Orange Launches the Treo 600 Accross Europe

Orange today became the first operator announce the availability of the Treo 600 in Europe. The new Palm OS 5 smartphone will be available in the UK, France and Switzerland next month.

Orange helped develop the device with Handspring, the two companies worked together to refine the hardware and integrate the Orange look and feel, applications and services that bring a unique customer experience to the device.

Handspring Treo 600 ~ Click for largerAs an Orange Signature phone, the Treo 600 also features exclusive services for Orange customers such as an innovative function called Orange Backup. Orange Backup allows customers to store their personal and business data – such as contacts and calendar – on the Orange network and restore those details when required.

About the Treo 600
The Treo 600 runs Palm OS 5.2.1 with a 144 MHz Texas Instruments OMAP processor. It will have a 160x160 pixel 65k color screen, 32MB of RAM and a SD/MMC/SDIO expansion slot. There is also a Five-way navigation dial for one handed operation. The Treo 600 has a built-in digital camera (640 x 480 VGA), so you can take and send pictures or connect a face to a phone number with picture caller ID. It will also feature a dual speaker architecture for high-quality phone and system audio.

It will have a large capacity 1800 mAh rechargeable Lithium Ion battery for up to six hours talk time (GSM); or up to five hours talk time (CDMA); and about two weeks organizer use for both versions.

David Nagel, President and CEO of PalmSource said: “The Treo 600 is a high-performance device that displays the power and simplicity of Palm OS. Together with over 19,000 applications available for Palm Powered handhelds and smartphones, I believe the Treo 600 and the Orange network services provide the perfect solution for personal and business use.”

The Treo 600 will be available sometime in October in the U.K., France and Switzerland. It is expected to sell for 299 pounds in the U.K (subject to contract), EUR399 - EUR459 in France (dependant on plan) and CHF 499-679 in Switzerland (also dependant on plan).

Handspring previously stated the phone will be available though Handspring's web site and Sprint PCS in the US in the fall. Other carriers are also expected to be announced later.

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Cool Phone

Sholey @ 9/17/2003 10:45:45 AM #
That is the best "smart" phone on the market today. Way to go Palm OS!

RE: Cool Phone
mikecane @ 9/17/2003 10:55:20 AM #
Do you actually have one or is this just a fanboy rave post?

RE: Cool Phone
Sholey @ 9/18/2003 1:02:48 PM #
Just a fanboy rave post!!
But you have to admit it is the best "smart" phone on the market!


What frequenz?

Georg @ 9/17/2003 11:03:38 AM #
Does handspring do the same marketing as with the old treo?
European version only 900 and 1800 Mghz - not usable in USA
American Version only 900 and 1900 Mghz -not usable in every GSM-Coutry outside teh USA!

Or has Treo developed on his end an "real" GSM Phone with all three frequenzes?

RE: What frequenz?
orol @ 9/17/2003 11:28:52 AM #
no, treo600 is much better, the GSM version is actually four band, yep you read it correctly 850/900/1800/1900 . it's pretty much interesting
not to mention blazer 3.0 is actually netfront 3.0 therefore is only 24MB user accessible (NF needs heap, lot of heap)
plus there is a good chance that blazer 3.0 will be available also for other OMAP users however funtionaly is questionable => T has only 384kb heap space, T2 3MB (what is goog but still way too low) and zire only 1MB ..

RE: What frequenz?
fool faughter @ 9/17/2003 12:03:24 PM #
I get the 900/1800/1900 but what and where does the 850 come in to play ?

RE: What frequenz?
orol @ 9/17/2003 12:20:31 PM #
850MHz frequency is used in certain US states for GSM

RE: What frequenz?
mikecane @ 9/17/2003 12:32:28 PM #
So is this finally the PalmOSphone all those Europeans can buy *here* and take back home to use? I see tourists in stores in NYC constantly wanting to buy such things.

RE: What frequenz?
digilaw @ 9/17/2003 1:42:32 PM #
850 is used by Cingular in some areas.

RE: What frequenz?
Edward Green @ 9/17/2003 6:28:50 PM #
Except Mike that it is released in Europe already, and by the time you guys get it will be dirt cheap on contract.

/o:

Edward Green
--
http://www.khite.co.uk

RE: What frequenz?
mikecane @ 9/17/2003 7:09:48 PM #
Are CLIEs and Palms really *that* much cheaper here in the US? I'm constantly running into Europeans wanting to buy these things at CompUSA, J&R, DataVision, et al. They always ask if the AC adapter can be used in Europe -- and for phones, if it does all GSM frequencies. And some of the newbies ask if they can download their native tongue to it! That is, turn an English Palm into a Swiss, German, et al, one...

