Windows Mobile Palm Treo 700w Exposed

Engadget is the first to get their hands on a Palm Treo 700w, the long rumored Windows Mobile powered Treo. It's official name is the Treo 700w, which could possible indicate that a 700p that runs a version of the Palm OS could also be in the works.

The Engadget article shows the Palm Treo 700w operating on the Verizon network.
Some of the confirmed features so far are:

  • Windows Mobile 5.0
  • EV-DO Wireless Data
  • 64MB of memory
  • 1 megapixel camera
  • Bluetooth, SD slot
  • WiFI SD support
  • 240x240 pixel resolution
  • Removable battery

Palm Treo 700w smartphone Palm Treo 700w smartphone

Article Comments

 (87 comments)

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.

Start a new Comment Down View Full Comment Thread

Why reveal this hours BEFORE earnings?

SeldomVisitor @ 9/22/2005 2:32:34 PM # Q
Didn't have any effect on the stock price though - interesting.

RE: Why reveal this hours BEFORE earnings?
Ezra4no1 @ 9/22/2005 4:33:31 PM # Q
Neither did the Treo 300 when it was first introduced by Handspring.

http://mypdacorner.blogspot.com/
RE: Why reveal this hours BEFORE earnings?
AdamaDBrown @ 9/22/2005 4:42:02 PM # Q
Palm didn't exactly choose to reveal this. Besides which, I doubt that many Wall Street investors read Engadget.

RE: Why reveal this hours BEFORE earnings?
SeldomVisitor @ 9/22/2005 4:43:49 PM # Q
But, given the just-reported results, we may have a clue why they released that info...

Reply to this comment

Congratulations to Ryan and PalmInfocenter

ChiA @ 9/22/2005 2:32:13 PM # Q
on being fastest off the mark for Palm news amongst all the Palm websites; not even Google can find the Treo 700w!

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog" - Dwight D. Eisenhower
RE: Congratulations to Ryan and PalmInfocenter
Admin @ 9/22/2005 2:43:04 PM # Q
Thanks ChiA, the credit here goes to Peter and Engadget for getting the scoop on the 700w.
holy crap!
legodude522 @ 9/22/2005 2:43:28 PM # Q
First thing I said "oh ****!" I wonder what this means. Sign of the acopalsys to come? The second coming of Mike Cane?

Palm m125 December 25, 2003 to March 24 2004 > palmOne Zire 71 March 24, 2004 to March 31, 2005. Tapwave Zodiac 1 April 18, 2005 to present.
RE: Congratulations to Ryan and PalmInfocenter
InsGuy @ 9/22/2005 2:45:56 PM # Q
"The second coming of Mike Cane?"

:)


All good things...

Reply to this comment

Specs aren't really that great...

InsGuy @ 9/22/2005 2:57:28 PM # Q
It may be just me, but I think some of the specs of this unit are pretty bad. That's a terrible screen, and no Wifi; what's up with that? I think I'll pass on this one too (sadly, I've had to say that a lot about recent Palm offerings). :(

All good things...
RE: Specs aren't really that great...
twizza @ 9/22/2005 3:24:45 PM # Q
the RAM aint the ROM; WM5 needs at least 128 to give head room for OS and apps. the 64 is runtime space.

mobileministrymagazine.com
antoinerjwright.com
RE: Specs aren't really that great...
AdamaDBrown @ 9/22/2005 4:25:17 PM # Q
Chances are that leaving WiFi out is a sop to the carriers, particularly Verizon and Sprint, who want people to sign up for their EVDO service.

RE: Specs aren't really that great...
LiveFaith @ 9/22/2005 4:56:36 PM # Q
64MB of what kind of memory? WM handles things differently and 64MB aint 64MB when talking in Palm OS footprint terms, even NVFS. Sounds like Palm is being true to it's recent character ... skimping on specs. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Also, I know the 240x240 rez incompatibility has been beaten to death. But here again Palm skimps on features and lays an egg. The Treo 650 with 1/2 the physical memory will have better specs ... except for the WiFi compat.

Wow, it seems to me that if this is your cash cow and the Treo name is your flagship to lead into the future, then you would go for the jugular and give it the memory and rez to do it.

