Palm Treo 800w review
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Jul 24th 2008 2:59PM
posted Jul 24th 2008 2:59PM
Hardware
If you've been keeping a close on eye on Palm lately (and we know you have), the appearance of this phone should be less than shocking to you. Like its spiritual predecessors, the Centro and 500v, the 800w shares the same soft, rounded edges, basic key layout, and smallish, sunken screen. Like the aforementioned phones, a stripe of silver divides the device around the edges, while its hard keys are delineated by the similar, somewhat garish coloring on the front of the device. Unlike the Centro, the 800w is coated in a soft-touch finish, which feels comfortable and safe when it's in-hand.
Design-wise, everything is where it should be, but overall the look is clunky, dated and underwhelming in just about every way. With competitors like the Touch Diamond and the BlackJack III sniffing around this territory, Palm should be stepping up its game, not reverting back to safe harbors.
It's not all bad, however. One move in the right direction comes in the form of the screen, which has finally, mercifully been upped to a reasonable 320 x 320 resolution. The added pixels definitely help in the clarity department, and having a bit more real estate than previous models in this vein (the 750, for instance), is a welcome and necessary addition. Unfortunately, Palm has again buried the touchscreen deep in the face of the phone, making even casual finger use a pain, and forcing you to yank out the stylus any time you need to interact with the display. This is an annoying design flaw which the company is either unaware of, or simply doesn't care about.
Another plus for the 800w is the decision to utilize the traditional (and much loved) Palm keyboard, shying away from the mushy, diminutive version employed on the Centro. If there's one major selling point on the design front, it's the undeniable goodness of this keyboard -- it's a joy to use.
We'd wish we could say the same about the hard / soft keys, but that's not the case. The application buttons don't have the give or tactile response you really want when you're fishing around without looking, and the soft keys are a different kind of disaster altogether. Not only are they the identical color as the casing, but they're not illuminated or raised, which means finding them in even slightly low light (say, a bar) is a challenge. How this never came up in testing is beyond us -- two of the most used buttons also happen to be the two hardest to find.
Palm has decided to forgo its usual proprietary HotSync adapter for a MicroUSB port, which is a nice choice. There's a small slot on the side of the phone for a microSD / SDHC card (up to 8GB in capacity), and the always-welcome ringer switch still makes a showing.
This is the first Palm device with both WiFi and GPS, and they appear to do their job admirably. Admittedly, the delay when locating ourselves via GPS seemed slower than it should have, but that may be more of a software question. The company has thoughtfully included a WiFi "one touch" button, which allows you to connect to networks in a slightly less painful fashion than usual (we'll get to that in a minute).
The cell radio is EV-DO Rev. A, and we found the download speeds and site display times to be very favorable. You definitely can't knock the insides of this phone -- if you're a dedicated Windows Mobile user, you'll find most of what you're looking for in the guts here.
The camera is typical Palm fare, though they've bumped the resolution up to 2.0 megapixels, which should be sufficient for most casual needs. Both the earpiece and the speaker phone are loud, though the speaker isn't always clear, getting fairly distorted at high volumes.
Software
We'd like to be able to say more about what the 800w does on the software side, but the company has done so little to tweak the all-too-familiar Windows Mobile interface that it barely stands apart from the myriad competition. Palm has included a dedicated WiFi button atop the phone to try and simplify WM's sometimes daunting network configuration options, though it really only gets you half way there. Besides a Today screen tweak which adds location-based search (for gas, food, etc.), the ability to map a contact's location from their entry in the phone, and the other minor Palm adjustments which accompany their WM devices (decline a call with a text message, for instance), this is business as usual.
Other software of note includes Sprint TV, which functions beautifully and seems well integrated with the device, Sprite Backup (a thoughtful addition), the OZ IM app (which strangely needs to be downloaded), and the rest of the Windows Mobile Professional standards like Mobile Office.
