Monday, April 10, 2006
Palm's Treo 700w Reviewed: Part 1 (Intro, Background, Hardware)
Posted by Janak Parekh in "HARDWARE" @ 12:30 PM
A tour of the device
Front
The Treo 700w looks a lot like its smaller sibling, the Treo 650, but there's a few subtle improvements to the device's design.
Figure 13: The front of the Treo 700w.
The 700w has several distinctive aspects. Starting from the top to the bottom, the LED indicator in the upper-left corner of the 700w is fairly simple: it blinks green when the phone module is on and there's a signal, and blinks red when the phone module is on and there isn't a signal. If the phone module is off, the LED stays off. When charging, the LED glows a steady red, and turns to a steady green when the device is fully charged. And that's about it. The LED is capable of blinking a slow green when there's a notification or reminder, but this functionality seems flaky; I've only seen the LED behave that way once or twice. Additionally, the functionality of the LED cannot be customized in the Sounds and Notifications applet, unlike some other Pocket PCs.
The earpiece on the phone is slightly indented to make it easy to line it up with your ear. The device, in general, is reasonably comfortable to hold to the ear: it feels a little short when you hold it against your head, but not unreasonably so. The top area is a smooth, non-abrasive plastic. This isn't like all Pocket PC phones; notably, many HTC devices have a flat earpiece "hole" and it's a little awkward to align against and hold up to your ear. Of all the Pocket PC phones I've used as a phone, and I've used many, the Treo is the most comfortable and the least "geeky".
Next is the relatively small square touch screen. The screen has a 240x240 resolution; I'll talk about the OS implications of the screen later in the review, but for now, it's worth mentioning that despite the small size, controls aren't too small and can easily be tapped. The screen is bright and clear and, thanks to its small size, 240x240 doesn't look pixelated. ClearType is excellent on this device, and it's the first thing I turn on. The screen happens to be nicely recessed, and it's small enough that your cheek is unlikely to make contact with it even if you hold the 700w relatively close to your face. This is a nice improvement over larger Phone Edition devices whose screens frequently are in contact with one's face, picking up facial oils.
The control buttons are next; there's the two usual WM5 soft keys, the 5-way d-pad including action button, and 4 Windows keys. It's notable to see that there are no application keys; as I'll show in the screenshot later in the review, it's possible to map Fn with a key (or press-and-hold) to give it dual functionality, but in general, the Treo doesn't have an intuitive means of immediately launching the Calendar or Contacts. The good news is, it's not exactly a loss, because the Treo's Today screen mechanisms make this omission close to moot.
The d-pad is decent; the four directions have good tactile feedback and are not difficult to press. The center action key is distinct from the rest of the d-pad, and is a bit recessed, making it a little harder to press; while this is a little annoying at first, you get used to it, and it reduces the number of times you press down on the action key by accident. I have only one major complaint with the d-pad: in text block editing applications, like an email in the Inbox applet, the d-pad up/down arrows only page up and down. I believe this is standard WM5 behavior, but most other thumbboard-enabled WM5 Pocket PCs have separate arrow keys that go up/down one line at a time. Not having such keys on the Treo can make editing arbitrary parts of the email awkward: either you have to use the left/right arrow keys and scroll extensively, or you must tap the screen to jump to a portion of the email. I find that thumb-tapping the screen is easiest, but WM5 is supposed to minimize required touchscreen interaction.
As for the other keys,
Front
The Treo 700w looks a lot like its smaller sibling, the Treo 650, but there's a few subtle improvements to the device's design.
Figure 13: The front of the Treo 700w.
The 700w has several distinctive aspects. Starting from the top to the bottom, the LED indicator in the upper-left corner of the 700w is fairly simple: it blinks green when the phone module is on and there's a signal, and blinks red when the phone module is on and there isn't a signal. If the phone module is off, the LED stays off. When charging, the LED glows a steady red, and turns to a steady green when the device is fully charged. And that's about it. The LED is capable of blinking a slow green when there's a notification or reminder, but this functionality seems flaky; I've only seen the LED behave that way once or twice. Additionally, the functionality of the LED cannot be customized in the Sounds and Notifications applet, unlike some other Pocket PCs.
