Mindful Musings

To give you a quick glance of what the review is going to be about, I know why they call it the CrackBerry now. After years of waiting for the “right moment”, I finally purchased my very own Treo 755p Smartphone this past week. Ever since that time, it has been a path to discovery.

Pros:

• The phone is small enough that I can easily put it in my pant pocket, cover and all and it still feels not quite heavy.


• The Palm software is easier to navigate and use and judging from my past experience with Windows Mobile, it has a lot less control and strangely, a lot less hassle.


• EVDO is fast and web browsing is a breeze. I even setup my Slingbox with the new client Palm client and it works, albeit choppily.


• It is easy to make a call, quality is loud and clear and the speakerphone is nice though I tend to not use it very often.


• Office document editing is painless and the documents are very easy to read in the format presented. I have yet to take documents back to my PC but opening them from GMail is a breeze.


• Texting is no longer a frustrating and painful experience. I can reply quickly within reason. The keyboard took me a couple of days of getting used to, but now it is more than functional.


• The screen is brightin sunlight and easy to read.


• Very interesting escalating ringtones.


• Email “push” or syncing works well, though not for me. I like GMail to be my respository and not my phone. I wish I could set my phone to delete emails that I have read after a certain period. If I could do that, I would probably use the email feature.


• Solid feel, fit and finish of the phone. Everything feels like it will hold together (knock on wood).

Cons:

• The GMail app does not work (yet). I might have a wordaround for this soon and I will post my methods.


• Battery life is enough to last one day, but not enough to last two.


• All cables are proprietary, so new chargers and new USB cables for both home and work.


• Adding a contact from the phone screen without dialing a call is a hassle.


• Speed dial setup was a learning curve.


• PCS Vision takes a bit of getting used to on this phone. I think of Vision as a modem service now and know that I have to wait for it to connect.


• JVM should come pre-installed.


• Phone security sould be much more configurable. An $8 program provides more security than the phone does. For an enterprise level phone, each application should be lockable.


• It should come with SOME sort of a case or holder.

Ever since I received my phone in the mail and activated it, I have been using it extensively. I have had it for a few days and I am really happy with it. I even surprised myself and started using the datebook feature. I had failed in the past with a PDA. I think the convenience of having it with me all the time helps a great deal. Overall, it was worth the price. I had seriously thought of getting the Sprint HTC Mogul and that would have also been a good choice (my co-worker Bradon bought one of those) but I am very happy with my Treo 755p. I need to resurrect some of the old code that I had written to work with Sprint. I might even resurrect my old picture blog and modify it to work with videos from Sprint.

PS: Absolutely AMAZING cases here.