January 19th, 2006

PDA Pundit: Treo vs. Treo

Sr. Editor Yardena Arar

The unimaginable has finally happened: Palm, once considered the
arch-nemesis of Microsoft in the handheld universe, has joined forces
with the software behemoth to produce a Windows Mobile-based Treo, the
700w. It's the end of the PDA world as we knew it.

But it's also a real opportunity to compare the Palm and Windows
Mobile operating systems on more or less equal hardware, since the
Treo 700w looks a lot like the Treo 650.

I own a Treo 650, which I reviewed in late 2004:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...,tk,grx,00.asp

Palm recently lent me a Treo 700w for review:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...,tk,grx,00.asp

True, I haven't lived with the Treo 700w the way I have with the 650,
and there are some quirks you only discover over time. But if you're
ready to take the Treo plunge and are wondering whether to go with the
Palm OS or Windows Mobile version, here are some observations.

The Network and the Hardware

First of all, remember that you aren't making this purchase in a
vacuum: You'll be taking on a network along with the device. Part of
the Treo 700w's appeal is that it supports one of the fastest data
networks available, Verizon Wireless's EvDO BroadbandAccess service,
which you can read about here:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...,tk,grx,00.asp

If you're in an area where Verizon Wireless offers its 3G service, the
700w will download Web pages and e-mail faster than any other cellular
carrier's handheld as of this writing.

The fastest Treo 650 is carried by Cingular. It supports Cingular's
EDGE service, which typically performs like very good dial-up. The
Sprint and Verizon versions of the Treo 650 support these carriers'
1xRTT data networks, which are somewhat slower than EDGE.

The Treo 700w beats the 650 on several other specs. The 700w has 128MB
of built-in memory; the 650 has a paltry 32MB. (Both have Secure
Digital Card slots that you can use to add memory or applications.)
The 700w has a 1.3-megapixel camera; the 650's can only capture VGA
images, the equivalent of 0.3 megapixel.

Both the devices are powered by a 312-MHz Intel XScale processor; both
use the same charge/sync connector; and if you want to listen to music
in stereo, you can use the same headphone adapter on either model.

The Treo 650 does win on one key spec: Its screen resolution is 360 by
360, compared to 240 by 240 for the 700w on a display that's a hair
larger than the 650's. But I can't say the difference was noticeable
enough to be a major factor in my evaluation. Same goes for the
weight: The 700w is a mere tenth of an ounce heavier than the 650.

Bottom line on hardware: The Treo 700w wins for performance, but
that's not because it's a Windows Mobile device. Palm could easily
create a Palm OS-based Treo for EvDO or HSDPA (the GSM/GPRS high-speed
counterpart) that would be just as fast and pack more memory--and it
likely will.

The Software Difference

That brings us to differences that do relate to the OS, which
basically boil down to user interface. Palm has always insisted that
the Treo is first and foremost a phone, and as such should be easy to
use with one hand, without a stylus. Both the 700w and the 650 allow
you to do this very well.

However, I found it easier to look up a contact with the Treo 650:
Click the Phone button, then the Contacts button, then type in the
first initial and the last name of the person you wish to call. It
turns out that this is a pretty efficient way to do the lookup.

When you hit the Treo 700w's Phone button, you get the Windows Mobile
Today screen, to which Palm has added a contact lookup field (one of
many Palm modifications to the standard Windows Mobile OS). If you
start typing, the OS assumes you are doing a contact lookup. But the
lookup isn't the same as on the 650: With Windows Mobile, if you want
to search by first initial and last name, you have to type a space
between the two. Otherwise, the OS assumes you are searching by either
the first name or the last name. If you have several contacts with the
same last name, you might not get to the one you want as quickly.

You don't have to search by name; you can start keying in a phone
number. However, the software assumes you're searching for a name
until it runs out of contacts that would meet the search criterion; at
that point it assumes you were dialing in a number. With the 650, if I
hit the Phone button and start composing a number using the keypad,
the device knows that's what I'm doing right away.

Getting to call logs is a snap with the Treo 650 since there's a Call
Log button right on the Phone screen; with the 700w, call logs are a
menu option on the Today screen. Since I frequently use call logs to
initiate calls, I found the extra steps required by Windows Mobile
somewhat annoying.

But Palm has given the 700w phone features I wouldn't mind having on
my 650, starting with its speed dial. You can create speed-dial
buttons on the Today screen with either text (e.g. "Mom," "Dave") or
thumbnails of photos you've attached to Pocket Outlook contacts.

You can also answer an incoming call with a text message--assuming the
call is coming from a phone that accepts text messages, which most
cell phones do these days. The 700w's Pocket Outlook Contacts offers
assistance here since it identifies incoming calls not only by name,
but also by which phone a contact is using, so you can see if the call
is from a mobile phone.

Palm also added a voice-mail management system that uses icons rather
than numbers. You can set it up for different voice-mail systems (e.g.
home, office, and of course Verizon Wireless's voice mail) so that you
don't have to remember which numbers to punch in to replay a message,
delete it, and so on.

Managing E-Mail

Both the Treo 700w and the 650 offer out-of-box support for Microsoft
Exchange e-mail, the former through its Windows Mobile messaging
center and the latter through its bundled VersaMail application. The
Treo 700w's e-mail application also supports Hotmail, a nice plus.
(With other devices--including the 650--you have to access Hotmail via
a browser.) But you must set up your Hotmail access via the Pocket MSN
screen; if you use the default e-mail account setup, you'll just be
sent to Pocket MSN and have to start over.

For basic e-mail management, however, the Treo 650's VersaMail is
superior to the 700w's messaging center. Windows Mobile's settings are
sparse, to say the least. For example, VersaMail lets you specify
whether to delete messages on the server after you've downloaded them,
and I saw no such option in Windows Mobile.

Also, VersaMail lets you mark specific, nonsequential messages and
then sort or delete them as a group; there's no way to select a group
of messages using Windows Mobile's default POP3 application.

VersaMail isn't perfect: It retrieves messages before sending outbound
e-mail, and sometimes I don't want to have to wait for all the e-mail
to arrive before I send a message. But after checking out the Windows
Mobile offering on the Treo 700w, I'm happy to stick with what I've
got.

Overall, that about sums up my feeling about the Treo 700w. It's fast;
it's got a few nice phone features; and if I have to use a Windows
Mobile hybrid, I'd rather have a Treo than any of the other Windows
Mobile smart phones I've seen. But do I feel any desire to surrender
my Palm OS-based Treo? No. I'll just upgrade when a faster version
comes along. The best things about the Treo 700w have little or
nothing to do with Windows Mobile.

For more news, reviews, and tips on handheld devices, visit PC World's
Info Center for PDAs & Cell Phones:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/info...,tk,grx,00.asp

Have a question or comment? Write to Yardena Arar:
pdapundit at pcworld.com

Read Yardena Arar's regularly published "PDA Pundit" columns:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/colu...3,tk,gr,00.asp

===
"Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done."
-- Andy Rooney
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› See More: Gadget Report [PDA Pundit: Treo vs. Treo - 01/19/2006]