palmOne Announces the Treo 650 Smartphone

Posted By: Ryan Monday, October 25, 2004 12:01:01 AM

palmOne today officially introduces the new Treo 650 smartphone, the latest member of the Treo smartphone family. The Treo 650 combines a compact, full-featured mobile phone with a thumb keyboard with email, a Palm OS organizer, messaging and web access. It adds many requested features such as a high resolution screen, Bluetooth wireless and an improved camera.

The Treo 650 will be available as either a digital dual-band CDMA/1xRTT or a GSM/GPRS/EDGE quad-band world phone, with pricing to be set by individual carriers. Each carrier will make its own announcement on the release timing and price options. General carrier availability is expected to begin later this year in the United States, with worldwide rollout to follow in 2005.

Design and Features
The Treo 650 improves upon the successful design of the Treo 600. The screen is a sharper 320x320 pixel high resolution 65,000 color TFT touch-screen display that offers improved visibility in sunlight. It also adds an improved camera, integrated Bluetooth wireless, a removable battery and non-volatile memory.

The keyboard features larger and flatter buttons arranged in a smile pattern. The keys also have an improved backlight for use in dark situations. The launcher and menu keys have been moved around the 5-way to create a central navigation region. More phone like green and red "send/end" buttons have also been added.

The VGA camera has been improved to take better pictures, especially in low light situations. It now features video capture and playback, 2x digital zoom and a small fixed mirror for self-portraits.

The Treo 650 runs Palm OS Garnet v5.4 on a 312 MHz Intel PXA270 processor. It includes 32MB of non-volatile Flash RAM (of which ~23 MB is user accessible), that will stay preserved even when not charged or the battery is removed. It has dimensions of 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.9 inches (11.3 x 5.9 x 2.3 cm) and weighs 6.3 ounces (178 grams).

The built in expansion slot can accommodate MMC, SD and SDIO cards. However, it will not support the palmOne WiFi SD card at launch. palmOne claims to be evaluating the situation, so there is only a slight potential the card will eventually be supported.

The Treo 650 comes with a 1900 mAH Li-ion rechargeable battery that can be removed. Additional replacement batteries will be sold by palmOne for $59.99 USD each. Battery life for GSM models is rated at 6 hours talk and 300 hours standby, while the CDMA version gets 5 hours of talk and 300 standby. The 650 includes the new Multi-Connector for recharging and hotsyncing the Treo via a cable.

Software
The Treo 650 now comes with much of the same software as the Tungsten line. This includes palmOne enhanced PIM suite, the Blazer web browser v3.0, VersaMail v3.0, the Real Player for mp3 audio, and Dataviz Documents to Go v7 for Word, Excel and PowerPoint Microsoft office files and email attachments.

With VersaMail's support for POP and IMAP email servers, users can download mail wirelessly or by synchronizing with their desktops. For Enterprise users whose organizations run Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, the Treo 650 has built in Exchange Server ActiveSync that will directly import and enable corporate email and calendar synchronization.

The Treo 650 lets users send and receive sms/mms text messages, photos or video clips right away from one application with a single inbox. And with text messages threaded in a IM chat-style view, users can see the entire conversation.

With Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Memos and more, the Treo 650 lets users organize and simplify their business and personal lives all in one place. Users can dial contacts by name from their contacts list or enter a name or number on the QWERTY keyboard or on-screen dial pad. Speakerphone, speed dial, conference calling, call history, and caller ID are there for managing calls.

"Today's mobile society needs to be productive while on the go without sacrificing access to important personal and professional data. With the Treo family, customers can be even more effective and efficient because of our seamless combination of mobile phone, email, organizer, web browser and messaging," said Ed Colligan, president, palmOne. "Treo smartphones let people do what they want, when they want and just about anywhere they want."

UPDATE:
The Sprint Treo 650 is now available for pre-order.

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Cost?

Finch @ 10/25/2004 12:06:22 AM #
wow finally....its out...but whers the price????