RE: What frequenz?
orol @ 9/18/2003 5:01:28 PM #
yes its so cheap .. e.g. I bought all my PDAs in US, either in person (have there 3 times) or via friend/ebay ..
reasons at the time in europe palmIIIxe cost cca 700+ german marks (cca 350usd at that time) I bought one in CompUSA for 250!
I bought TRGpro for jus $80 (actually I was lucky because the person put it in the wrong category ;-)
I bought SJ30 for $200 when it costs 369 euros
and last but not least case, I bought 3 month ago brand new TG50 (I even got that free leather case as mail in rebate :-) for just $240, whereas the same TG50 cost 469 euros
another good example is UX50, you can get it for cca $530 form some webshops, but do you know how much cost it in finalnd ? over 1000 euros!! i.e. $500 more! :-) you can evne buy a ticket to NYC buy new UX and you will still have some money to get drunk :-)

Correction on Screen

yoyoman412 @ 9/17/2003 11:49:32 AM #
"It will have a 160x160 pixel 65k color screen, 32MB of RAM and a SD/MMC/SDIO expansion slot."

The screen is actually a 12 bit color (around 4,000 colors) screen. One of the Treo 600's features that really pisses me off. It should be at least 16 bit if not 320x320 resolution.

Yoyo

RE: Correction on Screen
orol @ 9/17/2003 11:59:14 AM #
are you for real ? they always stated it has 65k colors but reflective CSTN display.

RE: Correction on Screen
fool faughter @ 9/17/2003 12:02:09 PM #
There is no question on the 160 X 160 but I find many conflicting articles and announcements (orange) on if it is 12 bit or 16 bit color

RE: Correction on Screen
mikecane @ 9/17/2003 12:08:27 PM #
http://www.pdafrance -- which also has new photos -- says:

"Résolution 160x160 et 4096 couleurs."

RE: Correction on Screen
Bartman007 @ 9/17/2003 12:20:54 PM #
hmmmmmm, this sounds familiar....
"We have 65k colors!"
"No you don't"
"Yeah, your right only have 4096 but with softare we have 65k colors"
"No you don't"
"Oops, sorry math mistake, with software we only have 58,521 colors..."


Peace,
-Bartman007

RE: Correction on Screen
guesswho @ 9/17/2003 1:08:20 PM #
you forgot:
-have a sim city.
RE: Correction on Screen
helf @ 9/17/2003 2:18:01 PM #
OMG!? Only 4thouand colors!?!? How will we ever survive!?!

get a life...

RE: Correction on Screen
Bartman007 @ 9/17/2003 2:24:22 PM #
I'm not complaining, 4k colors would be fine for me... I was just saying that we have heard this discretion before.


Peace,
-Bartman007

RE: Correction on Screen
helf @ 9/17/2003 2:29:36 PM #
oh, I was replying to yours, just yoyo's :) Yours was rather funny :)

RE: Correction on Screen
mikecane @ 9/17/2003 7:11:47 PM #
For a cellphone, isn't 4096 colors enough? What's that Sony-Ericsson Symbian phone using? 65K colors?

RE: Correction on Screen
bcombee @ 9/18/2003 6:40:45 AM #
The 4096 colors is a bit painful when using the built-in camera, as it tends to render pictures poorly. However, the camera does work fairly well, and I've beamed pictures from a Treo 600 to my Tungsten C and had them look really nice on the C's screen. It captures and beams as JPEG files, so any standard Palm OS JPEG viewer, including the Pictures app on the T|C and Zire 71, can handle them.

--
Ben Combee, CodeWarrior for Palm OS technical lead
Programming help at www.palmoswerks.com

Sorry, but this form factor is SO MUCH better:

Gekko @ 9/17/2003 3:41:09 PM #
http://tinyurl.com/nqx5

I predict that the great majority of mass-market Joe Lunchbucket consumers will buy the Motorola/MSFT phone over the Treo 600 due to form factor and heavily subsidized-cost. And the mass economies of scale will further crush the next-gen Treo sales as the MS Smartphones get more and more marketshare. It's a rolling snowball, and there's nothing you can do about it.


RE: Sorry, but this form factor is SO MUCH better:
blue1973 @ 9/17/2003 4:13:42 PM #
How yes SOOO much better, blue screen of death on my cell phone.
Umm do I have to wait to place a call will my phone runs a check disk? Hackers will have a ball... can anyone say sms virus?!


