Treo POS to Treo 700W

[riverbruce]

I started out my PDA journey with the HP Jornada and initial Ipaqs. The Handspring Treo drew me over 3 years ago because of it's combination of cell phone and PDA. I'm currently using a Treo 600 through T-Mobile. My contract is up and I'm considering switching back to the new Treo 700W with Windows Mobile 5. How's Mobile 5 as an operating system... crashes... resets... etc. I know there's no bullet proof operating system but I still have some bad memories of earlier versions of Active Sync. I love the Treo form factor and am impressed with the features of the 700W.

Thanks!

Bruce

[Sven Johannsen]

There have been bumps and hiccups. More than normal it seems, but this is a fairly significant change in architecture as opposed to previous upgrades. The complaints seem to be slowing down. I think that may be due to less early adopters picking up WM5. Why I think that is a factor is that early adopters generally have a good deal of experience, which also appears as preconcieved notions. Things that are difrent are often tagged as broken. Early adopters also tend to have a significant library of favorite third party apps. There is a bit more to WM5 compatibility than there was in the past, and as time goes on more and more programs are gaining compatibility.

Once the OS gets a bit older, you get more of the folks who buy it as their first device and use it as it comes out of the box for a while before loading it down. Things seem to be working pretty well for those folks. Even had a veteran here who decided to go lean on his machine and found it solved a lot of his issues.

I'm not sure I'd want to be the first one to get a Palm built device with a WM OS on it, just because they've never done that before. I haven't looked hard for reviews, but I'd bet they are out there. If they are launching it in a week, you know there are some in the hands of the press. The OS seems to be settling in pretty well though.

I'm running a JasJar and a K-Jam on WM4.1 and I don't have an particular issues. Certainly not any more than I have always been used to. Occasional soft resets, AS recalcitrance and such.

[Janak Parekh]

I think Sven pretty much nails it, although I would like to add that WM5, in-and-of itself, is pretty darn stable -- it's often third-party apps and plugins, especially those designed for older OSes and those that run in the background, that can reduce stability. In general, I find WM5 just as stable as older versions of WM, i.e., I may soft-reset once every week or two. However, I don't install a lot of background programs, today screen plugins, or the like.

FWIW, I'm not sure I agree with Sven's opinion on Palm's first WM release. It looks like they're putting a huge effort into differentiating their WM5 product from the rest of the crop. What I'd do is to wait a few weeks, see what detailed (i.e., not mass-media, but rather specialized sites') reviews look like, and if they're reasonably good, consider jumping for it. (Or, alternatively, pick it up and give it the run-through, returning it if one has significant issues.)

--janak

[riverbruce]

Thanks for the quick and knowlegeable replies. Treonauts has a good review for the device at...

http://blog.treonauts.com/treo_windows_mobile/index.html

I fully understand about the 3rd party apps as I've got my Treo tricked and tweaked out but not without a hiccup from time to time. I feel good about Palm's committment to the device but will wait and see if HTC did a good job actually building the hardware. Rememer the grit under the screen of the original Ipaq? :? [/url]

[Janak Parekh]

Rememer the grit under the screen of the original Ipaq? :? [/url]
Argh. Bad memories of dust, begone! :P

--janak

[Guest979]

Well, this is a PPC forum, after all... if you want to hear negative answers, you could try a Palm one. :)

I only have 2003FE, so I will refrain from commenting on WM5.

[Janak Parekh]

Well, this is a PPC forum, after all... if you want to hear negative answers, you could try a Palm one. :)
Well, that's a double-edged sword. By all means do it, but do expect disagreement as to the "usability" of Windows Mobile between WM boards and PalmOS boards. My personal experience suggests it takes a month to become intuitive with Windows Mobile, simply because the UI is different from Palm's, and I find a lot of PalmOS reviewers pan the UI without giving it enough time. I remember hating it back in 2000, but now I feel precisely the opposite, and find Palm clunky. 8O

--janak