The Sprint Palm Treo 800w WM6 Phone Review

Gear Diary is independently owned and operated. We receive compensation through advertising and from the companies whose products we review, usually in the form of the reviewed product. We test the products supplied to us, and the opinions expressed are our own.

Gear Diary is also reader-supported. When you buy through links posted on our site, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. You can learn more by clicking here.

During the spring of 2007, when I was still a 700wx user and a Sprint customer, I was more excited by the rumors of a possible “Palm 800” than I was about any other upcoming Windows Mobile device. Some of the reasons for my anticipation included that the Palm Treo candybar with front keyboard has always been one of my favorite form factors; Palm seems to be the single most adept OEM at utilizing the WM OS without speed sacrifices; the 800w was supposed to be the first Treo with WiFi; it would have a better (2 megapixel, anyway) camera; it would include A2DP Bluetooth (for wireless stereo listening); it would have an updated form factor without sacrificing a tried and true design; and the 800w would finally have the (long denied to WM users) 320 x 320 high resolution touchscreen.

If all of these features actually made it into a Windows Mobile Treo, then I would have been the first to deem that particular Treo as a WM device too delicious to miss.

But fall 2007 came and went, and there was no new Treo; winter 2007 and Spring 2008 came and went, and there was still no new Treo. We did see the introduction of the Palm OS Centro in the US and the WM Standard OS Palm 500 overseas.

Finally the news came that the Treo 800w was coming soon, but by then I was no longer a Sprint customer (too many dropped calls), and I had long moved on from the Treo to other PDA phones and finally to a Vertu Constellation. That doesn’t mean I couldn’t still get excited at the prospect of trying out the new 800w, and so when it was offered I was quick to say yes please!

If you missed my unboxing post where I gave a description of the 800w’s hardware and mentioned my initial thoughts, then click here to read it and then come back; as always, I’ll be waiting patiently. 🙂

In this portion of the review we’ll cover my user experience, the 800w’s camera, and I’ll give a rundown of some of the included software. Let’s get started…

Using the 800w

One of the first things which impressed me about the Treo 800w was that even though the device’s design had obviously been updated, Palm still kept things true to the classic Treo styling which I have long found well suited for one-handed use. If anything, I found the new cluster and soft key button placement to be even more convenient than before, as well as more attractive. The Treo’s slate blue plastic body is finished with a soft-touch coating, which keeps the case from showing fingerprints and also helps the user keep a firm grip on their device. The device’s build is extremely solid; squeezing and slightly torquing the 800w does not yield any squeaking or creaking.

The hard plastic keys on the thumbboard have excellent tactile feedback, and the keys are spaced so that users with fatter fingers will have no problem entering accurate information. I was pleased to see that even though it was over a year since I had used a WM Treo, I picked up the keyboard placement and rhythm very quickly.

This Treo ditches the old Palm multiconnector in favor of microUSB; this will mean ditching all of your old accessory cables from before, but the upside is that the microUSB is a semi-standard connector, and it is quickly becoming as or more common than miniUSB. Another potential negative is that this microUSB sync/charge port is also the headset port; there is no 2.5mm or 3.5mm headset jack. The good news is that because the Treo 800w has A2DP, you will be able to wirelessly stream music or calls over a stereo Bluetooth headset.

The microSD card slot is accessed by removing the battery door, and since I had placed an 8GB card in the slot, I never needed to remove it. Those who use multiple cards and those with smaller cards who swap often will likely gripe about this “feature”. [Update: there is just enough room to wedge a fingernail under the side of the microSD door for opening without removing the battery door.] Almost as annoying is the fact that there is no reset button; resetting the device is done by removing the battery door and flipping the battery up so that the contacts are no longer touching. While this does give a sleeker case appearance, making both of these features rely on the removal of the battery door is bothersome.

The button with the dot on it is user assignable; it can perform up to two commands, recalled by a quick tap or by pressing and holding.

I really enjoyed the convenience of the WiFi button on the top; Pressing it once turned on the WiFi radio and called up the WM “Configure Wireless Networks” screen, showing all available access points. Getting on my home network couldn’t have been easier, and when I was ready to disconnect, it was simply a matter of pressing and holding the button again. One of the “Hot Treo 800w Tips” that came in my review kit was that you could improve battery life by enabling the Power Save Mode in the WiFi settings.

I have read that it is not possible to charge the 800w with the USB/micro USB cable, but I beg to differ. It is a bit slower than I would like, but I have managed to completely charge the Treo from completely dead to a full charge, multiple times during my testing via this method. In fact, I never even unpacked the AC Charging cable. 😛

Specifications:

Display – 320×320 pixel transflective color TFT touchscreen, supports 16-bit color (65K colors)
Radio – Qualcomm MSM6800A chipset supporting EvDO Rev A and mobile receive diversity
Wi-Fi – 802.11b/g, 802.1x (EAP-PEAP, EAP-TLS and EAP-TTLS)
GPS – Built-in GPS (standalone and assisted); Sprint NavigationSM; GPS-powered local search, maps, and navigation from the Today screen
Platform – Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional Edition
Bluetooth® Wireless Technology – Version: 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate Profiles: GAP (General Access Profile), GOEP (General Object Exchange Profile), SPP (Serial Port Profile), HSP (Headset Profile), HFP 1.5 (Hands Free Profile), ActiveSync® Profile, PBAP (Phonebook Access Profile), PAN (Personal Area Networking), BPP (Basic Printing Profile), stereo audio streaming (A2DP, GAVDP, AVRCP)
Memory – 256MB user memory (approximately 170MB available user memory), 128MB program memory
Camera – 2.0 megapixels (1600×1200) with 2x digital zoom and video capture
Battery – Removable 1150 mAh lithium-ion; up to 4.5 hours talk time or up to 200 hours standby time
Expansion – microSD/microSDHC cards (up to 8GB supported)
Connector – MicroUSB™ 2.0

As a straight-up phone, the 800w performs just as past Treos have; which is to say quite well. In all honesty, this is the phone that I would choose if I were to pick a WM device to return to. However I just can’t get past the fact that they are currently only offered through Sprint. Perhaps in a few months, after the new has worn off, AT&T will be offering their own version…in fashionable colors, of course. 😉

Battery life was a little bit better than expected, the 800w is advertised as getting 4.5 hours of talk time, I found that in real-word usage that basically translated to me being able to make it through most of the day’s calls, texts, emails and a limited bit of instant messaging. The battery is not as large as I would like to see, however. At 1150mAh it can crap out pretty quickly, especially if you are using WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, and oh boy…Exchange. If you are using all of the above, I think you would be lucky to get two hours…maybe.

As for standby time, Palm says 200 hours, but I beg to differ. It’s more like 36 hours before you start hearing the low battery warning tone. It’s never common for me to let my main device go that long without charging, so this isn’t a deal-breaker. I really think that a battery with a minimum capacity of 1500mAh would have been much more preferable, but I realize that Palm probably went with a smaller battery because they wanted to keep the Treo as thin as possible. Ah well; as long as you are careful, use the WiFi power saver feature, turn off any radios that aren’t needed, then you should be okay…but maybe you should also bring a charging cable, just in case. 😉

The camera is meh at best; it’s better than the 1.3 megapixel Treo cameras of yore, but it isn’t as good as the iPhone’s 2 megapixel. Oh well. Here is a picture taken in broad daylight of a stock tank/swimming pool from across Kevin’s backyard. I think it looks pretty pretty darn washed out and unremarkable…

Here is a “macro” picture taken from at close range; once again, pretty darn meh.

A quick note about the stylus: Yeah, it’s thin; yeah, it’s plastic; yeah, it could be better…but guess what? The Treo is so capable and easy to use one-handed that the one and only time I ever felt the need to tap the touchscreen, it was with my FINGER. The stylus is lame, but get over it; you shouldn’t need it after a little bit of D-pad navigation practice.

Software that comes pre-installed on the 800w:

Check out the gallery of screen shots directly after this section…

Calculator – Same old calculator we have been seeing for years; nothing new here…move along.
Camera – Yeah. See above.
Internet Sharing – Allows you to tether your Treo to a laptop and…share the internet. Works pretty well, great if you have EVDO and no wireless card.
Bubble Breaker – This one is pretty fun…
Solitaire – There are no WM devices that ship without this, to the best of my knowledge. Is this really Bill G.’s favorite game?
Astraware Sudoku – I love this game! I can’t believe that they included it for free on the Treo. 🙂
Aces Texas Hold’em – Practice your Casino moves…
Maps – Allows you to find addresses or businesses from the search page; works very well with the Treo’s built-in GPS
Messaging – It’s threaded! Yay!
Microsoft® ActiveSync – Yep; it’s still available for anyone who hasn’t upgraded to Vista.
Microsoft® Internet Explorer® Mobile – It still works better with sites optimized for mobile browsing.
Microsoft® Live Search – Allows you to do internet searches from the Today screen suing the Windows Live search engine.
Microsoft Office Suite – includes Notes, Outlook® Mobile, Excel® Mobile, PowerPoint® Mobile, Word Mobile, and OneNote Mobile…but NO Outlook! What is up with that? 😛
Microsoft® Windows Live – Mobile versions of Windows Live Mail and Messenger.
Pics and Video – Allows you to see all of your picture and video media in one easy viewing center.
Picsel PDF Viewer – As the name implies, it is a PDF viewer… As anyone who has ever tried reading a PDF on a 2.5″ screen will tell you, it is doable, but not much fun.
Quick Tour – Shows you around the Treo; it’s great for newbies.
Sprint Navigation – The pay service for Sprint GPS with maps and voice prompts; it’s TeleNav, and it works well.
Sprint TVSM – Hey! You can watch Hanna Montana on here! I suspect that there will be many a pre-teen asking mom (or dad) to pass the Treo to the backseat. It’s pretty sketchy in 1X areas, but in an EVDO area it should stream fairly nicely.
Sprite Backup – Another full version of third party software included for free; nice! This one allows you to back your Treo up, in case of a hard crash. Not that those ever happen…right? 😉
Windows Media® Player Mobile – It’s version 10.3, and it will list every navigation voice prompt as an available media file.