Besides the problems we had with Sprint Navigation and Maps, things on the software side should be more than sufficient for most users, and we found the general speed of opening, switching, and closing apps to be excellent.
Battery life
We took the phone for a spin with average use in mind, and didn't run it through any serious battery tests, though we can safely say that you'll be reaching for your charger more often with the 800w than previous Palm Windows Mobile devices. We can only assume the slightly reduced battery capacity (1150 mAh versus the Treo 750's / 700wx's 1200 mAh battery) and the handful of new radios are the main cause of the problem. Business users and social butterflies will want to spring for an aftermarket battery with more juice, though most casual users should be okay with what Palm provides.
Wrap up
There's nothing essentially wrong with the Treo 800w -- it does all of its jobs reasonably well, and doesn't exhibit any red flags that would cause concern. On the other hand, it doesn't do a single thing really well, and that's a problem given the options which are available (or will be available soon) from competitors. At the end of the day, Palm has made a fiercely middle-of-the road device -- it's not attractive, its software isn't unique, and the phone does little to separate itself from the ever-growing pack. With the resources and user-base the company has, we keep expecting more -- hopefully someday soon Palm will meet those expectations.
I moved to the 800w from the Mogul and I couldn't be happier. The 320x320 screen shows more than the Moguls screen. The extra RAM and Palm tweaks make the 800w considerably faster. There is no text-input or screen lag like on the Mogul. Palm also included the video driver that makes scrolling and other interface features fast and smooth. There is a video floating around that shows the difference in scrolling speed in PIE between the Mogul and the 800w. The 800w was over twice as fast as the Mogul.
Overall, the phone is much more usable, stable, faster and smaller (feeling) than the Mogul and I'm VERY happy with this phone.
guess who works for palm..... /|\
"The 320x320 screen shows more than the Moguls screen. "
This is absolutely false! Yes, it has a higher resolution (vs the Mogul's 320x240) screen but it actually fits less information. I can fit 13 items/lines on my Mogul's today screen. On the 800w, its only about 8 or 9. Just take a look at the photos of the Today Screen in the above review and see for yourself. The screen is also significantly dimmer than the Mogul's. Many complaints of it over at Treocentral.
Also, the slower 333mhz processor that Palm chose to use in this device may be adequate out of the box since they've tweaked the OS but what's going to happen when you start adding 3rd party apps? Its going to slow down. There is no substitute for raw horsepower but Palm sure keeps trying!
Finally, the ridiculously small battery (its the same as the Centro, I'm guessing they are trying to save some money here) and lack of a flash for the camera (useful as a flashlight among other things) and combine it with the stuff I listed above and it just seems to me Palm is again up to its old tricks and trying to cut corners.
Palm's form factor and the WM OS tweaks they've done are nice but I just wish for once, they'd just combine their expertise in those areas and match it up with some decent internal hardware. 800w would appeal to a lot more people if they just stopped trying to cut corners. The Mogul is far from perfect but the 800w sure has at least its own fair share of problems also.
I also switched from the Mogul to the 800w and couldn't be happier. It's faster, I prefer to not have a sliding keyboard, and the display is a huge improvement. So far I much prefer the 800w to the Mogul.
@Frankie, I do not work for Palm and have talked to several people who have 800ws and are pleased with the speed and all around quality of the phone. If I did not have such a deep abiding dislike of WM (and a GSM carrier), I would be tempted
@Marty:
The today screen doesn't show as much but since it has higher resolution you can turn the text down in PIE and see more information. I'm young and have good eye sight so I like it.
As far as the processor goes - with all the tweaks and extra RAM that the 800w has over the Mogul this phone feels 1000x faster. I have a ton of 3rd party apps installed already. If anybody can bog down a phone it's me. The real difference is the amount of RAM. I have never had to close an application because of lack of RAM.