Handhelds....Palm IIIe (Symbol Limited Edition) =====> Symbol SPT 1800 =====> Symbol PPT 2800 =====> Palm Vx =====> Zire71 =====> Sprint Treo 600
RE: Cost?
justauser @ 10/25/2004 12:26:47 AM #
What's with Palmone and their recent trend of announcing products before they're available for purchase? I thought they discovered the follies of this course of action back in the m505 days?

RE: Cost?
ReneeRoberts @ 10/25/2004 1:03:50 AM #
Four little letters: CTIA

RE: Cost?
tellit2be @ 10/25/2004 1:37:23 AM #
"with pricing to be set by individual carriers"
RE: Cost?
Wolfgard @ 10/25/2004 9:43:31 AM #
Cool phone, but no thanks if it debuts at the same price as the Treo 600 when it came out. I'd rather get the SE P910 then:)

pen & paper -> m515 -> Zire72 -> TH55
RE: Cost?
WuWei @ 10/25/2004 4:12:50 PM #
The cost is $599! At least that's what Sprint is charging.

OK, PalmOne executives, I'm writing out the check. Hold your breath until it gets there.


A lemon. Brand new 650 keeps crashing and rebooting
kevink @ 11/28/2004 2:52:37 AM #
My 650 crashes and reboots itself every other time I try to access the Web. I've already tried resetting the Palm, etc.

No, I do not have any 3rd party apps installed. Yes, I have done several hard resets. No, I am not trying to use sync software for an earlier mode.

I'm very unimpressed with the quality of Palm products. I paid $599 for a device that crashes more often than it works. Would most likely never buy anything with the Palm name again.

RE: Cost?
Strider_mt2k @ 11/28/2004 3:07:00 PM #
Well don't announce it here!
We've already been slammed for being negative about P1.

We don't need factual accounts from users making things worse!


RE: Cost?
mikecane @ 11/29/2004 1:55:14 PM #
He just registered. Makes me wonder if it's the MS Disinformation Corps at work again...

RE: Cost?
Gekko @ 11/29/2004 2:46:45 PM #

Check out the TreoCentral 650 forums:

http://discussion.treocentral.com/forumdisplay.php?f=70



Lemon turned into lemonade :)
kevink @ 12/8/2004 2:09:04 AM #
After much arguing with Sprint customer service, I got a replacement 650 and now everything is working just fine. The display and camera have been majorly improved over the 600. BTW, I am NOT a shill for Micro$oft.

No WiFi SDIO...

treo007 @ 10/25/2004 12:09:13 AM #
Wow, let the beatings begin. Look PalmOne, great product, but it's not carriers won't let you do this. There are plenty of other smart phones out there supporting WiFi (a lot obviously even have it built in).

With such little available memory, I'm not sure I'd want to take up my SD slot anyway.

RE: No WiFi SDIO...
LiveFaith @ 10/25/2004 1:50:18 AM #
Yeah, but most everything else to make this the logical successor of the 600 and the new standard among converged devices. A phenominal device.

After getting "taken deep" with the T5E2, PalmOne pitches a shutout with the Treo 650. 48 or 64mb would have been a no-hitter.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: No WiFi SDIO...
justauser @ 10/25/2004 2:24:05 AM #
I think this device may create a lot of converts to Smart Phones from people like myself who have been hanging on to their old T/T eagerly anticipating (and being disappointed by) the successor. I am looking forward to discarding my current mobile phone and getting my hands on this baby. Don't care about WiFi - don't want it don't need it.

RE: No WiFi SDIO...
Fernando @ 10/25/2004 10:42:38 AM #
while this is a nice palm, the only thing it's really missing for me is a wide screen. ALl i want is a palm with internet access at school (either wifi or cdma/gsm will do), widescreen (at least half vga) and a way to keep the battery charged. While the treo 650 is one of the closest devices that palm has released in the last while (the last being the T|C), I will hang on to my T|T for a while longer.... at least until the full vga dell ppc comes down in price, or palm releases a pda with those specs.... whichever comes first

Taking the hit on memory... :-(

jho4thclie @ 10/25/2004 12:28:35 AM #
As absolutely heartbroken about the memory as I am, I will most likely still make this my next device.

