This article describes, in detail, the differences between the Palm Treo 700w and the Motorola Q (as offered through Verizon Wireless), based on my real-world usage of both devices.
I bought my Treo 700w from Verizon in January 2006. It was the most feature-packed phone available at the time, and I did not want a typical PDA phone with a massive screen and slide-out keyboard. January was a tough month… I couldn’t keep the Treo from crashing. I recall one day while travelling I was in a full day of meetings and I ended up resetting the phone about 10 times during the day. Thankfully Palm released an update which fixed those problems, but as I spent more time with my Treo, I started to notice even more issues with its technology.
Why the change?
I kept using the Treo for all of 2006 until I spent some time with a friend’s Motorola Q phone. Web pages I tried to view on my Treo were too big — they locked up my phone (consistently). I could view small pages,but anything with a significant amount of graphics and HTML caused the phone to lock up.With my friend’s Q phone, he has very few lockups. How could this be that a phone as advanced as the Treo not be able to view a simple web page? The answer lies in the first main technological fault: not enough program memory. The Q doesn’t have this problem beacuse the user/program memory is double that of the Treo.
I started investigating the Q a bit more, and I really liked the smaller (but slightly wider) size, lighter weight, and especially the wide screen. But could I realistically convert from a Treo 700w to a Motorola Q phone? Could the loss of all those killer technologies like the touchscreen really bother me? And most important of all, could I,a techno-dweeb who always wants the latest and greatest cell phone, “downgrade” to a phone of lesser features?
The answer in a nutshell: Hell Yes!
After playing around with my friend’s Q phone one more time, I called up Verizon and worked a sweet deal to get the new black Q phone. Yes, I had to extend my contract another two years, but I don’t care… I have been a Verizon customer consistently for over 10years, and have no plans to leave them as a customer. Verizon shipped the phone to me,and I got it two days later. I had 15 days to determine if the downgrade to a Q phone was worth it. If it wasn’t, I’d ship it back, get my money back, and my contract would go back to what it was before. Sounded like a great way to test this phone out.
How I Use My Phone
I have the unlimited broadband service, and I never use the mobile Office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. I use my phone primarily to (in order of importance):
- Manage 4 email accounts (1 Exchange, 3 POP3)
- Surf the web- Stream TV through my Slingbox
- Skype text chat with my “buddies” when I’m not at my computer
- Watch movies or TV shows stored on my memory card
- Let my daughter play a few games (Solitaire, Space Invaders) when she’s bored
Surprisingly, both the Treo 700w and the Motorola Q phone accomplish both goals, however the Q outperforms the Treo on many different levels. Here are my notes, converting from a Treo 700w (Treo) to a Motorola Q (Q).
What You Lose
- Touch screen. With the differences in the OS (WM5 Smartphone vs. WM5 Pocket PC), this was not an issue. At no time did I feel as though I needed to grab a stylus. Also, while I haven’t investigated this yet, there are cursor emulators available (third-party) that allow you to control a real mouse cursor on the Q, giving you more power for third-party applications designed for Pocket PC.
- Office apps, such as Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, and Notes. Although if you do have Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF email attachments, they can stil be viewed via the included Picsel browser. You just can’t edit them.
- Fewer voice recognition commands (see below).
What You Gain
- Smaller device. The body of the Q is taller, but not when you consider the height of the Treo with the antennae. That makes the Treo taller. The Q is slightly wider, but it is approximately 1/2 the thickness. The thinner Q (.45″ vs. .9″) means you have less of a bulge at your side or in your pocket (no pun intended). The weight of the Q is 2 ounces lighter than the Treo (4.1oz Vs. 6oz).
- Speakers: The Q has two speakers (instead of the single speaker on the Treo), so you can achieve stereo sound. Also, the speakers are a lot louder than the Treo which makes it easier to hear your phone ring or play a sound/movie file outside. The other advantage the Q has over the Treo is there is a dedicated speakerphone button to the right of the SPACE bar, making it easy to run on or off the speakerphone. To do this on the Treo you have to navigate the menus. On a side note, regarding the head phone jack, I was able to use several 3.5mm to 2.5mm adapters with the Q without any problems. With my Treo, I had to buy one specific for the Treo. Your adapter from the local Radio Shack wouldn’t work. Why Palm’s engineers decided a proprietary headphone jack was necessary for the Treo is beyond me.