The battery life isn't great. But, I work in an office with *almost* no reception. The *almost* makes it worse because it's constantly getting, then losing, signal all day. I can make it from 7:00AM-11:00PM without having to put it on the charger. That is with moderate use with all radios off except the phone. I'm going to get an extended battery when it's released (as long as it's a slim extended). Otherwise I'll just keep it on the charger during the day at work.
It isn't a perfect phone - but compared to the Mogul I'm very happy with it. It's actually the first smart phone I still liked after a week of use and I've had the Treo 700p, 700wx, Mogul, now 800w.
Oh and the speaker phone quality REALLY sucks. Pretty much unusable. Added to that suckiness - if you have WIFI on at the same time you are using the speaker phone there is even MORE static. The head set volume is okay but not as good as the Mogul.
+1.
I didn't know how clunky the Mogul was until using the 800. I don't miss the Mogul's screen and really love not having to slide the keyboard out. Aside from the mediocre "maps" program, everything works pretty darn well. The fit & finish are great and the buttons feel just right when pressed. I honestly don't know what the reviewer is talking about with regards to the soft buttons. They're plenty easy to find, even in low light.
I held my friends 755P in one hand and my 800w in the other and am amazed at how much lighter and more fit the new Treo is. The old one feels like a brick in comparison, and I don't feel like I am giving up anything with the smaller size.
Really, the 800w doesn't compete with units like the Touch or the upcoming Touch Pro (or whatever they're calling it) because the form factors are different. I would say that this Treo's main competition are the BB Curve and 8830 which I might have considered if Sprint didn't charge $40 bucks a month for the BB service.
Bottom line, current or previous Treo users will like the evolutionary aspects of this device. Those looking for flashy design and (mostly useless) gee whiz features should look elsewhere. This is a very focused device and does what it is supposed to do very well.
Does the phone finally have a regular head-phone jack so I can use it at the gym with normal headphones?
Nope :(
i wonder when vzw will get this...
Rumors say that VZW is supposed to get it before September or so...
IMO, it's chunky. I want something thin in my pocket :)
Another rumor is that Verizon isn't going to get it at all.
http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=167408
Take a pick.
They said Q3, but I guess it's been bumped to Q4 now.
well i hope Verizon gets it. i dont really want to switch to Sprint, but as a Treo admirer (and Q9c user), this phone seems absolutely perfect for my needs. ive been watching videos on it and stuff since it launched and im going to go test it out at the Sprint store on my lunch break tomorrow finally. this seems like one that i would have to shell out full retail for honestly cause while the Q9c gets the job done, it leaves much to be desired (plus the fact that im only 7 months into a 2 year agreement).
so im going to go check it out tomorrow and keep on praying that Verizon picks this bad boy up in place of the now discontinued 755p.
No, the 800w uses a proprietary headphone connector that connects to the MicroUSB port.
--James
you don't need to sign your posts, we can see who it's from.
--el taco
Palm's motto should be
"We never change our software! It's been great since 1995!"
Wouldn't this comment be more suited to a Palm OS device? I do agree that the Palm OS is super long in the tooth.
I agree with you, but wouldn't this comment be better suited to a device that runs Palm OS? This is a Windows Mobile 6.1 device. Just sayin'. J.S.
your both right, it's winmo I should be mad at. Like honestly I just wish someone would put atleast a little effort into their phones. Has all the software developers jumped to apple or something?
Dude... HTC.
oh give me a break. Htc? How do you people put up with that software. Better question, WHY do you put up with it?
I can honestly call you a fanboy and presume that you've never used the Treo 800w. This phone provides the experience that windows mobile shoul've been on other devices. The mogul on the other hand (which I owned for 30 days prior to the 800w) I can not say the same. Don't knock it until you try it.
dude I have tried it!
I was gonna buy one. I went into the store to play with it, I thought it was the coolest shit ever. Then I tried to play with it and I couldn't even figure how to make a call... Or how to do anything actually.
Then apple Announced the iPhone. Didn't care much at first until I bought an iPod touch and realized the iPhones potential. Now I'm never going back to those dumb childrens phones with plastic keyboards and hard to use software. Apple has created the ultimate mobile computer. And into the future we go!
