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View Full Version : Got myself a 680 and hers my 2 cents


danopoly
01-26-2007, 12:50 AM
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/5893/dsc00083ez2.jpg


Battery life on my 680 has no problems. Its gooooooodddd =) Mine is an unlocked rogers 680. Probaly the only unlocked rogers one in canada right now. lol. Anyways, though battery wasnt an issue, heres what i dont like about it.

Cons:
-Hate how the 680 is designed for left handers. The scroll down menu button is on the bottom right hand side, making me stretch my thumb all the way down is uncomfortable. Unlike the 650 where i can move slightly to the left to get the scroll down menu.

-Also i dont like how the home button is on the far right as well. Though i can reach it with ease, it doesnt have a natural feel to it. Cause i have to move my thumb all the way to the right. Unlike the 650 where i can slighty move it to the left and go home.

-Though the QWERTY keyboard looks nice with its square buttons, its harder to type with, cause i sometimes press 2 buttons at once. The 650 has that satisfying feel when i press it. The 680 doesnt have that same feeling. =(

-Really SLOW loading times after reset!!!!!! Usually im one of those guys that use my treo as a guineapig in testing applications, if it dont work, then i hard reset it. But this time, resets takes a really long time to finish. And hard resets take even LONGER!!!! hard resets on a 680 is equivilant to 3, maybe even 4 resets, or maybe even 5....ugh....I guess i wont be testing any crazy experiments on my 680.

Pros:

-I love how its slimmer, and feels good while holding it. Though the 680's dimensions are almost exactly the same as the 650's. Palm somehow made the 680 look completly different. It looks sexier and more juicier than the 650. Think of the 650 as a toyotoa corolla of phones and the 680 is the mercades or phones.

-The display is dead gorgeous. The image is soooo sharp and bright with beutiful colours that the 650 fails to show.

-The sim card and SD placement. Its a genious idea actually. At first i hated it. Then i realize that the placement of those 2 cards add to the slimness of the device. I thought to myself. Hey! i never take out the sim card anyway! and once i get my SDHC cards, i wont be taking out the SD cards either! so we all win!

-Its a phone! The 680 is more like a phone now, finaly. The calling quality is good. And the phone features are awsome too with the new display, its so much easier to do things now.

-Memory, im finaly free from the low memory that my 650 provided me, i now have lots of room to install apps and have enough left over.

-The 680 has a solid casing. Does not creek and squeek when i hold it, unlike my 650 thats case doesnt feel like its held together too tightly.


SHOULD YOU GET A TREO 680?
GET IT IF.....
-you have a treo 600
-you want to upgrade from a treo 650 (and you have a ton of cash laying around)
-First time on a palm os device
-If you are a collector of pda's like myself

DONT GET IT IF.....
-you own a treo 650 but you are in a tight budget, or if you are financialy stable but dont have alot of cash on the side, then forget it
-hate palm os
-if you are a power user, then forget it. Battery will kill you.

And that is my 2 cents.
Everyone welcome to write their review.

+Kardboard+
01-26-2007, 02:43 AM
I have an unlocked one ON Rogers, so waddaya mean you have the only unlocked Rogers one? A Rogers one that has been unlocked?

Oh, it's designed for right-handed people (i.e. people who hold their STYLUS in their right hand and their Treo in the left). I'm left-handed so it's like impossible to hit the Menu key while I hold the Treo in my right hand. Then again, for one-handed usage I just switch it to my left hand, since the stylus isn't really used anyways...:)

MleB
01-26-2007, 06:40 AM
Its amusing that Palm seems to think that users can get away without a reset button on the 680 - and a hassle. Now when the sucker freezes, the official means of doing any sort of reset is to take off the back and remove the battery.

That'll be popular while involved in a crowded commute - especially if you have your 680 is any kind of case....

And what's with this cheesy stylus?

Meanwhile, its really too bad that Palm/PalmOne/PalmSource/ACCESS continues to offer fewer programs with each device incarnation. Despite the fact that the Treo still has Graffitti (and touch screen) embedded in the OS, I now miss having Notes for freehand quickie notes or drawings - rather than the more fussy thumb board. But then, like Expense, they gave up supporting it on the Desktop several editions ago...

danopoly
01-26-2007, 09:59 AM
wait a minute kardboard. How did you get a rogers 680 thats red? I saw your "680 with wifi" thread and spotted your red 680, so i thought that it wasnt rogers. Seeing how rogers only offered the grey one.
Plus im one of those one handed type users. So i dont use the stylus, almost at all. So palm shouldve thought of that before putting the menu button down there. Palm expects everyone to hold their treo on the left hand while holding the stylus with right. Thats messed.

