Customer Reviews

5 stars but i really want to give it 10
From the minute I received my beautiful square box containing the simply perfect Palm Treo 500 smartphone I knew that we were destined to fall in love. Combining the benefits of a mobile phone with a mobile office, this phone/pda is truly the business. It does everything that you could possibly want in a phone/pda and much more to boot. Unlike it's counter-intuitive rival, the BLackberry, it's also easy to use and you don't need a degree in computer science to navigate it. If I worked it out, absolutely everyone else will be able to.

Starting with the design of the phone itself, it is much wider than the usual mobile phone, my previous phones were a Sony Ericsson - the famous Orange coloured one and a Samsung D900 so the smartphone came as a bit of a surprise. It is by no means a brick though, just slightly wider than some of the other slinky designs on the market. Saying that, it is wider because it harbours a full standard QWERTY keyboard - a godsend! THis makes entering text into an SMS, Email or Office Document much easier than hte standard numerical/alphabetical keypads that you usually get. Saying this however, the keys are extremely small - I have really long thin fingers so I can take it but my dad who has, well, Dad-sized fingers can't get used to it...The keyboard is two tone - charcoal grey with a slice of lighter grey, I am not sure what the point of this design was and I think it would have been better to have left it the same colour as the rest of hte keyboard. It isn't distracting though. The call and end call keys are huge - no more squinting to work out which button to press, you just can't go wrong and in teh centre of the keypad, you have a large navigating button that helps you scroll through the menus. There are volume keys on the side and an additional button for immediate access to Internet Explorer - very useful if you are in a rush. THe screen is really large and overall, the smartphone fits really snugly in your hand (it is possible to use the keyboard iwth one hand) and it feels and looks great.

Once you're into the phone/pda itself, you can set the design yourself, or if you want a typical Windows type desktop, you can have that, if you want to see your appointments, you can set it to Windows Live etc or you can have the ordinary default design. THe menus are accessible in a number of ways which is incredibly helpful as this phone has hundreds of functions and so you don't need to work hard to find them. One of the easiest things about this smartphone is that you can synch your contacts straight from Outlook in teh exact same format, no more tedious inputting! I have also synched my Calendar so all my appointments appear with their reminders just as they would on a pda. YOu can change teh font size that you see on screen. ALthough the screen is roughly the same size as a Video Ipod one, the writing can be quite small. THere is a link in the settings box that allows you to increase teh size of the font if necessary - this comes in handy if you are editing documents etc using this device.

The call quality was an issue on previous Treo models - not this one, crystal clear! Whilst the camera is only 2mp or so, it takes surprisingly good pictures which you need seeing as the default backgrounds are really mundane - a flower and a waterfall. Downloading pics and music is really easy - good job too as the default ringtones are daft!

I read loads of professional reviews on the net before making this rather considered purchase and nearly all said that they had some issues wiht the battery life. I use mine quite heavily with teh brightness on almost full whack and with the music and bluetooth on and I think the battery lasts for a very reasonable amount of time considering the features that are packed on here. I can 2/3 days before having to charge it up again.

All in all, I spent quite a bit on this phone and I am absolutely delighted wiht it. It basically runs my life, I have access to the internet, to my emails (connecting to Gmail and Yahoo are a piece of..) and to my diary and usually in no more than one touch. I would have no problem recommending the smartphone to anyone else with a busy life but I would suggest getting a protective cover for it as the screen is quite delicate.

Oh, and do as teh book suggests and keep away from cards - the speaker has a large magnet in it that demagnetises railcards and bank cards - not so good.

This phone is great for anyone who wants to do as I did and combine a mobile phone and pda in one smart gadget. Good luck with your purchase, hope you are as happy as me!

A Palm that isn't a Palm
Why they called this phone a Palm I don't know as it is actually a Windows Mobile 6 Standard (Smartphone) device. I previously used a Treo 600 but I wanted Bluetooth and 3G and a lighter phone I could realistically carry in my pocket. On those three counts the 500v fits the bill. The V is for Vodafone although you can get an unbranded one like the Amazon advertised version. They are identical apart from the logos which you don't notice after 5 minutes. Vodafone provides a nice carousel menu system that works quite well. For some bizarre reason the media world have got it in for Palm and are obsessed with Microsoft. The Palm OS and software is far superior to anything that any PocketPC system has ever produced and I really regret being forced to use this inferior system. Microsoft, as usual is killing off better systems.

You get a nice light good looking phone and if you have never used Palm you will be happy with the phone. Mine was unlocked and takes all SIMS including the 3 3G sim which I use to access the internet.

This is what it lacks compared with the old Treo 600:

No memo pad and pathetic Word/Excel software - ie no way to make simple off the cuff instant notes!
Camera takes 2 seconds from press to take photo! Video good.
No cut and paste!
Can't save web pages!
No user keyboard shortcuts ie that you can customise.
Only support Microsoft Outlook not Express.
No email threading! You can buy software that does threading.
Flaky Diary/Contacts system not updated since the ark (have to buy more software).
A micro-SD card under the battery which means you can't add a wifi SD card (very cheap now) as you could when the standard SD slot was accessed externally.

I really need the 3G and Bluetooth now so I'm stuck with it. It's OK but I wish it were a proper Palm. It's worth about £100 -£150. Please Palm, produce a 3G/Bluetooth/WiFi phone.

Windows Mobile - a long way to go to match Palm OS
I agree with other comments that this smartphone is fine if you've not used a Palm OS system before. I bought this as I wanted to carry one device instead of phone/pda, it does most of what I want it to do, but nowhere near as easily as my Palm PDA. Endless menu's will get you where you want, yes there is a scroll icon menu at the top of most frequently used programs/functions, but annoyingly this is not customisable. I miss the quick, almost instant access to programs with the Palm software, also miss the quick note function. Calendar is clumsy to use, in a meeting recently my colleague had his new appointment entered within 30 seconds on his Palm and was on to the next point, whilst I was still tapping keys.
What I love about this device is the internet access and e-mail function.
Internet speed is as good as I expect it to be, I can send/receive e-mails on the go with Windows Live, receive e-mail from my personal e-mail accounts without using web-mail. Screen is huge and gives a great viewing area, I recommend getting a case as I 've scratched mine already.
Camera is very disappointing for a 2m, and you can't turn the embarassing shutter sound off unless your phone is set to silent, which is not helpful.
It does what I want it to do at the end of the day, but when my contract runs out I'm going back to a Palm OS device!