This little bundle of plain-vanilla familiarity is seemingly the first live picture of Palm's upcoming Treo
800w for CDMA networks, known internally as the
Zeppelin -- you know, the obsolete airships that had a tendency to spontaneously combust. Specs on this one are starting to shore up, with Windows Mobile 6.1, EV-DO Rev. A, GPS, a 320 x 320 touchscreen (still novel by classic WinMo standards) and a typical Treo look and feel that doesn't diverge terribly much from Palm's tried, true, and well-worn formula. Sprint's looking solid to pick it up
come late July, but with
those HTCs around the corner, just how much love at the register is this thing gonna get?
[Via
PHONE Magazine]
Update: Looks like this thing
might also have WiFi. And some
serious girth.
posted May 15th 2008 10:37PM
Awesome!!!
I bet way more than you'd think.
I hope its at least alot thinner then current treos. I think just making that change alone, can do a world of good for palm.
I was thinking the same thing....thinner is long overdue at Palm.
It's not really thinner. A little smaller (a little more narrow and shorter). Think somewhere between a Centro and a 755P.
Thanks for the pictures. I'll probably hold out on the Instinct (unless I'm totally blown away) to at least give this device a chance. If it's thin enough, I might be a fuddy duddy and get the tactile keyboard over haptic feedback. Hopefully the Sprint one isn't that color.
And this is the result of 2+ years of R&D since the 700wx? Pathetic.
Someone at Palm seriously needs to fire their design team. Other than some movement of keys and the removal of the antennae, the Palm smartphone has pretty much looked the same since it's original release. It's a shame that a company doing as poorly as Palm is a) putting out a snooze inducing device like this and b) starting it out with a company that is losing customers by the boatload. This is a Centro....with a little more under the hood. You don't see Chevy putting the Corvette engine under the hood of a Cobalt so why is Palm doing this? If I was a Palm employee I would dust off my resume because they are heading downwards fast!
It's very nice, 3 years ago. The buttons looks beautiful.
Phones like that should be as thin as paper. It's not like it needs a monster battery to power its VGA-less screen. Or a monster processor to make it's formidable UI-not run smoothly.
There are no longer any reasons for Palm phones to be thick.
except to feel like your actually carrying something. and there is such a thing as "too thin". my centro could use slimming down, though.
and it does need to be somewhat thick because the battery isn't good enough still.
@derF and Tucker: So to you brilliant phone designers, What do you want this to look like? Keyboard on top? Maybe if the phone was a sphere...
Nobody that actually uses one wants them to change the button configuration or keyboard(its one of the best out there). So making it a little smaller and hopefully thinner and no external antenna and packing the goods inside this one: evdo, gps, wifi,320x320,more memory and processing and probably better battery life with 6.1 and hopefully the chipset and then a good camera and a memory slot and a brighter screen and you finally have the ultimate Treo...This could be converged heaven.
Palm, if you want to jump into the new 'cool phone' game with the xperia and Diamond, go for it.. But not with the Treo line!!! Please!
How about slimming it down a bit (
Your display must be hazy as no where in my comment did I mention being a phone designer......but I am even more important to Palm than that. I am a CONSUMER. There is a reason that Palm is tanking and most of it is the fact that they have not made significant changes to the design OR the UI. HTC, Samsung, Nokia....all of them have a great design and UI and are crushing the Treo lately so you would think that a company that USED to be as revolutionary and tech savvy as Palm would take notice. Enjoy your Treo now ( I dumped mine because it crashed, was heavy, email stank and the UI was lame) and based on revenue and profit, others are doing the same.
i gotta agree with Tucker to an extent. the Palm UI looks like its straight out of '94. i dont mind the ascetics of the actual phone but the UI needs to be updated. i just bought a Q9 in December and the only reason i bought that was for WinMo 6 and the keyboard. i had decided i wanted a Treo 750wx but Verizon didnt have it yet and i wasnt changing carriers. i love the Treo (one of my friends bought 1 on Sprint after i said i wanted 1, he's a copy cat) and im definitely buying one next time i get a new phone.
this one is certainly on my radar since the only thing i dont like about Treo's are the UI and i would want WinMo anyway so the UI isnt a problem.
For those curious at what the Sprint version may look like (charcoal black), here is a nice PS job:
http://www.wmexperts.com/articles/08/05/treo800%20black%20%2B%20proto.JPG
Why don't palm just come out with a windows centro, the centro sells so a windows one would sell also
The Treo 500 is coming to the US...
And I though Motorola was bad with the RAZR. Palm's biggest change in the last 5 years was removing the external antenna.
Side-on shoot for those interested in the thickness:
http://discussion.treocentral.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=17032&d=1210957922
yeah it looks like this might be headed for vzw too it is showing up in some internal reports, but like all new devices it will most likely be well after a sprint release