When the Palm Treo 680 was first announced, I wondered about how reception would be with the internal antenna. Back when I had a Sony Clie UX50, I found that the WiFi wasn't as good as my husband's Dell Axim X30 which had the external antenna. Even though that past experience was dealing with WiFi reception, not phone reception, I still had to wonder about the reception quality in the Treo 680 compared to the Treo 650. One might have thought that the internal antenna would cause the Treo 680 to get poorer reception than the previous Treos that have the external antenna. Now we know differently though thanks to Broadcom's M-Stream technology.

The Palm Treo 680 has a internal quad-band (850/900/1800/1900) antenna that is said to feature improved TIS/TRP performance and better RF reception than the Treo 650. Ed Colligan mentioned during the Digital Life Conference in NYC that the Treo 680 gets better reception that the 650.

Broadcom Corporation has announced that the new Palm Treo 680 is the first commercial cell phone to use M-Stream technology from Broadcom. M-Stream is a new mobile phone technology that provides significant quality and capacity improvements for 2G and 3G cellular networks without the need for an upgrade or modifications to an existing network infrastructure. After extensive testing, handsets equipped with Broadcom's M-Stream technology demonstrated improved voice quality in weak and noisy signal conditions where call quality was typically poor. M-Stream technology applies advanced error correction algorithms to incoming voice streams, and reconstructs lost information to restore reception quality.

The Palm Treo 680 is the third Treo model to integrate Broadcom's baseband processors and industry-leading Bluetooth solution, and now added M-Stream technology to deliver enhanced user experience through higher voice quality and larger coverage area.

"The availability of a commercial handset featuring M-Stream technology is a significant milestone that establishes Broadcom as a leading innovator in the mobile communications market," said Ketan Kamdar, Vice President of Strategic Planning and Network Operators in Broadcom's Mobile Platforms Group.

"We're gratified that Palm selected Broadcom's silicon solutions and M-Stream technology to deliver a cost effective smartphone to carriers worldwide to deliver an improved customer calling experience."

So, this is great news for people who are looking to buy the Treo 680. I think the entry-level consumers who buy this phone will be getting in at the right time. I look forward to getting a Treo 680 myself, especially now that I know that the call quality and reception is going to be so great. Now I won't be second guessing that internal antenna either.