Palm Treo 800W Smartphone (Sprint) | 
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| Brand: Treo
Category: CE
Buy New: $294.00
New (4) from $294.00
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 23262
MPN: 800W
Model: 800W
UPC: 805931021120
EAN: 0805931021120
ASIN: B001DL7PL2
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | KEY FETURES: Windows Mobile 6.1, one-touch Wi-Fi, Sprint TV enabled, Speakerphone, Built-in camera, Web, email capable, Bluetooth, External display, GPS enabled, Memory card slot, Broadband speeds where available | | • | INCLUDE ACCESSORIES: Standard Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) Battery, Battery Door, AC Charger with Adapter, MicroUSB Sync Cable, Stereo Headset, | | • | DIMENSIONS: 4.4" x 2.3" x 0.7" | | • | WEIGHT: 5.0 oz | | • | Up to 4.5 hrs of continuous talk time |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Palm TreoTM 800w Built for business Stay on top of the competition with 24X7 access to your customers calls, corporate email, and access to professional Microsoft tools anywhere you go. A data plan of $25 or more or a Simply EverythingSM plan must be purchased Highlights Mobile versions of Microsoft Office, Outlook and Internet Explorer Wireless Email - Corporate and Personal Key Features Sprint TV enabled Speakerphone Built-in camera Web, email capable Bluetooth External display GPS enabled Memory card slot Broadband speeds where available Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Software GPS Capable Wireless Email-Corporate & Personal Stereo Bluetooth Wireless Technology Embedded Wi-Fi Attachment Viewing and Editing 2.0 Megapixel camera/camcorder Micro SD Expansion Card Slot Sprint TV Enabled Built-in media player Easy Navigation Speakerphone Customize to suit your style Brilliant Color display Memory Data Transfer Mode (DTM) Voice Memo/Recorder Customizable picture Caller ID Phone as Modem: TTY Compatible Hearing Aid Compatible (HAC) Technical Specifications Dimensions: 4.4" x 2.3" x 0.7" Weight: 5.0 oz Battery Information: 1150 mAh standard Included Accessories 1. Standard Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) Battery 2. Battery Door 3. AC Charger with Adapter 4. MicroUSB Sync Cable 5. Stereo Headset
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Had phone since release. Switching to BB 8330 November 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
To begin I have had quite a time selecting a phone that fits my needs under Sprint. It's bad enough we are stuck with a poor selection to begin with (tired of all these slider phones with their generic phone OS's and Iphone wanna be's) but at times its so hard to find good help in regards what phone to pick.
I came to the Palm Treo after a good run with my Palm Centro. I was so impressed with the simplistic yet powerful Palm OS (Given it is a little outdated)that Palm had me as a customer for sure for their next large release on Sprint, Palm OS or not.
After driving myself crazy with all the Specs and perks of the phone I went ahead and purchased one. Initially I was very happy, it worked as said and as far as the battery life it was nothing a Sync cable at the office couldnt fix.
As time went on though I started to see the phone's flaws. Only 4 days of using the phone and all of a sudden the "messagingapp.exe" (May not be the exact file name) gets a fatal error, apparently this app handles the text messaging.
With this error all of a sudden now I cannot make out going calls in a full service area. The phone locks up if you try to access the text messaging and then gives you the sorry "Feed back" screen asking you to send information on this error to Microsoft. Which I have since done well over a hundred times.
The final fix was to reset my phone and then restore which was a hassle only made slightly easier by the native backup/restore tool built into WM 6.1
The battery, I tried to weather this storm but in the end I failed. I think the biggest issue with the battery is the time out of the Data Connection. You will notice that if you check your mail or use the internet the data connection stays active even after you have closed all programs (I mean closed closed, not the idiotic Out-of-Sight-Out-of-Mind game that WM plays).
That data connection in it self is a big drain on the phone, why they wouldn't make a stricter time out I don't know. There are registry tweaks and such that can fix this BUT I'm sure more End Users would rather have a perfectly working phone right out the box. In general though the battery life sucks. And that is putting it nicely.
Another problem I have noticed from the start is the speaker volume, I sometimes I don't notice the weak vibration of my phone so a ringer helps a ton, especially if you're on the road and the phone needs to wake you up. The speaker volume for anything but Meeting Notices and Phone calls is ridiculously low. You preview and the ringer is fine, then when you get a message it is barely audible, again there are tweaks for this but I'm not trying to search for lines in a registry to put my ringtone volume where it should be.
