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| palm Treo 680 Smartphone (AT&T) | 
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| Brand: Palm
Category: Wireless
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 5132
Color: Silver
Media: Wireless Phone
Battery Type: Lithium Ion
Display Size: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
Model: 680
UPC: 805931024466
ASIN: B000KPY83K
Release Date: November 24, 2006
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| Customer Reviews:
 Almost Everything I Want From A Smart Phone July 16, 2007
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
I misplaced my (Verizon) Treo 650 and eventually gave up and decided to replace it after whinging about with my daughter's old LG. Since the rest of the family is on AT&T, I looked at the iPhone but went back to another Treo. (The iPhone user interface is superb, but I found the keyboard unusable for emails/memos/text messages, and I don't often listen to music or watch videos on my phone, so those otherwise great features were not of interest to me. And AT&T had a great rebate.) So I acquired a crimson treo...maybe I'll have a harder time losing it!
If you've owned a Treo, this has all the advantages of the family, using the Palm OS, which I prefer to Windows Mobile. If you've not owned a smart phone before, they are a tremendous productivity booster, and I can say from personal experience what a setback it is to return to a regular cell phone. The 680 synched up quickly with my laptop. (I followed the instructions and re-installed HotSync, assuming I would be re-entering a lot of names, but it saved everything from my lost Treo.) I use email from Earthlink and Yahoo as well as corporate Outlook and it works seamlessly.
(There was one problem with Outlook and my prior 650 - Versamail could not handle the it's-time-to-change-your-password message and woudl lock up. I don't know if it's going to be an issue with the 680 or not, but a password change on the 650 took care of the problem. YMMV.)
Battery life has been a common complaint of early 680 users. There are two factors here. First, the battery is smaller to help make the phone slimmer, and I like the new form factor. I regularly just plug it into the car charger and it's not an issue. The other factor is the firmware - before version 1.09, there were some battery-draining bugs in the 680. All the Treo forums I've researched have indicated that the May upgrade corrects most of the battery issues. There are now extended batteries available as well, although they require a different cover and make the phone larger.
I have not looked at all of the negative reviews, but I think that most of them will be from before May 2007, when the AT&T version of the upgrade became available. So I would suggest that readers consign these to the dustbin of history -- it's not a huge problem anymore.
There are a couple of drawbacks to the 680 for the 650 user besides the smaller battery. There is no Wi-Fi card available for the 680, which would be useful in the future. The SD card has been moved to the side from the top, which makes it harder to accidentally pop out the card. The 680 SD cover seems flimsy, but will probably be OK if one is careful to replace it correctly.
So...if you want a lighter weight Treo than a 650, and can manage to charge the battery daily, the 680 should meet your needs. I am ecstatic to have a Treo again, and the 680 has yet to disappoint me. Highly recommended.
 Battery life-less June 27, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I love my Treo, no doubt. Save for the battery which does not last the day even after being fully charged. Its not like i am using the phone or any of the other device applications more than i would any other phone but the battery life is simply short....too short so it simply dies sometimes before the end of the day.
That's the one most disappointing aspect of my phone.
Other than that, I rely on it for my every duty and it surely does make life a lot easier.
As for the battery life, now i know exactly why it came with a car charger.
 All Show and No Go June 21, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I really wanted this phone to work but after going through 2 of them in 6 months I gave up.
I loved it for the 1st month though I noticed the signal strength is quite weak. My housemate who is also on Cing and owns a Samsung Blackjack would have all his bars and the Treo 680 could barely make or receive a call.
I put in a 1 gig SD to hold music and soon thereafter the phone would freeze a few times a day. I would have to reset the phone by pulling the battery out rebooting the phone. I also had did the "hard reset" a few times and downloaded the software patch - but it didn't help much.
The straw that broke this camels back was the headset jack wouldn't know if the headset was in or not. So the phone would be on headset mode even though there was no headset attached. I could answer the phone but the caller couldn't hear me - this was not an isolated incident.
After 3 months I got a new phone under warranty and within a month all the old problems resurfaced - leading me to believe that this is a simply a defective product being sold to the public.
Battery life is not so bad ! June 20, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I bought Treo 680 after months of online research on various sites like Treonauts, Treocentral, CNET and ofcourse Amazon. I probably was prepared for the worst. I primarily use my Palm Treo for making calls and using organizer functions. I don't use much of e-mail or Internet via this device.
The battery life is not too bad. I did install the latest AT&T ROM update and my phone lasts me almost 2 days (without e-mail and internet use).
It does feel a bit bulky to me. It weighs mighty 5.6oz and after a few hrs, you start to feel the weight. I have used Palm m515 for years and it recently died and I thought that was heavy ( m515 was almost 4.5oz)
I have used it for 3 days only. Phone audio quality is as good as any other phone. I have only used it in a metro area and so far no complaints.
Another issue for people who buy it on Amazon is the Data plan. You have to buy the data plan when you buy this phone, but you can cancel it at anytime with AT&T without any penalties as long as you keep the voice plan.
I debated for a long time b/w Palm 680 and 750 (windows mobile) This is not the ultimate device, but it does what it is supposed to.
Overall 4****
 A good move from the Palm TX... May 26, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Naturally for me the Treo 680 was my first smartphone choice from Cingular a long while back, and I expected great things from it. During the first stretch of the honeymoon period I LOVED this device, for it was basically a lateral move from my previous Palm TX pda. All the calendar entries and contact information had synched with no trouble at all to my Mac and other than the added phone application nothing much else felt any different.
Then came the battery life that left much to be desired! Usually I am a stickler for recharging my devices EVERY night even when there is more than enough power for the next day. But nightly charging with the 680 had become a NECESSITY! Without overnight charging the Treo would barely make it past my morning coffee. It seemed like just navigating the menus with the stylus brought down the battery level right before my eyes!
I took a chance on the qwerty keyboard in texting and word docs editing and did not like the feel of the buttons at all. They were cramped, too small and the feedback too rigid for any sort of comfortable typing with my fingernails. My current Nokia E61i qwerty feels like plush cotton compared to the Treo 680 and its buttons are perfectly spaced.
The camera is good for what it is: a basic snapshooter. There is no way to expect any kind of great resolution or vivid colors from the VGA camera, but it gets the job done nonetheless.
Call quality was truly excellent and is up to par with my Nokia. Actually I will admit that the Treo's call volume was better in comparison to my E61i. Reception, on the other hand, was a little bit shaky in my daily usage. There were a few times when the phone would reset itself in standby or in the middle of a call, but not as frequently as my first Sony Ericsson p990i.
Wifi has become a standard that I have become accustomed to in smartphones and it is a shame that this Treo does not have it...but at the same time it isn't a dealbreaker either.
Eventually I took the device back to Cingular due to the unwieldy bulkiness and horrible battery life. Despite this return, the Treo was an okay device that was an adequate introduction to the world of smartphones.
We've all gotta start somewhere.
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