By this statement, Palm is hastening defeat in it's smartfone leadership. Once again, I'm baffled.

One side note. I would like to see the 650 side by side with this device. I'm sorry, but since the first photos came out this squarish look is terribly kludgy looking. The Treo 600 began with iPod-like beauty and form couple with funtionality. Whoever they let make adjustments is putting white walls and hubcaps on the companies Corvette. Maybe physical sight can redeem it?

Sorry to be so negative, but I think that logo on a Palm device switches on some real negative psychologies in me. It just seems that for your big splash into WM (cesspool?), that you would want the press releases and the buzz to be more about the "cutting edge productivity possibilities" ... or ... "blending of the best of the best" .. or ... "Gates - Hawkins exponential empowerment" or something. But, with the downgraded screen and functional sideways storage this yawner will evoke little more than "Is Palm making the Right Choice or Not?".

If only they had delivered the Treo 800g, we could have ruled the world. :-|

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: Specs aren't really that great...
ackmondual @ 9/22/2005 5:26:44 PM # Q
240x240 res? That's gotta be "WM low-res", lower than QVGA. At least the lower res with the same sized screen is gonna be easier to view. The RAM makes sense. 64MB on WM is as constrained as 32MB for a pOS treo.
RE: Specs aren't really that great...
LiveFaith @ 9/22/2005 5:30:08 PM # Q
Oops. Sorry, here they are side by side. Now it's still a decent looking smartfone. But it just looks like Palm hired an accountant to take a copy of the Mona Lisa and make it look better. Every single line on it looks heavier and clunkier to me. The 4 hard buttons may be a little more ergo and possibly the thumboard.

http://img.engadget.com/common/images/3060000000046185.JPG?0.055509021227959976


ackmondual said ... <>

Huuuuh? View what ... the jaggies? You're gonna have to explain that one to me. My mind just did a soft-reset on that one?

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: Specs aren't really that great...
LiveFaith @ 9/22/2005 5:35:45 PM # Q
I love this feature ... Landscape orientation provided by WM5! Man that does wonders on a square screen! :-)

http://img.engadget.com/common/images/3060000000046187.JPG?0.5326460025704068

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: Specs aren't really that great...
ackmondual @ 9/22/2005 8:16:38 PM # Q
meh, ppl like LCDs over CRT monitors b/c of the less footprint. I actually used my T3 in landscape mode with the slider closed b/c of my own cramped workspace while listening to music.

Otherwise, a more useful feature would be handedness. It seems many lefties would kill to have the scrollbar to the left.

RE: Specs aren't really that great...
LiveFaith @ 9/23/2005 12:04:58 AM # Q
I'm out.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com
RE: Specs aren't really that great...
WareW01f @ 9/23/2005 1:29:09 PM # Q
Sad to see that the 240x240 is true (need to do more CE programming) Course the Garnet hi-rez hack is just that. So is it just me, or does anyone question why someone, as a CE person would choose a Treo over another CE phone. With the PalmOS, its not really like you have a choice, but you enter the CE market and you get to play with the likes of HP....

The other is the WiFi battle, some carriers may not want it, but T-Mobile won't carry it without it. What a joke!

Oh well. I'm still looking to the GSPDA camp for some comming innovation. I think the first company to make a flip with a thumb pad will get the gold on the phone side.

It's really to bad that Handspring didn't by Palm. The zen is gone. With people flocking for Moto Razors I think Palm is barking up the wrong (size) tree. At least PalmSource^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HAccess has it's sights on the 'low end' Where's the cheap Zire of the Treo line?

RE: Specs aren't really that great...
AdamaDBrown @ 9/23/2005 7:39:35 PM # Q
"The likes of HP" is exactly why somebody would want a WM Treo. If you haven't been following HP's attempts at building a phone, the executive summary follows:

Attempt #1 was a full-size PocketPC with a unicorn antenna. Died on the vine.

Attempt #2 was a bulky jacket to give GSM functions to their existing PPCs. Died for lack of interest.

