Lots of Treo 650 Details

There’s a whole lot of buzz going on about the newly unveiled Treo 650.  Unfortunately a fair about of it is actually a bit on the negative side.  This is part of the problem with having lots of leaks getting out which at most match but in some cases have exceeded what was actually the case in regards to the 650's capabilities. 

The main overexpectation relates to camera on the 650.  For weeks, the rumors and asserted pretty categorically that it would be a much improved 1.3 megapixels, a resolution at which one could actually print 4x6’s that look identical or nearly so to film.  But as it turns out, this is not the case.  The camera is the same 640x480 (0.3 megapixels) that the Treo 600 camera is.  This is good enough for sharing some small images on the web, or between phones, but not much else.  As a digital photography afficiando, this is of course very disappointing to me and especially considering that many much cheaper and smaller phones have been coming out with 1.3 or higher megapixel cameras, it really doesn’t make much sense.  Heck, there’s even a 5 megapixel camera now!  Oh, but wait, the new phone has a 2x digital zoom!  Oh, I guess that makes up for any lack of resolution, hahah!  To be fair, the camera is supposed to be enhanced, but I'm not sure if that means optically.  What it does mean is that the phone will be able to take small video clips (no word on actual length or resolution specifics yet), so at least that's something.

There’s also been some confirmation that Wifi will not be supported, at least in terms of an expansion card that offers this functionality.  For the Treo 600, this was due to power capacity for the SD slot, but it seems that radio interference is what PalmOne is using as its excuse this time around.  While this is disappointing as well, there wasn’t an expectation that it would be offered.  I think such functionality should be, but then again, I think we will see within the next two or three years a kind of merging of current cellular technologies, wireless internet technologies, Voice Over IP, etc. As they all race towards higher speeds and larger coverage areas, this will undoubtedly mean competition for mobile users who want to talk and use network services at high speeds from anywhere and everywhere.

Sprint, which apparently will offer their 650 first, as with the 600, had PalmOne disable the Bluetooth functionality for their Sprint-branded phones.  This is reportedly because they don’t want the Treo to use Bluetooth as a way for the phone to act as a cellular modem to connect a computer to the internet.  I actually used to do this a few years ago with an old Palm Vx via the IR port, but I think Bluetooth offers a lot more speed.  Then again, we are still talking about modem speeds at most and it’s hard to believe that users who would do this wouldn’t just try to do the same thing via a USB hotsynch connection.  This is yet another example of how Sprint, as others, have actually crippled users capabilities for no good reason.  Yes, it means some people will be using their connections more, but if the customer can talk on these connections instead, why not use data?  Perhaps Sprint customers should signal their displeasure by calling people and staying on for hours (overnight?) during free calling periods.

Looks like the 650 will have the same smaller 2.5mm headphone jack, meaning that in order to plug in a standard set of headphones (say the ones you use for your portable MP3 player), you will need still need that extra adapter.

Ok, so much for the bad stuff, what about the good stuff?  Well, for one, the multimedia press release, which is a series of videos of people using the Treo and its various features (note:  the videos seemed to lean a little towards the business end of things.  They did show a woman taking a picture of a car, but my main thought is that maybe they are trying to market the 650 more towards the business user, and this seems to be born out by the much tighter integration with MS Exchange.  This would also explain, at least somewhat, the lack of improvement with the camera, since cameraphones are seen more as consumer/non-business devices), shows a wireless keyboard.  If you check out the Treo 650 Add-ons product page, you will not that this is not Bluetooth as I had initially thought, but infrared.  Still, this is new for the Treo and should provide a better interface for those who do extensive keying.  It looks to be slightly larger than the Treo when folded up, but expands to be about ¾ the size of a laptop keyboard.  Then again, with the improved keyboard of the 650, I wonder if having an external one will be much of an issue.

Luckily PalmOne will be coming out with their own Bluetooth wireless headest, and at $100, it seems pretty competitive.  Not quite as competitively priced – to the point of being entertaining – is a 256MB SD memory card that PalmOne wants to charge you $80 for.  I realize that maybe they feel like they have to offer it and will actually make some serious profit from this from people who don’t know or care that you can get four times this amount for about the same price in many places online and offline, but still, it’s a bit shameless!  Hmmm, that’s odd, another page on their site details their range of SD prices and lists the same 256MB card for $60 instead!  Get it streight, will ya?  Still way overpriced, but not quite as bad.

On PalmOne’s Bluetooth page, we do see mention of a “Bluetooth-enabled GPS accessory” but the link provided just goes to the general “Add-ons” page with no information about such accessories.  Still, this type of GPS receiver has been available for other devices, so I’m sure that those will work fine with the 650 if it has a standard implementation of Bluetooth.  This does lead me to wonder, though.  Would it be possible for a company to come up with a device that provides Wifi connectivity and then routes that to a Treo via Bluetooth?  I haven’t done the research to know whether this is possible or whether it’s already been developed, but that would be one way of getting around the lack of a built-in Wifi capability and the lack of support for a Wifi expansion SD card…

As far as software, the camera interfcase, the phone interface, and the web browser have been redesigned.  The mail application has been replaced by Versamail, a much more full-featured product which will sync not only your email but also your calendar with Microsoft Exchange servers, although I still saw no mention of "push" delivery.  Realplayer has also been added (replacing a free coupon for PocketTunes), which it looks like will only be used for listening to MP3's rather than watching steaming (or non-streaming) video.

Here are a few other links to stories that haven’t been mentioned already:

Treo 650 is Official - Engadget

Even more Treo 650 pics - Engadget

Treo 650 Announced - very detailed report from TreoCentral.com

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