I’ve got to tell you that the 800w really did impress me on many levels. If it were available in a GSM version today, then I would pick one up. I absolutely love the keyboard, the brighter and tighter screen, the higher memory capacity, and the snappy performance. I coud live without the lower capacity battery and the microUSB connector, and the camera could definitely use a dose of B12 – it is that anemic. Even so, this is the Windows Mobile device that I want, implemented in the most productive way I think a Windows Mobile device can be implemented. Without getting off too much on a side rant, let me simply say that:

1. The Palm 800w is not meant to compete with the Apple iPhone

2. The Palm 800w is not meant to replace your iPod

3. The Palm 800w is not meant to wow you with slick graphics and smexxy web browsing

However, the Palm 800w will:

1. Wow you with its amazing one-handed navigational skills and excellent keyboard

2. Allow you to be more connected that you possibly want to be, through the use of Exchange, Instant Messaging, Email, Texts, Voice, and Internet Sharing

3. Remind you of the things you like about the Windows Mobile Operating System, while providing a surprisingly stable experience

If you can get past the fact that the Treo 800w is not an iPhone and it is not trying to be an iPhone replacement, then you will find yourself enjoying all that it is capable of doing. Do I want one? Yes. But not enough to go back to Sprint…



The Sprint Palm 800w Windows Mobile Phone is available directly from Sprint.

MSRP: $249 (after rebates and service agreement); $599.99 without plan

What I Like: Updated styling while retaining the classic and comfortable Treo form factor; the addition of WiFi and its dedicated on/off button; high resolution screen (finally); GPS; A2DP Bluetooth enabled; includes several full versions of premium software titles

What Needs Improvement: Resetting does, and microSD access may require removing the battery door; no 3.5mm jack, it’s microSD dependant (ick); only available on Sprint…one can only hope that it will soon be available to GSM customers; battery is a bit anemic; camera is meh, at best

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Thanks for your support!

About the Author

Judie Lipsett Stanford
Judie is the co-owner and Editor-in-Chief of Gear Diary, which she founded in September 2006. She started in 1999 writing software reviews at the now-defunct smaller.com; from mid-2000 through 2006, she wrote hardware reviews for and co-edited at The Gadgeteer. A recipient of the Sigma Kappa Colby Award for Technology, Judie is best known for her device-agnostic approach, deep-dive reviews, and enjoyment of exploring the latest tech, gadgets, and gear.

8 Comments on "The Sprint Palm Treo 800w WM6 Phone Review"

  1. Joel McLaughlin | August 14, 2008 at 9:11 am |

    The same problem as the Centro. Keep having to remove the battery door for card swaps as I don’t yet have a big card. What ever happened to the Treo design that had the memory card on top of the device like the 700wx.

    Including A2DP is LONG overdue….

  2. No rattlesnake pictures?

  3. Why do you have to remove the battery cover to get to the microSD card? The microSD slot has it’s own door right on the side of the device. Flip it open with your fingernail and pop your cards in and out.

  4. jsage – and so it does! I was caught on a short fingernail day when testing, and I found that it opened easier with the battery cover off. I will amend to say that it can be opened without removing the cover. 🙂

  5. I bought the phone for 367 (shipping included) from eBay. I have to say I’m in love with the device. It’s a worthwhile upgrade to the Mogul that I’ve been using. In fact, I used to spend a lot of my time flashing and hacking the Mogul to get it to function properly. The Treo is great out of the box and with some tweaks comes close to perfection. I can get everything done so quickly on the Treo, I find that I’m spending less and less time actually using it.

    Now I just have to wait for more accessories. ^_^

  6. Considering that it’s Win Mobile and it finally comes with Wi-Fi, and it’s hi-res, I guess it’s something to get excited about. I guess I’m looking forward to the 850 and see what that comes with. Especially with so many new models coming in 2009, I guess I’m more interested in what is coming instead.

  7. Yeah, the 850 is a bit of a buzzkill for the 800w…unless you are a Sprint customer. 😉

  8. I bought an 800w yesterday in preperation for getting a Sprint Airrave and so far I am very impressed. I have owned and used about 10 different WM devices over the last couple years and this is hands down the fastest one I have ever used or seen.

    Compared to my three most recent (700wx, i760 and VX6900) this one runs circles around them. The i760 seemed to do pretty well compared to the other 2 after updating it to WM6.1, but the 800w still feels much more responsive.

    The screen looks great once you turn ClearType on, I’m not sure why it didn’t ship this way. And the sensitivity of the touch screen feels good.

    I am using FTouchSL to provide finger friendly scrolling and gestures and this is where the 800w really pulls away. All of the other devices I have tried this on (even the vx6900 Touch) have a lot of artifacts and tearing when scrolling through pages. With the 800w it is smooth as can be.

    Now I just need to decide if I can live with the Sprint network. I’ve stuck by Verizon for the last couple of years because they are the best in my area. Having the ability to setup my own mini-tower with the Airrave combined with the free roaming on both Verizon and US Cellular with the Everything plan made it too tempting to resist.

Comments are closed.