Palm Treo 700p Cell Phone Review - Hardware
|
Alfredo Padilla Published on March 15, 2007 Comment on this |
|
|
|
|
Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (7.7)
To test words per minute we practiced extensively with the 700p’s keyboard and then ran 5 test runs, entering the same sample piece of text. Typing on the Treo 700p’s keyboard with two hands felt a little cramped, but was surprisingly fast. The keys are soft but we wish they provided a little more feedback when pressed. In our tests we achieved an average speed of 38.4 words per minute (WPM), significantly higher than what most people could get using T9 predictive text on a phone with a regular keypad.
T9 and Auto Complete (0.0)
Being a QWERTY device the Treo 700p does not use T9 predictive text. Less acceptable is the lack of an auto complete feature when typing. This is found on even low-end handsets and it’s inexcusable for a high end phone like the 700p to be missing it.
One Hand Usability (4.7)
To test one handed usability on the Treo 700p’s keyboard we practiced until we got comfortable with it, and then timed 5 practice runs using a standard piece of text. One handed typing on the Treo 700p’s keyboard is doable, but no easy task. Those with small hands will strain to reach from one end of the keyboard to the other. You can see this based on our words per minute results; we achieved an average score of 23.7, almost 40% below our score using two hands. We also found ourselves making more typing mistakes. That being said, this score is only slightly below what we would find using a regular phone’s keypad.
Keyboard Backlighting (6.0)
The keyboard backlight on the Treo 700p is linked to the screen backlight, meaning that whenever the screen’s backlight is on, so is the keyboard’s. This is unfortunate, because it means that battery power will be used to light up the keyboard even in brightly lit conditions when it is not used. Similarly, the screen backlight controls also affect the keyboard backlight, so turning down the screen brightness or changing the timeout will also do the same for the keyboard. These controls also allow you to dim the backlight independently during calls.
We wish that the 700p had separate controls for the keyboard and screen backlights, and wish even more that it had a lighting sensor that can be used to adjust backlighting automatically.
Controls
D-Pad/Joystick (8.0)
The 5-way D-Pad on the Treo 700p is large and easy to use. The edges are raised so your thumb does not slip off of it, and the center button is a good size and easy to hit. The one concern with the D-Pad may be the size of the center button, as those with large fingers may find it a little too easy to hit. Tactile feedback is solid, with a faint click accompanying each thumb press. The D-Pad is centrally located and provides easy access to most of the other function buttons and the bottom of the screen where many of the on screen buttons are found. We are glad to see that the 700p has a full sized D-Pad rather than the fiddly joysticks that are found on many handsets today.
Touch Screen (7.0)
The Treo 700p's touch screen is fairly responsive and accurate. The interface is sometimes well designed to be used with your fingers, for example on screen buttons are large and easy to hit with a thumb or finger. Menu items however are very difficult to use without the keyboard or the stylus. Still, the user interface is definitely easier to use with your finger than Windows Mobile touch screen devices.
Jog Dial (0.0)
The Treo 700p does not have a jog dial.
Soft Buttons (0.0)
The Palm OS that the Treo 700p runs does not use the soft buttons that most phones do.
Volume Control (7.5)
The volume controls on the Treo 700p are located on the left side, near the top of the device. The buttons themselves are large and easy to find by feel, making it easy to change the volume during a call. There are two separate buttons for up and down, the divide between them is a little hard to notice by feel and may result in some mistakes when adjusting volume. The position of the volume keys is a distant from all of the other controls on the device, which can be both good and bad. On the one hand you are unlikely to hit the keys accidentally while operating the device, but on the other hand they do require a little bit of a stretch and readjustment of your hold on the device in order to access them. Compared to other phones that often have small and difficult to use keys, or whose keys are too easily pressed by accident, the 700p’s keys are good.
Power and Standby (7.0)
There is no way to turn the Treo 700p off completely except pulling out the battery. You can put the device into standby fairly easily by hitting the red end key in any program (except during a call of course, in which case the key will end the call). They key sits above and to the left of the D-Pad, just below the screen (where you would expect to find a soft key on most devices), and is easily accessible. The key provides good tactile feedback, and its elongated shape makes it easy to find by feel, although the fact that it is fairly thin can lead one to accidentally hit the messaging or home keys found below it. You can also disable all of the radios in the 700p by holding down this key down. The 700p’s power key is more accessible than many other phones, and provides good functionality.
Other Buttons (10.0)
In addition to the buttons discussed above, the Treo 700p has several additional controls that aid in navigating through the operating system. To the left and right of the D-Pad, and below the send and end keys you will find four buttons. Except for the Home button, each of these have 2 functions, the main one you can access by pressing the button, the secondary is accessed by pressing the option key and the button. From left to right, the main functions are: Phone application, Calendar, Messaging, Home. The default secondary functions are Web, World Clock, and Email, with the Home key having no secondary option. Except for the Home key, you can reconfigure the secondary options of any of the buttons, and for the Calendar and Messaging options, you can also reassign the primary function.
