Palm Treo 680 vs. Apple iPhone Comparison
UPDATE: Please also see my Treo vs. iPhone take the day of its launch in my post iDay: The Apple iPhone Revolution Begins
After literally years of rumours Apple finally officially announced its much anticipated iPhone (pictured below in proportion to the Treo 680) due to be released in June 2007 and naturally everyone is already hotly debating just how much of a “Treo Killer” it has the potential to become.
I have to begin by pointing out the obvious. Namely, the iPhone is primarily a consumer multimedia phone and not a business smartphone. As such any potential Treo vs. iPhone comparison should be principally limited to the equally consumer oriented Treo 680 and not the rest of the Treo family.
Let me start by a simple comparative chart of the specifications below:
Screen Resolution + Input Method (Palm 1: Apple 0)
Because the iPhone uses a virtual ‘soft’ on-screen keyboard instead of the full QWERTY keyboard on the Treo, Apple has naturally used this additional space to increase the screen size. The resulting design is very similar to the one that I outlined in my post “A Future Virtual Thumboard Treo?” as well as “Future Treo Prototypes Roundup”.
I have already had the opportunity to test the virtual Thumbboard on a Palm LifeDrive and while it is certainly a unique and innovative concept I don’t believe that it is a match for a full physical keyboard. Having said this, since the iPhone has not actually been released yet any usability considerations of its new “Multi-Touch” screen technology will naturally be limited and subjective.
Operating System (Palm 1: Apple 0)
The PalmOS has now successfully powered many generations of Treo smartphones while the OS X variant which powers the iPhone has yet to prove its mettle – particularly when it comes to telephony where Palm has had the benefit of a long learning curve.
Storage (Palm 1: Apple 0)
The opportunity to have 4 or 8GB of permanent storage on the iPhone may prove appealing at first but the fact is that seasoned Treonauts fully understand the higher benefits that an external SD card storage provides. For some $150 I can easily add an 8GB SD card for data storage on my Treo without limitation to the number of cards that I can use.
GSM + Wireless Data + Camera (Palm 0: Apple 2)
While both the iPhone and Treo 680 share an almost identical Quad-Band radio with GSM/GPRS/EDGE support there is no doubt that Apple wins points here by adding WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 and a 2.0 megapixel camera. However, the use of WiFi is likely going to quickly drain the iPhone’s non-removable battery which is a consideration to keep in mind. Also, a 3G iPhone is planned for Europe by the end of 2007.
Battery (Palm 1: Apple 0)
While the battery performance of the iPhone and Treo 680 are fairly similar with 5 and 4 hours of Talk Time respectively there is no doubt that the removable battery on the Treo provides significantly better power options for Treonauts on the go.
Dimensions + Weight (Palm 1: Apple 0)
While the Treo 680 is some 15% heavier than the iPhone the fact is that I consider the additional weight of the full QWERTY keyboard, SD card slot and removable battery to be well worth it.
Leaving these technical specifications aside the iPhone does offer some unique and innovative features that our Treo could certainly learn from:
- I am extremely impressed by the overall look & feel of the user interface with very rich graphical elements which I have been yearning to see equally well represented on the Treo (see An Issue Of Design). The UI looks rich, inviting and user-friendly.
The iPhone’s “Visual Voicemail” which allows you to go directly to any of your messages without listening to the prior messages so you can quickly select the messages that are most important to you is a feature that many Treo power users have suggested for some time but which Apple is now first to implement.- With a full iPod interface inside the iPhone it is clear that people will be delighted by its Music, Movies and Photos capabilities.
- The Safari web browser looks extremely robust and has a stunning display for web pages.
- iPhone uses a rich HTML email client that fetches your email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services and displays photos and graphics right along with the text (albeit it looks considerably more complex to use than on the Treo).
- The iPhone’s “Widgets” like the Weather pictured here above are an absolute pleasure to look at and the iPhone’s “horizontal scrolling” is equally smart.
- Advanced sensors including an accelerometer detect when you rotate the device from portrait to landscape and changes the display orientation; a proximity sensor detects when you lift the iPhone to your ear and turns of the display while an ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness.
At the same time there are some things that I already quite clearly dislike about the iPhone interface:
- The main Phone interface appears to be significantly more complex and cumbersome to use when accessing your Contacts and dialling a number
- The SMS functionality with a small screen and odd keyboard (pictured here below) is significantly less user friendly than the award-winning one on the Treo
Conclusion
It’s funny that the iPhone should so clearly have helped me to better recognize the terrific accomplishments that Palm has delivered with our Treo. It may not be immediately perceived to be quite as “cool” as an iPhone but the fact is that the Treo clearly deserves the praise and success that it has already achieved.