RE: Sorry, but this form factor is SO MUCH better:
Gekko @ 9/17/2003 4:22:52 PM #
calm down, nerd. I know you nerds hate MSFT, but give the devil credit where credit is due.

RE: Sorry, but this form factor is SO MUCH better:
blue1973 @ 9/17/2003 4:46:42 PM #
Nerd? F- you geek. Credit were credit is due? Micro$oft was supposed to have released there smartphone a year ago. Have you used any of the current Motorola phones?? They are garbage, nothing like the stuff they made 2 years ago.
Do you REALLY think this will sell?? Cell phone providers have tried like hell to promote smartphones/palm phones and have failed so far.

RE: Sorry, but this form factor is SO MUCH better:
Marshall Flinkman @ 9/17/2003 7:12:13 PM #
"the great majority of mass-market Joe Lunchbucket consumers will buy the Motorola/MSFT phone over the Treo 600"

And then what? Dollars to donuts many of them will return the phones after they find that model doesn't live up to its promises. How many of those will go for something potentially more expensive (i.e. the Treo) and how many will opt for something simpler and less involved is harder to call.

RE: Sorry, but this form factor is SO MUCH better:
mikecane @ 9/17/2003 7:12:54 PM #
blue: Thanks for your above post! Some people never learn. They think the MS Beast is unstoppable.

Wait til people *try* Smurfphone. I did yesterday. It's worse than Pocket PC!

RE: Sorry, but this form factor is SO MUCH better:
mikecane @ 9/17/2003 7:14:10 PM #
Oh, blue: and I must add that I think the Treo 600, if priced right (that's the big if!), will do way better than MS Smurfphone.

For one, those who wish their Palms were also a phone can now have that.

Secondly, they can run their full Palm apps -- not shaved-down versions of PPC software that Smurfphone offers.

(I actually saw a person with the older Samsung PalmOS phone just an hour ago on Fifth Ave in NYC. First one I've seen. I've seen several Treo phones over the past year. Only *one* PPC Phone Edition...)

RE: Sorry, but this form factor is SO MUCH better:
scstraus2 @ 9/17/2003 7:35:56 PM #
If I didn't know you worked for Microsoft, I would recommend the Samsung SGH-i500 http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/3238.html
if you love that form factor so much. Personally every flip phone I've had has broken in a year, so I'm not real keen on that form factor. Also I've become quite enamored of thumboards (much to my own surprise). Why would you buy a M$ softphone- it doesn't even run regular PPC software. And they're all brick size.

RE: Sorry, but this form factor is SO MUCH better:
Fandoz @ 9/18/2003 5:44:55 AM #
What about this from Kyocera? Its got the looks..
http://www.kyocera-wireless.com/7100_phone/7100_phone_series.htm

unfortunately it can only do CDMA

mikecane..i'm european..and i don't think its got much to do with price but selection...my local computer store barely has any Palm models

FYI: availability in Italy

rbrazioli @ 9/18/2003 7:30:49 AM #
It is possible to book for it in the Handspring italian web site.

It is reported as available in September and priced at 899 Euro.

R.

RE: FYI: availability in Italy
orol @ 9/18/2003 5:13:18 PM #
are you for real ?? gee I can't believe it :-( I guess I'll keep my TG50 with 512MS Pro and maybe I'll be a 1GB MS blah.. 899 euros way too much for a cell phone even a smart one!

RE: FYI: availability in Italy
rbrazioli @ 9/19/2003 3:50:11 AM #
Yes it is.

I think that, if some mobile operators will ofeer it, the price may be lower.

I've checked another source and it's the same price.

http://www.handspring.it
http://www.misco.it

ETA for Germany?

diment0 @ 9/18/2003 8:56:47 AM #
Does anyone have an ETA for the German release of the Treo-- with the English or German version of PalmOS?


Mother of all Treo 600 Reviews!!

ozz @ 9/21/2003 9:48:15 PM #
I just ran across a review of the Treo 600 that is awesome! The reviewer is Jake Ehrlich. The review is a mindblower. It is not full of technical details but has enough detail about the features of the Treo 600 that you will learn all you ever want to know about it. Jake's style of writing is fun and easy to read. Take time to read this review. You won't regret it:

http://www.jakeehrlich.com/Review/Treo600LoveArticle/Treo600.htm


_________________________
Lord, help me become the person my dog thinks I am!

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