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Treo 600 - part 2    [ Geekiness ]

More testing - under certain circumstances (for example, using the website navigation links while browsing The Onion, which Handspring was nice enough to include links for on its default homepage), the web browser will barf up a "Browser Error - Failed to pass data to exchange manager. (0x1511)".   There's some generic error codes mentioned in the PalmOS 5 API docs, but they're mostly can't-find-library, low-on-power, low-on-memory, and connection-cancelled generic errors.   There's also a good higher-level description of what the Exchange Manager is.

Another issue - every so often, especially after synchronization and turning the wireless mode on and off, then on again, network connectivity becomes very lagged to the point of generating can't-connect-to-system timeout errors.   Only solution I've found so far is to reset the OS, and then things work rather well.

The keyboard's pretty nice - despite its small size, I've only managed to fat-finger characters once or twice over a day or so.   It takes a little while to get used to the non-alphanumeric character positions and using the blue "alt" key to access them, but that method works out rather well.

The screen's okay, I do like the display on the Palm Tungsten W better - 160x160x11.5 doesn't seem that great after drooling over antialiased text on the other hi-res screens out there.

The product manual is excellent!   Being one of the few humans left on the planet who actually reads manufacturer's documentation (I get all sorts of grief at Christmas and on my birthday when I get a shiny new toy and immediately open the manual to sit and read it for 15 minutes), I've developed an appreciation for good content and layout in manuals.   The folks at Handspring deserve credit for putting everything you need to know into an easy-to-read format.

The T-Mobile service that's configured with the handheld is a little disappointing in the DC metro area.   It'll drop off or fade away completely even on trips around the Beltway, let alone side roads and non-urbanized areas.   I'd definitely opt for the CDMA coverage from Sprint over T-Mobile's GSM service at this point if you're in the Washington area.   The Treo 600 will first be available with plans through Sprint, then Cingular and T-Mobile, and then AT&T after that.

Despite the coverage problems, it gets decent throughput - if the service isn't being flaky, it's comparable to a 28.8 modem connection.   Bandwidth Place rates it at 26.4 kilobits/second.   The CNet bandwidth test site did not play well with the browser.   PC Pitstop's automatic image-download test rates it at 24 kilobits/second.

The browser itself reports its user-agent string as "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 95; PalmSource; Blazer 3.0) 16;160x160".   Seems to have decent JavaScript and CSS support.   The client appears to originate from alphanumeric hostnames (m12ab3cd4) in the tmodns.net domain, which is using addresses from T-Mobile's 216.155.160.0/20 network block.

The included POP3 mail client works decently, and Handspring's integrated the camera/picture library nicely so that it's very simple to send pictures via mail.   The client features autocompletion of previously entered addresses, which is very handy for people too lazy to add entries to their address book.   By default, it will not download large messages with attachments, but you can tell it to go forth and retrieve it if necessary.   It'll also keep messages on the server by default, which is nice for users who are using the handheld to check on new messages but not as a replacement for a PC.

I encountered one problem in viewing text attachments - I attached a random text file from my documents which happened to have SSH2 hostkeys inside.   After asking if I wanted to copy the attachment to the Memo Pad, the Treo did the "whoops-reboot-back-again" dance.   I haven't been able to repeat this error, but it doesn't give me a great feeling about the stability of the OS.

The built-in camera works pretty well - you don't get a good feel for the clarity of the picture from the Treo's display since it's scrunched into a 160x160 display, but once you export the image with the included desktop-synch software or email it as an attachment, you can see the full VGA-resolution image.   It's good enough for snapping quick shots of people or nearby items, but it won't replace any decent digital camera.

Application compatability is a mixed bag - the Treo 600 runs PalmOS 5.2.1 out of the box, and uses a newer processor, which means that a number of older apps compiled for PalmOS 3 or 4 may not work as designed.   In practice, a fair number of third-party processor- and memory-intensive multimedia applications (read "games") would crash the OS.   No blue screen, just the lovely familiar PalmOS boot screen appearing for no obvious reason and returning you to your application list.   The apps that Handspring includes and links to from its web site work well, but caveat downloador if you're grabbing apps from other sources.   Definitely need to try demos out before you buy software for this platform.

Current price for the Treo 600 is $599 (not including a $150 new service credit from Sprint) and Sprint plans starting at $50/month including network data access.   With some extras thrown in (carrying case, car charger, software, etc.) you could easily end up spending $700 - $800 on the whole kit.