vB Easy Archive - Considering 650, Web Browsing/Email

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Considering 650, Web Browsing/Email
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Posted by: larrytxeast

I am considering a Palm Treo 650 as my 1st smart phone. I've merely used old-fashioned Nokias with watch-style LCDs, but have found myself texting a lot (what a pain with only a numeric keypad) and wishing for email/web-browsing abilities on a phone.

I do realize the Treo 650 is not the latest model, but I'm thinking it might be good enough for a start, maybe for the next year or so. I considered the iPhone--I loved its web browsing--but when I found it doesn't do copy-paste, I was appalled, that was a deal-breaker. I would use copy-paste a lot, I'm sure.

I did use a Palm Pilot before, so I know about Palms somewhat and how they work.

What I would like to use the Treo 650 for, besides phone-calls, is texting (about 5 a day) and web browsing--and I'd like to be able to POP3 my Gmail and have it check it (say) every 5 minutes or so.

My questions are--would the Treo 650 be good for this? I know it won't web-browse as well as the iPhone, but with Opera Mini or (say) Piscal (or whatever it was called) would it do as well as (say) the Blackberry Curve or Treo 755 etc would do, or close to it? Is there any freeware software that would allow me to POP3 my Gmail account?

I will read the FAQs and whatever else I can see, but there is such a sea of it I don't know if I can find what I need all that easily. To wit--are the batteries user-replaceable, as opposed to being all sealed up like the iPhone?

I tried registering at treonauts or whatever, but they are taking forever to register my email so I could post there. It's been 2 hours, still nothing.

Also, it seems everyone is going Windows Mobile, does this mean Palm OS is drying up? Any other tips?

Posted by: lmcjipo

Here are the answer to your questions. I hope that I didn't miss anything.

I've used a Treo 650 to access Gmail via POP. The built-in e-mail program on the Treo 650 supports this. I would say that it is very good at doing this. If you want to use Gmail's IMAP feature, you will have to use a different e-mail client on your Treo 650. The Treo 650's built-in e-mail client/program does not (currently) support Gmail's IMAP feature. I currently use Chatter-Email on my Treo 680 to access Gmail via IMAP.

I've used my Treo 650 to browse the internet using the Treo 650's built-in browser (called Web). It handles simple HTML webpages fairly well. Anything too advanced on the webpage (javascript, activex, etc.) and the webpage will probably not load properly or load at all.

The batteries are user-replaceable on the Treo 650.

Posted by: fishera

I love my Treo 680 and my old 650 for light web browsing and email. Except, I recently did a review of the Blackberry Curve for my smartphone review website and personally... I'd have to say it excels at email but not web browsing.

Who is your carrier?