Tungsten W vs Treo 600?

[brain21]

I am interested in the Treo 600, but it is too pricey for me. How does the older Tungsten W compare? How is the Tungsten W as far as a phone goes, and how is AT&T's service (I am in Atlanta)?

I currently have a T-Mobile Hiptop/Sidekick that I got when they were first introduced. However, I am really sick and tired of the HORRIBLE reception that it gets here in Atlanta, even after they updated the capabilities of it. Now my parents and wife are getting sick of never getting me on the phone because I have no service.

At this point I am thinking of the Tungsten W as I can get one for $50 after rebates.

The Treo 600 is $250 after rebates, with an initial cash outlay of $600 (twice that of the W).

The Motorola MPx200 looks really nice too. It has no keyboard, but it runs M$ mobile phone OS. I have no current preference of Palm vs M$ in a phone/PDA OS.

Will the Tungsten W synch w/ my outlook calander?

Also, a friend here at work has a treo 600 w/ Sprint and says that when he uses it as a modem for his laptop he is getting almost 128k speeds (close to ISDN). Is that experience typical? What can I expect from the Tungsten W?

Thanks,

Alex F

[ojleblanc]

I don't know a lot about the W, but there are a number of reviews out there, none of which are very impressive. The most amazing thing about the W is that you MUST use a headset with it to place or receive calls. This is just ridiculous! But see Walter Mossberg's review in The Wall Street Journal; he says its good for mobile emailing but not good as a telephone.

http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20030227.html

If having a really good all-in-one device is important to you, I'd try to find the intitial outlay for the Treo 600 and wait for reimbursement via rebate. I think its worth the intitial outlay if you can afford it. The W is $50 after rebate for a reason, I suspect.

[bertopl]

I just moved from a clie ux50 / t610 cell phone to a treo 600 and don't regret it a bit!! I guess it all depends on the area you're in, but where I work in socal, I didn't get any reception with any of the gsm carriers in the office at all. this was the driving force for my quitting tmobile. don't get me wrong, a 2 device system seemed ideal to me, but if you don't have a signal, what is any of the integration good for??

I looked at the W before, and it looks alright, but as far as all-in one's, the treo is just about as good as it gets for now imho, good luck!!

[ojleblanc]

As an update to the Treo 600 (the 610) is rumored to be available soon, you may be able to buy the 600 for less after the 610 has been released.