I'll really have a hard time going from the 55MB I have now (T|C, then TT3) down to less than 25MB available but if it means FINALLY having a fully-capable, OS5, high-res, bluetooth Palm device that lets me carry one less device, I'll go for it. All this means is that I need to get a bit more friendly with my quarter-gig SD card. :-D

I hate my T610's guts... I'm really looking forward to getting rid of it. So...

... Let's get moving, T-Mobile... I want a Treo 650!

-JWH

RE: Taking the hit on memory... :-(
millydog @ 10/25/2004 1:03:22 AM #
I also have a T3 and are considering the Treo 650. I currently use a SE T68i with my T3 but the phone has gone a bit flakey and does not always work. If the memory for the 650 was at least 64MB then I would not hesitate, but it is a downgrade from the T3's memory size.
I have a 1GB SD card on order though....so maybe. Has anyone else switched from a T3 to a Treo 600 or is anyone thining of the switch from a T3 to a Treo 650?

RE: Taking the hit on memory... :-(
drw @ 10/25/2004 3:45:47 AM #
I'm sticking with my T|C/T610 combo for now. Next upgrade I see is whenever sprint rolls out EVDO (provided they don't try to charge $80/month like verizon, which, if they do, I'll stick with my $5 unlimited T-Zones on T-Mo.)

---
David
RE: Taking the hit on memory... :-(
framecatcher @ 10/25/2004 9:10:31 AM #
I switched from my T3/T630 combination to Treo 600. I had to make some sacrifice on the resolution, bluetooth and memory but on the whole it has been a very pleasant experience. I am still keeping mt T3/T630 and I thought I would be switching them every now and then with my Treo 600. However very soon I was used to the conveience of carrying only the Treo 600 because I can do everything with it. I don't need WiFi. My unlimited GPRS plan gives me more convenience to surf the net anywhere instead of trying to find a hotspot.

I would like to get a Treo 650 some day but not now. I will wait for the price to drop (may be in six months). Then I can enjoy the high resolution and bluetooth with my SE bluetooth headset.

RE: Taking the hit on memory... :-(
jdh @ 10/26/2004 10:28:45 AM #
I'm a T3 user, and ever since the initial speculation on the 650, I've been seriously considering taking the plunge back to a smartphone PDA.

I had the Kyo 7135 until about a year ago, when I replaced it with a T3 and SE T68i, because there was just no comparison in terms of capabilities.

I would miss the 320x480 screen resolution, and the larger screen on the T3 (if you compare, the Treo 650 is definitely a smaller screen, even compared to the T3 with slider closed), but for me, too, the big thing is the memory... Considering I normally run with <5Mb of free RAM on my T3, I'm not sure I could even *handle* the decrease in useable RAM...

I *do* have a 1Gb card, but it's still not highly effective for running applications from, as they always have to be copied back and forth to/from live memory, which means that a large enough chunk has to be kept free just to support that, and it takes longer for these apps to launch.

At the price of memory these days, I'm really not sure why PalmOne didn't just give us 64Mb in the 650... (although I suppose it's possible that this newer non-volatile flash memory may be more expense... ).



I hope this one is built better than my Treo 600 was

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 10/25/2004 12:01:55 AM #
Please don't mess up a great design with c r a p p y construction, Palm.



******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: I hope this one is built better than my Treo 600 was
kevink @ 11/28/2004 2:54:32 AM #
The 650 is not well built, IMHO. See my reply to the first thread here.

When Treo 650 will arrive in HK?

asiayeah @ 10/25/2004 2:37:33 AM #
I just wish this time Treo 650 will arrive in Hong Kong soon. Last time it took half a year for Treo 600 will arrive in Hong Kong, after it was available in the States!

