Comments on: Treo Replacement Battery Cover Review

I ordered this when I got my 700p in June. I have the Sprint version and it matches the paint perfectly. I love being able to reset (if I need to) quickly.

...and you can bet that you'll have to fight to get any warranty coverage. ten bucks plus shipping is a far better deal than having to argue for hours with Palm/Sprint that drilling an access hole in the cover does not negate warranty on your screen of keyboard (or whatever else they want to slither out of covering). Just walk in for service with the original pristine case cover and it won't be an issue.

You would think that after building handhelds for over 10 years now, Palm would have a clue that:

1) The Palm OS occasionally crashes

and

2) The plain-old stylus tip is pretty handy to use to reset their devices

But why, in 2006, they are still burying the ability to do a quick reset beneath layers and layers of ridiculous complexity is beyond me. Sometimes I really believe that nobody at Palm ever uses their devices on a daily basis - how else do you explain the 14MB of usable RAM on release of the Treo 650, the elusive reset holes, the "musical chairs" of the hardware buttons...

Seems that most major "innovation" of the Treo line since Palm bought it is ignoring the obvious and making worse the adequate.

you'll be inviting warranty troubles...

When your $650.00 "smart" phone locks up in the middle of rush-hour traffic, as you are waiting on (or in the middle of) an important phone call, and you have to take both hands off the wheel to pull off your protective case, then pull off the back cover, pull out and replace the battery (or take out the stylus and maneuver it into the *right* tiny hole), then put at least the back battery cover back on.... you may understand the reason people are appalled Palm still isn't including a simple reset hole in an appropriate place.

The iPaqs and Handeras of 5(?) years ago put the reset hole where you could easily reach them, directly with the existing stylus (while Palm was requiring you carry around a paperclip and/or twist off the tiny head of your stylus to get to a flimsy plastic "paperclip" end that fit in their holes).

Yes, Virginia - in spite of best precautions, most handhelds/smartphones will eventually crash. We've been asking Palm for 10 years to address it more elegantly - the Treo 650/700 "solution" is plainly stupid. Seidio is still making these covers and people are still actively seeking them out in droves - and it's ridiculous that this simple fix isn't already implemented on every Treo coming out today.

As for "debris" - I'm much more worried about the exposed keyboard, SD slot, screen, etc. than anything that could get into the battery compartment. Palm could even ship them with a rubber plug or piece of tape to appease people such as yourself that don't mind yanking off the cover in the "rare" needs to reset. Drilling out the cover and possibly voiding the warranty is a lot more trouble than covering it with tape.

Again, the cover has a less slippery feel than the original Palm cover and also improves the Treo's overall "feel". I am sure there are many of those out there who are not mechanically inclined and would rather pay $10 than risk destroying their Treos' battery door by taking a drill to it.

Also, to the best of my knowledge, no other company sells replacement Treo battery doors. If Palm did offer such an item, it'd very likely cost more than $10.

I'd personally consider a product like this much more useful than, say, an SDIO FM radio card.

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