Rating  - do not get this phone!
i always wanted a smartphone pda..etc. finally, i decided to get this phone. i have other palm products and liked them. first, i had trouble setting up. tech support was no help had to buy second phone and did not solve the problem. finally got a hold of someone who knew what they where talking about. the pda package runs $40 a month plus $40 a month for service. my bills are over $100 a month. it doesnot include text messaging. after about a week with the phone all the websites i visited needed a java upgrade,(still have not figured out how to do that.) no downloads are avaliable for this phone. everything i try to down load come back and not supported. the phone is cool but it is not worth the price.
Rating  - First PDA
This is my first PDA.. I switched over to a Treo 680 from a Motorola RAZR which was a perfectly fine phone but I just felt like I needed a change.
I opted for the 680 because as a Mac user I don't need or want my cell phone to run Windows and the Palm OS is more similar to Mac OS. Also, because I am a student, I didn't feel the need for a Blackberry or even a 750, which I feel is more for the "business professional." I like the look of the 680 and I especially like having a full QWERTY keyboard, which is kind of novel to me (despite it being available for so many years already) since I have always had a regular cell phone.
However, the phone does have it's drawbacks..
- keys are a little too close together which makes texting a bit more difficult than it should be.
- the camera is VGA, which produces very grainy yellowish pictures similar to the camera on the RAZR, which I was always less than impressed with.
- the battery life! This has been a common complaint of most 680 users. I set the alarm at night to wake me up in the morning, and 6-7 hours later (when the alarm goes off) the battery is down to 15-20%. This is with no use at ALL all night. This morning I charged my phone up to 100% before leaving for work, and 9 hours later it was down to 20%. This is with NO usage since I can't use my phone at work.. it just sat in my pocket and drained itself of battery.
There are a couple "fixes" for the battery problem, including battery resets and downloading and installing a patch from Palm that supposedly addresses the battery issue (the camera was always on and draining power from the phone). I installed this patch the first night I got it, and if it is supposed to be effective I would hate to know how poor the battery life would be if I hadn't installed it! The battery problem is just annoying to me, considering my dad's 650 can go without a charge for days. It's not a huge problem since I have a car charger and can easily charge it up at night after work and class but it's just a nuisance. The poor battery life doesn't make this the ideal phone to be stranded with in an emergency!
Rating - Got mine for free
My Cingular 3125 broke so many times, the company let me have this 680 Treo for free. It's my first Palm phone. There are good points and bad, but I have to say far many more good points than bad. I'll start with the good. The e-mail is waaaay faster than any flip phone I have had, texting is easier, the huge screen is cool, I like the pointer, the sound is much better and calls are much clearer, and I especially love the SD card sliding into the side. That makes it sooo much easier to get pictures on and off the phone. Battery life is fine; I have never gone below half, even with using it all day at work and all night at school.
Now, for the few bad things. Number one, sometimes I suddenly have no service, and I have to do a hard reboot (by pulling out the battery and re-inserting it) not once, but TWICE before it recovers service. Meanwhile, friends next to me with AT&T flip phones still have uninterrupted service. Number two, the camera pretty much sucks. The colors are very dull and muted, even on bright sunny days. My old Motorola V551 at least took bright color pictures. Sigh.. I still miss that phone.. it was simple and reliable, even if it was outdated.
Anyway, I was hesitant at first to get a palm phone, but it's actually pretty cool. When my term with this one is up in 1 1/2 years, maybe all the bugs will be out of the iphone??
Rating - TREO 680 BATTERY FIX
This is my 5th gen Treo as the Palm os and touchscreen make this the easiest and most intuitive Smartphone of choice.
No one at ATT or PALM seemed to be able to fix the quick battery drain, sometimes without any usage over 3 to 4 hours.
If you have the most current OEM Lithium Ion battery and have drained and recharged your phone three times and are still having short battery life, here are a few things you can do to fix the problem:
1. Make sure you have the latest software installed, version 1.09
2. see your manual or go to PALM to learn how to check your memory
3. Remove your battery and SIM card - wait for a couple of minutes
- replace the battery and plug in your ac adpter
- DO NOT TOUCH YOUR TREO FOR 4 to 6 HOURS
It is CRITICALLY important that you do NOT touch your TREO
- Replace the SIM card and battery
- Your phone will boot-up normally
You should have at least one day of stand-by and hours of talk time
Hope that this helps my fellow Treo 680 users.
Rating - Upgraded From a 650
I purchased the 680 as an upgrade to my 2-year old Treo 650. I wanted to get a smaller, lighter phone, with more horsepower. I tested many Blackberry units in store and some of them are really slick. In fact, the only reason why I did not go with a Blackberry is the Palm OS. After using the Palm OS for many, many years, I just couldn't get myself to switch to the "other side".
Anyway, I'm happy to report the 680 is a smaller, lighter, faster version of my 650. The interface has improved, menus are easier to navigate, and email has improved also. In regards to email, Verizon (my last provider) does not use "versamail". The lag time between getting an email on your server, and getting it to your handheld was 15 minutes or more. Now, with versamail, you instantly get mail to your handheld. Again, this is a huge improvement as far as I'm concerned. Occasionally, the phone will reboot itself. More than my 650 did, but start up is quick, and it hasn't posed a problem for me.
Here's the only (and BIG one) negative for me. Yes, you guessed it, the battery. With normal use you will not get a full day of battery life. Luckily for me, I spend most of my time in the office, or in a car, so it's not a huge negative for me. Figure on this, the battery will last you half of what you are used to with a 650,
Overall, I definitely recommend this phone to all.
*** UPDATE 9/11/07 ***
It seemed like my battery life was getting worse and worse. I could not make it through a full day, with only moderate usage, before it went dead. This now became an issue for me.
So, I started searching for ways to improve battery life. If I wasn't successful I would have to possibly move on to another phone. After ciphering through a lot of wasteful reading, I found the needle in the haystack...here it is:
"If you encounter a poor battery life on your Treo 680 and you have to recharge very often even if not using the Phone function, the issue might have been caused by an incorrect first charging of the device.
Please follow the steps below to solve the issue:
1. Connect your Treo to a wall charger.
2. Remove the battery from the Treo and wait for at least one minute.
3. Remove the SIM card from the device and wait for another minute.
4. Put the battery back into the device (without the SIM card) then let your Treo charge for at least 4 to 6 hours and for this duration:
o Do NOT press any key after reinserting the battery.
o Do NOT switch your TREO On or Off either, it will do so automatically after a short time.
o Do NOT enter the SIM card PIN if prompted to do so, just wait!
After you have done the above, you now need to make some changes with your settings. This is the final piece of the puzzle. Here's how to do them:
Go to Prefs > Power and:
* Turn "Beam Receive" OFF
* Set "Auto-off after" a 15 seconds
* Set your "Screen Brightness" to a medium setting (3 or 4 clicks under MAX or even less)
* Set "Dim backlight after" to 30 seconds
Other settings:
* Turn Bluetooth OFF if/when you are not using a wireless headset or other BT device
* Go to Prefs > Date & Time > Set "Automatically set" to "Nothing" (this makes a very significant difference in power usage
* You can use a software utility called KB LightsOff to turn off the keyboard lights of your Treo when they are not needed
* Also Phone Technician which will completely turn off your screen during a call to save even more battery life.
I am happy to report that the battery life of my phone has improved by 100% !!!!!!!! If you do all of the above you should get the same results as me...good luck!
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