Treo 680: Woohoo!!! Cingular & Unlocked GSM From $199
The wait is finally over… After some agonizing weeks for all existing and will-be Treonauts the Treo 680 from Palm and Cingular is now finally available to buy just in time for the Thanksgiving holidays and I have been particularly lucky to already get one in my hands…
Palm’s Unlocked GSM Treo 680 – priced at $399 – is now available to preorder exclusively via the Palm online store and Palm US retail stores. As previously posted, Palm’s unlocked version is offered in four new colors - Crimson (red), Copper (orange), Arctic (white) and graphite (grey) pictured here on the right.
The Palm OS based Treo 680 smartphone has an internal antenna and slim form factor, making the device smaller and sleeker than its Treo predecessors in the US. It's also the first Treo smartphone to come in unique colors. But beyond the Treo 680's new design, customers will find the Treo 680 smartphone easy to use and packed full of features beyond its stellar phone capability, such as email, web browsing, messaging, multimedia, calendar, contacts and more.
The Treo 680 and the Treo 700p smartphones are among the first mobile phones to support streaming Flash-based movies, including those found on YouTube, with the release of the new Kinoma Media Player 4EX.
For a limited time, the Treo 680 will come with a music bundle from Yahoo!, which includes a 30-day free trial to its Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go service and Yahoo! Music For Mobile. Users have the ability to access the Yahoo! Music Unlimited music library from the phone and to send tracks remotely to a PC.
Cingular’s Treo 680 – from $199 with a two year contract and unlimited data plan – is available to order immediately online and it will be available across Cingular stores and select retailers beginning this Friday Nov. 24.
Among others, the Treo 680 now offers:
- A new internal antenna enables a sleeker design;
- An improved phone application on the Treo 680 smart device allows users to dial faster;
- The ability to ignore calls with a quick text message lets users tell a caller "I'm in a meeting" or "Can't talk now";
- The large, bright color screen is perfect for viewing email, documents or spreadsheets via DataViz Documents To Go(R), and even photos and movies;
- The highly regarded built-in QWERTY keyboard has improved buttons, making it even easier to type emails or SMS messages;
- The messaging application displays text-messaging conversations as "threaded chats," similar to IM, so users can see their entire conversation with a particular person; and
- The Treo 680 smart device also can be used as an MP3 player and has an integrated digital camera, camcorder and video player, with simpler organization for photos and photo slideshows.
Treonauts are always celebrating… 
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Comments
in Europe it is ready to preorder on the palm store for 500€.
Any idea why they sell the unlocked version at 399$ in the US and 500€ in Europe (corresponding to about 640$)?
I think it's very common to sell things more expensive in Asia and Europe. We always get things cheap.
Now when is the 750 coming?
so, how come buying the Cingular-branded one is 50 dollars more if you already have a contract, than if you buy the unlocked model?
Post#2 and 4
#2> Any idea why they sell the unlocked version
#2> at 399$ in the US and 500€ in Europe (corresponding
#2> to about 640$)?
#4> I think it's very common to sell things more
#4> expensive in Asia and Europe.
This I would also like to know! For starters I think you would have to add VAT on top of the 399$ - this would bring it up to some 475$ (worst case). Nevertheless, this is still way cheaper.
However, I wonder if the keyboard layout is different in the european versions - different "shift" keys for each country for their local characters? Anybody know anything about this?!
Be careful if you place this order late at night. I called and placed my order around 1:30 am and the mumbling (drunk? high? mentally disabled?) rep named Dan took my two orders for an arctic and a crimson 680. After repeating my last name multiple times for each order, spelling it for him, and having him read it back, I checked my order online when I got home and it was STILL spelled wrong. forgiving his inability to properly key in a 4 letter last name or properly spell my tricky first name (David) he had also mistyoed my address leaving no space between my house number and street name. This would cause my credit card info to not match and be declined. I guess Palm needs to work on training people a bit better. Anyway, I called about an hour ago, cancelled those two orders and placed new ones. Moral of the story: If you call late at night and get the mumbling rep (Daniel) hang up and call back to place your order. I hope my new order is still early enough to go out on Monday's shipment and not yave to wait two weeks due to Palm's inability to train staff properly. :(
Nice story david.
God I wish the 680 had 3G technology, I want the palm OS because I already know it. It's more important to me to activate my phone in Japan and Korea (my 2 favorite places) So does anyone want to predict a date for the 750? I am going back to Japan on December 30th.
