vB Easy Archive - 8125 or Treo 650?

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8125 or Treo 650?
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Posted by: KeithKman

My dad and I are looking at getting new phones probably tomorrow. What is an all around better phone...the HTC 8125 or the Treo 650? Why? Is there another phone we should be looking at?

Thanks!

Posted by: RF9

That's a hard question to answer. It's like asking what's better, Mac or Windows?
For a person that isn't a Palm fan or die-hard, I'd point you to the 8125 instead of the Treo. The Widows Mobile 5 OS on the 8125 does more fun things that can't be done on the Treo because the Palm OS hasn't had many advancements in years whereas Win Mobile 5 is a brand new PDA OS (they are already working on WM6.)
The 8125 also has WiFi, stereo speakers (I think), better bluetooth. Many major commercial applications work on both. But support appears to be shifting toward win mobile OS, mainly because it's more powerful.

I have a Treo 650, had a Treo 600. The 8125 wasn't out 1 and a half ago when got my latest Treo. The Win Mobile devices out back then pretty much sucked. The 8125 is the first Win Mobile device worth buying in my opinion. If I were to get one today, I'd get the 8125.

There is, of course, a new one (8525? aka Hermes) coming out hopefully in about 1-2 months with 3G data. It just came out overseas as the HTC TyTn. It'll cost more. But if you're getting one now, I say get the 8125. The only people I know that ever regretted it were coming from a Treo and set in their ways (and wanted to go back.) Otherwise people love their 8125s.

I'd have already switched to the 8125 from the Treo 650. The only reason I didn't (haven't) is because by the time the 8125 came out I knew there would be a 3G version coming within the year and I decided to wait. Also by waiting I would be up for an upgrade discount.

If you get one, go pick up PocketPC magazine at a local bookstore. They run articles and reviews of software for the windows mobile OS.
There are also web sites dedicated to "pocket PC's" (A name windows mobile devices are also known as.)

Posted by: ejanis

I had the Treo 600 when it first came out and I got the new Cingular 8125 last week. The Treo 600 and 650 and mostly the same from my understanding physically. Software the 650 dose alot more.

The up and downs to the Treo:
Upsides:
- You can dail numbers without have to use the screen or open the a keyboard like on the 8125
- The OS is rock solid and stable
- Very Long Battery Life
- A ton of free applictions
- Very strong phone (can take a beating)
Down Side:
- Treo antena is very easy to damage when you have it in a case on your belt.
- On Built in wifi
- On way to totaly turn off the phone it just gose into standby (not sure if the 650 dose the same still)
- keyboard is very small and sometimes hard to use

The up and downs to the 8125
Upsideds:
- Built in wifi which helps save money off data planes
- as office software already included ex. word, excel
- very familar if you are a windows user running xp at home
- camera is alot better
- more screen area
- built in antena
Downsides:
- When clicking on a item using the screen sometimes it wont register.
- wifi seems very picky about connections
- not as many free appliction as for the treo

This are my own views of the phone so people might agree or disagree with some of them. If would suggest the 8125 because it seems to me more usable for bussiness and email. The screen is alot larger to.

You also might want to consider the blackberry 8700c which is great for email but not so much of multi-media.

Posted by: KeithKman

Thanks for the replies. Any idea when the HTC TyTN will be out in the US?

Posted by: RF9

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeithKman

Thanks for the replies. Any idea when the HTC TyTN will be out in the US?

According to HTC, HTC will never sell the TyTn in the US. It'll be an import only device. So you can import one for a premium, or wait for the Cingular branded flavor. Last thing I heard was Sept 19th, but I have no idea if that's right. It seems to ambitious to me.
But I don't know if I have my facts totally right here.

To respond to the previous post, Ejanis.
Can't you dial from the screen without opening the keyboard? I was told you could do so.
Also, when turning off the 'phone' on a Treo (as it goes in to standby) doesn't the 8125 do the same. I'd be surprised if it wasn't also an always-on device.
For the Treo, he said "On Wifi". That should be "No Wifi" (just transposed.)

Othewise I pretty much agree with Ejanis across the board. Well said.

