Treo 600 Revisited: A Personal Story of a Year Gone By...

12 months ago, I was in a delicious mix of anticipation and anxiety.  I had, without ever so much as holding it in my hand, ordered a Treo 600. I  couldn’t wait for it to be delivered, and worried that premature senility had begun to take control of my brain.  How else to explain plunking down (a lot of) hard dollars for a device which had no track record, no pre-reviews, no display models at the local Sprint store and was probably a lot of hype? No matter, I was suffering from the worst case of techno-lust and Pentium-Envy ever recorded.

When it arrived a week later, I snatched the box out of the poor UPS man’s arms, hustled it downstairs and tore at the wrapping paper like one of the kids in Christmas Story.  Shameful! When I first took it out of the box and held it in my hand, I experienced something akin to when I got my first Lionel Train set, Mr. Machine or Thunderbird 1 model.  The WOW! factor was impressive…most impressive.  Obi-Wan has taught you well…(argh! damn you, George Lucas!!!).

A year has gone by, and it’s time to take stock of how my initial impressions of the T600 match up to the reality. To be honest, they match up fairly well. The T600 is far from perfect, but it does exactly what it was designed to do, and does it well. However, it does have a few glaring blemishes and they need to be considered on an equal basis with its virtues.

Overall Impression:

The T600 looks good. It’s almost like something from the original Star Trek, by way of Sky Captain. There is a retro-futuristic glam about the device, without any precious art deco or Frank Lloyd Wright affectations. 

Operation of the device is fairly straightforward and intuitive, with very tight integration between the phone/web/PDA/messaging sides of its personality.  This is all due to Handspring’s work on tweaking a PDA OS into an effective smartphone platform.  The crown jewel is the way that they made the 1-hand nav button ubiquitous to every aspect of T600 operation.

The device feels solid and well built as it sits in your hand. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The T600 has experienced a multitude of problems due to shoddy manufacturing in Mexico. The screen is bright and clear…and although not hi-res is great for what this device is designed for. The keyboard is small, but very usable due to ingeniously designed buttons, and it provides a nice, tactile feedback while typing.

What’s been good:

• The 1-hand nav button is what makes using the T600 such a pleasant experience. Every native app, and almost every available 3rd-party app is controlled by this easy-to-use control. I rarely use my stylus more then once a week.
• The phone gets excellent reception, and sounds clear. The speakerphone is more then adequate to use for a meeting, and for listening to tunes, if you don’t have your headphones handy.
• Blazer is a very stable browser that works well on the Sprint PCS network. Does a great job of reformatting web pages to get the most out of a small screen. Support for bookmarks and memory management is also well thought out and executed
• Support for 3rd-party apps (eMail, entertainment, you name it…) is top-notch and fairly seamless.
• OS support has been very nice, with two major revisions provided over the past year, adding stability and functionality.
• The local Sprint store has been a pleasure. Whatever issue I’ve had, they have addressed immediately, and to my complete satisfaction.

What’s been bad:

• Manufacturing quality control has been the biggest downside to the T600. Handspring had to go with whatever partners they could find, in their cash-poor position. The Mexican assembly partner has done a horrific job. My T600 has been replaced 4 times since October 2003: twice for defective earpiece, once for defective screen, and once for defective radio. This was all within the first 6 months. I have had my current device for 6 months, and it has been very reliable. However, my problems were very common for anyone who bought a Treo 600 during its first several manufacturing runs.
• The price for the T600 was (and is) ridiculously high. Charging more for a PDA/phone than for a desktop PC is gouging…no matter how you look at it.
• Handspring (and then pa1mOne) added to the poor comparative value by neglecting to include a proper bundle of apps/utilities. eMail, more robust Calendar, Profiles, stereo headphone…all should have been included at this price with a premium device like the T600.
• The T600 is underpowered if you want to use a memory-intensive program such as PocketTunes Deluxe. Unless you are willing to deal with a 300% increase in response time, you cannot use the Bass Boost (500% if you use the Equalizer).
• pa1mOne support is the worst Customer Relationship program I have ever come across. Their outsourced support personnel don’t know the products and don’t know how to do triage or diagnosis. This may be a result of the fact that they don’t know how to speak or understand English.

Despite some hardware-related problems, I have to say that the T600 is a winner.  I have this device in my hand, on my belt or in my pocket virtually every waking minute of the day.  My new company will not have a laptop for me until the beginning of next week; and, although I have a home office, I needed to spend a few days in the office with the Owners.  Because of the T600 (with folding keyboard w/pass-through electric power), I was able to go in, do my meetings, write documents, manage eMail, make prospecting calls and book appointments.  On the way home, I had it plugged into my car stereo, listened to my PocketTunes, and had hands-free phone operation.  When I got home, dinner & family were waiting. I was able to have dinner, and still check eMails so I could prioritize my evening’s work…without having to go downstairs.  I book movies on it, forward bad jokes, check the weather and road conditions on-the-fly and carry pictures of Julie, Nick & Abby.  I think it’s ready for another 12 months out on the road with me.

Stay tuned!

This personal story kindly contributed by Peter Arts who obsesses about his Treo 600 on a regular basis.