PATV Video Preview of the Treo 500v

Sammy McLoughlin of PalmAddicts fame has posted a PATV video to YouTube showing the new Treo 500v in action. In the nearly 8-minute long video, Sammy puts Palm’s latest Treo smartphone through quite a workout, starting with an informal unboxing of the unit and continuing to a physical overview and demonstrating the unit in action. The Palm/Vodafone co-branded packaging appears a bit more colorful and funky in appearance than Palm’s traditionally conservative packaging. Sammy performs his impromptu hands-on piece from a noisy coffee shop but nevertheless manages to give a nice tour of the device and highlights its surprisingly thin formfactor.

Once Sammy powers the Treo on, he gives an overview of the tweaked Vodafone “Carousel” launcher for WM6 Standard and then goes into a live demo of the surprisingly snappy performance and streaming video quality. Sammy makes specific mention of the quality of the streaming BBC broadcast on the 500v’s 320x240 LCD in full screen landscape mode.

One detail that can be gleaned from the video that has not been mentioned anywhere else is the fact that the hard application buttons are backlit in blue along with the illuminated green and red send/end buttons.

Sammy gives an overall positive opinion of the device, emphasizing the keyboard quality and size of the screen. He does indicate that the onboard speaker is a bit tinny sounding and he laments the choice to bury the microSD slot under the Treo’s battery. He even pulls out his iPhone for a side-by-side physical comparison with the Treo.

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Why bother?

treo007 @ 9/14/2007 2:20:30 AM # Q
Worst. "Review". Ever.

I'll never get those 3 minutes of my life back...

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Stop apologising, Sammy!

freakout @ 9/14/2007 4:00:18 AM # Q
We forgive you! ;)

It actually looks quite nice in the flesh. Widescreen video streaming looks v. nice.

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Large Screen!

LiveFaith @ 9/14/2007 9:12:42 AM # Q
Gosh dude. That screen is the same width as my Treo 680, and 1/3 SHORTER! The shape makes the entire screen filled with vid which fits nice. But to call these infintile screens nice and large is sad.

Good thing he did not switch on that iPhone that he compared it to. It would have been shameful. It has the real estate that people at PIC have been begging for since the T3. Sadly, we seem to think these little keyhole sized displays are actually acceptable? Have we thus forgotten how it felt to use a real PDA?

I reckon it's bring on the Centro next. :-(

Pat Horne

RE: Large Screen!
hkklife @ 9/14/2007 10:20:24 AM # Q
I think Sammy was referring to the fact that videos on that 500v's screen are not letterboxed like they are on the 320x320 Treo screens. What good is all of those pixels if they are not in the proper aspect ratio for video watching or if the video has to be impossibly cropped to fill up the screen?

At any rate, I think all of these engineers obsessed with small square 240x240 and 320x320 screens should be flogged (as well as the past-its-prime 320x240). I personally wouldn't dare put anything with less than 320x480 on the market nowadays. I thought the same prior to the iPhone and I certainly am of that opinion post-iPhone.

Remember, Pat, everything's relative. The sooner Palm puts the E2 and TX out to pasture and releases the Centro, the sooner they can start advertising the "standard" Treos are "large high-resolution screens" when you pit them against the cheaper Centro or the low-res Treo 700wx & 750!



Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

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Noticably smaller than iPhone...battery life?

TooMuch @ 9/14/2007 9:25:44 AM # Q
The comparative size of the Treo 500v with the iPhone shows it to be much smaller than the iPhone (though iPhone is a little thinner). The size looks good. However, how is the battery life?

RE: Noticably smaller than iPhone...battery life?
wildmantrader @ 9/14/2007 11:26:13 AM # Q
As least you don't have to send it back after less than a year to get a new battery installed. What was Apple thinking?
RE: Noticably smaller than iPhone...battery life?
PacManFoo @ 9/14/2007 4:15:35 PM # Q
You mean Palm, the company that introduced us to non-replaceable batteries?

PDA's Past and Present:
iPod Touch ???? Maybe soon.
Palm - IIIxe, Vx, M500, M505, Tungsten T, TX
Handspring - Edge, Platinum, Deluxe
Sony - SJ22
Apple - MP110, MP2000, MP2100
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