discuss article: TreoCentral Treo 700wx Review

Dieter Bohn · 09/06/2006, 11:27 AM

Review's up. Talk about it here.

JimmieGeddes · 09/06/2006, 12:11 PM

Great, informative review. Thanks for making a video available to us.

west3man · 09/06/2006, 12:12 PM

Thanks for the reviews. Questions and comments:

I keep reading about how the 700wx has DUN capabilities, right out of the box, but I've seen no mention of Sprint's $60 (if I remember correctly) monthly charge for dial-up networking.

Does that not apply to the 700wx, for some reason?

west3man · 09/06/2006, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by west3man

Thanks for the reviews. Questions and comments:

I keep reading about how the 700wx has DUN capabilities, right out of the box, but I've seen no mention of Sprint's $60 (if I remember correctly) monthly charge for dial-up networking.

Does that not apply to the 700wx, for some reason?

I just spoke to reps at two local Sprint PCS stores and they both said that there's (what I call) a glitch which does not allow an account to have BOTH, Phone-as-Modem and PCS Vision plans.

Again, these Sprint PCS employees said that no single account can have both Phone-as-Modem and PCS Vision services associated with it.

I asked the first rep (I called two different stores) if this glitch was being worked on. He said he guessed so.

The second rep. confirmed the existence of this glitch, but went on to say (get this) that one could simply get the PCS Vision service without purchasing the phone-as-modem plan... but still use the phone as a modem without incurring additional fees and charges.

Take that for whatever it's worth, but that is definitely what she said.

Dieter Bohn · 09/06/2006, 02:44 PM

Westman - thanks for posting this here and also in the 700wx Questions thread.

As I posted over there I'm not 100% positive about this yet so I didn't want to put my foot in my mouth, but I was told there were no extra costs beyond the 15 for DUN on the 700wx. My rep didn't sound as knowledgable as yours did, though.

Guess I'll wait and see what the first bill looks like.

Dieter Bohn · 09/06/2006, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmieGeddes

Great, informative review. Thanks for making a video available to us.

No problem, thanks for the compliment.

I actually made a bunch of other videos via Pocket Controller of the different apps as they ran to show speed and such .. but even with voiceover they were just dead boring.

Anyway, I can do it and it works well so if anybody wants to see anything in action let me know and I'll do a screen-movie of it.

bcaslis · 09/06/2006, 02:52 PM

Thanks for the review. I noticed you said you discontinued Verizon service, were you using the 700w or the 700p (or both) on Verizon?

Dieter Bohn · 09/06/2006, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcaslis

Thanks for the review. I noticed you said you discontinued Verizon service, were you using the 700w or the 700p (or both) on Verizon?

700w. Switching away from a 700p would have been a slightly tougher call but i likely would have done it - though my situation is somewhat unique given that I need to have as much experience as possible with both operating systems and that played a role in getting a WM5 device in the first place.

JimmieGeddes · 09/06/2006, 03:12 PM

I'd like to see the other videos.

I also went to the 700wx because Microsoft just started offering certification for Windows Mobile. I already have 2 Microsoft certifications (I'm a Network Specialist for career) and would like to get another one. I plan on keeping my 700p, and look forward to learning as much as I can about Windows Mobile.

razorpit · 09/06/2006, 06:00 PM

Great review. My 650 is getting close to 2 years old now and I've been thinking about getting a 700P. Your review has given me some food for thought. I've been a Palm user since '98 but the direction (or lack thereof) of the Palm OS has caused me much concern as of late. Like it or not Windows is here to stay and I can only see WinMob gaining more market share as time passes.

Hopefully my 650 will make for a few more months and we will see what happens with the Palm OS platform and the direction it is going.

--Dave

t2gungho · 09/06/2006, 07:13 PM

septimus: I thought the review was very good. I like the point that we tend to focus on the gripes when the phone appears to be that good.

west3man · 09/06/2006, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t2gungho

septimus: I thought the review was very good. I like the point that we tend to focus on the gripes when the phone appears to be that good.

Fair enough.

But I'm a lil embarrassed when I've paid a bunch of money for a super-advanced device that can't even do what the $5 models do.

