Another Toy: Treo600

I had an older Sprint PCS phone for almost three years and while the battery was starting to give me issues, in general I still liked the phone. My only real complaint was that I knew that when that fateful day of switching phones would come, I would have to manually move all of the phone numbers stored in my current phone into the new one. I only wanted to do that once. So at the top of the feature list for any knew phone I might consider was the ability to store or synch contact information with a PC or PDA. This way I would never have to worry about losing both my phone and my contact list.

In January my younger sister was considering getting a cell phone herself and wanted to take advantage of a new plan offered by Sprint. My contract had ended long ago but I didn’t want to renew under a new plan until I found a phone I liked and could at least keep my off-peak time of 8:00 PM (most plans at the time had off-peak hours starting at 9:00 PM). Well, Sprint was offering a package with off-peak hours starting at 7:00 PM and for the same amount of money I was already paying each month, I could get more minutes. I was also considering getting a smart phone and the treo600 looked very enticing. To make a long story short, I got the Treo and a new plan and my sister ended up piggy backing onto mine. All in all we ended up with a great deal.

So what about the Treo? I really like it. It’s an impressive combination of phone and PDA. I had previously owned a Handspring Visor PDA and then a Sharp Zaurus, but the Treo would easily satisfy my PDA needs. As for being a phone, well, it takes a couple of days to get used to the buttons—though usually I end up looking up numbers from the ‘favorites’ buttons or the contact list. I don’t really use the camera very much and would have gladly traded it for a higher resolution screen. I am really starting to get spoiled by having constant access to the internet and my email. Smartphones will definitely give traditional PDA’s a run for their money.