Handspring's Treo 180 shows the potential for PDA-phone integration, but that doesn't mean you should be racing to the shops now.
In the PDA sphere, there are two types of people, those who get Graffiti (or other pen-based text entry systems), and those who don't.
If you're one of the people who gets Graffiti, Handspring's Treo 180 with the built-in keyboard may seem a little pointless. Combining a PDA and phone into one device is one of those ideas that many people would like, but the real-world implementations have so far failed to impress.
Certainly the idea of adding Palm OS to a phone with a decent-sized screen is a step in the right direction, but there is much about Handspring's implementation that is rather clunky. The replacement address book application, which allows you to look up and dial numbers, could be a lot more intuitive and easier to navigate around. In particular, if you're scrolling through your list of names, each entry takes up three lines, as opposed to one in the standard Palm OS address book. You end up doing a lot more scrolling.
Our review of the Treo 180g mentioned that the Treo is as comfortable to use as a regular flip-phone. Perhaps, but it's at least three times the size, and you'd look like a complete wally without a headset – fortunately it accepts standard Nokia headsets.
The keyboard for the most part only adds to the Treo's clunkiness. The keyboard action is quite stiff, even after a lot of use, and it's too small for anything but hunt-and-peck. Much in the same way that it's annoying when you have to switch between a mouse and keyboard at a desktop computer, with the Treo you find you constantly need to switch between keyboard and stylus. This is because with the absence of a Graffiti pad, buttons on the keyboard represent functions such as the home menu and options menus. In particular, getting to the home menu is excruciatingly painful because it involves two keystrokes. Doesn't sound like much, but you need to do it every time you switch applications. You'll be cursing it before long.
However, the keyboard is fantastic for SMS junkies. Even seasoned predictive text input professionals won't be able to match your speed. The Treo's SMS application is a vast improvement over just about any mobile phone's. It even keeps a list of people you recently sent messages to, so you aren't always looking up the same names in your address book.
We did hit one major SMS problem, though. If you have any SMS messages saved on your SIM card, the Treo will ask you if you want to move the messages into its memory. Unless you're planning to use the Treo forever, don't do it, because there's no way to put the messages back on the SIM chip. We found this out the hard way, although the distributor's tech staff were apologetic and helpful about the problem. However, the $50-per-incident fee for phone tech support is very unimpressive.
Editor's note: Since we wrote this review, Handspring has modified its stance on support calls; it now only charges for queries on third-party software, which is what it should have done in the first place.
If you are one of those people who doesn't get Graffiti, the Treo 180 is worth considering, but perhaps it's better to wait and see if some of the bugs are ironed out in the recently announced Treo 270.
Handspring Treo 270
Company: Handspring
Price: $AU1,399
Distributor: Brightpoint Australia
Phone: 1300 765 005
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