Palm Treo 700p Cell Phone Review - Organizer
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Alfredo Padilla Published on March 15, 2007 Comment on this |
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Synchronization (8.0)
The Palm Treo 700p comes with the Palm Desktop software for both Windows and Mac computers. This software manages synchronization between the Treo and your computer, and also provides a handy PIM manager for those who don’t use Outlook. Setting up the software on a Windows XP Professional computer went smoothly. The software prompted us to synchronize the 700p during the installation process and all information was transferred easily. Initiating a synch after that is as simple as connecting the included USB cable and hitting the Hot Sync button on the cable. Given how messy synchronization can often be, we were pleased with the ease of install and use of Palm’s synchronization software.
Synchronization with your computer can be done using either the included USB cable, or via Bluetooth. Synchronization includes your Versamail accounts, calendars, contacts, to-dos/tasks and notes. You have a wide variety of synchronization options, and even items like contact photos are synchronized. We were impressed with the array of synchronization options that the Treo 700p offers, it’s a step above most other phones and meets all of our expectations for a smart phone.
The Palm Treo 700p comes with Palm’s HotSync application, which allows you to sync your calendar, contacts, tasks and memos with you PC or Mac. The software includes Palm Desktop, which functions as a PIM manager on your computer. Alternatively, you can choose to synchronize with Outlook.
Alerts (7.0)
The Treo 700p allows you to set alerts for your Calendar appointments, but not for tasks. In the calendar application, you can set an alert to go off a specific period before the beginning of the appointment. You cannot choose a specific alert to go with a specific appointment, but you can set the alter sound (or vibrate) to use for all alarms in the sound application. This also allows you to set the alarm volume, the sound used, number of repeats, and the default time before an appointment that an alarm is set.
When an alert goes off, it takes up the full screen and displays the title, date and time of the appointment. You have the option to dismiss the alert, snooze it or go to the appointment in the Calendar. If you snooze the appointment it goes off again in 5 minutes. You don’t have the option to choose the length of your snooze, and the alert doesn’t display note associated with the appointment.
If you miss your alert it will sound the assigned number of times. The screen with the appointment information will stay on for 1 minute. After the screen goes off, the alert will be the first thing you see when you turn your phone back on.
Over the Air PIM Sync (2.0)
The Palm Treo 700p supports Microsoft’s Exchange Server for over the air synchronization of your email, calendar and contacts. Unfortunately this does not support synchronization of tasks or notes. It’s nice to see any over the air features, but it’s a pity that it does not support a wider set of features.
Address Book
Adding Contacts (5.65)
To test how easy it is to add contacts we time how long it takes to add each of 5 different contact names and phone numbers. We then take the average time. We found that adding a contact to the Treo 700p’s address book took an average of 17.7 seconds, thanks to the relatively speedy text entry through the keyboard. Accessing the new contact dialogue is as simple as hitting the new contact button at the bottom of the screen. Compared to other phones the 700p does a good job of handling new contacts, and especially compared to smart phones where the interface for new contacts can often be confusing and difficult to access.
Sorting/Search (7.0)
Dialing a contact from the contact program is as simple as highlighting the phone number in the contacts list and hitting the action key on your D-Pad. You can sort your contacts according to last name, first name, or by company or filter them by typing a contact’s first or last name. Contacts can be listed by last name, first name, or by company, last name. Compared to most phones the 700p provides a good selection of options for finding the contact you want.
Fields (7.0)
There are 25 fields you can fill in the new contacts dialogue, including 4 custom fields and the option to add even more. These include nice items like birthdays, anniversary, picture, ringtone and IM name. Compared to other phones the 700p provides a good set of fields, although compared to other smart phones the standard fields are a little lacking.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (3.0)
The Treo 700p allows you to assign a speed dial to any letter on the QWERTY keyboard, providing a great deal of flexibility. This is done from the Phone application, rather than the contacts application as speed dials can also be assigned to programs.
Unfortunately the Treo 700p has no native support for voice tags or voice dialing, a curious omission for a high-end smart phone. For those seeking to add this functionality back in, you can subscribe to Sprint’s voice dialing service for a monthly fee, or pay $19.99 for Palm’s voice dialing software.
Considering that you will already be paying anywhere from $300 to $650 for the Treo 700p, we wish that voice tags at least had been included, as they are with almost every other phone, not to mention smart phones.
