CrackBerry Kevin's start with the Treo 680 was a slow one since the phone he was sent didn't like his Rogers SIM card. But Kevin managed very well and made up for lost time, writing up a great first impressions article.

Kevin's time with the 680 has come to an end and he's now written up his final thoughts.

I’m happy to say we’ll be parting company as well-acquainted friends. As soon as I’m finished writing this article, I’ll yank the SIM card and put it into the iPhone that’s sitting beside me in a UPS box... that should be fun!

Although Kevin did manage to get through another week without his main Blackberry device, he struggled with the Treo's email abilities and missed his BlackBerry Messenger, making him feel lost and cutoff from his world. It's nice to know that our TreoCentral forum members stepped in and helped Kevin out with plenty of 3rd party app suggestions. Kevin said that by installing a whack load of 3rd party apps, he got the 680 doing everything a BlackBerry could do and even a bit more.

Kevin talks about how he tried to use the 680 one-handed. He attempted to operate the device with his right hand only for a couple of days.

For the first couple of days I tried to operate the phone with just my right hand (as I would my BlackBerry Curve). In terms of length and width the 680 is a small device (thickness is another story), so one-handed operation seems like it should be the given norm. But the Treo’s touchscreen sort of complicated matters for me. I often found I could not easily get to where I wanted to go on the display with the navigation buttons (too much clicking required) and trying to use my right thumb on the touchscreen produced less than accurate taps. As a result, this forced me to swap the phone to my left hand so I could peck at the screen with my right index finger or stylus before swapping back to my right hand for continued use. It was a bit of a juggling act.

He seemed to have better luck holding the 680 in his left hand and using his right hand’s index finger on both the touchscreen and navigation buttons.

Kevin listed the 3rd party apps that he downloaded to the Treo 680 to help make his life without a BlackBerry much easier.

Head on over and read Kevin's excellent final thoughts and visit a spell with the great folks over at CrackBery.com.

And be sure to discuss Kevin's article here for more chances to enter the Round Robin contest.