Palm Treo 700p looking legit
By Peter Rojas 
posted February 4th 2006 11:41AM
posted February 4th 2006 11:41AM
Skeptics still abound, but Treo hacker extraordinaire Shadowmite is vouching for the authenticity of those Treo 700p pics that popped up yesterday evening; this dude's rep alone is enough to have most Treo fanatics convinced that this is the real deal. Anyway, we're still waiting for a few new choice pics, but in the meantime in some specs are making the rounds, and the new Treo 700p, which will supposedly be available from Sprint in April, will have a 312MHz processor, Palm OS 5.4.9, EV-DO, 1.3 megapixel digital camera, a 320 x 320 pixel display, and Bluetooth (they're not sure whether it's Bluetooth 1.2 or not). The news that Palm is busting out a new Treo running on the Palm OS has to be good news to all the loyalists who were dreading having to switch to Windows Mobile to get 3G on a Treo, but, man, Palm is really running Garnet into the ground, aren't they? Let's hope they managed to work out a lot of the stability issues that have plagued the Treo 650 before they release this one.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this one in]
Jason, I was reading Sprint's "Power Vision" brochure just the other day and their data rates are (still) much more resonable than verisons. Barely more than regular vision for unlinmited data.
"The only way to know for sure if this is real or not, someone has to go through the FCC documents to find if it's been certified as a released communication device. If it's not there, this could be someone monkeying around."
There's ways of keeping FCC filings secret. Plus, it's not obvious this needs any more certifcation, since it's the same hardware as the 700W released by Verizon. Only the OS is different.
"BUT WHERE IS THE MENU BUTTON ?"
You can't see it in this pic but the Menu Button is where the Shift button is on the 650 right now (lower Right Hand corner). It's oddly placed but there.
"So does that mean no Windows version of the Treo for Sprint?"
No, Sprint at this point is reportedly still getting both. In fact the 700W will probably be released before this version (the Palm).
As far as evdo Pricing:
Sprint = $15/month unlimited ev-do; $10/mo unlimited 1x
Much cheaper than anyone, period.
This is real.
I have the 650, and I can't see the point in coming out with another unstable device. My 650 is the most unstable device I've ever used, and I came from WM. I would much rather have a WM device, I just can't afford the upgrade to the 700w. Palm really needs to update their OS, putting out devices year after year on the same, unstable OS is pointless.
I wonder if Palm has added SMS receipt on this one? That, with the constant stability problems I had, made me switch back to an Ericsson T630.
Frankly: a GSM phone with no SMS recipt capability is more than a bit odd. I know that SMS is not that big a thing in the states but GMS has slightly more coverage than that and all other carriers that I know of are very keen on SMS. They are making money without having to provide QoS - devilery when the network has capacity for it.
So, SMS is a big thing in many countries, as is the reciept function; it is nice to know that whomever got your message or if it died of old age (there is a flag in the SMS spec for timeout).
Where's the improvement over the 650? Ooh, a better resolution camera! It will still look like crap...
Same screeen (which I love on my 650), same speed processor (although I've heard it is much faster on the UI), I bet they mess up the bluetooth just as badly as the 650.
Don't get me wrong, I love my 650 as a gadget, but this is not enough of an upgrade to be a +50 model number. This should be handed out to everyone who has been screwed over by the many faults of the 650.
I'm talking about you, bluetooth.
No Built in Wifi on an enterprise device but a 1.3MP camera?
Palm must know something I don't, or they're driving their truck with blinders on.