Palm Treo 750 Review
Wed 25 Feb 2009Filed Under: Mobile Phone Reviews | Leave a Comment
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Welcome to our review of the Palm Treo 750. It’s a Windows Mobile OS based phone that’s been around for a few years now. Due to various corporate issues with Palm other factors its hasn’t been very popular outside the business world.
Palm has introduced a few benchmark products over the years and the qwerty Palm OS based phones where one of the first. Palm then decided to introduce Windows Mobile based phones as a means to attract the business user. The Treo 750 was the top of the range phone until the release of the Palm Pro in late 2008.
We’ve actually bought the Treo as a run out special well below RRP. The Treo 750 originally ran Windows Mobile 5 which is not a very good OS. It had crashes, data sync issues power drains and all sorts of things you would expect from anything with a Microsoft OS but you’d also expect Palm to have sorted out the mess but didn’t.
The initial release was a shocker – it crashed all the time – simply did not work properly on a new and clean installed phone!
Thus in Windows 5 form the Treo 750 like every other Windows based phone was not reliable. Other than that – simple things like MP3 ringtones where beyond the capabilities of this version.
THANKFULLY Palm released a free Windows Mobile 6 OS update for almost every user of the Treo 750 and I must say the change is dramatic. We did the upgrade and was finally happy with the phone. So if you see a Treo 750 on special only buy if it has Windows 6 installed.
With WM6 the Treo finally had all the features (except for Wi-Fi) ou’d expect from a decent smartphone. Moreover it was actually stable and has so far failed to crash since it’s new OS upgrade. Even more important is that it could now play MP3 ringtones!
The construction is certainly old tech – large and plastic but it was well made. No creaks could be heard. The back has a rubberised cover so it feels good to hold. There are plenty of buttons but it is well designed keypad so easy to use. The buttons may feel hard to touch but the spring action is excellent so it cheapness is only in appearance. Of note is the dedicated Windows Start Menu button and a OK/Close button. We are utterly serious when we say that these two buttons make the Treo superior to most WM6 based phones. Overall a sturdy and well made phone if a little on the large side.
The camera lens is set into the back along with a mirror! and the main speaker. Very tidy arrangement and again well made but the speaker is blocked when you set the phone down – which is unfortunate. More so because it’s for some reasons we could not get the volume of the ring tones to make themselves heard.
The picture quality from the camera is poor likewise the video quality. At least it has something…
The keypad back light is very bright, the white number keys an excellent idea! If you don’t like the keypad you can always use the touch screen. The ability to dual input makes the phone great to use. However we found using the keypad superior to using the stylus or touch screen. Phones should be capable of one handed operation. Speaking of which the sensitivity of the screen is very good even if you have a stick on screen protector.
The screen is very large by 2006 standards but now only average size for Qwerty based phone in 2009. Nevertheless screen resolution is also perfectly acceptable.
Functionality is WM6 OS standard and there aren’t any noticeable Palm specific apps like the more popular HTC models. However the the usual applications like Word, Excel and Powerpoint are available. The Web browser is still very poor.
The most useful feature in WM6 is the ability to connect to MS Exchange for push email services. So if your company runs Exchange email, the Treo 750 can receive push email messages (just like the Blackberry). This basically means when you get normal email it is also sent to the Treo. It can also Sync calender items notes etc.. Just like the regular Activesync.
In terms of operating speed – the phone is sluggish compared to the latest 2009 mobiles with similar CPUs but its not too slow either. Faster than the HTC Touch and even the latest Sony Ericsson Experia on first impression.
Standard battery life was good lasting 3 days with full 3G and Exchange running all the time but no calls. With the phone functions switch off it lasted 5-6 days. You can still get the extended battery option if you want longer operating time.
The speaker sound quality is excellent but its ability to get the best signal could probably be improved. It is 1000 times better than the iPhone 3G – but then which phone isn’t in terms of keeping a signal? It also has a external antenna plug!
