2. A Treo Reinvention?

Whatever you might say about the Treo 650, the device doesn't want for power, and packs features comparable to any PDA, handset, smart phone or whatever-you-want-to-call-it that is on the market.

The device's CPU is Intel's 312-MHz XScale PXA270, which offers more than enough processing horsepower for the Treo 650's main functions, such as email connectivity, Web browsing and voice applications. Comparatively, the Treo 650's predecessor, the Treo 600, had a144-MHz ARM processor.

The Memory Squeeze

The Treo 650's total memory is 32 MB, with 21 MB of RAM and 8 MB ROM. However, the Treo 650 uses flash memory, while the Treo 600 has 32 MB of dynamic RAM and offers more available memory than the Treo 650 (24 MB of available memory versus the Treo 650's 21 MB of available memory). To compensate, PalmOne now offers a free 128 MB secure digital memory card when you buy the device.

However, memory capacity still remains one of the downsides with this device. While the lack of memory capacity did not noticeably affect performance in our test of applications like checking email or Web page browsing, occasionally a performance slowdown was felt during more intensive applications. The images and action sometimes locked and froze during Zap!2016 game play, for example. This was likely due to memory issues, although a momentary software glitch could have triggered the problem as well.

To remedy the memory issues, Sprint offered an upgrade for its Treo 650 subscribers in March that the company says optimizes memory handling and frees up more memory through non-volatile file system improvements.