treocentral.com >> Stories >> Hardware >> First Look: Treo 700wx for the Sprint Wireless Network

First Impressions

I'm going to address the major issues that people have been discussing first - so this may be a little random. A visit to the Treo 700w and 700wx Forum will give you some more information. You may also want to read our comprehensive review of the Treo 700w for more information about Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Edition.

The 700wx is fast. EvDO is fast. The device itself is very responsive - especially compared to the 700w.

Immediately after a soft reset, I have, on average, 45 mb of Program Memory available. There is the same Storage Memory as the 700w - 64 megs.

There is no threaded SMS or MMS

There are now soft-buttons during a call to activate and de-activate both the mute and the speakerphone - no more menu!

Call quality, reception, bluetooth compatibility, etc. all seem to be on par with the other 700 series Treos.

Yes, it works as a dial-up modem. Windows only (so far as I can tell - it requires software be installed on the desktop), and it works. Works great

Rather than google, the today-screen websearch defaults to msn.

SprintTV not incluced

Update: User Littlepat points me to the fact that the Today Screen has a new preference tab, "Search", which allows you to switch to the Google search option. Odd that it isn't a preference under the Today Plugin option Web Search, but it's there, google or msn.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you: the Treo 700wx rocks. It multitasks like a champ. In the video below you will see me open nearly every program that comes pre-installed on the 700wx and see nary a slow-down. In my own testing I haven't had a single freeze-up. I'm not saying that this version of WM5 is any stabler than previous versions, just that the extra program memory makes a big difference. Pocket Informant, CoPilot, SPBWeather, Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, and more all run together at the same time and run fine. If you need to multitask on a Treo there simply isn't a better option.

Now that the first impressions and my ode-to-memory is out of the way, I have to say I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to continue with. All the standard Window Mobile 5 stuff applies:

movies and music easy to navigate and play, check

Pocket Internet Explorer, check

using Pocket Outlook for (non-threaded) text messaging, check

240x240 screen, check

search contacts by typing immediately in the today screen, check

photo speed dial, check

decent - but not perfect - support for the 5-way pad, check

unable to use voice command over bluetooth, check.

What am I missing? Lots, probably. That's why I'll be periodically responding in this discussion thread with answers to any question posted there. I'll keep the first post updated and in a week or so come back with another full article based on your questions.