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (8.2)
To test how easy it is to add a calendar item to your phone, we time how long it takes to go from standby to a new appointment interface. Adding calendar appointments on the Treo 700p is a fairly straightforward affair. Simply navigate to the calendar program, place your cursor at the time you want the appointment to start and begin typing the title, if you want to change different options, simply hit the details button. To test the time it takes to add a calendar appointment we timed how long it took to add a simple lunch appointment for the next day 5 times. In our tests it took an average of 12.18 seconds to set up a simple lunch appointment for the next day. This is a good score for any phone, on many standard phones adding calendar appointment can be buried in the menu structure and awkward once you get to it. Even on smart phones where such functionality is standard, the 700p does a good job of making this a simple affair, as it does in many areas.Calendar Views (7.1)
The Treo 700p provides 4 views for your calendar. The first is an agenda view that lists upcoming appointments, tasks due and your email accounts, then there is a daily view that shows the working day (which you can adjust in the preferences), with appointments listed at their assigned times. A weekly view shows a 7-day week with simple grey boxes showing your busy time. When a day is highlighted the day’s appointments are listed at the top of the screen. Finally, a month view simply places a grey box on days when you have appointments. You can use the calendar button next to the D-Pad to switch between the views. On the daily, weekly and monthly views you can also filter your views by category.
Calendar views on a small screen are always a challenge, and the 700p does a fair job compared to other phones in its class. We wish the weekly and monthly views provided more information.
Fields (11.0)
The Treo 700p’s calendar program provides an array of options for creating appointments, as you would expect from a smart phone. In addition to the standard fields, you have advanced functions such as recurrence, categories, all day events and notes. Unfortunately the calendar is missing some advanced business functions such as setting importance and inviting contacts. The Treo 700p is a step above most phones, but slightly behind other smart phones.
To Do/Tasks
Adding ToDo/Task (7.75)
Adding a task to the Treo 700p is fairly simple. Open the tasks program, hit the new button at the bottom of the screen and a new line appears with a cursor for you to add a title. You can then hit the details button to set a due date and add other details. To test the amount of time it takes to add an item we added a simple task item 5 times and then took the average. The Treo 700p took an average of 12.9 seconds for us to add a test task, this is a good score for a smart phone and the Treo 700p’s ease of use is evident in this area.
To Do Sorting and Prioritizing (3.5)
The tasks program on the Treo 700p provides several options for filtering your tasks. You can view them all sorted by date, sort by specific date ranges, or by category. You can set task priorities, but you cannot sort your tasks by priority. We were impressed to see the option to sort tasks by date range, an option that is not offered on many phones. The Treo 700p compares well to other smart phones in this area.
Fields (8.0)
The Treo 700p task program provides a good number of fields for creating your tasks, including advanced features such as recurrence. Compared to other smart phones the 700p does a good job of providing you with options for tasks & todos.
Notes
Adding Notes (6.02)
Like many functions on the Treo 700p, adding a new note is quick and easy. Launch the memo’s program from the home screen by hitting the “m” key and enter on the keyboard. Then simply tap the new button on the bottom of the screen to get a new note dialogue. In our tests it took an average of 8.3 seconds to enter and save our test note. The Treo 700p’s ease of use is in evidence again. Many smart phones make features like this a chore to access, we were glad to see how easy it was to accomplish on the Treo 700p.
Note Interface (6.0)
The Treo 700p’s notes program (called memos) allows you to filter your views by category. Unfortunately you can’t search through your notes. You can also choose to make your votes private, and then either mask or hide those notes. Overall the notes application is a mixed bag. We were glad to see the privacy option, but wish there were easier ways to find the note we wanted. This is especially important for those who use notes a lot.
Note Formatting (5.0)
The Treo 700p’s notes program does not provide many advanced formatting features. You are able to choose from 2 different fonts, and you can bold text. Although we understand that a notes application is not meant to have the functionality of a full word processor, we were disappointed with the options the Treo 700p offers, especially compared to other smart phones.
Voice Memo (7.0)
Voice notes are created in a separate program called Voice Memo. This program is assigned to the program key located on the left side of the Treo 700p by default. This program allows you to record voice memos and the length of the memo is only limited by the amount of storage available. You can also assign voice memo’s to be a ring tone, or send it via email or Bluetooth from this program. We were pleased to see the range of functionality offered by voice notes on the Treo 700p, it is a step above the what most phones offer.
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