Ringer volume wouldn't be such an issue if the Palm Centro didn't have an almost embarrassingly loud ringer then you get the 800w and it's almost useless as far as how loud it is.
Moving not to far from the ringer, is the speaker phone. Your better off not using it at all. If you like your phone convo to sound like rice crispies go for it. Otherwise stick to a BT headset.
Bugs bugs bugs and more bugs. A problem since day one of using my Palm Treo 800w is the fact that it turns itself on when it wants. At random intervals the keyboard and screen (blank but back lit or with lines of color) independently light up. Of course I have my back light at the lowest setting but this weird phenomenon does its own thing and in turn kills my battery over night if I don't make a point to plug her in. Also another issue is the constant failing of my text messaging app. This issue alone has had me hard reset the whole phone AT LEAST once a month. Only good thing about that is that I have learned to keep my backups fairly current and up to date.
No picture mail. To me the biggest point of having a camera on your phone is to make sharing moments easier than taking a digital cam, plugging it into your computer, composing an e-mail, attaching the picture and sending it. But your just short of that whole process on this phone considering the fact that there is no native picture mail.
How long has Sprint had WM Phones and we cant get a picture mail app that isn't third party.
With its flimsy stylus, pointless wifi, and battery draining e-mail apps. I am definitely switching to the Black Berry 8330, I wouldn't recommend the new Treo to my worse enemy.
All that being said, I know I was very negative of the phone. But you have to see it from my point of view, all the wonderful perks of this phone were promised and delivered. Everything they said it would do it did (when it worked). But its every error, crash, phone reset in between that makes this phone almost unbearable to use.
Maybe I had a bad phone, but either way it isn't worth paying fifty bucks to the insurance folks to replace it to HOPE the next one is better. I hope this review helps someone in picking there next phone, some times it isn't how good a product is that makes you buy it but how bad it ISN'T.
UPDATE:
Two days after posting this review it crashes again, who woulda thunk it?
 Treo 800W is powerful and fast! October 7, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I purchased the 800W about two weeks ago. I am very impressed. I spent the first night diving into the new MS Mobile 6.1 operating system. I entered in my contacts and setup my multiple POP email accounts. I then started to use the device heavily over the next few days. Boy is this baby fast! The internet screams. Emails are retrieved fast! The MS OS Mobile 6.1 is a pleasure to navigate. It's fast and responsive. My last phone was the Palm Centro with Palm OS. This is noticeably faster! There is zero lag when closing applications or switching between screens. Similar to a desktop system you can have multiple applications running at the same time. You can easily switch between applications via the Task Manager screen by holding down the "OK" button for a second. You can customize your Today screen to suit your needs. You can assign any picture to a speed dial number for one-touch speed dialing. Cool! The built-in GPS is extremely fast to lock on! It is faster to lock on than two car units I have tested. The turn-by-turn voice prompts work flawlessly. The GPS voice prompts work great via the speaker phone or wired headset. Alas, they do not come through on a Bluetooth headset. The 800W does not come equipped with picture mail, however there is a 3rd party utility available for download that fills the void beautifully! Battery life, the speaker phone, and headset volume could be better but they are fine. If you're like me and have your phone on 24/7 you'll want to invest in a car charger ($10 on ebay) and you'll want to plug your phone in at the office or home when not in use. The 2MP camera is decent. The video mode is merely okay. The micro USB connector is used as the charging port, connecting to a PC, and for a wired headset. The office applications work well! The touch screen and key pad work great. Overall I give the 800W 8 out of 10 stars.
Pros:
Fast Internet, Wi-Fi, Stereo Bluetooth, GPS, Voice commands, good keyboard
Cons:
Battery life, speaker phone, headset volume
Phone Details:
Display 320x320 pixel s
Radio Qualcomm MSM6800A, EvDO Rev A
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, 802.1x (EAP-PEAP, EAP-TLS and EAP-TTLS)
GPS Built-in GPS (standalone and assisted); Sprint Navigation
Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Microsoft Office Mobile Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote
Microsoft Media Player (music & video)
Adobe PDF Viewer
Voice Commands with response, "Call John at home", "What are my appointments today?"
