Yep, we were expecting it any day now (well,
today actually) -- now here it is. Looks like Sprint was definitely more the leaky ship on
Palm Treo 700p's impending launch, being that we only caught wind of
Verizon's version a few times, but it looks like neither carrier snagged the exclusive on Palm's latest PalmOS (not
ALP) based smartphone. The latest step in unifying the Treo family as a hardware platform, the 700p (like the
700w) features EV-DO, 312MHz Xscale CPU, 128MB flash memory (60MB usable), 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and SDIO. Unlike the 700w, however, it works it with the same 320 x 320 resolution screen as the 650 (remember,
WinMo 5.0 doesn't support that res), so there's at least one tangible benefit to this device if you're not sure whether Palm or Windows is your bag. We're just glad this thing's finally announced -- it's not like we didn't know, you know? Stay tuned for official launch dates and release prices.
Update: Interesting info.
Phone Scoop called to let us know a few hurtful details about the 700p. First, their SDIO slot won't support WiFi (which is like, half the point).
PalmAddict quotes Palm's Michelle White as saying that the lack of WiFi is justified by the fact that the phone supports EV-DO. The 700p also does not support voice dialing over Bluetooth, nor does it officially support SD cards over 2GB. However it does come with a basic version of PocketTunes -- but lacks
PlaysForSure support. D'oh indeed.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gigglemonkee @ May 15th 2006 1:00AM
first post, and now all my wishes are fulfilled, if only i could get one
Coolty @ May 15th 2006 1:07AM
2nd post ftw!
Legodude522 @ May 15th 2006 1:07AM
PIC got an in dept article up. Review coming soon as Ryan gets a unit.
http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/8580/palm-treo-700p-preview/
brad @ May 15th 2006 1:17AM
finally. i wonder how the 700w has been doing since release? i have a vzw 650 and i love it except for the ever so often reset here and there...but i like the form factor of the 700w/700p better. if they enable the bluetooth DUN i will be one happy camper.
Ahsher Stern @ May 15th 2006 1:50AM
After all this time, still no wifi and voicedial with bluetooth? Inexcusable! Has anyone heard about the 650 firmware update? Wifi drivers and voice dial? I guess the earlier post about this was mistaken if this unit doesn't support wifi.
eyecandy @ May 15th 2006 1:54AM
no wifi? just an somewise outdated 1,3 megapixel cam?
and we still have to wait for an gsm/gprs-version of this phone here in europe ...
treo007 @ May 15th 2006 2:14AM
If this "update" came with even half of everything it should have, I wouldn't be so apt to point out its short comings:
1) It's 2006....no wifi;
2) No Blackberry Connect;
3) No Bluetooth A2DP;
Still, assuming they've finally made it again stable, I'd pick it up only it had #2.
kerunt @ May 15th 2006 2:46AM
Same junk, different package...
Jimmie @ May 15th 2006 2:48AM
And not a GSM version in sight. How completely worthless.
Cazi Brasga @ May 15th 2006 2:50AM
Palm's Official Treo 700p Product Page Is Up Now:
http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/treo700p/
Nick15 @ May 15th 2006 3:08AM
Is it me, or is the 700p just a 650, but with a better camera and go-faster stripes?
ibn. @ May 15th 2006 3:12AM
other than being able to stream video and audio it really doesn't improve much over my 650. i'm going to pass and look more into 8700 series.
TechDude @ May 15th 2006 3:26AM
I'll stick with my 650 until it dies.
The only advantage I see on the 700p is the extra memory.
I'm sorry, but EVDO isn't worth it guys. I mean browsing the web on a Palm Treo (I haven't tried WM5) isn't going to vastly improve until they put a faster processor in it and/or develop a better browser. I've used reverse DUN to use my broadband connection on the phone and the phone just doesn't seem fast enough to render pages any faster with the standard 100K connection the Sprint 650 already uses.
Same deal with the camera - until it has some of the standard digital camera controls (white balance, exposure time, ISO speed etc.) I have no use for it.
It's really dissapointing though. I have a few flaws on my aging Treo 650 (early adopter) that I was hoping to resolve with an upgrade. But I don't see this as an upgrade.
Maybe they'll come up with a firmware update to add new features... next year right? :)
--TechDude
Michael @ May 15th 2006 4:00AM
So any idea when it will be available (on Verizon)? I just bought a 650 two days ago, and I'd return it and wait for the 700 if it is out soon enough. I need it for a trip Im taking at the end of June.