That text-messaging issue is a deal-breaker for me, at this point.

athreya · 09/06/2006, 08:30 PM

1. How good or poorly does Skype work through EVDO and Wifi? How is Skype Out?

2. Since you said it doesnt have MMS, would it be possible to email or SMS a voice note. I have severe tendonitis through BB usage and am looking for the ability to VM say 1 min long voice emails.

3. How will it compare with the upcoming 750 GSM? Esp EVDO vs. Cingular HSDPA?

4. Cant one use PDA Net with 700wx instead of the inbuilt Sprint app?

5. Does it have A2DP on BT?

thanks for a great review.

dbarrett5381 · 09/06/2006, 09:29 PM

I noticed in your review that you said you didn't like how the message sent dialogue popped up when you sent a message. You do know that you can fix that with a registry edit, right? If you don't I can post what you have to do to fix it. That was the most annoying thing about my 700w. Luckily I was able to fix it with the registry edit about 2 sms's after I got it.

Malatesta · 09/06/2006, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by athreya

1. How good or poorly does Skype work through EVDO and Wifi? How is Skype Out?

It is certainly usable on EvDO--as long as you have a clear reception. But it works, I use it for calls to Germany. Of course on Wifi it's even better.

Quote:

Originally Posted by athreya

2. Since you said it doesnt have MMS, would it be possible to email or SMS a voice note. I have severe tendonitis through BB usage and am looking for the ability to VM say 1 min long voice emails.

There is a .cab file people are using to bet Pic Mail running on sprint. Takes 30 secs to install.

Quote:

Originally Posted by athreya

3. How will it compare with the upcoming 750 GSM? Esp EVDO vs. Cingular HSDPA?

The 750 is thinner and a little bit less powerful. EvDo right now is still faster than HSDPA and has greate coverage. HSDPA has the ability though to match and slightly exceed EvDO. It'll be sometime though before that happens.

Quote:

Originally Posted by athreya

4. Cant one use PDA Net with 700wx instead of the inbuilt Sprint app?

Of course

Quote:

Originally Posted by athreya

5. Does it have A2DP on BT?

No. Not out of the box. THere should be a hack eventually though to get it working as it has the same MS BT stack as everything else. It'll just take some time.

athreya · 09/06/2006, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malatesta

It is certainly usable on EvDO--as long as you have a clear reception. But it works, I use it for calls to Germany. Of course on Wifi it's even better.
There is a .cab file people are using to bet Pic Mail running on sprint. Takes 30 secs to install.

The 750 is thinner and a little bit less powerful. EvDo right now is still faster than HSDPA and has greate coverage. HSDPA has the ability though to match and slightly exceed EvDO. It'll be sometime though before that happens.
Of course

No. Not out of the box. THere should be a hack eventually though to get it working as it has the same MS BT stack as everything else. It'll just take some time.

Thanks. Can you try emailing and SMSing voicenotes and confirming to me please? And why do u say the 750 will be less powerful? isnt it the same processor?

Can you point me to the MMS and BT hacks?

HobbesIsReal · 09/06/2006, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by septimus

Review's up. Talk about it here.

Dieter, nice review. I thought it was very well balanced with a solid base in reality (which is surprisingly hard to find often times) and very informative with the helpful eye to every day use.

Malatesta · 09/06/2006, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by athreya

Thanks. Can you try emailing and SMSing voicenotes and confirming to me please? And why do u say the 750 will be less powerful? isnt it the same processor?

Can you point me to the MMS and BT hacks?

I'm pretty positive you can't SMS voicenotes on Sprint. You can of course email anything you want...

750 will actually be similar to the 700wx just probably less battery life and maybe mini-SD.

BT hack doesn't exist yet (there is one for ppc-6700), though there is JetWare's BT extension for extra BT functions:
http://www.jetwaremobile.com/index.htm

For MMS on Sprint:
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=112022

athreya · 09/07/2006, 07:36 AM

thanks. someone else told me that you can SMS and email voice notes but cant MMS them! Would you mind checking this feature for me? Will take you just a few mins i guess?

west3man · 09/07/2006, 10:03 AM

I've had my 650 for almost two years, now, but I don't really know what MMS or SMS mean. Maybe I'll find the answers to those question on Google or something, but what I finally decided ask was:

What does it take to send a simple text-message using the 700wx?

Thanks.