The earpiece on the phone is slightly indented to make it easy to line it up with your ear. The device, in general, is reasonably comfortable to hold to the ear: it feels a little short when you hold it against your head, but not unreasonably so. The top area is a smooth, non-abrasive plastic. This isn't like all Pocket PC phones; notably, many HTC devices have a flat earpiece "hole" and it's a little awkward to align against and hold up to your ear. Of all the Pocket PC phones I've used as a phone, and I've used many, the Treo is the most comfortable and the least "geeky".
Next is the relatively small square touch screen. The screen has a 240x240 resolution; I'll talk about the OS implications of the screen later in the review, but for now, it's worth mentioning that despite the small size, controls aren't too small and can easily be tapped. The screen is bright and clear and, thanks to its small size, 240x240 doesn't look pixelated. ClearType is excellent on this device, and it's the first thing I turn on. The screen happens to be nicely recessed, and it's small enough that your cheek is unlikely to make contact with it even if you hold the 700w relatively close to your face. This is a nice improvement over larger Phone Edition devices whose screens frequently are in contact with one's face, picking up facial oils.
The control buttons are next; there's the two usual WM5 soft keys, the 5-way d-pad including action button, and 4 Windows keys. It's notable to see that there are no application keys; as I'll show in the screenshot later in the review, it's possible to map Fn with a key (or press-and-hold) to give it dual functionality, but in general, the Treo doesn't have an intuitive means of immediately launching the Calendar or Contacts. The good news is, it's not exactly a loss, because the Treo's Today screen mechanisms make this omission close to moot.
The d-pad is decent; the four directions have good tactile feedback and are not difficult to press. The center action key is distinct from the rest of the d-pad, and is a bit recessed, making it a little harder to press; while this is a little annoying at first, you get used to it, and it reduces the number of times you press down on the action key by accident. I have only one major complaint with the d-pad: in text block editing applications, like an email in the Inbox applet, the d-pad up/down arrows only page up and down. I believe this is standard WM5 behavior, but most other thumbboard-enabled WM5 Pocket PCs have separate arrow keys that go up/down one line at a time. Not having such keys on the Treo can make editing arbitrary parts of the email awkward: either you have to use the left/right arrow keys and scroll extensively, or you must tap the screen to jump to a portion of the email. I find that thumb-tapping the screen is easiest, but WM5 is supposed to minimize required touchscreen interaction.
As for the other keys,
- The green phone ("Send") key is probably the most unintuitive key of the bunch. In most cases, its only task is to bring you to the Today screen. Yes, the Today screen. 8O It turns out that the Treo's primary dialer functionality is the Today screen, so it's bringing you to that point of entry so that you can make the phone call. This also means that the Send key is a handy way of quickly minimizing everything to bring you to the Today screen to see your other Today items.
If you're already at the Today screen, pressing the Send key will bring up a list of most recent calls, along with options for the Dial Pad and the Call Log. This means, for example, that if you want to view the Call Log, it's particularly easy to do on the 700w: press the Send button once to go to Today, press it again to pop up the menu, and go up one and select the Call Log option. Note there's no fumbling in the Phone applet or in Applications like other Phone Edition devices. (The green key does also perform some more intuitive functions, like answering a call, or initiating a call once a speed dial item is selected, a number is entered, or a recent call is highlighted.) - The Windows key does exactly what it would suggest: pop up the Start Menu. On a device with no application keys, this is particularly important.
- The OK key also does exactly what it would suggest: simulate the tapping of the OK or X button on the upper-right of the screen. For those of you who have not been WM5 Phone Edition users, this is a little unintuitive compared to most phones; it's most similar to the "return" key on other phones or Smartphones. I'm not quite sure why Microsoft specified it as the OK key; it would be far more intuitive to suggest it as a return key. The Treo does add something to the OK key's function, however: pressing-and-holding the OK key brings you straight to the Running Programs list. This is the Treo 700w's substitute for a task manager, and for most daily activities, it's surprisingly okay, i.e. I only use it to close heavy applications like media players and leave other programs running for the most part.
- Finally, the red phone ("End") key serves two functions: it hangs up calls and doubles as the power button. No bizarrely-placed power keys like HTC devices -- it's right in front! :D
