| Review of the Palm Treo 700wx |
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The Treo 700wx is the CDMA Windows Smartphone edition of the Treo 700. As usual, this review is not to critique the non-phone aspects of the device, which means I won’t pass judgment on the Windows operating system or on any of the data-centric things that you can do with this model. My focus, as always, is on the phone portion of the device. Last Updated: 25-Sep-2007 |
Before reading this review, please read Some Thoughts on Phone Reviewing.
I would like to thank
TelecomZombie for lending me the phone for this test.
RF Performance
RF Sensitivity: The review gets off to a good start
with excellent RF sensitivity. I compared the Treo to the Pantech 3200, which in
turn had been compared to the excellent Nokia 6265i. All three phones can pull
in weak signals with the best of them. Sadly, this is where the accolades end.
Over-the-road Performance: I was absolutely shocked
at how poorly the Treo handled network issues during my tests. I wanted to make
sure that the problem wasn’t just network-related, and so with Howard Chu’s
help I made a comparison between the Nokia 6265i
and Treo 700 on a fixed route just east of Square One in Mississauga. Due to all
of the tall buildings in that area, the level of interference on Telus PCS is
about as bad as it gets.
Both phones seemed to suffer from similar problems in similar locations, but the
big difference was how the phones dealt with those issues. The Nokia glossed
over them with aplomb and nary a syllable went astray. On the other hand, the
Treo magnified each of the network issues and turned them into distinct
disturbances in the flow of the audio that cut out syllables and made the phone
sound as though it was going to drop the call.
During tests in open areas, where network issues are relatively minor, the Treo
seems to do a credible job, but just about any phone sounds good under similar
conditions. You have to hear the phone for yourself to really appreciate just
how horrid the problems can become, and then compare it to an excellent
performer such as the 6265i to bring it home to you. Without a doubt, the
over-the-road performance of the Treo was one of the worst I’ve ever
experienced.
Click on this link for a full description of
RF Performance, and how to interpret it.
Audio Performance
Tonal Balance: I can sum up the tonal balance of
the native earpiece in two words: harsh and tinny. While listening to the sample
voices provided on the Telus test line I found that some of those voices were so
harsh and grating that I wanted to pull the phone away from my ear to escape the
torture. When it isn’t sounding harsh however, it just plain sounds tinny and
cheap. Fortunately the phone sounds markedly better when used with a headset
(Bluetooth or wired). For this reason I recommend that if you do plan to buy a
Treo, you use the provided stereo earbud or you buy a good-quality Bluetooth
headset and use it all the time.
Sound Reproduction: I had no complaints about sound
reproduction however, though it wasn’t any better than the average CDMA phone
when it came to reproducing nuances of speech. It had virtually no detectable
background hiss, and so on that score the phone actually did okay for itself.
Just the same, it’s hard to appreciate the sound reproduction and low hiss when
your ears are being assaulted by the horrendously poor tonal balance.
Earpiece Volume: There is no problem here, but
chances are you’ll want to turn down the volume to reduce the effects of the
harshness. However, if you need the extra volume to compensate for a loud
environment, the Treo 700 does come through for you. And maybe it’s just me, but
the earpiece on the phone is horribly uncomfortable.
Outgoing Audio: When used in a quiet environment
the outgoing audio is actually quite nice and your callers will find it pleasant
to listen to your voice for prolonged periods of time. However, when there is
background noise present the phone had a nasty habit of cutting out frequently,
which resulted in the loss of syllables. Your callers will likely be asking you
to repeat yourself frequently if you attempt to have a conversation in noisy
areas. Even in moderately noisy conditions, the cutting out is still evident.
Speakerphone: On one hand the speaker in the Treo
700 provides more than enough volume to be heard in quiet and mildly noisy
areas. On the other hand, it takes cheap and tinny to a new level. The sound
quality of the speaker is about as bad as any phone I’ve tested in quite some
time, but if you absolutely must use a speakerphone, at least it works well
enough to be useable, which is more than can be said of phones with excessively
quiet speakers like the Pantech 3200.
Click on this link for a full description of
Audio Performance, and how to interpret it.
Support Features
Ringer Volume: The ringer on the Treo is loud
enough to be heard under most non-extreme situations, but when used in a noisy
environment however, the ringer just doesn’t have enough oomph to be heard over
the din. This is especially true if you don’t choose the loudest ringtone
available. To compensate, the phone does have a fairly potent vibrator, and so
if you don’t hear the phone ring, you might feel it.
Keypad Design: What else can I say about cramped
itty-bitty little QWERTY keypads that hasn’t been said before? Using the black
keys designated for phone use is like trying to use a standard telephone that
Recucto has shrunken down to the size of a prop for a large doll house.
People with large fingers are going to find using these keys is next to
impossible.
Display: The 240 x 240 display is actually very
good, though it isn’t quite bright enough to be usable in direct sunlight. I
have no complaints about the screen, except to say that anything that large is
going to be easy to scratch. Palm does provide a protective sticker, but they
want something like $20 each for replacements.
Icing on the Cake
Camera: The camera in the Treo 700 is a 1.3
megapixel unit, but the quality of the photographs is very disappointing. All of
the pictures I took using the Treo and my Motorola
i580 (which also has a 1.3 megapixel camera) revealed that the one in the
Treo is fuzzy-looking. It’s almost as though the image sensor has
lower-than-1.3-meaapixels resolution and then the image is sampled up to 1280 x
1024. I ensured that the lens was spotless before taking the shots, but they
still came out fuzzy. Here are links to a few of the samples and their
associated shots taken with the i580.
Shot out my
window with the Treo
Shot out my window with
the i580
Food court at Square One with the Treo
Food court
at Square One with the i580
WiFi: The Treo 700 offers optional WiFi, but only as an
add-on. In order to use WiFi you must plug the provided WiFi adapter into the SD
card slot. This means you cannot have any expanded memory available while
connected to the Internet via WiFi, though I'm told you can get a WiFi card with
memory built into it. Nonetheless, the arrangement smacks of afterthought,
which is exactly the impression I got from the phone functionality. Plenty of
other Smartphone and PDA models have WiFi built directly into the device and do
not subject you to such limitations.
Conclusions
Any other uses notwithstanding, the Treo 700wx is possessed of one of the worst
CDMA phones I’ve tested in ages. It’s horrible sound quality, atrocious
over-the-road performance, frustrating little keypad, and inability to cope well
with background noise during conversations makes it a terrible choice for those
looking for a quality phone to go along with their data-centric device. While it
seems endemic throughout the industry to provide second-rate phones on PDA
devices, the Treo takes this to a new low. Unless you absolutely want a Palm
running Windows, you’d do yourself a big favor to look elsewhere.