Hawk - according to a Cingular representative the reason that the Cingular-branded Treo 680 is $449 while the Palm-branded Unlocked Treo 680 is only $399 is simply that "it is the commercial decision of two separate companies".
Evidently, it therefore makes a lot more sense to buy a Treo 680 without a contract directly from Palm instead of Cingular.
Francesca - the issue of "differential pricing" is well known in Europe and elsewhere in the world. The fact is that many if not most consumer products in Europe are more expensive than in the US and this among others due to: lower sales volumes, higher local operating costs (from marketing to distribution) and taxes.
Cheers, A.
i called in tuesday and placed an order through cingular. they said they couldn't give me the ship date becuase at the time it wasnt out. (basically i pre-orderd one through cingular.) and now its out but they arnt shipping them till friday? guess i have to wait more!
I just ordered a red one! I will be sooo happy to get back to plam os insted of the windows os that I have on my 700w.
#8. I have had similar experience with Palm tech support. Take solace I the fact that credit card companies use only the numerical characters of your address to verify. So if you enter “123SStreet” or “123 South Street” or “123 S St” you will get a good match as long as your zip code is right.
Free overnight shipping was included on my order. Nice touch.
Why couldn’t Palm be like Apple and launch the 680 when right after the CEO’s big talk last month?
At last!!! I was really going crazy!
Now I can order the beautiful copper version and sell my old Tungsten T5. I'm very happy to enter the smartphone world and the Treonauts family!!!
WT...?
Do you need a new Cingular Wireless mobile phone plan with your Treo 680 smartphone?
Yes, I want a new Cingular Wireless mobile phone plan
Price: as low as $199*
No, I'm an existing Cingular Wireless customer and want to keep my current service plan
Price: $449
------------
an extra $50 for a cingular branded phone?
WT..x2
Unlocked Treo 680 Expected to ship in 1 - 2 weeks.
Cingular Wireless Treo 680 with new service activation Expected to ship in 1 - 2 weeks.
Cingular Wireless Treo 680 without service activation Expected to ship in 1 - 2 weeks.
What does this mean "...Yahoo! Music For Mobile. Users have the ability to access the Yahoo! Music Unlimited music library from the phone and to send tracks remotely to a PC."
- is this a new feature for Yahoo music - I can't find mention of being able to browse the Yahoo music library from the phone anywhere else.
Does cingular have software on the treo that the unlocked one doesn't have?
I've never bought an unlocked phone before and therefore don't quite understand how it works. My basic question is this: If I buy an unlocked 680, can I activiate it on my current Sprint account, or can the 680 only be used with carriers (currently, only Cingular) that sell and support the phone? Many thanks for any information anyone out there is able to offer, and happy Thanksgiving!
Alan, it's really a feature of Pocket Tunes. With the promo where they include PocketTunes Deluxe, you can use PlaysForSure tracks (ToGo) from Yahoo Music on your Treo. You can do that right now with Pocket Tunes Deluxe. Pretty nifty.
Yeah, I have used the YME with Ptunes deluxe, and it works great, but the point above implies you can browse the YME library from the phone - I assume that's not what it means, but would be a great feature to have.
#18 You need a GSM provider to use with the Treo 680. Currently in the US only Cingular and T-Mobile will work. I have Cingular, so when I get my unlocked 680, I will pop out my SIM card from my 650 and put it in my 680 and it will work immediately.
Personally I think Cingular and Verizon are the two best providers out there. I'll never touch sprint or nextel again, I've never used T-mobile but from others experience I know I won't use them anytime soon.
There had been rumors that Telenav might work on the 680 WITHOUT having to use an external GPS unit. Anyone know the deal with that? (Telenav website hasn't yet listed the 680 so no info there, and Palm specs don't give any clue.)
David - You may want to read my previous post "What Is An 'Unlocked' Treo 680?" for additional information:
http://blog.treonauts.com/2006/10/what_is_an_unlo.html
As Rob points out the Treo 680 will _only_ work with GSM carriers such as Cingular and T-Mobile.
David - I'm checking on Telenav now.
Cheers, A.
Eh, I already bought my Samsung Blackjack. I've just about had it with Palm. When (if) they ever release a Palm OS phone that supports multitasking and 3G, I'll be there...maybe.
I've been a loyal Palm user (owned 9 devices over the past 8 years) and I feel like the 680 is a slap in the face to the people who loved Palm the most.
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