Design
If you're a fan of existing Palm Treo models -- and the company has been somewhat slow to update the line locally -- then the first thing you'll notice about the Treo 680 is its sleeker style. There's no sign of an external antennae, and at 113 by 59 by 21mm it's among the smaller smartphones we've seen to feature a full QWERTY keyboard. The 680's display is a 320 by 320 pixel TFT touchscreen, which sits above the keyboard, dialling buttons and a set of function keys for accessing common phone tasks such as contact book, messages and of course dialling. In between these is a four way selector with a central selector button. The top of the Treo 680 houses a simple mute switch, while the sides are where you'll find the ringer volume, a customisable button and the SD card slot. The rear of the 680 hides a VGA camera, a tiny reflective mirror and the Treo 680's speaker.
Palm unveiled coloured Treo 680s (copper, arctic and crimson) in overseas markets, but only the traditional-looking graphite model will be sold initially in Australia.
Features
The Treo 680 is a Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) phone running Palm OS 5.4.9 for its smartphone applications. It supports Bluetooth, but only the older 1.2 standard, and Wi-Fi support is not provided. The camera on the rear is a plain VGA model. The Treo 680 has 64MB of onboard memory available for storage; given the usually slim nature of Palm applications that's quite good, although anyone wanting to use the onboard video or audio playback capabilities of the Treo will undoubtedly need to invest in an SD card to slot in the side. It's somewhat refreshing to see a phone in this size use actual SD and not any of the smaller (and more costly) variants -- it means that it's child's play to simply switch cards from many digital cameras straight into the Treo 680.
While classic Palm users will be very familiar with the interface that hits you when you press the home button, the Treo 680 also offers a five-tabbed interface that covers all the main bases of a smartphone without needing to flick through unwanted applications to get to them.
E-mail is enhanced with Versamail 3.5, which Palm says is more stable than previous versions and which synchronises your inbox, calendar and contacts through Exchange ActiveSync. BlackBerry Connect will be made available for push e-mail at a later date, but it's not certain when it will be released.
The Web browser Blazer 4.5 is pre-installed, which Palm claims is faster due to different caching rules and alternate viewing modes for Web pages. No third party applications are needed for video streaming and audio buffering, with the latter allowing you to listen to podcasts as they are downloading.
Performance
The Treo 680 is rated for up to four hours talk time and up to 300 hours on standby. In our moderately heavy testing we managed around eight days before the battery conked out on us, which is a little under the specified rating. We don't normally comment on audio quality for phones that much here at CNET.com.au, largely because it's such a varied thing depending on a host of network factors, but the Treo 680 annoyed us, simply because for absolutely every phone call we had, the voice quality was awful, and a quick SIM-switch to a couple of different phones gave us strong concern that it was indeed the T680 at fault, and not our network/position that was making it hard to hear calls -- if at all. That's still a factor that could just be within our test parameters, however.
The Treo 680's performance as a smartphone was solid but largely unexciting. The keyboard may feature a full QWERTY keyboard, but there's not really enough space inbetween individual keys, which led us to many typing mistakes -- we quickly worked out that we could type much faster and with greater accuracy with the Blackberry Pearl than the Treo 680, even though the Pearl doesn't have a full keyboard. Applications launched from within the Treo 680 interface ran well, but generally on the slower side compared to the existing pack of smartphones at this price point.
Existing Palm users who love the interface will find plenty to favour in the Treo 680's updated looks and simple tabbed interface, and for them the 680 is a good purchase option. If you're interested in the wider field of Windows Smartphones and RIM Blackberry phones, however, it lags behind the pack in several areas, especially the omission of WiFi and the plainly awful integrated camera.
CNET.com.au's Jeremy Roche contributed to this review.
DC
12/02/2008, 05:01 AM
rating
8/10
upgraded from 650. A great phone. Though, Goodlink which does the corporate emails for me, appears not reliable. The phone itself is great, amid (very) short battery life...
Pros: Great, versatile smartphone, formfactor. All you need from a smartphone
Cons: battery life, camera, Goodlink (not Treo's fault though...)
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daffyd
20/02/2007, 05:28 PM
rating
9/10
Very easy to use out of the box. The PALM OS is so reliable compared to WIN phones. Txt msg threads is a surprise advantage.
Pros: User interface
Reliability out of the box
Cons: Battery life
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rj
13/01/2007, 06:04 PM
rating
7/10
Haven't acutally purchased one yet - was planning to get one from the US - want one of the alternate colours and they don't appear to be getting released in Australia. My only concern is that the US phone may be incompatible with australian power etc. any advice
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mjrodis
04/01/2007, 02:06 PM
rating
9/10
I just got my palm treo 680 crimson color from the US. I love it.
Pros: syncs with mac
has everything u need in PDA
text msg thread
Cons: VGA camera
not #G so doesn't work in Japan
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Greg
23/12/2006, 10:13 PM
rating
5/10
The Palm Treo 680 marketing suggests it is supposed to be a budget smartphone. In the US at $399 USD rrp + $135 value Mobile Music Pack (currently from Palm online) this could be the case. However, taking into account normal charges the phone should be at least $100-150 cheaper in Aust. Certainly not $799! & with no music bonus pack!! So I would wait until its more reasonably priced here; assuming you are looking for a low end smartphone!
Don't get me wrong I am a big fan of the Palm OS and the integrated device concept. I only hope Palm finally listens to consumer feedback on the basic smartphone feature shortfall (It has been 2 yrs now). There should also be some international pricing consistency. In my opinion it is not good value at $799 ($AUS) compared with pricing model in the US.
Pros: *Compared with Treo 650
Slimmer design
Larger memory (64MB)
Support for up to 2GB SD cards
Cons: Low spec camera (VGA)
Bluetooth 1.2 NOT 2.0!! (unbelievable)
No WiFi
Battery life needs improving.
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greg willson
06/12/2006, 08:31 AM
rating
4/10
not enough new features to make me want to upgrade from my fantastic 650.
Pros: small body
Cons: no GPS / wi-fi.
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madbad01
29/11/2006, 03:41 PM
rating
9/10
It's not a rip off, it's called import tax. This is why whenever a new gadget comes out that I want I buy it off the US eBay and bring it over here! That was it's half the price for the same product. Plus, most new gadgets are released in the US before they are here in Australia so you get the item before everyone else! I adore my Trey 680 I just bought from the US for $385AUD.
Pros:
- Nice big touchscreen
- Godd form factor
- Lots of features
- Camera
- Email
+ many more!
Cons: - Camera is only VGA
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mainframe
29/11/2006, 10:23 AM
rating
5/10
so its $200 something american dollars and 799 here?.
typical rip off.
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