http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/treo300-review.html

The download is available from http://pm.gicom.de/palm/newpen093.zip

Cheers

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But how is it as a PHONE? How's the signal strength? How many calls were dropped?

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The phone portion, like I said in the review, is very, very good. The signal strength is noticeibly higher than my previous phone, which was a Motorola Timeport. I've not yet had a single dropped call, though they are to be expected every once in a while on any cell phone.

Dan Parsons

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Originally posted by Anonymous:
But... This isn't 3G. It's 2.5G

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Correct, Mr. Anonymous, that's why every time I mentioned "3G" I put it in quotes I used the term 3G because that is what its marketed as... if I used 2.5G some people wouldn't understand.

Dan Parsons

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Originally posted by tthiel:
Every Treo I have seen has a horribly pixelated screen and they feel cheap and plasticky.

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I have not used other Treos, but the Treo 300 does not exhibit any of the things you mentioned. The screen is far, far less pixelated than the Pixelation King, the Palm IIIc. And it is very solid, does not bend when i squeeze it (that's the Julie test, forgot to mention it in my review). It is more solid feeling than my previous palm, a Clie PEG-N760C.

Dan Parsons

Will someone please make a new AIM client for PalmOS?

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Originally posted by veroi:
The review was very good, could you expand a bit on how to shorten the MIDI files and maybe some good sources for these.

Also will you review the Toshiba phone and YISO card by Sprint.

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Thank you for the kind words. Covering custom ringtone creation in the review was off-topic enough, covering how to shorten MIDI files would be pushing it too far, I think. Besides, the method I personally use for shortening MIDI files is insane, there has to be a better way, I'd almost be embarassed to post it here.

I personally wont be reviewing the two things you mentioned, but Julie or Judie or someone else might. Try asking them

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Originally posted by nrosser:
Never mind on the Switcheroo question -

you actually have to press the Blue button and the space bar - THEN the letter prompt thing comes up. Thus, no conflict with the accented characters. (you might want to edit the review to make note of the space bar thing - kinda minor though, really)

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Sprint's peak speed is 144 kb/s, and not only doesn't have a negative impact on capacity from 3G devices, it actually increases capacity (doubles).

In comparison, today's GSM system speed is 70 kb/s peak, and each device competes (read:takes away ) from available network capacity.This is why they must use the term 2.5G .

With this,and the superior security for wirless data, you can see why down the road (maybe 2004 or 2005) the world standard for all systems will be a CDMA based system.

RO

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Originally posted by irq:
Correct, Mr. Anonymous, that's why every time I mentioned "3G" I put it in quotes I used the term 3G because that is what its marketed as... if I used 2.5G some people wouldn't understand.

Dan Parsons

[QUOTE]Originally posted by irq:
[B] Correct, Mr. Anonymous, that's why every time I mentioned "3G" I put it in quotes I used the term 3G because that is what its marketed as... if I used 2.5G some people wouldn't understand.

Dan Parsons

[This message has been edited by irq (edited 10-17-2002).]

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Originally posted by KRamsauer:
You mention ". I don't know why this one has a 4-conductor connector on it, as only 3 are needed." I think the 4th allows you to pick up and hang up with the headset.

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Originally posted by DaviddesJ:
Does using Treo300SMS to send and receive short messages use up lots of bandwidth? It sounds like a good solution, but I'm afraid that because of the way that it works that just a relatively small number of messages will quickly burn through the 8 MB/month of data I'm allowed (or whatever plan I get).

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Will someone please make a new AIM client for PalmOS?

- - - - - -

Ah... I thought I'd seen this msg here...

I got a TREO 300 last week and the experience has been an advanced case of EADS: Early Adopter Dysfunction Syndrome. It all began when the CS rep at the local Sprint store handed me the thing without saying much of anythign about how it works or how to get it to work, and has gone steadily down hill from there. For example, I could retreive e-mail from my reglar POP3 account, but could not send via the spintpcs smtp server because no body bothered to tell me that I had to go in to sprintpcs.com and configure a different password for e-mail there. And so on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

And then there are the countless hours on "hold" waiting for a "technical support specialist."

Anyway, yesterday was the worst, the thing started crashing and demanding a hard reset, from which I am still trying to recover (I'd backed up all databases, but none of the categories for "todo" and "memo pad" made it into the database restore, etc etc).

The crash was so consistent during hotsync that the tech-support people told me there was something wrong with the device and told me to retun to the store to swap it out for a new one. Of course, the experience at the store was as abysmal as the experiences on the phone. Nobody REALLY wants to help you.

When finally got home with the new TREO, I went to do a hotsync and discovered two things:

1) the hotsync software automatically tried to restore databases even though I had checked "do nothing" for most of the functions in the conduit menus, most notably all the "system" and "install" conduits. So the hotsync tried to make my new TREO into my "old" TREO and guess what... it worked. It crashed all over again. So, the guy on the phone who told me the unit was defective was wrong.

And the only way I could get the hotsync to NOT try to "restore databses" (and crash all over again) was by creating a whole new user name, importing my databases into that, and then hotsyncing the new user.

2) clearly, something in the applications was causing the problems, and based on this msg, I'm guessing it is the AIM client - a pity, because that's a nice function to be able to do with a wireless handheld unit like this.

So, tell me, IRQ, were you getting "Fatal Alert... Fatal Exception" errors until you stopped using AIM ?

I've gone well off topic here, but thought it might be useful to others to hear a little bit of my experience. I basically think the TREO 300 is a GREAT GIZMO, unfortunately the "customer support" and "technical support" behind it are not ready for prime time, and anybody who buys one can expect many hours of grief trying to get it to work as advertised.

Any way... before I re-install the Palm AIM client... should I not bother?

Thanks,

--PS

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Originally posted by mellybelly:
Did you know that you cannot check AOL email on the treo 300? Sprint said the software is not compatible

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And a 2nd question. The keyboard lights up when I use the phone, but not for other apps. Is there any way to get it to light up for, say, a memo?

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Originally posted by msetzer:
No need to respond. I just wanted to compliment you as this was by far the best Treo 300 review I've seen so far. I've had mine for almost 2 months & use the crap out of it but I still learned a thing or two from your review.

This is my fourth phone/pda device and is far superior to anything else I've seen.... provided you don't need to get Sprint tech support involved in anything.

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Have you tried the Samsung SPHi500 or the Kyocera 7135 or the Samsung i330 or one of the Windows OS systems, such as the T-Mobile or Hitachi systems? I would be interested in your thoughts on the comparisons oe each one? Thanks

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Originally posted by Yoav:
Handspring now offers RechEcho for graffiti support on 90/180/270/300 Treos. It can be downloaded for free and comes from the creators of JOT (CIC).

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I had to replace the flip section once after it broke during the 18 months I've owned the phone so far. What I decided to do in order to minimize the amount I strain the hinge was always to keep the headset plugged in. That lets me receive calls without flipping at all, and it removes the worst thing I think causes strain on the weak joint: talking on the phone with it flipped open. Even when I initiate a call that requires the phone to be opened, I use the headset and close the flip section as soon as possible.