The worst feature of the phone is the propriety PC connector. It is bulky and odd just like the separate power cable. Also the use of the largely defunct mini SD card… You can use adapters if you can’t find appropriate cards.
One final oddity is that the Treo does not have an OFF button. It stays on – so if you travel you’ll have to manually turn the phone functionality off rather than turn off the whole phone.
Conclusion: Despite a very bad start we have come to like the Treo 750. WM6 update made all the difference. Sure the physical design is dated but it is well made. It is NOT better than say the arguably market leader, the Nokia E71. But it is just as good as the 2008 HTC models. However it is a cheaper option to the Treo Pro.
Specifications
* Palm Treo 750
* Network
Tri-band 3G HSDPA 3.6 / 850 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
Quad-band GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 /1900 MHz
* Design
Mini keyboard
L111 x W58 x D22 mm
Weight 154 grams
* Display/s
TFT 240 x 240
16-bit colour 65,000
* Camera
1.3MP main camera
* Connectivity
USB
Bluetooth V1.2
Infrared
* CPU
300MHz Processor
* Memory
128MB available to user
45MB available to user
Up to 4Gig MiniSD
* Ring tones
MP3, MIDI, WAV, Vibration
* Features
Word/Excel/Powerpoint
SMS, MMS, WAP, EMAIL
Speaker Phone/Hands free
Customizable backgrounds
Picture Viewer
Calender and organizer
PDF viewer
Internet Explorer (Mobile)
200Hrs Standby, 4 Hours Talk Time
* Package contents
XP/Vista Compatible Activesync
Personal hands free kit
Travel charger
USB cable
* Price history
Between $650-900 AUS 2009
Game Review – Watchmen
Fri 20 Feb 2009Filed Under: Game Reviews | Leave a Comment
  NAME: Watchmen VERSION: 1.0.1 COMPANY: GLU Mobile PLATFORM: JAVA GENRE: Action/Movie SIZE: 626 KB TEST PHONE: Nokia 6500 RATING: 9/10 DEMO: |
Welcome to our Watchmen game (Java version) review.
The Watchmen was refreshing because I’ve never heard of the comic series before. It’s nice to experience something completely unknown. Furthermore the movie based on the series will be out by mid 2009.
Glu games are generally some of the best and although at first glance at the game’s application icon didn’t look too interesting we where slowly impressed from the opening credits! It doesn’t take much effort to produce high quality graphics for introductions thankfully Glu have for the most part.
I can’t tell you the entire story line because I haven’t finished the game or seen the movie at the time of writing so you’ll have to visit later for more details… However you start off playing the character of Nite Owl! The tutorial is quite good showing you that there are a ton of ‘weapon’ moves. You get to play new characters (eg. Comedian) as the games progresses each with their own regular and special moves.
Gameplay and controls are simple or difficult depending on how you want to play it. Just use the direction keys and the center button if you want OR if you want the special moves try the other keys! I won’t give too much away needless to say being able to punch enemies, throw them around or use your boomerang thing or the ultimate area destruction weapon is new to me and very well done.
Graphics are generally 3D like but if you look closely just 2D with shading effects. They are very good and 3D would not have helped since your character Nite Owl after all he is animated very nicely. Ie. moving cape and good character movement. It’s the best I’ve seen to date.
Likewsie the background graphics are really nicely done too! Cut scenes that progress the story are made in the same way and looks great. The quality of graphics are mostly pin sharp – or maybe the screen on the test Nokia 6500 is just very good – whatever! Quality graphics that’s for sure. The BGM is decent but like all mobile games gets repetitive. No sound effects though…
There is only one issue we have that is directed to the 6500 and that the game needs a fast CPU to work properly.
Conclusion: We enjoyed this game. Very entertaining beat’em up game in the vein of the old Arcade versions of Street Fighter. It is better than the latest super hero games released recently (late 2008) eg. Batman, Batman and Superman, Hellboy etc.. Very nice graphics – cool moves decent story line so far. Really well done. I think it’s a benchmark game…