I have no doubt that the iPhone and all its cool iPhone accessories will be an extremely successful device in its own right – one which will continue to help grow the smartphone space with an even younger generation – but for now at least I certainly don’t believe that it will be a Treo-killer.
At the same time I am delighted to see Apple enter the smartphone space as the increased competition will certainly help to bring even more and faster innovation to our Treo as all players battle it out to attain the leading market position.
Treonauts are always ready for a battle… 
Comp
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Comments
The iPhone will crush Treo's dead.
Smell the coffee. It's obvious that a lot of people commenting in favor of the Treo have little or no experience with Apple technology. OS X is about 1000x more advanced than Windows in terms of providing a more satisfying and more productive user experience, and now Apple is bringing that to bear on phone technology.
As a Mac user, I chose the Treo as the best smartphone option in the past year, but I am reminded almost every time I use the thing that there are so many things wrong that would be improved if Palm shared Apple's philosophies about design and technology.
There seems to be a strong personal bias in this comparison which discredits a lot of the iPhones features, without actual hands-on use for example, or discrediting them as superfluous features.
I think we should reserve judgement until the device is out. One thing is for certain, this device has a lot of people excited and is creating a buzz that no Treo device ever has.
I am a long-time Palm user, from the Vx to my current 650, including a small foray into PocketPC. After having watched the various Palm devices evolve over the years, I can honestly say that my enthusiasm for the platform has waned. My next device will likely be a RIM BlackBerry or perhaps this iPhone. My last few Treos have been less than reliable and built poorly.
I feel that this review is pretty one sided.
I am a Palm Fan. As much as I wish for a Treo win, I'm afraid that Treo wouldn't win this round.
Instead of trying to assure ourselves that Treo is not in danger, why not sit down, see how can we help to improve Treo.
I agre, the iPhone IS stunning, but afte they eye cndy has lost it's taste all I see is a scratched/broken screen, battery frequently low, running out of storage, (especially for those of us with 4-GB and 8 GB SD card and used to ipod 80GB video) just couldn't go back to limited storage after 80GB iPod, and 8GB Treo 700p...
Virtual keyboard, nah..not for me thx..too cumbersome.
But I do love the horizontal auto-rotate display and Wi-Fi, Bluetooh 2.0 built in...A Treo Killer? No...
A Great phone? Yes! Very cool.
I just don't think It's going to replace my Treo 700p that'll do Movies, Tunes, web, and everything else, albeit not as pretty in some cases, just as fuctional and certainly more rugged than the iphone...and used to my 80GB ipod, i couldn't see cramming *some* of my stuff onto 8GB, and not ALL...
Faslane
Sorry for posting a second time, but I just want to add one quick thing:
Third party apps are fine and good, but my experience has been generally negative. The quality and usability of the vast majority of third party applications for the Palm platform is laughable. The ones that do add features (most of which should have been included by Palm in the first place) conflict with each other so terribly that they cause crashes and hangups on a daily basis. I have had to "hard reset" my Treo 700p four times now, each time installing fewer and fewer third party applications. After the fourth time, the only third party apps I have running are Google Maps and the Gmail client and my Treo *still* isn't stable. Forget it.
In my first post I said I wasn't thinking about switching to the iPhone, but now I'm thinking that I will swtich to the iPhone in 18 months when my contract with Verizon is up. That should land me right at the one year mark for iPhone sales, and I'll get the newest version.
Palm has a LOT of catching up to do here. I hope that this new competition from Apple will drive some innovation in the smartphone market because we haven't seen anything really new since the Treo 600. How pathetic is that?
I've owned Treos for about 4 years and, despite their clunkiness, I really liked them and the Palm interface. That being said, if the Iphone has a decent appointment calendar, it will be a total Treo (and probably Palm) killer. The Treos have a look and feel at least 5 years older than the IPhone, and if the IPhone works as a well as it looks, it's going to wipe Treo and Palm off the map.
Everyone take a deep breath and wait until December of 2007. Then we'll all know whether or not the iPhone really flies.
I'm sure the initial sales will be huge -- all the Apple fanatics will sell their kids if they have to to get one. After that captive market is saturated we shall see whether the general public will bite. $500 minimum for an iPhone? Doubtful they will. Only very rich people and business people would spend so much -- and the Treo has the iPhone beat on the business side. If you can't accept that then you've really swallowed Jobs' RDF.
A few things might save the Treo, at least for a while:
1) Price (if Palm lowers it's high prices on all its models, like it did for the 680).
2) iPhone avalaible only on Cingular.
3) iPhone's virtual keyboard -- if enough customers don't like it.
It's possible that Apple will respond to the first two items in the future. Apple may also respond to the non-removable battery issue and storage capacity in the future - if those becomes issues for potential customers. However, the iPhone is stuck with the virtual keyboard (at least without a major re-design), and if consumers don't like it, that would be bad for Apple.