Also, any know where the menu button went? Thats really nice for one handed operation.
Scott @ May 15th 2006 4:10AM
I supposted to have one
alan @ May 15th 2006 4:30AM
Way overhyped. . . I'd rather wait for the Motorola Q for a semi-decent "smartphone".
Nicole SImon @ May 15th 2006 5:57AM
EVDO is not available in my country. Not having wifi built in is a major setback - even though some people believe direct access with such a phone to the net via mobile services is great, there are indeed countries where you do not have your $15 per month data plan.
If this stays as it is, I don't see a way how they easily want to switch and expand this to other markets if major features are not available - broken by design?
Widjaja @ May 15th 2006 6:18AM
I would really like to see Wifi, 3.2 MP camera/video, and fax capability. Any date or possibility of GSM version release?
thomas @ May 15th 2006 6:30AM
this... is one boring product release. Someone already mentioned it but it bears repeating: revamped & repackaged same 'ol same 'ol
Dan Fishkin @ May 15th 2006 6:52AM
THATS SUCH BULLSHIT! oh ell I guess we gotta do a xp-on-mac like contest for this baby to get the wifi :P
Josh @ May 15th 2006 7:15AM
Why did it take them 1.5 years just to add EVDO and a little extra memory? They could have at least spent some engineering time making it thinner and getting rid of the antenna stub...
xbit @ May 15th 2006 7:38AM
So why exactly should I get one of these over, say, a Sony Ericsson P990a or HTC Hermes?
It seems very weak in comparison.
soupbun @ May 15th 2006 8:16AM
It's so sad the US still gets excited about this JUNK! It's seems completely useless versus the HTC offerings, or even the stuff running on Symbian. and it's not like the device will actually be able to catch up to and process the EV-DO incoming data. and yes, the antenna stub is stupid. Sheesh, just import a better phone, if you're willing to spend so much time and money on one already. Stop supporting this crap company already, people.
Eddie A @ May 15th 2006 9:02AM
I just purchased the sleek 700w yesterday. Its pretty awesome. However I'm waiting for Missing Sync to get in gear and finish their 700w update so I can use my mac to sync... with my palm made, windows handheld. I'm diverse.
Jason @ May 15th 2006 9:16AM
Not even no WiFi... BANNED Wifi.
This is junk without WiFi.
Mid 2006 Treo and no Wifi... Sad.
Why does Palm offer such measly tech for such high prices?
The E Series Nokia's and the top end of the N series have Wifi. The N80 has 50% more screen resolution than this thing, in a smaller package with a better camera...
baxter madu @ May 15th 2006 9:20AM
ryan, your post is pretty negative, but you've always been that way towards palm treos. EV-DO might not be enough for those in other countries without much choice or those on GSM, but as for those people I know that have EV-DO smartphones with wifi (for instance, 6700), they BARELY use the Wi-fi. Enough about this, we KNEW it wasn't going to be there, and half the point of an SD Slot is NOT a f**king wi-fi card. I'd rather have a 2GB-4GB SD card in there, but what do i know.
Btw, according to Treocentral's frontpage article, "4GB SD Cards are supported on a limited basis."
You also do not mention the streaming WMV support, which is a first and a huge thing for a Palm device. And those of us who do have a PlaysForSure compatible version of Pocket Tunes, you CAN install it OVER the built-in one. Not like I care, but hey at least it's possible.
Since I do have Ev-DO access, and crave the added stability of the larger memory space, speed improvements and new features, i'm looking forward to this.
CRH's Dad @ May 15th 2006 9:26AM
Outdated OS released!
Mike M @ May 15th 2006 9:38AM
The menu button is now at the bottom right. I'm really hating that they moved it since A: it's used so much and B: it not very easy to hit it in it's new position one handed.
I hope no one used the right side shift key.
Ryan @ May 15th 2006 10:24AM
Quote "half the point of an SD Slot is NOT a f**king wi-fi card". That is because you didn't read the post or you don't understand the technology. He said Wifi is have the point of a SDIO slot, not an SD slot. SDIO is designed for devices primarily like Wifi cards, there is no reason this isn't supported. You don't need an SDIO slot for simple SD memory cards. So it is missing half the point of this slot.
Josh W. @ May 15th 2006 10:31AM
Any pricing info?
TechDude @ May 15th 2006 10:33AM
Yeah... this just goes to show how little effort they put into this product. They used the same button layout as the WM5 device, which in this case gave us one LESS button than we had before.