- Wider screen. The screen resolution of the Q is 320×240 while the resolution of the Treo is 240×240. The physical screen width of the Q is wider, however it is shorter since it is wide screen instead of square. Personally, for how I use my phone (web, email, movies), the wide screen option is far more appealing. And, the screen itself is a lot sharper and brighter–it’s simply stunning to look at and the quality of video playback is close to if not equal to that of the Video iPod. Also, if you are a Slingbox user, you can watch TV full screen, whereas with the Treo you always have navigation buttons above and below the video.
- ActiveSync/Wireless Sync. I always had problems with ActiveSync and Wireless Sync with my Treo. With the Q, I have had nothing but ease of use. Setup was a breeze, and I have encountered no issues.
- Keyboard: With my Treo I had two large complaints. The backlight on the keyboard stayed on too long after a key press, so I ended up watching videos in the dark with a bright backlit keyboard (which was annoying, and ate up more battery). With the Q, the backlight turns off quickly, and is easily configurable. With the Treo, members of forum sites were frequently trying to hack the registry to figure this out, and there is no solution. I find the keyboard on the Q easier to type on as the keys are more spread out. Also, there are additional buttons that make life easier: a dedicated camera button, and a dedicated speakerphone button. There’s even a dedicated button to pull up messaging or turn the screen off.
- LEDs: Thankfully, the Q has none. At the top of my list of Treo complaints is the flashing LED at the top/front of the phone to the left of the earpiece. When looking at the screen of the Treo it always blinded me… it was like a piercing laser beam directly at my eye. It would still be nice if the Q had a flashing LED somewhere to indicate that there were new messages/voicemail waiting, but since the Treo never did that, perhaps it’s a missing feature of WM5 and the developers of the Q decided that it wasn’t necessary to add a LED since it didn’t do anything!
- Camera: Both phones have the industry-standard crappy 1.3 megapixel camera, which is great for catching shots when you don’t have a real camera. Both cameras take horrible photos, and I would expect these advanced phones to have better picture quality by now. The advantage the Q has over the Treo is that it has a small LED (always on when you use it) “flash” and the glass for the lens is flush with the body of the phone. This means that to clear the pocket goo from the camera lens is a whole lot easier with the Q over the Treo. The Treo’s lens is slightly recessed so to clean it good, you have to grab a Q-Tip or wad up part of your shirt. The Q does not have a convex mirror to take your own picture (the Treo does), however I can honestly say I’ve never used this feature. Maybe the kids do…?
- Verizon Broadband: Unfortunately I didn’t test the speed of my Treo before disconnecting it, but previous tests showed speeds ranging from 320 kbit/sec all the way up to 787. The Q downloads considerably faster, giving me 900 to over 1,000 kbit/sec. Again, I can’t test my Treo currently, and those tests were done several months ago on my Treo, so it could just be that Verizon increased their throughput of their broadband service.
- Battery Life: Battery life on my Treo has always been a concern. I even purchased a 2400mAh extended battery to hopefully solve the problem. Sadly, I noticed little impact. The Treo just loves to eat up battery, and that could be simply due to its poor design. The backlit keyboard stays on too long (this cannot be altered), the LED is unnecessary (and you can’t turn it off) to name a few. I am not having nearly the battery consumption issues with the Q, due to its design, although I do plan to upgrade to an extended battery for longer trips. Unfortunately the manufacturers do not yet offer black battery doors for their extended batteries (12/21/06 Seidio confirms they are working on it). One example, in my overnight tests (8 hours) of not using the phone, the Treo would use anywhere from 20-40% battery life. The battery impact with the same test (overnight, 8 hours, polling email hourly) has no noticeable impact on the battery level.
- CPU: The CPU is the same CPU in both devices (Intel XScale PXA272 312 MHz processor) but due to fewer resources to maintain (and I would imagine a stripped OS when you compare it to WM5 Pocket PC edition), the Q phone is a lot faster to respond to your commands.
- Voice Recognition: The Q phone has fewer voice recognition commands than the Treo. Not that I needed them, but the Treo allowed you to ask “What is my battery level” (as if you couldn’t tell by looking at the icon) or “What are my appointments today” (as if you couldn’t tell by looking at the Today screen), or even “What time is it?” (as if you couldn’t tell by looking at your phone). On the Q phone you can still perform voice name and digit dialing and open applications, but it appears to be limited to just those few. Not a show stopper, as the main commands I would want to use are present.
