Friday, March 25, 2005

palmOne Treo 650 dilemma

I saw an advert for palmOne's Treo 650 for only RM2788. Plus with a free 512Mb SD card (fairly wimpy), screen protector and leather case. Not bad. A quick check with XE.com reveals that it costs 393 quid. I got my i-mate JAM for 405 quid at Expansys so the Treo is obviously cheaper.

Taking into account the freebies (which probably have a market value of 30 quid), the 650 at £393 is a bargain. A quick check at Expansys reveals that the sim-free UK version would cost £525 inc. VAT and that is even without any add-ons!



So now I am caught in between. I have always wanted the Treo 650, despite it only running PalmOS 5, but I don't think I can sell off my JAM because I left the box, CD-Roms etc in the UK! Can't believe it! Maybe I should just buy the Treo now and ebay my JAM once I get back to UK.

Update: I just found more screenshots of the leaked Windows Mobile 2005 beta OS. And it has changed my mind on ebaying my JAM. The GUI looks much better and cleaner. One handed operation, crucial to phone operation, seems to be improving with the implementation of the soft key functions. palmOne would better release a PalmOS 6 Cobalt Treo smartphone if they want me back as a customer.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Give up on Palm :D

Cobalt ain't coming out till the end of the year

But, the thing I don't really like about the WM2005 is the 2 softkeys at the bottom...

Jon Choo said...

It might look like a vanilla smartphone but I think the softkeys are crucial to Windows Mobile if they are to be taken seriously as a mobile phone platform.

One handed operations on the JAM is almost impossible which is why I voiced my excitement (in a CompactJam thread) that WM2005 allows us to map the calendar/contact hard buttons to the soft keys. The Treo's main advantage is its superb implementation of one handed usage, you never have to remove the stylus for most operations.