Palm Treo 800w pokes the Sprint Instinct, brags about its buttons
By Matt Jansen
Sprint is actively upgrading its line of phones and the latest addition is the Palm Treo 800w, which borrows some of its feature set from the Sprint Instinct. Built-in GPS, streaming TV, and visual voicemail sound familiar? They’re all on the Instinct too, but the Treo 800w incorporates an onboard QWERTY keyboard. This phone will likely appeal to business users looking to keep in touch via e-mail, text, and web access.
In a direct reach out to business users, the Treo 800w allows a “direct connection to Microsoft Exchange Server, giving users up-to-date email, contacts, calendars and access to other productivity applications,” according to Sprint. It also integrates with Microsoft Direct Push so that users receive e-mail as it happens instead of having to check regularly.
Sprint is also big on pushing its EV-DO Rev. A network, which promises max speeds of 3.1Mbps down/1.8Mbps up and average speeds of 600Kbps-1.4Mbps down/350-500Kbps up. Not bad for the freedom of movement it allows.
The Treo 800w is a bit more expensive than the Samsung Instinct though. It rings in at almost $250 with a two year contract, in contrast with the Instinct’s $130 price tag.
Interestingly the Treo 800w extends Internet access even further by incorporating a hardware button that switches its WiFi antennae on or off. That means access to an 802.11 b or g network is only a button press away.
Palm may be pushing smart phones like the Treo 800w now, but it has a long history of personal digital assistants starting with the Palm Pilot in 1992, according to Wikipedia. At that point Palm, Inc. was focused on marketing its Zoomer PDA device, which failed to attract enough buyers.
More recently rumors have circulated surrounding Palm’s well-being, and many wondered if the company would sell. But, with a $325 million investment from Elevation Partners Palm has adequate resources to continue its current operations.
Related:
Entry was posted
on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
under
Read more entries by Matt Jansen.
Stumble It!