I've got 18 months left on my Sprint contract, and I will use that time to see if the iPhone stops being vaporware, how it works in the real world, and how Apple and Palm respond to the issues mentioned here and in other posts.
I should mention that I'm a Mac guy who has used Palm PDA's and phones for years. If Palm's inability to keep up causes it to go the way of the dodo, at least Apple will be providing another alternative to Windows for Smartphones
I'm pretty unsatisfied with my Treo650, and can't wait for the iPhone. I know this is a rah rah board for Treo, and you're trying to make yourselves feel better before the onslaught.
Apple did the iPod right and will now do the cellphone right. Face it.
I have been a Treo fan for a long time. But I guess I am more of an Apple fan anyway. I think the touchscreen will be awesome, Apple does not play with UI.
I quit my treo after being sick of it's instability. I reckon that Apple's iPhone will be as stable as the Mac, and it will be awesome. If it crashes as often as the treo, then it will be as much of a failure as was the Nokia symbian phones.
Folks, stop comparing your Treo 650 to the iPhone. Treo 650 is more than 2 years old and is no longer available from Palm.
And you all must be very rich or have rich friends...I personally don't know too many people who are willing to pay $500 or $600 for a phone plus 2-year contract plus $40 monthly data plan.
My Palm 650 is going to be retired when the iPhone comes out. Mainly, the sad syncing it does to iCal. Even with TheMissingSync, it never syncs to my calendar completely. Palm does seem to care at all about getting their sync to work right. Or Mac support in general.
As for the "Comparison chart". It was really funny. Seems there is a lot of Stockholm syndrome going around.
He has some points but I am not sure any of them are valid. Battery life always comes up, I have never changed a battery in my ipod....why do I want to in a phone. SD card, who cares when there is 8g onboard. I don't know but I would say there are a lot of people out there with a Treo that has seen better days or isn't working at all that are trying to figure out a way to use some other phone until they can buy the iPhone. I think it is a Treo Killer...which would YOU buy? Apple has revolutionized the PC market and the MP3 player market with their operating system...I am willing to give Apple the benefit of the doubt they will do it again for phones. The iPhone looks like a very updated Apple Newton, which for anybody that had one knows, were pretty AMAZING and light years ahead. Hey, $500 bucks is a lot of money for a phone and I bet there won't be any deals on it...so start saving now. I want one....the Treo looks and feels pretty dated to me now. When Apple goes a direction the entire industry changes direction....usually to FOLLOW! Maybe I am wrong, but I want to try Steve Jobs vision of what the future is because in the past I have enjoyed every Apple product I have ever owned.
Jim
you are dreaming if you think the broken obsolete crashing Palm operating system is going to be better than what Apple's got going
you guys are delusional. why do you think Apple's stock just went up and Palm went down?
iPhone looks amazing. I may possibly switch...
The thickness of iPhone is great. The screen, and the software look amazing. I wonder how OS-X will behave on a mobile device. Does the iPhone have flash memory, or will it lose all your stuff if you run the batteries out?
I'm worried about the soft keyboard, and the robustness of the device. It looks a bit fragile compared to the 650, but we'll see on that.
Some of the things that Steve was going on about were definitely not new (the iChat style SMS is already on the Treo), Google maps is amazing on the Treo too, I can't see it being that different on the iPhone (excepting the screen size).
I don't want to rehash what others have pointed out already about the silly scoring Andrew did that clearly showed his bias -- especially on grouping screen resolution WITH "input method" so that Apple would get no points here. Clearly, the iPhone wins on screen resolution, but the (presumed) trade-off is no physical keyboard -- at least, presumably. I am a 650 user and love my Treo, and frankly, I too am skeptical of a virtual keyboard being anywhere near as easy to use as a real physical keyboard. I do a lot of texting and text input (with Ultrasoft Checkbook), as well as occasional emailing, and I'm reserving judgement on the iPhone virtual keyboard until I can try it myself. Until then, I think it's fair to say the Treo wins on that point.
The external battery is another fair point, I think, where the Treo wins. It is true I haven't used my extra battery lately, but when I have, it's been a real nice feature, trust me. :)
That being said, it is safe bet that Unix-based Mac OS X on the iPhone is likely to be highly superior to the stone-age Windows 3.1 like-world of Frankengarnet, so I think this is clearly a point for the iPhone, or worst case, a draw until someone can get their hands on a production device to test its stability.
The weight/size -- c'mon Andrew, that was a real stinker of a conclusion. It's pretty obvious iPhone wins here, with almost exactly the same height and width but a vastly superior thinness and smaller weight.
That being said, I'm not jumping ship just yet. The keyboard issue is huge for me; I will play with it extensively at an Apple store when it finally arrives to determine if I can live without the real keyboard for which I love my Treo 650.