In addition to these controls, you will find a button on the left side of the Treo 700p, which can be accessed with a press and hold to prevent accidental key presses. By default this button is assigned to voice memo, but it can be reassigned to any application you choose. There is also one more button found at the bottom right of the Treo 700p’s keyboard, this menu button gives you immediate access to the menus found in many applications. You can also access these menus with a tap at the top of the screen.
The 700p’s collection of keys makes for a very good one handed usage experience, and we like the fact that almost all of the functions can be reassigned. However, for new users the number of keys can be intimidating, and are sometimes not intuitive.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (8.5)
The Treo 700p’s 320 x 320 pixel resolution provides over 100,000 pixels, which allows for a sharp display. Video and pictures look good on the display, although the Palm OS does not take full advantage of the high resolution display in their fonts and graphics. The 700p’s 320 x 320 pixel display is currently the leader in square smart phone screen, with Windows Mobile devices relegated to the lower 240 x 240 until Windows Mobile 6 devices start to roll out. The Treo 700p even beats out the vast majority of devices with QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) displays.
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (8.5)
The Palm Treo 700p display provides 170 pixels per inch, a good pixel density that allows for rich colors and a good level of detail. Apple recently boasted about the 165 ppi display on the iPhone, the Treo beats this. High pixel density means that the screen will display items more sharply and with deeper colors than phones with lower pixels per inch.
Screen Physical Size (6.0)
The Treo 700p has a screen that is 2.4 inches on the diagonal, a fairly large screen on a device with a full QWERTY keyboard. Especially compared with small smartphones like the Cingular 3125 or the T-Mobile SDA, the Treo’s screen is comfortable to use. However, like any phone screen, the real estate is limited, and especially when viewing complicated web pages you can get frustrated.
Screen Brightness (8.5)
The Treo 700p on maximum brightness measured 85 lumens in our test, which is pretty bright. Keeping it at that high level will have a detrimental affect on your battery. The 700p does not have a light sensor to automatically adjust the brightness, but there is a handy keyboard shortcut that allows you to choose one of the 15 brightness settings quickly. The lowest setting turns off the screen entirely. You can also set the length of time that the screen light will stay on, as well as settings for dimming the screen while on a call. As with the keyboard backlight, we wish the 700p had a light sensor.
Screen Bright Light Performance (6.0)
To test a screen's performance under bright light we shine 3000 lux on it, equivalent to a sunny day. The Treo 700p did well on this test. Text was legible and icons were still viewable. Compared to the Blackberry 8703e, which was almost unreadable in bright light, the Treo 700p was much better.
Color Depth (6.0)
The Treo 700p can display up to 65 thousand colors, a fairly standard color depth for phones. Colors are bright and easy to differentiate while blacks are close to true. Compared to other high priced devices however, which sport screens with up to 16 million colors, the 700p is less impressive.
Ports & Storage
Power and Data Ports (2.0)
The Treo 700p uses the proprietary Treo multi-connector for connections to your PC or Mac. There is also a proprietary port used for charging, and unfortunately no USB charging. We understand that Palm wants to ensure compatibility with the large number of Treo accessories that are out there, but we hope that eventually the multi-connector goes the way of the Dodo, and Palm adopts a more standardized port like mini usb.
Headphone Jack and Compatibility (2.0)
The Treo 700p comes with a 2.5mm headset jack; you can purchase an adaptor that will allow you to use a standard 3.5mm headset. Unfortunately the 700p’s Bluetooth stack does not support stereo Bluetooth headphones. Although we would have liked to see a standard 3.5mm headset on the 700p, a 2.5mm headset is almost as standardized, and is a significant step above the proprietary headset jacks being found on many devices.
Internal Storage (1.0)
The Treo 700p comes with 128mb of internal memory, 60mb of which is user accessible. This is enough to load a few applications and store all of your PIM data, but anyone wanting to use the Treo 700p as a multimedia device should invest in a memory card. You may be able to free up some storage by removing unwanted applications, from the main menu screen hit the menu button and choose delete from the app menu. We wish you luck in deciphering which of the applications you want to keep or remove, as many of them have inscrutable names.
Expansion Slot and Format (9.0)
The Treo 700p support SD cards up to 4GB in size. It’s nice to see a device that supports full sized SD cards when newer phones are forced to use the smaller and more expensive mini sd and micro sd standards. The expansion slot is spring loaded, which makes inserting and removing a card easy to do. You can also add an SD Wifi card, although this is of limited utility as you lose your expanded storage. It would have been nice for Wifi to have been built in, or for Palm to have added a second expansion slot.
| Previous Next | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