Attempt #3 actually made it to market as the iPaq h6315. Huge, slow, notoriously buggy, and substandard build quality. Was eventually taken out to the woods and shot.

Attempt #4, the iPaq hw6515, is in limbo. No carrier has picked it up, it's barely for sale, and OS support is in question.

Attempt #5, the iPaq hw6715, is also in limbo, many months away from release, and while it at least has WM5 and WiFi, it's future is uncertain.

Suffice it to say, HP's track record is dubious, at best.

RE: Specs aren't really that great...
arp @ 9/28/2005 6:45:48 PM # Q
Exactly - and I think this is a smart move by palm if you think of them as a hardware company only (which they are now). There may well be a huge unexploited market of people who like the looks of the treo but are winmob fans. It's not like palm has pulled the treo 650 from the market...

--
http://www.arpx.net/article.php/top_10_palmos_applications - my top 10 palm apps
Reply to this comment

Duct Tape?

4s @ 9/22/2005 3:00:15 PM # Q
What is that on the top of the screen? It looks like duct tape.

<><
RE: Duct Tape?
4s @ 9/22/2005 3:04:38 PM # Q
OOPS. Hit the button twice. I must really love duct tape.

<><
RE: Duct Tape?
sr4 @ 9/22/2005 3:08:56 PM # Q
They are still covering an ID number. This must still be a pre-release unit. I wonder if Palm did any customizations to the OS.

Surur

RE: Duct Tape?
4s @ 9/22/2005 3:13:44 PM # Q
Cool. Thanks.

<><
RE: Duct Tape?
twizza @ 9/22/2005 3:22:26 PM # Q
Its still a dev unit. No labels on buttons as well as ids being covered. VZW wont have it availiable till MAy-ish if the last two treo releases are standard.

mobileministrymagazine.com
antoinerjwright.com
wow, i thought it was transparent tape
ackmondual @ 9/22/2005 5:40:20 PM # Q
Duct tape makes so much more sense :x
RE: Duct Tape?
WareW01f @ 9/23/2005 1:24:27 PM # Q
If it's like the 650 there is a 4 character number on the front that *should* be traceable to the person/company that the device went to (in theory, whether Palm is that together is in question).

Reply to this comment

Wow i though i'd never see the two together

Frenchie @ 9/22/2005 3:32:19 PM # Q
Palm and Windows Mobile.


This is a sad day.

The world will end in 2006. Just as it was predicted in the bible along with the release of Microsoft Longhorn.... :p

RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
joej @ 9/22/2005 4:06:50 PM # Q
I agree - this is like seeing Windows running on my beautiful iMac - I feel like I am going to throw up.... This is not good. I long for the old days of unification - why, oh why, did they split?

Newton. Sharp Mobilon. Psion 5, 5mx. Visor Deluxe. Clie N760. Palm Personal, III, T, T2, T3. SE t68i on T-Mo.
RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
rmcalister @ 9/22/2005 4:09:26 PM # Q
Yes, this is a sad day.

Intel running Mac OS X, Palms running Windows Mobile...

Oh well.

RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
joej @ 9/22/2005 4:13:26 PM # Q
If Palm tanks I will go to Symbian. I will go back to a paper planner before I will use Windows Mobile.

Newton. Sharp Mobilon. Psion 5, 5mx. Visor Deluxe. Clie N760. Palm Personal, III, T, T2, T3. SE t68i on T-Mo.
RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
hkklife @ 9/22/2005 4:41:14 PM # Q
joel: No need to jump ship. Just buy two or three cheap Palm T|whatevers when signs of tanking are imminent and you should be good to go for a couple of years.

This is all, of course, the fault of Palm's penny-punching beancounters & past management. They set this chain of events rolling in '98/99ish by utterly failing to advance the platform past its hunble monochrome, basic PIM beginnings--NOT because of pressure from Sony etc. as some have hinted at on PIC in the past.

Frenchie/mcalister: (Pick your barnyard analogy here) This cash cow/workhorse/tired old mule of an OS has been ridden/milked as long as possible. They are going to put a WinMob saddle on the tired old Treo formfactor and give it one more round-up before the sun sets for good.