- Memory: The Q has double the usable program memory (25.45 MB vs. 51.62 MB). This is a huge difference. Paramount, in fact!
- Bluetooth: Voice recognition (commands) on the Treo are unsupported. In other words, if you want to press the button on your BT headset and expect the phone to respond with “say a command”, you’re out of luck. It was great to see this supported on the Q, allowing me to press the button on my Motorola HS850 headset and say “Call ____” or “Dial ____”.
Installed applications on both phones
- Skype
- SlingPlayer Mobile
- Space Invaders
- eWallet
- Wireless Sync enabled
Admittedly, the Treo is using more Storage than my Q, probably due to some old apps that never got completely uninstalled, photos, etc. The main point of this section is about Program memory, not Storage memory.
After a “reboot” I have
Treo Storage: Total: 62.95 MB In use: 38.24 MB Free: 24.71 MB
Treo Program: Total: 25.45 MB In use: 13.95 MB Free: 11.50 MB
Q Storage: Total: 52.52 MB Used: 32.38 MB Free: 20.14 MB
Q Program: Total: 51.62 MB Used: 22.46 MB Free: 29.16 MB
So the big difference is the available program memory (25 MB vs. 51 MB). This makes a huge difference when running multiple apps, viewing large web pages, etc. The free RAM for programs (after reboot) is 30MB on the Q compared to the Treo’s 11MB!
Due to the increased program memory on the Q, I can download any web page I want, without having to reset the phone. This was a constant headache with the Treo.
Technology Differences
- The biggest SD card (Treo) currently for the Treo is a 4GB. The biggest MiniSD (Q) card available is 4GB. While this isn’t a huge deal, it just means those who are moving from a Treo to a Q will need to get another card for external storage. While I had a 4GB card for my Treo, I opted to go with a 2GB card for Q as I never filled up the card. Plus, with rebates, I got the 2GB MiniSD card for under thirty bucks.
- My biggest concern was losing the stylus (touch screen). I was going to WANT to press on the screen, but that was not the case. The WM5 OS differences between Smartphone (Q) and Pocket PC (Treo) were significant enough to where the stylus was not necessary. Productivity-wise, I’d rather be able to do everything without the stylus than to have to grab another input device just to complete an action.
Summary
I have the black Q phone (or as I like to call it, the “BlaQ”) and it has a slightly rubberized feel to it. My hope is that helps protect it from scratches, as I’ve seen some really banged up silver Q phones. The case that the Q comes with is a leather flip case with a magnetic cover, but the magnet isn’t very strong so I’m using a similar third-party case that I used for my Treo. On my Treo, I added the invisibleSHIELD and it has done such a great job (I have no scratches on it after a year of use!) so I bought the screen cover (not the full body wrap) for my Q phone. I didn’t like the idea of putting that material on the rubberized skin of the black Q (I may regret not doing this later). See my earlier blog post about the invisibleSHIELD.
For how I use a PDA phone, the Q phone is a far more usable device than the Treo. Unfortunately for me, the Q first became available in May 2006 (5 months after I bought the Treo), otherwise I would have given it some considerable thought. After using both devices in my real world environment, I can’t recommend the Treo to anyone unless they have to be able to edit Word or Excel docs. Unfortunately the Treo’s screen and keyboard are so small, it makes it difficult to really edit on the go.
While the Treo 700wx release is pending through Verizon Wireless (it is already available through Sprint), and fixes the memory problems, the other differences between the two devices is too dramatic to turn back. Prior to owning a Palm Treo my previous phones were all Motorola, so it’s nice to see Motorola is still developing some of the best (usable) phones out there.
After some cleaning, my Treo 700w will be up for sale on eBay. Last I looked, even used, they were getting a few hundred dollars. That should slightly make up for the cost of my “downgrade” to the Q. Anyone want to buy a Treo 700w after this glowing article? :)
I’ve had the Motorola Q for over a week now, and I’m fully convinced it was the right decision to make, so the Treo 700w is up at eBay. If you’d like to purchase my old Treo, it can now be yours through eBay!