Clash

Treo 700w vs. Cingular 8125

Since posting my Treo 700w review some months ago, I have had the opportunity to use the 700w in a variety of settings and thought it would be helpful to post a follow-up perspective.

All-in-all, the Treo 700w is a great design for those needing a phone with limited PDA functionality. This is problematic for me as I use my phone edition device as a laptop alternative and expect it to function as a great phone as well. As a result, I have been using a Cingular 8125 for the past 3 months and I am close to deciding which unit to ditch! I'll lay out my thinking in this post.

Let's talk Treo

 

Well, some might wonder how a Palm-designed PDA phone with Windows Mobile 5 can be characterized as having "limited" PDA functionality when Windows Mobile 5 is arguably the current "king of the hill" as PDA operating systems go and palm is arguably the leader in PDA hardware design!

The answer is simple, the Treo 700w suffers from a fatal flaw: insufficient memory. 24MB of user program memory is simply insufficient to accommodate the excellent Palm software extensions and the indispensable Microsoft Voice Command add-on.

With that bare-bones configuration, after a soft reset, the user is left with approximately 10MB of program memory. With push Email activated synchronization activity can quickly draw available memory down to the sub 6MB level. An incoming phone call brings it down even further and begin to show how this limited memory footpring contributes to the PIM limitations.

Try and bring up calendar, tasks, contacts, or pocket word application during a phone call and there is a greater than 33% chance of a system lockup. Try to use Word while listening to Windows Media Player and you face similar odds of a lock-up. Recieve an incoming call while you have more than one other app running and the system will lock-up virtually every time!

Having said all that, the Treo 700w is the best Windows Mobile device available for one-handed operation and the Palm extensions (Today Screen dialer, search, voice mail applets) further distance it from the competition. But this is all for naught if the unit constantly locks up because it is gagging for memory to do all the great things you expect it to do because of it's intuitive user interface.

Because of these limitations in using the full functionality of this wonderful device, I think that Palm would have been better off releasing the 700w as a Smartphone instead of a Phone Edition device. I held off ditching the device as I initially thought that Palm could address the issue through a software update; however, while the 700w updater added push email, it did not even come close to addressing the memory issue.

I continued to hold out on the hope that Palm would have released an updated design with more memory, but that does not appear to be the case.

So, I have finally acted. Three months ago, I picked up a Cingular 8125 and have been evaluating it as a replacement device.

8125 ways to leave your lover

 

8125 Pros

• Decent size - the 8125 is actually shorter than the Treo 700w and slightly thicker. Overall, nice dimensions with a much larger 240x320 screen.
• Excellent screen - the 8125's 240x320 screen is dazzling and very uniform. the screen size is a plus if you use your PDA for more than quick reference/look-up --this would include activities such as web surfing, eBook reading, writing using Transcriber, or watching videos.
• Large keyboard -- the slide-out keyboard is very useful and has surprisingly good tactile feedback.
• Battery life -- the 8125's standard battery is good for nearly two days of full operation on a single charge.
• EDGE speed -- Cingular's EDGE network performance is better than native GPRS and is reasonably good.
• Stereo speakers -- I had never contemplated listening to music on my PDA without using stereo headphones; however, the 8125 stereo speakers are so good that I often place it on a desk and listen to the device much like a table top radio. This is a surprisingly useful feature.

8125 Cons

• One-handed operation - Applications like Smartskey and the 8125 Smart Dialer SIP panel improve native one-handed operation, but one-handed operation is a bit of a challenge.
• Processor Speed - there is a slight but noticeable lag between command and response on the 8125, however, this can be addressed by overclocking (at the expense of some battery life though).

Comparison

Treo 700w vs. Cingular 8125

Advantage Treo

• One-handed operation - The Treo is simply the standard for one-handed operation. After using the 700w, nothing else even comes close - even after using 3rd party utilities.
• Processor Speed - the Treo's 400Mhz processor is awesome. The unit's performance is snappy all around. The 8125 is noticeably slower. I have not overclocked my 8125 so I can't comment on much it closes the gap.
• Network Speed - the Treo's EVDO performance is awesome. Coupled with the faster processor, the Treo 700w is the performance leader.

Advantage 8125

• Display - ...
• Stability - ...
• Overall usability - ...
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