On Saturday, BargainPDA.com published a complete review of the PalmOne / Handspring Treo 600. This review is a disappointment to anyone who liked the first generation Treos and wants to know whether to buy the new one. It’s also not necessarily helpful to people who are thinking about replacing two or more handheld devices with an integrated device.
It’s hard to understand why a site like BargainPDA.com would evaluate any Treo in this manner. For instance, the review says:
I’ve never been a huge proponent of thumb keyboards, and the Treo didn’t convert me. The keys are smallish, kind of flat, kind of rounded, and not very suitable to my mind for significant text input. I compared the keys with a Treo 90…, and the keys were similar, though a bit closer together on the 600. The keys are backlit in green whenever a key is pressed…. The backlighting is actually rather well done, and really helps you find that errent key in the dark.
People who are interested in the Treo 600 want to know if the keyboard is better or worse than the previous generation of Treos. The reviewer concluded that the keyboard is about the same, although slightly smaller. This is good, because lots of people who’ve tried the first generation Treo keyboards love them.
The keyboard backlighting feature was introduced with the Treo 270. Lots of first generation Treos, including all of the 180s, don’t have it. This is a hugely important feature because devices meant to be used as mobile phones need keyboard lighting for in-car use at night. The BargainPDA review mentions backlighting, says it works, but doesn’t say why it’s important to the usability of the 600.
I had less of an issue with the characterization of the Treo 600 screen as poor in comparison to those available on other state-of-the-art PDAs. But, to be fair, these guys should be comparing mobile phone PDAs to each other and comparing display resolution, color depth, brightness, and battery life. To compare a Dell Axim that isn’t even a phone to a Treo 600, and to find the Treo lacking, is ridiculous.
All things considered, the BargainPDA review is not that helpful. The editors of this site need to think carefully about the diverging goals of audiences who are interested in the different sorts of PDA devices that they cover. The people who are interested in the Dell Axim X3i are not the same group of people that are evaluating the Treo 600. BargainPDA’s reviews ought to reflect this.