Yeah... funny thing is the 800w wasnt even announced before the iphone was so your story is just all bull. You havent even looked at the 800w yet. Mine comes in the mail tomorrow morning. I hope its good!
your right actually, I kinda got off topic and didn't read his post fully. It wasn't this exact phone. It was a verizon
Phone running winmo. Sorry for the mix-up guys.
However, it still stands that this phone runs the same software that I couldn't even make a phone call with! Ridiculous!
Sometimes it's that lack of software changes that brings stability.
Don't get me wrong.. I like new and awesome and shiny and cool... but stable in a phone means a lot more.
I just got mine last night. I really haven't had time to get used to it yet but my early impressions are:
* EXTREMELY buggy so far. It was locking up for 5 seconds like every ten seconds, and the battery went from 100% to 5% in under 8 hours. I went through the task manager and killed everything, no help, I finally had to remove and replace the battery. Today the wifi just disappeared for no reason. Couldn't find any way to re-enable it and it no longer showed up in connection manager. Removed / replaced the battery and all is well for now.
* It definitely feels better in my hand than my 755P. Flatter and more solid all around - The best way to describe it is the Thinkpad of phones. The SD card cover is increcibly chintzy and I think I'll rip the thing off by accident sooner than later.
* The screen is more recessed (as stated above) and more 'squishy' than my 755P, I think the material and build is straight off the Centro. Same goes for the stylus. Bendy and cheap feeling.
* Windows Mobile 6 is better than 5 for sure, it's /almost/ usable. Not quite, though. I wish Palm would update their OS.
* No idea what the reviewers are talking about, I can find the buttons in the dark without issue.
Guess who doesn't work for palm.... /|\
Wow take your phone back. It has some MAJOR hardware issues.
I own the 800w and I've got to say many of the things you mentioned have to be due to hardware failure or a very, very bad user.
My phone hasn't locked up since I purchased it almost a week ago. It's very fast and never even stutters.
The screen feels solid (I pressed on mine and it didn't feel squishy at all).
The stylus sucks, I will agree.
The battery, while smaller, isn't that bad. I use it with moderate e-mail usage, lots of texting, occasional GPS and some mild web surfing. All-in-all mine will last from 7am till 11pm when I go to bed and even then it usually has some power left.
I had the same problems with mine, but right after all my geek friends asked how it was doing I complained about the battery life it shaped up and is going two days between charges (I was getting three on my 755p). One thing I haven't heard a person complain about (I haven't read below this post yet so don't flame) , is the complete lack of sms picture mail. I thought I had a buggy one, but a few calls to sprint then palm then microsoft, all of them agree I have to add it as a attachment, This is lame, they should have flushed this out before hitting the market, I guess this is only a sprint problem as a person I know that has a HTC phone (never heard of these people until this moment and there phones are about crap) and he can picture mail, This is a basic thing why cant I get it??
Hey I got a better camera...wanna see?? give me your phones email address so I can send it.....yeah I have your number but that wont work, oohh how much did I pay for this?? like 300.......damn that is kinda shitty
I can only hope that the new interface palm is building has the today page (love it) ,picture mail, and a good facebook app (loved the one I had on the 755).
After suffering the 700p, and 755p(yes, I know they are Palm OS, not WinMo), I swore I would never own another Palm anything. And this review justs reinforces that vow...
VZW...Sammy i760...still a better option
The thinness and the battery life is nice, but I still miss the portrait slider form factor of my i730--it had better functionality for me and it didn't necessitate switching orientations constantly.
If I can't find something similar to the i730 for my next phone I may have to switch to something more like the Palms.
I really hope that Palm gets it's ALP OS out the door before they implode. It's re-hash after re-hash with the Treo line.
ALP is from PalmSource - they're probably hoping to get it out the door before Access throws it and them in the trash (Where's that Samsung with ALP?).
