Product Description

The Palm Treo 680 replaces the Palm Treo 650 as Cingular’s Palm OS offer. Treo 680 is a quad-band EDGE device with a Cingular-exclusive industrial design, expanded internal memory, Pocket Tunes™ music player. Treo 680 is expected to appeal to small/medium-sized business customers, mobile professionals and “smart communicators” – consumers who are curious about data devices and are looking to step up from traditional voice/feature handsets to integrated data & voice devices with more power and features.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5214 in Cell Phone Accessories
• Color: Silver
• Brand: Palm
• Model: 680
• Released on: 2006-11-24

Features

• Compatible with MS Outlook – Synchronize Contacts/Calendar/Tasks and Notes with the Treo 680
• Compatible with MS Office files -- Documents to Go application supports creating and editing MS Word/Excel files and reviewing MS PowerPoint and Adobe PDF files
• Fast internet browsing using Blazer® Web browser (HTML browsing or MEdia net) optimized for Cingular’s EDGE network
• Pocket Tunes™ music player plays MP3 and WMA music files and streams audio from the Web
• Treo 680 voice roams to over 185 countries and data roams to over 100 countries using GSM/EDGE

Customer Reviews

Palm has lost its way
This phone has many functions, but enough are poorly executed that if I had to choose again, I would get a different smartphone. The title of this review reflects my dismay with design bugs that should be obvious. For example, if you have protected yourself with a logon password, there's no way to get to your contact list when speaking on an incoming call. Instead, you need to hang up, logon, and call back to do this. If you enter a new appointment in your calendar on the phone, it automatically sets an alarm as a default that cannot be shut off. So you need to access the event details and shut off the alarm manually every time. When Palm introduced this phone, it also changed the Bluetooth settings so that some devices don't work on it, and the third-party companies that try to write compatible drivers apparently aren't able to get sufficient information from Palm to accommodate the Bluetooth changes. The best type of external keyboard for this phone, for instance, is not compatible. In the past, Palm offered a full-sized keyboard that was physically connected with the phone and much more responsive than Bluetooth, which seems a step backward into greater and unneeded complexity. With Bluetooth turned on, battery life is short. And Palm's desktop software can surprise you with a feature that automatically deletes most of your old calendar entries. This purge feature cannot be shut off. Then there's the built-in camera, which has such low resolution it's not worth using. The headphone jack is not the same size as you have with usual MP3 players, so you have to buy an adaptor that creates an imperfect and scratchy connection or buy Palm's version of stereo headphones. Finally, with AT&T's implementation, if you want e-mail access, you have to pay twice as much for that data plan with the Treo 680 as you would if you were using a less "smart" phone, like a Motorola Razr. Other than these few complaints, I'm delighted with this phone. When I'm due to upgrade, I'll check out Blackberry and Apple's IPhone and will finally give up on the Palm OS that I've used all these years.

Nice Palm OS Smartphone
I've had mine for about 6 days now. At first the battery drained very rapidly. Then I followed these suggested (by John from Monroe Township) preference settings:

Go to Prefs > Power and:
* Turn "Beam Receive" OFF
* Set "Auto-off after" a 15 seconds
* Set your "Screen Brightness" to a medium setting (3 or 4 clicks under MAX or even less)
* Set "Dim backlight after" to 30 seconds
Other settings:
* Turn Bluetooth OFF if/when you are not using a wireless headset or other BT device
* Go to Prefs > Date & Time > Set "Automatically set" to "Nothing" (this makes a very significant difference in power usage

After making those changes, the battery life is pretty reasonable.

I didn't have any trouble getting it activated (via AT&T) after it was shipped from Amazon.

This is my first smart phone. I had been a happy Palm Z22 user for about 1.5 years. So far, I'm very happy with the Treo 680. My favorite Palm applications are still KeySuite (Outlook sync program) by Chapura and Ultrasoft Money (syncs with MS Money).

Great phone for Palm Fans-buy the extended battery
This phone is excellent in every way EXCEPT for the battery life, which is pretty short. Palm OS5 is pretty stable, and I have absolutely no problems syncing it with my MacBook. Windows users will have it even easier, being able to sync the pocket tunes application with Windows Media. I currently have a 2GB SD card in my Treo, and with TCMP (free download) I can watch itunes videos on my Palm. The organizer/calendar/voice record features are a lifesaver for both business and personal use. Best of all, 90% of the Palm applications out there from years ago will work on the Treo, so anything that you liked on your Palm IIIc you can run on your Treo! 2 things make this phone the quintessential Smart device: A good screen protector (just get a protector, don't waste$ on anti-glare) and the 2400Mah extended battery from Seidio. The one listed on amazon is not the Seidio battery, and no I don't work for them. I went thru a generic extended before searching and finding the 2400mah w/ extended door, and couldn't be happier. 50% brightness settings, phone on for 4 days straight, moderate calling, email sync every 30 min, and bluetooth on 16 hrs/day and the battery lasts. With the OEM I'd get a day, maybe day & a half. Great phone, just get the screen protector & battery.