Two weeks with a Treo smartphone
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I have been thinking about upgrading to a smartphone for a while. I really want to be able to check email and know what's on my calendar when I'm out and about. In Vermont we have Verizon and Unicel with some presence from Sprint. I have been on Verizon for a while. I debated for months (it's the nature of a Libra) over the Treo or the Motorola Q. I finally went with the Treo 700wx. (Note that I originally mistakenly typed 755wx. I was dreaming!) I've had it for 2 weeks and am returning it. There are a lot of things I like about it, but I have a showstopper problem. It is making me blind. I can barely read it, but if I let my eyes adjust to focus on it properly, then I can't see anything else for quite a while. FOr example, I cannot even look at a computer screen afterwards (which I already have special glasses for) or text on paper (which I sometimes use reading glasses for). Last night I was driving and actually pulled over to try to dial my sister (it's still challenging for me to make a phone call!) and after I pulled back on the road, I was having difficulty with my vision then, too. That's pretty dangerous. One of my other reasons for going with a smartphone was because of my curiosity about Windows Mobile. However none of the Verizon phones support Windows Mobile 6, which is totally aggravating. The final straw is that it is just way too confusing for me to use. I have given up trying to get my voice mail dialing in there (not Verizon, but my local voice mail) which requires pauses. I have a really hard time pulling up contact info and dialing. It is physically cumbersome to use and I keep wishing I had my old simple cell phone back. This means that probably a regular smartphone (rather than a PDA) is going to float my boat more aptly since I still want to be able to check email and my calendar. But that poses two challenges. 1) If the PDA screen is murdering my eyesight, the smaller smartphone screen won't be an improvement. I think I'm going to try a Blackberry before I step down to a smartphone. I got to look at one last night and I can actually READ the screen! Plus it's smaller and lighter. No Windows Mobile, but I suppose I have enough technology to learn as it is. I don't think I'm going to start learning how to program for Windows Mobile any time soon anyway. I'll let you know how my search goes! |
Comments (3)
I've had a Treo 700wx since the beginning of 2007. (I don't know how similar it is to the 755wx, but I assume it is somewhat...) I haven't experienced the vision problems you are having (yikes!), but I think in general PDA phones do not make very good phones. I think they are getting better - my Treo is much better than the first T-Mobile Pocket PC phone I saw several years ago. But they are still better PDAs than phones, in my opinion.
In my situation, it is not a huge deal, as I am not dependent on my cell phone on a daily basis. I have a customer who is using an earlier version of the Treo for an application I built, so having a similar device is useful to me. But if I needed to use the phone all day, I'd probably get a different one. I find dialing to be a pain. (My son says I need to check out Microsoft's voice command software. I used to have voice dialing on my old non-PDA phone, and I loved it. Maybe that would make it better.)
Posted by avonelle Lovhaug | August 14, 2007 12:11 PM
Hi Avonelle. First I need to clarify - I have the 700wx. I have been researching the 755 (not available from Verizon anytime soon) and accidentally typed that in the blog post.
I do believe it has voice dialing if I was smart enough to plug my bluetooth headset in. But in truth, the vision issues are too much of a showstopper.
I think that the possibility of playing with some mobile development is why I was interested in the PDA over a smartphone (which also has Windows Mobile, but stripped down a little) or a blackberry.
We'll see how many I have the patience to test out in the next few weeks. And I can only test the phone calling when I am away from my house, since I have no cell service. But I can work on all of the other features at home since I have interent access when I'm synching to my computer.
Posted by Julia Lerman | August 14, 2007 12:20 PM
I used Palm based PDAs for the last several years. I have owned several versions before finally getting a Samsung PDA/Phone combo. Eventually, I upgraded to a Treo 600 and then 650. I have always found the Palm devices to be quite capable and easy to use. I say all this because one of the problems with their success is that they subsequently tried to shoehorn Windows Mobile onto the popular Treo form factor. Unfortunately, much of what made Treo's great was lost in the conversion. The Windows version had a lower screen resolution, and using the individual apps were not as easy as the corresponding Palm versions.
Like you I recently decided to get a phone upgrade. I looked around at all of the devices on the market and could not find any that I really liked. I kept my options open and looked at Palm, Windows and Blackberry devices. I eventually settled on a BlackBerry 8800. The only thing it is missing is a camera, but I can live without it. The one on the Treo was not that great. So now if I want pictures I'll be forced to actually take a real camera, which means I'll get decent pictures. There are some new 88xx versions out there that add some additional features. It has taken me a couple weeks to really get used to the BlackBerry, but now I am as proficient with the BlackBerry as I was with the Treo. One benefit that you might appreciate is that you do have some control over the font size used for the device. So if things appear too small, just crank up the font size a little.
Posted by Joe Brinkman | August 15, 2007 11:20 AM