Orange Treo 600

A good choice for those on the go.

Price: £190

Manufacturer: Orange

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Verdict

Pros:

Lots of features; easy to use.

Cons:
No Wifi or Bluetooth; small keyboard.

Verdict:
Good combination of features, but a fiddly keyboard and lack of wireless may hold it back.

Will Stapley, Personal Computer World 12 Feb 2004

With a sizeable display and full Qwerty keyboard, the only two features on the Treo 600 from Orange that give any indication of its mobile phone capabilities are the rather chunky aerial and the familiar Orange logo. The Treo was built by Handspring, which is now part of Palmone.

The Palm 5 OS drives the Treo 600, along with a 144MHz ARM processor and 32MB of Ram - 24MB of which is available to the user. Should you need more memory, there's an SD/MMC (Secure Digital/Multimedia card) slot on the top of the unit.

Being able to handle multiple POP3 accounts certainly boosts the Treo 600's appeal for those who enjoy email on the go, while the Blazer browser does a good job of resizing most web pages to suit the smaller screen. Trundling through the various other features is also easy enough. A five-way navigation pad offers a suitable alternative to the stylus - however, the screen itself is only a 12bit colour model with a resolution of just 160 x 160.

The ultra-small buttons making up the keyboard will no doubt be of concern to some. Handspring makes much of the fact that the keys are dome-shaped and therefore much easier to use, but they still take a good bit of getting used to.

The Treo 600 doesn't provide support for Wifi, and SD Wifi adaptors currently only work with Pocket PCs running Windows Mobile. You can buy an SD adaptor to furnish the Treo with Bluetooth, but the SD slot is then taken up and you lose the memory expansion options.

Overall, the Treo 600 houses most of the features you'd expect from a PDA and a fully functional mobile phone, but those tiny keys and the lack of Wifi support might hamper its success.

Contact: Orange 0800 802 080
www.orange.co.uk

Specifications: