]

Now, waiting for the Q to show up for the Showdown.



"Get your guns and meet me in the back right now!"

[kc! @ Jan 4th 2006 8:14PM]

Oh great, just what we needed another bogus Windows-centric phone which doesn't support us Macintosh users. I will hold out for the next Palm-based Palm phone... or maybe one day even an OSX Treo!

[naio21 @ Jan 4th 2006 8:16PM]

At last an interesting Treo, finally undressed from that crappy-calculator-firmware PalmOS... :-)

[Galley @ Jan 4th 2006 8:28PM]

Even my cellphone has a higher resolution screen than that. I'll wait for a 320 x 480 Treo running the good old PalmOS.

[toadvomit @ Jan 4th 2006 8:35PM]

Why such a lame-ass camera? 1.3-Mpixel is just enough to take a pix of its own lame-ass lo-res screen. Even my tiny Sony Walkman phone has a 2.1 Mpixel camera. WTF?!?

[Alex @ Jan 4th 2006 9:19PM]

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=2180



Thats the link and its $499 with a 2 year contract!

[rushman @ Jan 4th 2006 9:36PM]

Low screen res, very disappointing. I was going to buy tomorrow, but the WinOS was enough to swallow without the low res camera AND screen.

If the mail app is not as good as Snapper Mail, I will just wait. Does this have the video capability?

Reliability? The 650 was a disaster. My friend has been through 6 already.

[DateM @ Jan 4th 2006 9:57PM]

The 240x240 screen looks at least as good as my Treo 650. I had one in my hand today at CES and did a side-by-side comparison with 650. I was hard pressed to notice any difference. Pictures, Video and UI look great! I'm sold.

[weed @ Jan 4th 2006 10:24PM]

If you are interested in a detailed review with comparison of the palm treo 700w versus the treo 650 (with Palm OS) - you should check out this blog site:



http://blog.treonauts.com/



The review is a work in progress - but it is from the perspective of a treo 650 user learning to cope with the new Microsoft interface. So far - he seems to favor the Treo 700w over the 650.

[Roy @ Jan 4th 2006 11:21PM]

i just ordered 10 of them... one for every one of us... brothers, sis, aunts, uncles etc... looks nice but should be cheaper...

[R_Vas @ Jan 4th 2006 11:30PM]

Mossberg doesn't like it:



"I have been testing the Treo 700w, which will be sold by Verizon Wireless, to see how it stacks up against the Treo 650, the phone I carry every day.



My verdict: Despite some nice new features, the Windows Mobile software is still inferior to the Palm software for one-handed use on the go. Its crucial email and phone functions are also weaker. And there's a serious bug in its email software that affects individuals, though not corporate users. So the Treo 700w is neither as easy to use nor as powerful as the Treo 650. In addition, the screen on the 700w offers significantly lower resolution than the screen on the 650, and the new model costs twice as much -- $400 versus $200."



http://online.wsj.com/article/personal_technology.html?mod=djemptech



Article will show up here for free (above link is for subscribers):



http://ptech.wsj.com/archive.html

[Jason @ Jan 5th 2006 12:04AM]

So at this point with the 700w out and the i730 probably dropping in price. Which of these two is better?

[Jason @ Jan 5th 2006 12:15AM]

Here is the link...



http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPlanOverview

[Justin Hirsch @ Jan 5th 2006 1:33AM]

Anyone know if verizon is going to enable the dialup profile for bluetooth so I can use this for broadband access for my notebook?

[billy @ Jan 5th 2006 8:22AM]

http://vzwshop.com/treo700w/

buy it now verizon customers save 100bucks buying at the store



"AS AN EXISTING VZW CUSTOMER, YOU CAN RECEIVE $100 INSTANT SAVINGS ON THE 700W BY PURCHASING YOUR DEVICE AT A VZW STORE"

[Richard @ Jan 5th 2006 12:28PM]

Reply to #19. I want Wi-Fi because I want to stream internet radio. Does anyone know if EV-DO can stream internet radio on the go?

[Mu Doggy @ Jan 5th 2006 2:04PM]

#40 - Wi-fi is so widley found that I'd also like it so I can use high speed internet without the cost of a data plan. I don't mind pulling into a parking lot of a McDonalds to look up something on Google, or if I don't have great signal in my house (which i don't with any carrier), still be able to get email/attachments watch streaming movies on the can or whatnot.

[badonkadonk @ Jan 6th 2006 9:55AM]

I'd like to point out that there's no guarantee that using WiFi means using "free" wireless - hotspot access at airports seems to be ridiculously priced, and if you go with a carrier running UMA, then they will (or at least have the option to) charge you for "minutes" of VoIP and data that you send over WiFi. I'll be interested to see exactly how this plays out with the carriers, and how they price it - they put a lot of money into upgrading their services to 3G (EDGE / UMTS / EV-DO / HSPDA), and they'll want to recoup that from subscribers. While it's nice to be able to offload from WAN to WLAN (and consequently reduce the load on the carriers' networks) I think you're still going to be paying for it eventually.

Also, even when Microsoft "upgrades" their mail service, it still won't be competative to BlackBerry or Goodlink, because it doesn't do "push", it does "push-pull", similar to Visto.

[Vince B. @ Jan 6th 2006 11:01AM]

Bought Treo 700w first day on market, now going back because it will not allow me to open most links on most regular websites and will not let me access any secure sites because it does not contain Internet Explorer 5.5 or above. So much for Windows Mobile. Big deal.

[Vince B. @ Jan 6th 2006 11:17AM]

Another reason for returning the Treo 700w: tech support first told me that it could be used as a tethered modem for my laptop, guess what, 30 minutes after I purchased it, they called me back and said that it could not be used as a tethered modem. The unit is great for all other uses except that it cannot be used with your laptop and you cannot access secure websites nor most links on regular websites. That's a shame because, as a Realtor, I need access to many websites in the field(especially email), thus my main reason for buying it. I am going to have to buy an air card for my laptop to make up for the shortcommings of the Treo.

[Vince B. @ Jan 6th 2006 11:28AM]

Another reason for returning the Treo700w: I checked with tech support prior to buying it and they said it could be used as a tethered modem for my laptop, then, 30 minutes after I bought it, they called me back in a panic saying that they made a mistake and it is not able to be used as a tethered modem. The unit is great in all other features but it will not do me any good because of the non tethering modem and it will not allow me to access secure websites and most links on regular websites. My main reason as a Realtor for buying it was to access my web mail sites as well as many other secure sites that I use during the course of a day. I am now forced to buy an aircard for my laptop to make up for the shortcomings of the Treo.

[Chuck A @ Jan 6th 2006 1:00PM]

Question for all of you? Alot of you know all the in & outs of the treo 650 & 700w all im looking for is a phone, pda, and the abaility to check my e-mail and hit a couple of websites for work which would be the best for me?

[hgh @ Jan 6th 2006 3:16PM]

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[Jack Slice @ Jan 6th 2006 3:53PM]

The new i830 will be the tether capable device.

[Krissy @ Jan 7th 2006 3:29AM]

I wouldn't use this phone if it was given to me for free. I purchased my Treo 650 six months ago, and have had so many problems that I'm on my third one about to be fourth. For the price-what a disappointment, especially when customer service doesnt care

[chris @ Jan 7th 2006 4:37AM]

Let the pda be the pda... get a small nokia edge phone.. like the 6620 and pair it over bluetooth with a pocket pc that has SDIO or built in wifi and be done with it. that way you have two batteries and you have great functionality on the phone but when you wanna kick it up you can connect edge through 6620 from pocket pc over blue tooth and when in range of wifi use the wifi on the ppc. Thats the best solution. And for now all you need is 640x480 pictures if you are only going to view it on the mobile device. They send slow enough at 640x480 why do you want them bigger? you just said the screen resolution of the 650 even is lower than 640x480 it would look NO different on the phone screen ... UNLESS YOU ZOOM. And thats the only difference.

[Newport Beach Customer @ Jan 9th 2006 12:20AM]

I picked mine up yesterday morning (as noted on another thread) and so far, so good. Haven't had time to run it through the drills so jury is still out if it's worth the extra over the 650. I've got 14 days to decide.