On top of that, the nly reason most people would choose Palm over WM5 is that it is easier to use without a stylus. So, why in the world would you want to risk ruining that by copying the WM5 layout which puts a major button so far out of reach?
If anything you'd think that SOMEONE would have cought the fact that their are two buttons with what appears to be the same function only a fingernails width apart from each other. At least on the 650 you coudl say that the dual shift keys could be usefull for left handed use and right handed use. But with the 700 they're right next to each other... WHAT'S THE POINT!?
For those who haven't noticed, I'm referring to the green button under the left side of the screen and the phone button directly under neith it. They're both used for the same purpose as far as I can tell. The Palm site says one is a phone button and the other is a "send" button... Yipee! I can't think of any "send" function that couldn't just as easily be mapped to the center of the D-Pad. GIVE US OUR MENU BUTTON BACK! :)
Very disappointing...
Gerard Rejskind @ May 15th 2006 11:07AM
I'm surprised at the condemnation of the 700p because it doesn't have Wi-Fi. If it did, no phone service would touch it. They want you to use an expensive data plan, not the free hot spots that keep springing up like mushrooms.
Carlton Bale @ May 15th 2006 11:20AM
No voice dialing over bluetooth? Are you kidding? This is a $500 (guessing) mobile phone. Any phone that expensive should have full bluetooth support. I'm wondering if the 700P even has a built-in voice dial application -- an even bigger miss if it does not.
I have a Treo 650 (Verizon) and the Palm bluetooth headset. These two devices do not work together very well. Sometimes the headset auto connects, sometimes I can't get the call to switch over the the bluetooth headset no matter what buttons I push, and hitting the button on the headset doesn't always do what it is supposed to do.
This is a high-end mobile phone. Palm needs to realize this and implement mobile phone features that are found in (and functional in) phones that cost far less.
Charles Darke @ May 15th 2006 11:28AM
How did you get the 'reverse DUN' working? Any pointers? I'm looking to get my 650 to connect via BT to my computer each morning to download email and bits of news etc.
Slaven @ May 15th 2006 12:26PM
"No voice dialing over bluetooth? Are you kidding? This is a $500 (guessing) mobile phone. Any phone that expensive should have full bluetooth support."
Sadly, I agree with you but some of these manufacturers think they're in a different ball-game that plays by their own rules. I'm finding that out the hard way after switching from SE P900 to HP hw6515. It is painfully obvious that SE (makers of phones) understand phone use much better than Microsoft and HP (makers of computers). For example, my HP device tells me "Call ended" with a chime if I try to dial a number that returns a busy signal, instead of giving me the friggin' busy signal! Something I had to figure out by using my P900 to call the same number. For more of those annoyances check out my brief rant at
http://slavior.blogspot.com/2006/04/windows-mobile-and-ipaq-hw6515_20.html
flamer's grill @ May 15th 2006 12:48PM
The PPC-6700 also did not have Voice DIaling over Bluetooth when it was released, but now you can download at update from Sprint.com with Bluetooth Voice Dialing support. I assume something similar will happen here.
ChillyWilly @ May 15th 2006 1:06PM
As I stated over on Engadget Mobile, I'm staying with my Treo 650. Not enough reasons to upgrade. The 2gd SD card I have solves the meager internal storage and another 37mb of internal storage isn't going to help. Plus in the month I've had my 650, I've only had to do one reset so far. It's stable, it stays connected and it's also a great Palm PDA.
Rkevwill @ May 15th 2006 1:26PM
Something smells fishy here. It has evdo so it doesn't need to support wifi? Thats what the gal from palm said? Well hows come the 700w supports wifi cards then? It has evdo also, so this is a bogus claim. Obviously, they just can't get frankengarnet to work on the treo with the wifi cards. Strange, since their wifi on the tx does work quite well. I am getting a 700p anyway, as its time to upgrade from the 700p, and the evdo will be nice.
Tom Karches @ May 15th 2006 3:09PM
Palm is pathetic. And irrelevant. No WiFi? I'm so not excited.
Sascha @ May 15th 2006 3:41PM
Hey guys.
I spoke to Palm, and they told me Wi-Fi wasn't banned ... just not developed. Something of a difference there.
I am also annoyed about the BT voice dialing issue, but I'm not going to let that poison me against this device before I see it.