Bluetooth Wireless Version: 2.0 +, stereo audio streaming (A2DP, GAVDP, AVRCP)
Memory 256MB user memory (approximately 170MB available user memory)
Camera 2.0 megapixels, and video capture
Battery Removable 1150 mAh lithium-ion; up to 4.5 hours talk time
Expansion microSD/microSDHC cards (up to 8GB supported)
Connector MicroUSB(tm) 2.0, for charger, headset, and PC connectivity
 Powerful but Imperfect October 4, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Any given piece technology, like life itself, is often an embodiment of the choices and compromises made along the way. The 800W is a reflection of some interesting design choices made by Palm while it struggles to return to relevance in the crowded and competitive smartphone market.
Lets talk about the postives first. On paper, the specs are very respectable, reading like a wishlist of goodies Palm customers have been begging for:
We have the fast 3G EVDO Rev. A on Sprint's excellent network. Download speeds are as fast as I have seen on a smartphone, frequently peeking in the high 900Kbps in my tests. This is "3G as its meant to be."
Wireless capabilities are rounded out by 802.11 b/g WiFi, a fast GPS sensor, and an up-to-date Bluetooth stack with all the relevant profiles, including those for stereo headphones. The WiFi is easily turned on and off with a dedicated hardware switch.
The phone runs Windows Mobile 6.1 professional. This is a reasonable choice. As much longevity as Palm OS has had, it is simply not keeping up with the demands of a modern smartphone. Palm knows this, and is working on their own home-grown Linux-based OS that seems to be taking forever to see the light of day.
Windows Mobile 6.1 has good third-party software support, and fully supports the various features of the phone.
Sprint has added some nice features such as live and in-demand video streams which work very well on the device and network. The TeleNav-based turn-by-turn navigation system complements the GPS features, and works as well, if not better, than the built-in Nav in my Chrysler 300C.
Now lets look at the compromises made to bring these features to the phone:
The top three complaints seen around the web are battery life, battery life, and battery life. In my experience over the last month or so, this complaint is well founded. If you try to use it like a real smartphone -- with a mixture of internet use, email, phone calls, navigation and video/music -- the phone will NOT make it through an 8+ work-day. I have dealt with this problem by (a) consciously enabling and disabling features on the phone on an as needed bases and (b) buying a second battery that I have to swap out by 2:00PM. Neither or these steps are ideal.
In part, the sub-par battery life is a compromise made to bring the 3G, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth radios on board. This part is understandable. Unfortunately, I do not think Palm did all it could to mitigate this weakness. The battery is too small, and I don't understand why a bigger one could not be fitted into the design. The HTC Mogul, a phone which came out a year earlier has a virtually identical form factor but includes a slide-out keyboard AND a 35% larger battery.
Speaking of physical design, I don't understand why the device is as big as it is. It is not large, but clearly seems thicker than necessary particularly given the smallish 1100mah battery. Nokia's new E series phone packs the same features in a considerably smaller form factor. While the phone feels fine in the hand, it has some obvious saddlebags.
The screen is an example of an area where design needs to be modernized. It is sunken into a bevel which adds depth to the phone, reduces usable screen area, and makes it difficult to access the sides and corners of the touchscreen with a finger. You can use the stylus, which has its own problems. This cocktail straw-like implements bends like a cooked noodle... and not one cooked Al Dente either.
Speaking of the screen, Palm has brought its Windows Mobile smartphone up to the Palm standard with 320x320 resolution as opposed to the de-facto Windows Mobile standard of 320x240. The finer resolution is welcome, but the odd aspect ratio causes trouble with many windows applications. Furthermore, the screen seems half as bright as the identical resolution screen on my wife's Palm Centro. (Apparently a sacrifice made to improve battery life?). The 800w screen is also not as sensitive as the newer devices on the market, and I am not even talking about the best-in-class iPhone.
Finally, the device design lacks in flair and quality. Many will suggest that looks and good industrial design are not important criteria in a true "business" smartphone. I disagree. If I buy a device that costs roughly $500 and I am going to carry on my person day-in and day-out, it should be attractive and well designed. Its like a watch -- any $2 plastic LCD watch can tell time, but I am not going to wear that to an important meeting. While not ugly, the 800w is too square, too thick and too dated.
