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Why Get A Treo 600?

Yet another toy added to the list of wordly goods. I've had my Treo 600 (Verizon) for almost two weeks now, and I'm racking up comparison points to the Visor Digital Link (aka VisorPhone; Sprint) that I had for a year. Expect frequent updates to this review (and likely other entries about the Treo in the blog) . To start, the main reasons I replaced the phone: company discount for Verizon, couldn't hear people using the Visor phone, and the thing was just too big.

Why Get A PDA Phone To Begin With?

Honestly, most people don't need an expensive device like this. Here are my personal reasons for combining a PDA, pager, camera, web browser, and phone into one device.... I was given the opportunity to try the Visor Phone as a hand-me-down from my job's predecessor. He had never bothered with the Digital Link springboard phone module and only occasionally used the PDA itself. When I found out that my company offered Sprint discounts to its employees, I figured it was worth a shot since I didn't even have to pay a penny for the equipment.

Job Requirements: Everyone in our IT department is given a 615 area code Metrocall pager since we provide 24/7 support. Some people have a Blackberry or personal cell phone they set up instead. I liked the idea of having one thing on my hip instead of two or three (who wouldn't?). Since I travel a week out of every month, the PDA has been indispensable for keeping up with appointments and contacts.

Comparing the Treo w/ the Visor Phone

• Size - While looking at me talking on my Visor, a friend of mine described the device as a "dinosaur"; not the most creative term, but it still cracks me up every time I think about it. This was always the first comment people would make about the phone as they noticed this book-sized PDA on my ear. A Visor Deluxe (the PDA device without the springboard) is actually very light, but adding the phone to it is like putting warmup weights on the end of a baseball bat!
• Unified - No more batteries to worry about. The Visor itself requires two AAA batteries; the phone itself uses a rechargeable battery. Now I only have to worry about one method of power. Of course, the downside is that if I forget my cables, I'll lose everything on it (HotSync often!).

What's that? It's getting late? Darn, I barely even got started. Maybe I should write a book instead. (Keep an eye out for this entry under Latest Activity on the blog page - I'll be adding to this massive review/journey of a Treo.)

'04Oct20 Update: As a help to others, this Yahoo! Ziff Davis article from June was a good one for me to narrow down my search: Potent Portables. Got this from a Tech Tuesday, which are usually pretty useful articles. Samsung i600, i700, and Kyocera 7135 came in close second in my own search for a new phone, FYI. VisorCentral.com and TreoCentral.com are great discussion sites for research and Q&A, as well. It's interesting that I happened to have owned both a Visor and a Treo now. Also, note that the new Treo 650 should be coming out by November!

By rockofvictory | Mon 2004Sep13 22:50 CST | Gallery | Last edited Mon 2005Mar07 23:07 CST
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