For my needs and tastes, the Treo 600 is a far better PDA phone than any other Palm, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, Symbian, etc. device I’ve checked out. But of course, there are still a couple things that bother me or I wish had been better implemented. Although this might look like a long list, that’s mainly because the Treo has so many features. A lot of these issues don’t even apply to most other phones, because the other phones are so lacking to begin with. I would generally rather have a 95% perfect, and useful, feature, than not have the feature at all. If Palm One/Handspring added all these features, the phone would likely cost even more, weigh more, and have worse battery life. But I reserve the right to ask for them, anyway.

  • The camera is terrible. Lots of digital noise in images. Very low contrast. Update 2/11/04: It’s not as bad as I thought.
  • Lo-res screen (only 160×160, but at least it is very readable, even in bright daylight, and it doesn’t apear to be a huge drain on battery life)
  • Some MIDI ringtones are too quiet, even on max volume. If you’re willing to spend the time, you can usually boost the volume by editing the midi file.
  • Weak vibrate mode
  • Using headphones for MP3 playback requires an extra, and not included, adapter
  • No built-in support for voice dialing
  • No voice recording - Update: SoundRec and MovieRec fill the gap nicely, though.
  • Location of the SD card slot causes the card to often pop out when I take the phone out of my pocket
  • I can’t figure out how to easily drop a call when another call comes in, so I end up leaving my voicemail on hold (which eats up minutes) while taking a call that comes in while I’m checking voicemail
  • No external LED to indicate waiting voicemail and/or SMS Update: Check out $6 add-on Treo Butler.
  • No removable battery Update: though higher capacity replacement batteries are available
  • Java runtime environment not pre-installed and integrated Update: but you can download the WebSphere J2ME runtime for $6
  • No always-on LCD with a clock, like many flip phones have
  • Selecting text requires use of the stylus Update: Check out $10 add-on TreoSelecText