That said, I'll still take a FrankenGarnet Treo with comparable specs to this 700w variant. This makes the rumored specs we saw a month or so ago of an updated Palm-based Treo look VERY believable (64mb NVFS, 1mp camera, EVDO etc). With a slightly wider/larger 320*320 screen, the Palm-based Treo really becomes a more attractive proposition for those who care about their smartphone's display sizse & resolution. Especially if the 700p comes in @ an MSRP $100 less than the 700w. I like the countoured edges of that leaked Palm-based Treo much more than the angular edges & buttons on the 700w.

RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
bsquare @ 9/22/2005 4:42:32 PM # Q
>>This is not good. I long for the old days of unification - why, oh why, did they split?

- To milk the tail end of the dot-com boom for all it was worth
- Golden parachutes for the cracker jack execs who were running Palm into the ground
- Stock options for executive level veeps at Palm to cash out
- Mo' Money for those who didn't really need it anyway.
- 2 board of Directors = MORE $$$ for those execs.
- definately NOT for long term profit or for the good of the user

basically anything that may have ever resembled old-school tech culture had already been sucked out of Palm long ago and it was just the suits looking to cash out as much as possible at the expense of the hard working grunts and us users. Typical.



RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
javispedro @ 9/22/2005 4:48:45 PM # Q
I still think this is someone's joke gone too far.

RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
AdamaDBrown @ 9/22/2005 4:58:42 PM # Q
hkklife, maybe I'm missing something: why would a 700w cost more than a 700p?

javispedro, Engadget' credibility is impeccable. If they say they have one, they have one.

RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
hkklife @ 9/22/2005 5:09:20 PM # Q
Customer perception, plain & simple. MANY of these units will be sold to enterprise/corporate accounts, so it'd make sense to price them higher initially so the corporate discount discount doesn't make as drastic of a "hit" on VZW.

Remember, no one ever got fired for buying IBM..same concept applies here. The VZW sales staff can show the fancy media functions, the nifty menus & eye candy and tout that a WinMob Treo is easier to use/learn and has "better graphics".

The i730 currently sells for, what, $200-$250 more @ Verizon than does the Treo 650 and adds, what, wi-fi and a physically larger screen?

If $100 is too high then they can at least milk $50 more out of the 700w over the 700p.

RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
Sam H @ 9/22/2005 5:47:24 PM # Q
If Palm tanks I will go to Symbian. I will go back to a paper planner before I will use Windows Mobile.

If (when?) Palm OS tanks I'm going to Maemo. They should have found a better display layer by then. The current one (X) is so very, very slooow...

RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
whydidnt @ 9/22/2005 6:13:24 PM # Q
hkklife, the i730 has significantly more RAM, EvDO, Bluetooth Voice Dialing and a 2nd battery included. I think it's easy to see why it's more expensive than the 650. If the 700p has roughly the same specs as the 700w, I think the 700w is going to be a tough sell at $100 more. Especially since I don't believe that MS will allow Palm to modify the OS to the extent that they can with POS, meaning all that one handed goodness everyone loves will be compromised.

For someone who has been hoping Palm would realize a WM Treo, I am pretty disappointed in the announced Specs. It seems to me Palm thinks they can play the old don't give them everything else at once card so you can sell them the upgrade. Unfortunately, in the WM space they'll have to compete with others that are trying to give users everything.



RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
AdamaDBrown @ 9/22/2005 6:24:30 PM # Q
meaning all that one handed goodness everyone loves will be compromised.

Actually, WM5 comes with one-handed navigation, and the button layout in the photos (OK and Start menu buttons) shows that the 700w is equipped for it out of the box.

RE: Wow i though i'd never see the two together
hkklife @ 9/22/2005 7:22:02 PM # Q
whydidnt;

If you think the 700w is weak with its specs-for-the-$, just look at the new reports that the TX is launching at $450!! It makes the 700w look like a veritable bargain in comparison.

They're DOOMED with pricing like that!

Reply to this comment
Start a New Comment Thread Top View Full Comment Thread
Achtung! Only the first 50 comments are displayed within the article.
    Click here for the full story discussion page...

Account

Register Register | Login Log in
user:
pass: