My Treo 600
Months ago, I promised to review my Treo after I had had a proper chance to to use it and get over the judgement blinding lust. I guess I’m due to follow up on that promise.
I own a GSM Treo 600, unlocked. I am using it with T-Mobile in Los Angeles. When I was waiting for it, I was all excited with the prospect of surfing the web, SSHing into my machines, chatting with my friends from anywhere on the globe. I knew the future, and I knew the Treo was a step towards that future.
Oops. After a couple months, I now know that I was wrong. The Treo is still a step towards the future, just not the one I had envisioned. Browsing the web while on the go is useful. So is being able to SSH into remote machines. But those type of tasks are more easily (and comfortably) accomplished on a full size computer. The real future for mobile computing is one as the role of the universal communicator. Chat, email, SMS, call, video conference, whatever.. from anywhere at anytime. Mobile unified messaging. What do people want to do with their computers? No, they don’t want to run Word or Excel (they only do that because they have to). They play games, they read the news, and they communicate with their friends (or strangers). Games.. mostly only younger males. News.. probably older working adults taking a break. Chatting.. everybody, all day, every day. That step from land line phones to mobile phones? That is the step that devices like the Treo and Hiptop/Sidekick are making from commuicating by phone, IM, etc.
We’re not there yet though. Like the first mobile phones, this step is a first awkward, unsteady step. As a phone, the Treo 600 is a little on the big side. Not too big to standout, but I’d say it is larger than average. Also, as a phone, it isn’t as reliable as other phones I’ve had in that past. Granted this is really just an evil of having and allowing a vast variety of third-party software. Calls get redirected to VM if I’m using data. I specifically bought the GSM version to avoid this. But I guess it appears to be a network issue, as others in different countries report it to be functioning as expected. I can only hope that the network will be upgraded in my Treo’s lifetime (right).
On the plus side, it was handy to chat with others when necessary. I’ve had times when I needed to look something up online when I was out in the middle of nowhere (though most of the time it supplies me with toilet reading material, when there is none). I’ve had to send a couple emails as well.
IM isn’t as well integrated as the Hiptop/SideKick. But there are more options available, and the Treo isn’t limited to AIM. Out of the box, E-mail isn’t as well integrated as the Blackberry or the Hiptop, though with Good (and possibly in the future, RIM itself) it is. And there are plenty of POP email clients to choose from.
There it is. Not as well integrated as the others, but it offering freedom and potential. I am quite happy with mine. Can I live without it? Probably. Would I recommend it to others? Maybe. Everybody can benefit from universal communicators. Some day all “phones” will be like the Treo in that respect.