Plus i agree, the stylus is cheap, but i like how it matches the device colour and it looks in much better than it did on the 650. But then again, the 650 had a full all around metal stylus, which looked cool....

Also, i forgot to add this. I hate how i have to use palms default launcher (the plain white one) i cant install the launcher from the TX, no more background images on the 680, sigh. But im using appshelf now, it looks better =)

p_boucher
01-26-2007, 12:19 PM
wait a minute kardboard. How did you get a rogers 680 thats red? I saw your "680 with wifi" thread and spotted your red 680, so i thought that it wasnt rogers. Seeing how rogers only offered the grey one.


1. Buy unlocked red from Palm and stick your Rogers SIM card in.

2. Buy locked from Rogers and get it unlocked by them - then of course it's gonna be grey.

The only reason I bought locked from Rogers is that I renewed a 3 yrs contract and already was a client. So the thing cost me 399$cad instead of the 499$ from Palm (with the updrade rebate).

MleB
01-27-2007, 12:01 PM
...Plus i agree, the stylus is cheap, but i like how it matches the device colour and it looks in much better than it did on the 650. But then again, the 650 had a full all around metal stylus, which looked cool....

Also, i forgot to add this. I hate how i have to use palms default launcher (the plain white one) i cant install the launcher from the TX, no more background images on the 680, sigh. But im using appshelf now, it looks better =)

Sigh, how I miss my hefty metal stylus from my TX! I stopped in at SoftPocket in Toronto yesterday, but no 3rd Party metal styli there, either - just more wimpy plastic ones and 3in1 styli that are just as light.

Meanwhile, I used FileZ and beamed my TX's Favorite Launcher over (a vast improvement over the phone's Favorite tab) -and, yes, a background is still possible there. Placed the Favorite Launcher on the Mail icon button - had wanted it on the Home button except, of course, Palm won't let you - but then my Mail setting was for Contacts and that is pretty much covered in one of the phone's tabs anyhoo. So there it is.

I also got around to beaming over Expense and Notes (I'm keeping my TX as my portable 'entertainment' PDA) - but I digress....

danopoly
01-27-2007, 08:08 PM
yes, i know favorites work, but i want the TX launcher. Which doesnt work. Sucks how palm doesnt make treo launcher that supports a background image. Even the oldest phones can do that, why cant a treo?

+Kardboard+
01-27-2007, 08:52 PM
Mine's not red, it's orange. :) I got it unlocked direct from Palm Canada when it first came out, as I had to use my Palm Bucks before the program ended....hehehehe

I have Notes installed on my 680 as well, and yes, my stylus is rather cheesy, being soft and orangy. :p I've gotten used to the new keys as well, and it's nice too as with Butler I can reassign the Green and Red keys to actually do something (opt+ one of those keys, Plucker and Snappermail respectfully). I find that holding it in my left hand makes more sense, as my fingers don't cover the camera lens as easily.

danopoly
01-27-2007, 11:28 PM
hey, by any chance does anybody else (that owns a 680) have a non blinky LED treo? My treo LED does not seem to blink, even though it detects a signal and radio is on. Does anybody else experience this, or is it just me?

+Kardboard+
01-28-2007, 12:51 AM
Not just you. Palm took that blinky light out, and also took out the option for developers to re-enable it. Personally, I liked the blinky light. Provided a sense of comfort and security that anyone in the world could instantly call me and nag me...ha.

dpc
02-01-2007, 09:41 AM
That's funny how you say the scroll down menu is made for left handers because I'm left handed and I hate how the scrollbar is on the right. It would be cool if it were adjustable.

+Kardboard+
02-01-2007, 12:32 PM
It is. ScrollBar5 let's you change the scrollbar to the left.

dpc
02-01-2007, 03:28 PM
Excellent! Thanks.

cgarrett1974
02-10-2007, 05:03 PM
I dig your launcher. It looks like Facer Launcher, is it? If so, what skin?

danopoly
02-10-2007, 08:00 PM
I dig your launcher. It looks like Facer Launcher, is it? If so, what skin?

yes, the launcher is facer. And the theme should come with the zipped folder when you download facer. Its called "Natural"

Im not using Facer anymore, im using ZLauncher now, my layout is on the bottom.

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/8041/treoojxb3.jpg

+Kardboard+
02-10-2007, 10:44 PM
ha interesting.