Also on the 8125, you can stream XM and Sirius satellite radio (if you subscribe) and you can't on the Treo.
Also I think you can stream some video on the 8125 that you can't on Treo. I'm not sure what, though. Maybe I'm just thinking of the Slingbox client which is supported on Windows Mobile, but not PalmOS.

Posted by: ejanis

Yes you can dail on screen without using the keyboard on the 8125. Sure you can use the screen to dail a number but sometimes I hate doing that because it I dont like to use my hands and taking the pen out of the phone is a pain. On the treo the number pad is right their you dont need to slide a keyboard out.

With the wifi yeah I ment their is no built in wifi on the treo. Spelling at 2 am is not so good on my part.

And for the 8125 and power. Yes you can turn the phone into standby mode by just pressing the power button on the top. But you can still turn the device off completely by holding down the power button for 5 secounds. I could never on my treo 600 it was either on with wireless mode or on without wireless mode.

Yes you can also stream video on the 8125. You can just use the built in windows media player to do it.

It really just comes down to what you want to use the phone for. For example you dont buy a blackberry to watch movies on or listen to music you get it for email and word documents. I really cant find anything wrong with the Treo of the 8125 that would justify me telling you not to get either one. They both offer great features.

I heard somewere and correct me if im wrong that the Treo will come to cingular with the windows on it later this year. It will be exaclty like the Treo700w but for cingular. This is not proven information thou I just remeber reading about it on Engadget.com awhile ago.

Posted by: KeithKman

I would be using the phone for e-mail, text, IM, browsing the internet, ect. My family does have XM, so steaming that on the 8125 sounds cool.

Every review I read says the signal strength on the 8125 is horrible and so is the call clarity. That scares me. Is it really that bad? Also, I'm worried if I get the 8125, in two weeks HTC will have a way better phone out for Cingular. Is that possible?

Also, can you install AIM on the 8125?

Posted by: ejanis

I would say from your description the 8125 might be for you because the web browser on the 8125 is better from my point of veiw then on the Treo 650.

For call clarity I have not had any problems yet. The phone dose have a weaker reception then the treo 650 due to an internal antenna. The calls are just a clear as they were on the Treo 600.

And for new phones coming out. New phones will always come out improving or adding a feature to this and that. If you dont need to phone right away wait and see what the next phones comes out dose. Then if you dont like the new phone atlest the price on the 8125 will be lower to purchase.

And you can install aim on the phone either one directly from aim or a third party peice of software.

Posted by: KeithKman

Does the Wi-Fi lag like it does on the Song Playstation Portable?

Posted by: RF9

I use IM forwarding with AOL and Yahoo. It automatically forwards IMs to text messages when I'm logged out. But you can also (pay for) verichat. Verichat is an IM program that works with AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ. It is considered the best IM program out there.
http://www.verichat.com/
Verichat. Verichat is great if you do IM a lot, it has a persistent always on the internet mode, and a SMS forwarding mode.
There is no AIM only (from AOL) client that runs on either the 8125 or the Treo 650:
http://mobile1.aol.com/smartphone_pda/aimsoftware
Same for Yahoo.

But since I do very little with AIM, I just use the SMS forwading option. I do the same with Yahoo.
http://mobile1.aol.com/mobileaim/textmessaging (for more on AIM SMS forwarding)
http://mobile.yahoo.com/ (for Yahoo)

http://www.pocketgear.com/ and http://www.handango.com/ are a couple of places where you can find more apps like ones to play XM radio.

I can't answer for the signal and clearity. I'm curious about that myself.

As for a better one in 2 weeks. I believe there is a 30 day return policy where you can return in such an event. But what if it's 31 days?
The new HTC (Hermes) is rumored to be as early as Sept 19th, but for all we know it could be December.
keep on eye on this thread for news:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthr...6&goto=lastpost
Also the Treo 750W (Also WM5) will be later this year (fall?)

Posted by: ejanis

Not really it takes about 30 secounds or so to connect but once connected it is fast. I would say wait for the treo 750w for cingular and then you can have the best of both worlds. Windows mobile 5 + the treo design.