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.
RE: When Treo 650 will arrive in HK?
Black B @ 10/25/2004 12:43:05 PM #
Yes, I have been waiting this product for few months. But, it seems palmOne Hong Kong will not release Treo 650 before 2005. I am not sure I can get rid of the SE P910’s temptation.
RE: When Treo 650 will arrive in HK?
Gatchaman @ 11/18/2004 8:17:16 PM #
The currect promotion of Treo 600 with free m505 is valid through to December 31st... i'd expect the 650 to be released soon after
RE: When Treo 650 will arrive in HK?
Gatchaman @ 11/18/2004 8:19:27 PM #
that should be current promotion

Network search

pascanu @ 10/25/2004 2:41:07 AM #
I am very happy with my Zire72 and this one looks like I can have everything I've got PLUS a smartphone. I really look forward to getting one.
One thing though: I understand Treo600 is unable to automaticaly reconnect once it has lost signal (at least the GSM version). Does anybody know if this has been fixed, because it is more than annoing to constantly check if your phone is "online" or you are missing important calls!

Handspring Visor -> m505 -> Zire71 -> Zire72

RE: Network search
gilbas99 @ 10/25/2004 5:40:00 AM #
I have the Treo600 GSM version, and I don't have problems getting back to the network after a subway travel.

Direct Exchange Server connection

coolcactus @ 10/25/2004 3:31:25 AM #
I am wondering what this new possibility to connect directly to an exchange account means for companies like Blackberry or Good. Doesn't that render their Exchange add-on and mobile software obsolete?

Interesting but not a T3 replacement

WuWei @ 10/25/2004 3:29:41 AM #
Interesting. I don't know that much about cell phones; got mine from my employer years ago. However I notice this has the screen & memory size of the best selling Tungsten E, so people are getting a real PDA here. I hope they sell a lot.

I won't buy one because it would be a step down from the T3: smaller screen, less memory, and keyboard instead of navigator.


RE: Interesting but not a T3 replacement
MikeInDM @ 10/25/2004 11:34:51 AM #
I didn't know they planned on this being a T3 replacement.
RE: Interesting but not a T3 replacement
tellit2be @ 10/25/2004 4:01:40 PM #
I *think* the T650 has the same resolution as the T|E, not the same size screen.
RE: Interesting but not a T3 replacement
Rhauer @ 10/25/2004 4:05:31 PM #
(T3, Jobra 250, Siemens S56) What is the screen size. Is it the same size as the T3 closed. I don't think I'm ready for an all in one unit but I don't ever open my T3. Maybe I don't need the extra real estate.

RE: Interesting but not a T3 replacement
WuWei @ 10/25/2004 4:10:46 PM #
Yes, I said it wrong. The Treo 650 has the same resolution as the T3, but a smaller sized screen.

Even more importantly, it was just announced by the first carrier that the Treo 650 will sell for $599! That would buy two discounted T3's.

RE: Interesting but not a T3 replacement
JonathanChoo @ 10/26/2004 6:13:46 AM #
The Treo 650 has a 320x320 screen whereas the T3 has a 320x480 screen.
RE: Interesting but not a T3 replacement
Rhauer @ 10/26/2004 11:12:23 AM #
Isn't that the resolution. What is the real estate.

infrared port?

rened @ 10/25/2004 3:52:13 AM #
Does this Treo have a infrared port? Couldn't find the answer elsewhere.
RE: infrared port?
WuWei @ 10/25/2004 4:14:17 AM #
Yes.

http://www.palmone.com/us/products/smartphones/treo650/details.epl

RE: infrared port?
EdiVenturin @ 10/25/2004 4:18:29 AM #
HAve you taken a look at the picture in this story?

MP3

pcrymble @ 10/25/2004 5:33:34 AM #
Hi

I've got a Tungsten T - although the MP3 player is good the volume isn't loud enough - so you have to use a seperate amplifier.

What is the volume like on the Treo 600 and if its not good, has the 650 addressed it..

As always, device convergence is the key to my custom!

Thanks
Peter

----------------
Peter Crymble
Palm Tungsten T

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