Palm has Nova - maybe - and aren't going to show it to us for months.
Minimally.
I've had this phone for nearly two weeks. It is very solid and there's not a thing I wish it could do better! I wish the screen were a bit bigger, but love the keyboard and the ability to use with one hand (unlike the sideways sliders). I do wish it were a bit thinner and more pocketable and agree that it's not exactly fashionably cutting-edge. There's no headphone jack, but I use it with bluetooth stereo headphones in the gym and it is awesome! I strongly recommend going wireless like this in the gym; I just set it in the corner and walk around and do my routine. It syncs seamlessly with my work exchange server; it even syncs the pictures I have set on my Outlook contacts. The threaded text messaging is great! Overall, I totally love the phone.
What does Peter Rojas think? He's the only person who's opinion on Palm products matters to me.
I miss when he would go off about it on the Engadget podcast.
I've had one since Sunday, and I gotta say, I (almost) love this phone. Sure it could be a little thinner, have a flush screen, and WM still needs work. However, I disagree with the reviewer on a couple points: 1.) I personally like the conservative stylings, there's nothing gaudy about it, and it's not bland. 2.) I almost never have to pull out the stylus, the D-pad and good old finger-to-the-screen does the trick (except in Opera 9.5b, but that's a gripe for a different review.)
Two things really should be trumped up: 1.) the keyboard is phenomenal. I was torn between the 800w and the iPhone 3G, and boy did I make the right choice. (And yes, I use my phone for work, not play, so losing half the screen just to use a keyboard is undesirable.) 2.) The screen saver with clock and message indicators is so simple, but not having to turn on your device to get that info is huge.
Seems nice I guess, though I'm not sure about all the Sprint-loaded items included.
Why don't they try using Live Maps? As far as WinMo goes, Live Maps is a better mapping site, than Google Maps. It gets into a few more features that Google leaves out.
You messed up with the tag that gets searched for when one clicks on the "BlackJack III" hyperlink.
Posts with tag BlackJackIII
No posts with this tag found
I bought this the day it came out to replace the Treo 700wx I have. This phone is a thousand times better. I like the wifi, win mobile 6.1, evdo rev a and the fact that the phone is smaller. Anyone looking to upgrade a previous Treo should buy this, I have had it for over a week and the only thing I can say bad about it is that the gps does take some time to find something (my samsung instinct is faster) and that the new microusb will make me get new headphones, but I might just go Bluetooth anyway.
I agree with you, but wouldn't this comment be better suited to a
device that runs Palm OS? This is a Windows Mobile 6.1 device. Just
sayin'. J.S.
I've had the Treo 700wx since launch. While I've had two crap out on me, I still love the device and have never found another device I was happy enough to leave for. I actually enjoy Windows Mobile (slight issues, but a great developer community), and I do love the keyboard. However, there's no way I'm upgrading to the 800 w/the Diamond & Pro on the horizon. I loathe having to constantly clean the recessed screen and I would enjoy a slightly more pocketable form factor.
Anyone know if the touch screen disablement is improved on this one at all? With the 700wx, if I disable the touchscreen while on a call it puts a notice across the screen DIRECTLY across the speakerphone and mute virtual buttons...two things I use regularly. I choose to not disable the screen during a call, though every time my ear enjoys opening a half dozen applications.
My 700wx came with a 1800 MaH bettery not a 1200 one, and that was STOCK.
same here on my 650 and 700w.
I hate to beat a dead horse here, but why did engadget cover the iPhone review but throw the Treo 800w review to engadget mobile? No bias there...
When Palm generates the amount of excitement the iPhone has among consumers, let us know.
320x320? Woohoo, big deal. The Treo 650 had that for God's sake! Where's 480x480 or better?
Anyway, can we expect this with the Palm OS (yet again)?
The 650 (and every Treo before and after that) had a 240x240 screen. The Mogul has a 320x240 screen.