Posted by: ajpprc

Wirelessly posted (HTC-2125/1.2 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows CE; Smartphone; 240x320) UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

I would say go with the 8125 for all the reasons people have mentioned. Regarding some of the criticisms of the 8125 I have to disagree. The battery life is great and signal strength is also excellent (at least in my experience).

If you can wait I would give it a month or so to see if the hermes comes out.

I would also recommend the 2125. It's not as powerful as either of the other two phones because of the lack of a touchscreen, but its a great device. I'm using it to type this this message out right now :-).

Posted by: joaoeduardo05

where can i get free software for the treo 650?

Posted by: redmojo

As a phone, my 8125 performs just as well as my BB7100 and my old Nokia 3100b. Remember that phone performance is not just a function of the phone but also the coverage.

I would disagree that the Treos are known for being "rock solid." You can find plenty of evidence to the contrary.

The wifi is very good on the 8125 and it's never been picky about what types of routers to which it can connect. You'll hear some people tell you that you can't connect to a WPA password protected router, which is false. My router has WPA encryption and I've connected to it many times. The internal wireless card on the phone is not as good as a laptop, so sometimes you do need to be closer to the router in order to get a nice connection.

If you think you'd rather have a Treo, then I would wait for the next version to come out. The 650 can do a lot of things but it came out over 1.5 years ago. If you are signing another 2 year agreement then it'll be the technology of 3.5 years by the time you are ready to renew again.

Posted by: Blayzirell

I had a Treo650 and I didn't like it very much.

It always froze up.

The 8125 is sweet and hasn't given me any problems yet.

Posted by: matt0525

Like someone else said, the reception on the 8125 depends (IMO heavily) on your coverage. If you typically have a kick@ss signal, then the 8125 should do fine. If your reception can be spotty in your area, the 8125 might not be for you. I say this because I had the 8125 (twice), and it was fantastic having a little PC with me at all times, but I could barely make a (clear) phone call.

It's not an easy decision to make. Cingular's 30-day trial period has served me well and I highly suggest using it. Go and get the 8125 (my personal fave between your 2 choices) and if you don't like it, make sure you take it back within the 30 days. You're account will revert back to where it was, and if you want, you can try the treo.

Good luck!!

Posted by: KlamshellKing

wow... matt i realize why you need a nokia... you live in kentucky. living in NYC, i can get away with anyphone and i get service everywhere, its amazing... the 8125 recently has been phenomenal. i think i may start soft resetting everymorning, just so its nice and fresh. After a reset its amazing... phone is just as good as a nokia IMO

Posted by: maevro

I have the 8125 & my cousin has the 650. I enjot the functionality of the 8125 100x better and so does he.

Also, I find there are tons of apps for the 8125 due to it being windows.

Posted by: KlamshellKing

8125 is muchhh better than the 650... 650 crashes alot too, and its soo old, and edge is a lot slower, and blazer is sooooooooo bad... there are no good browsers. i did love the threaded sms, the home screen simplicity, and the static keyboard... but everything else is better on the 8125

Posted by: dspiel

I've used the Treo 650 before but I find I like the Cingular 8125 much better.

Posted by: KlamshellKing

ive owned the treo for two months, and i loved it... it was awesome. but once i got the 8125 it was much different. its like the 8125 is more of a computer like experience where as the treo its more of a pda, etc...

Posted by: dspiel

oh and about reception...8125 is the only phone I've ever been able to use inside my house

Posted by: wrex

Hands down the 8125 is a far superior phone. I've owned both and agree that the 8125 has great reception. They are both good PDAs but the 8125 adds the bells and whistles that a phone should have.

Posted by: Michael95GT

Quote:

. i did love the threaded sms,

That is the ONLY thing I miss about my Treo 650.

Windows Mobile rules!!!!

Posted by: DubDub

I had 3 Treo 600s and a 650. Hardware quality was very poor on all four. They would randomly reboot and erase everything (thank goodness I had cardbackup which ran on the SD card).

Finally gave up after the 650 decided it didn't want to synch anymore.

Switched to a BB 8700c and haven't looked back.