Palm told me that there is no GSM/UMTS version planned because the whole point of this device is that it's 3G, and Palm OS can't handle the simultaneous voice and data connections of UMTS (no multitasking.) That might change, but there you have it.
Blackberry Connect is just a software program; I'm sure it'll show up eventually.
I am amused by people comparing this to Nokia N-series and E-series phones that are unlikely to appear in the US soon. This is a US/Canada device. If you're not in North America, nothing to see here. Enjoy your Nokia and Sony Ericsson gadgets that we'll never get on our side of the pond, and vive la diversite.
Pricing info soon, keep an eye on Engadget or PCMag.com as I suspect we'll be posting at roughly the same time. Or be nice and click on both of our sites.
Check out my post on the Wi-Fi and SD card issues:
http://gearlog.com/blogs/gearlog/archive/2006/05/15/11604.aspx
And my story, though it doesn't tell you anything you don't already know:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1961581,00.asp
Brit @ May 15th 2006 4:29PM
Ah, Palm, maybe one day you will multi-task. Nice hardware for a dated OS...you can polish a terd, but you still have a POS!
UncleGym @ May 15th 2006 5:59PM
EVD-schmO won't be enough to make me jump to a 700p. I did the Sprint PPC-6700 thing for a few months and was not impressed. And BT 1.2 and no voice-dial support??? Someone remind Palm that this is 2006!
soupbun @ May 15th 2006 8:31PM
"I spoke to Palm, and they told me Wi-Fi wasn't banned ... just not developed. Something of a difference there.
"
Sounds like the difference is "no, we couldn't figure out how to get it in there" vs "no, those people didn't want us too". Either way, they sound equally stupid and weird and hurts themselves and people who get duped into purchasing this POS.
"Palm told me that there is no GSM/UMTS version planned because the whole point of this device is that it's 3G, and Palm OS can't handle the simultaneous voice and data connections of UMTS (no multitasking.) That might change, but there you have it."
And there goes the other shoe. Palm can't put good quality products out because of the crap OS that's completely behind the times, and therefore can't take advantage of current technology. Also, this is a poor example to bring up, since UMTS is so limited in the US. But Palm's POS is lacking multitasking, which is truly one of the weaknesses. But if this guy actually read the posts, we're not complaining about lack of UMTS. We are complaing of lack of key features, like WiFi. WiFi is featured in almost every new NON-US smartphone. And all new smartphones feature a 2.0MP camera, some with Xenon flash and true-autofocus.
"I am amused by people comparing this to Nokia N-series and E-series phones that are unlikely to appear in the US soon. This is a US/Canada device. If you're not in North America, nothing to see here. Enjoy your Nokia and Sony Ericsson gadgets that we'll never get on our side of the pond, and vive la diversite."
I'd be amused by this ignorant remark too, except I'm American as well, but living abroad ATM. Which means I get to see the best each side offers. and remarks like this makes me think my American breathren are ignorant and idiotic. The rest of the world has moved on, the reason us AMERICANS don't get to see the good stuff on this side of the pond is that the telcos and their hardware partners are literally strangling us out of good technology and charging ridiculous prices for outdated technology. I'd understand if the technology is not available. The problem is that the technology is available, just not to us. The dumbest part of this guy's statement is that the better devices that we compare this POS to will also work on the US side of the "pond" as well. And thus, my point is, DON'T SUPPORT THIS CRAP COMPANY!
Homer J @ May 15th 2006 8:40PM
Thank you Palm / VZW for giving me absolutly no reason to upgrade....
thefultonhow @ May 15th 2006 11:13PM
I'm wondering if Palm gave the 700p the one feature that the 650 most needed -- reception that's up to par with normal phones. If they did that, then the 700p would be a good upgrade for that reason alone.
Brandon G @ May 15th 2006 11:21PM
So whats my best bet for a PDA Smartphone?
700w?
Calamier @ May 16th 2006 1:13AM
Does anyone know, I haven't been able to nail down an answer yet, I want a 700 but I despise windows and everything that associates with it. I want a 700p with palm OS, and it's gotta be verizon because my company pays for the plan.
john stross @ May 22nd 2006 8:52AM
so what's the short story on why or why not I should upgrade from 650 (works great) to 700 (Sprint)? either have a one button voice dialing?
lanejasper69 @ Nov 17th 2006 10:17PM
The menu button, is just relocated to bottom right on the face of the phone, still one-handed operable just fine. ;-)
great for "movies" hahaha ROFLMAO!!!
Faslane