Treo 650 Coming to Verizon Wireless Later this Month

[Alex]

Early in April, Verizon Wireless announced it will soon be offering the palmOne Treo 650, the latest smartphone from palmOne.

However, it has still not revealed when it will begin carrying this device.

Phone Arena, though, is reporting being told by a "credible source" that the Verizon version of this model will go on sale later this month.

It will supposedly be available through this wireless carrier's business channels on May 11, and to regular customers on May 23.

This site is also reporting that Verizon's price for the Treo 650 will be about $400 with a 2-year contract, about $450 with a 1-year contract, and about $530 without a new contract at all.

Good for palmOne
The Treo 650 finally coming to the second-largest wireless service provider in the U.S. is an important event for palmOne.

The slow pace at which carriers are approving its wireless devices for use on their networks has hurt this company's profits in recent quarters.

The fact that Verizon's 45.5 million subscribers now have the opportunity to buy a Treo 650 can't be anything but good news for palmOne.

An Overview of the Treo 650
The Treo 650 is palmOne's latest smartphone, and the company's new flagship model. As a smartphone, this device has been designed to be both a handheld and a mobile phone in one.

Most users agree that viewing web pages on the Treo 650 is much more satisfying than on typical smartphones because it includes a 320-by-320 pixel display, a much higher resolution than most of its competition.

To make writing email and SMS messages easier, this model has a small QWERTY keyboard below the screen.

In addition, the Treo 650 includes Bluetooth wireless networking, so it works with wireless headsets. It's unfortunate, but not surprising, that Verizon is not supporting Dial-Up Networking (DUN) via Bluetooth on its version of the Treo 650. This means that it can't be used as a wireless modem for other devices, like a laptop.

This smartphone runs Palm OS Garnet (5.4) on a 312 MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processor.

The Treo 650 has only 23 MB of built-in storage capacity, so the device's SD card slot is an important feature.

This will be the CDMA/1xRTT version of the device, allowing it to handle both voice calls and transfer data at up to 144 kbps.

Also, it has an 1,800 mAh swappable battery, which palmOne says is good for up to 6 hours talk time and up to 300 hours standby time.

The Treo 650 is 4.4 inches tall, 2.3 inches wide, and 0.9 inches thick (113 by 59 by 23 mm) and weighs 6.3 ounces (178 grams).

This new model's built-in camera is capable of taking both still images and video. Maximum resolution is 640 by 480 pixels for photos or 352 by 288 pixels for videos.

In the U.S., the Treo 650 is already being offered by Sprint and Cingular. It is expected to be available from EarthLink Wireless later this month. In Europe, both Orange and Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) are carrying it.

More information on this smartphone is available on the Verizon Wireless web site.

http://www.brighthand.com/article/Ve..._May?site=Palm