Product Review: Treo 700p

When I started shopping for a Smartphone, I wanted to find something other than the popular Blackberry. I stumbled across the Treo 700p, made by Palm OS. This savvy looking computer/phone had everything the blackberry models had and more.

Like the other Smartphone's, the Treo is loaded with tons of features like access to your email accounts, tons of memory for file storage and a fast web browser. With the Treo 700p, you can create and edit Microsoft Word and Excel Files, even viewing PowerPoint and PDF files. This Smartphone is also a 1.3 digital camera that can take videos as well. What was really interesting about this phone was the fact that it already had a built in Bluetooth, allowing me to avoid buying it separately for more money. With all of these features, I felt that there was no way that the Blackberry was better than this phone. I was immediately sold on this gadget and decided to buy it for $299.99. What I soon discovered about the Treo 700p was that I would accumulate numerous headaches trying to get it to work properly on a consistent basis, eventually leading to a full refund.

For starters, trying to work the Treo 700p has to be similar to assembling an automobile engine from scratch. I think I would rather take my chances with the latter. After 15 minutes with this thing, I wanted to walk into a brick wall. It's just too inconsistent. One minute, the keypad works like a charm. The next minute, I can't seem to get the keypad to work at all. Forget about trying to send text messages. It would be much easier to sit in front of a computer and just send emails. If you do happen to get to the features by using the keypad (And I mean a BIG "If"), you will find that they all work pretty well. Good luck!

The sound quality also is a huge problem for me. It was as if everyone's voice was as low as a whisper. The Speakerphone doesn't help either. Voices over the speaker sound somewhat distorted and distant.

The digital camera was what I expected from this phone, so there really isn't much to complain about there. I mean how much quality can you expect from a 1.3 mega pixel digital camera? It serves its purpose for on the go pictures for show-n-tell, but nothing more than that.

Overall, I was very disappointed in the Treo 700p and had no choice but to get a refund. It's just too expensive to be so inconsistent. I'm done with dealing with the advanced phone for now. I'll take my chances with an ordinary cell phone, enough to make a simple phone call.