Lame attempt to defend your domain name. "Treonauts" will be worth considerably less in 12-24 months - and then eventually fail to even be worth renewing. Apple has this all patented, folks. The Treo has been leapfrogged badly. Anyone with half a brain can see it.
Watch Jobs introduce the iPhone and this site's demise here:
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/
I am also one who thinks that this is a great blog and I too look at it everyday. I also bought some accessories from the store. I am a long term user of Mac and Palm. And I also think that some comments here are delusional. Aside from the keyboard, which is impossible to asses at this moment, the iPhone is not only a Treo killer, but a Every-single-existing-phone killer!!!!
My beloved Treo 680 will be gone as soon as the iPhone ships. To have my iTunes videos in a "big" widescreen. ..To have my playlists synced and the iPod ease of use... That would be reason enough...
If you follow mac rumors, you know that many of the iPhone features were expected to be released in a so-called "video iPod". They just skipped one step and put it into a phone! Sweeeeeet!!!!! As for the Mac OS x Palm OS comparison... It is a joke... Did you not see the Keynote presentation!?!?!?!!?
Can't wait...
Stay strong Treonauts!
To all those that went from Treonaut to Treo-Not after watching the iPhone presentation:
I remember when people would criticize my Ford Pinto for its innovative rear-end heating system, while trumpeting foreign cars as better...history will be the final judge, er, umm...doh!
Never mind, I'm getting off this sinking ship.
This phone appears to rock, BUT it is going to depend on how the community can use it.
I have had a great deal of interest in Trolltechs GreenPhone, Linux based, accessable by any skilled Linux developer.
OSX is BSD based, and many OS applications can be ported, if I can get that on the iPhone, then it will be a truly smart Phone.
I dont see a USB port on it, but could apps be loaded through WiFi? can its software base be updated?
I have been looking at something to replace my 650, the 680 is not it. I am looking at the BBPearl, the Blackjack, and now the iPhone.
I use email extensively, and better web access would be a benefit.
Random thoughts,
ART
I thought I'd submit a follow up post.
I have bought the following applications to make my Treo as functional as the iPhone will be out of the box:
Agendus Pro
CleanUp
CorePlayer
Documents to Go
Express
FileZ
Genius
GoogleMaps
JShopper
Kinoma
LexSpell
Missing Sync
mobile clock
MobileWrite
mRing
mVoice
Photosuite
ProfileCare
pTunes
SilkScreen
Skinner
SplashPhoto
TCPMP
Uninstall
UnitConv
VoiceMemo
VoiceLaunch
VoluemCare
I believe 90% of the features in those apps with be in the iPhone right out of the box.
I haven't seen anyone mentioned the truly incredible features of the web browser on the iPhone. To be able to see an entire web page on the screen and zoom into a particular area to read a story or view a picture makes web browsing on the palm look completely ridiculous. Web browsing on the Treo is a joke - good only for getting weather predictions.
Apple has placed an enormous order for 16GB flash chips from Samsung recently. I believe by the time the iPhone ships you will see the memory specs double, with an 8GB and 16GB model.
No one has mentioned sykpe. Sit in Starbucks, launch scype and talk for free!
I agree that Cyngular sucks. I wish they had gone with Sprint and EVDO, but I understand they wanted to make this phone usable world wide. Also, Cyngular was probably the only company willing to do the work to make the voice mail changes.
I've owned about 6 iPods since they came out, using them consistently. From listening to my nano when walking my dog to playing my video ipod in my car kit. I have never had to replace a battery. I've had a Mac Powerbook for three years I use daily. The battery is still working fine. Apple is ahead of the curve on battery technology. I think this is a non-issue.
Only way Palm can compete and survive against iPhone seems to be lowering price. I've used and loved Treo 300, 600, 650, and 700, but can't deny that iPhone looks awfully good.
Why are all the Mac fanbois coming to this site? Please take your bile elsewhere. The Treo's strength is based on functionality, robustness and compatibility. The wide range of available apps plus the possibility of one-handed use gives it more functionality than the iPhone. I've dropped my Treo 650 down a flight of stairs several times and it's still running great after two years. Try doing that with your beloved iPhone. And it is compatible with the most common business applications available. You iPhone users will have to wait for the applications to be ported over -- good luck.
All you Mac fanbois have hated Palm since it decided to load WinMobile on some of its models. You don't like it -- then get lost. You're not wanted here. The Treo will be around for a long time -- get used to it.
Dimensions + Weight (Palm 1: Apple 0)? WTF? iPhone is thinner and lighter. PERIOD. you cant reason otherwise. Jackass
I used to like this site but GOD DAMN you are a MORON.
Face it. if this was the new "Consumer" Treo youd be praising it.
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