The soft-touch paint and keyboard are of excellent quality. However, the directional-pad used to control the device is covered with a thin chrome paint which has already worn off in some spots revealing the cheap black plastic underneath.
In assessing the device as a whole, its not the required compromises that result in its less-than stellar rating. It is the design flaws that are not the result of compromise:
* The device does not need to be as thick as it is, other devices prove this.
* There is clearly room for a bigger battery to mitigate the demand of power-hungry components.
* Palm needs to pay more attention to style and quality details. The d-pad "chrome" and flimsy stylus are clear examples of this.
* The screen is the part of the phone the user looks at the most. I see no reason why the Palm screen was not made flush, more responsive and brighter. Get rid of the bevel, it's not needed. (Palm apparently did exactly this in the Treo Preo, a phone released very shortly after the 800w).
* While Windows Mobile is a good foundation, some time needs to be spent in customizing the front-end to make it more usable. (For example, take a cue from the "sliding windows" home screen design which debuted with Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone edition.
In summary, the device does everything I need it to as long as I am schlepping along the extra battery. However, I feel a bit like I am wearing a $2 watch.
Battery problems can be helped! September 22, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
So I have had this device for a few months now and I have to say its a love-hate relationship. The stuff that it does is pretty cool. I love that it has Wi-Fi, GPS, and is pretty slim for a Treo (I'm coming from a Treo 755p). The only thing I don't like is the battery life.
Coming from a Palm OS was a little difficult for me. I really didn't want to switch, but I felt like the stuff that I was getting from this new one far outweight switching OS's. I was right...in fact I kinda like Windows Mobile more than the Palm OS now!
They designed the 800w so that you can control everything with one hand. Besides for typing on the keypad, I think they have totally succeeded. I can pick from my favorite programs, close applications, view and dismiss notifications, access call logs, contacts, calendars, and messages, view and delete emails, etc., etc., much faster than I ever could on my 755. There are also quick ways to turn on/off bluetooth, wifi, and gps.
I love how the Today screen is TOTALLY customizable. I can decide what I want to see and where I want to see it. I can make the fonts smaller so that I can fit more on the home screen and I can change the background (without it becoming useless like on the Palm OS).
One thing that I was really impressed with was it's feel in my hand. It felt like the perfect size; Just big enough for me to feel that my fingers weren't going to keep missing keys, and small enough for it to feel compact (I think its about 3/4 of the size of the 755p...at least it feels like it). I absolutely LOVE the keypad. It is better feeling than any of the Treos I have had or used. (I've owned the 650, 700p, 755p and this one...I have used the Centro...which was my least favorite one). This one takes the cake by far. The keypad is responsive, and perfectly sized/spaced. I also love the "ok" button. One of my biggest gripes with Windows Mobile before is that you would always have to hit the 'x' button before. The "ok" button makes it really easy to close windows with one keystroke.
The thing that is most annoying is the battery life. At factory settings, the battery won't last you even one day. You really need to tweak the settings and turn off a couple of key features.
Make sure you turn off the feature that automatically detects Infrared (IrDA) devices that are nearby, also, make sure that the you switch Location Privacy to 911 only (do this by clicking on the little circle with the cross on top of it in the home screen) when you are not using GPS or Maps. Finally, make Bluetooth NOT discoverable by other devices (when you aren't pairing it). This will usually help you and make your battery last an extra 12-24 hours easily. There are also some registry hacks that you can perform, but I advise against it.
One huge problem that I have and have also heard of is that this thing will not charge using ANY third-party charger if it is completely dead. I guess the OEM charger must have a higher current output or something. Make sure NOT to drain this thing completely unless you have the OEM charger that came with the 800w nearby.
I think I would give this thing 3.5 / 5 but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
Good phone for internet, but terrible battery life September 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have been using the Palm Treo 800w for two weeks and have a few comments about it. Overall, I like how the phone functions, but it has some serious flaws that are so severe that I am considering returning the phone.
1. The battery life is terrible. If you are using web functions or even playing games, the battery life may be gone in 3 hours. It drained from 100% to 4% while sitting in my purse for 5 hours. If you have a long meeting, your phone may die in the middle of it.
2. There is no way to turn off the device without removing the battery. This is particularly bad because of the short battery life. You can't preserve your battery life without taking the phone apart. Also, airlines do not like electronic devices that won't shut off.
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