Palm Treo 500v QWERTY Keyboard 3G mobile phone handset reviews and tariffs

35 Real Customer Reviews - In Summary

+ This mobile phone has no outstanding positive points. - It scores poorly on ease of use. “Light, useful and easy to use. nice design and useful interface & keyboard for…” Ikjoo, St Andrews View all 35 real customer reviews

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Real customer reviews

35 verified purchasers have reviewed this product.
80% of people recommend it.

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All purchasers (35)

Battery life	6.1
Design	7.7
Ease of use	7.0
Features	7.2
Overall rating	7.3

*not all purchasers provided a score or review

paul, daventry

Score 8.0/10

+ good screen, keyboard

- needs a touch screen keyboard like the treo 600, battery life not as good as the treo 600. would have bought another treo 600 if i had known these things previously

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35 of 35 people found this review helpful

purchased 19 Oct 2007

Ikjoo, St Andrews

Score 8.0/10

+ light, useful and easy to use.
Nice design and useful interface & keyboard for call and texts.

- poor battery life for multimedia environment. (have to charge almost everyday)
no touch screen (however, much chipper than other treo) and windows O.S. (not that useful for who familar or used palm O.S.)
Camera (but this is not a professional camera)

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35 of 35 people found this review helpful

purchased 14 Oct 2007

Anonymous verified purchaser

Score 9.0/10

+ Reviewer left no comment

- i worst thing for this phone is the battery life i have to charge it daily

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16 of 16 people found this review helpful

purchased 26 Oct 2007

ola, london

Score 9.0/10

+ Good design,small and compact.

- E MAIL messages being deleted automatically within 24hrs,can anything been done about this.

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14 of 14 people found this review helpful

purchased 07 Nov 2007

Andrew, Tyne and Wear

Score 8.0/10

+ Very versatile phone / pocket PC allows access to all sorts of information. The best features are it's applications, ability to pick up Internet email and Internet web browsing access. The size and keypad layout are good and the camera and sound are good quality. I would recommend this to anyone who needs access to their email and information on the go.

- The keys are quite small but you do get used to using them successfully.

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13 of 13 people found this review helpful

purchased 22 Nov 2007

Anonymous verified purchaser

Score 9.0/10

+ Great design, easy to use. Good sound quality, camera more than adequate on a phone.

- Not a lot wrong with it really but the keyboard can appear a little small at first...it is usable once you are used to it which doesn't take long.

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10 of 10 people found this review helpful

purchased 18 Dec 2007

chris, bury st edmunds

Score 2.0/10

+ large screen

- almost everything else

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9 of 9 people found this review helpful

purchased 19 Oct 2007

lynn, manchester

Score 10.0/10

+ the phone is small and compact and it does exactly what it says on the box

- there is no bad points about this phone

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8 of 8 people found this review helpful

purchased 15 Jan 2008

Syd, Harwich

Score 9.0/10

+ Big enough not to lose

- Battery life is rathe short

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7 of 7 people found this review helpful

purchased 20 Dec 2007

Anonymous verified purchaser

Score 8.0/10

+ it works

- It takes a lot to learn

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6 of 6 people found this review helpful

purchased 03 Dec 2007

andrew, prudhoe

Score 2.0/10

+ it looks good and has a great battery life.

- drops signal a lot, not very user freindly, key pad not that easy to switch between numbers and letters

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6 of 6 people found this review helpful

purchased 19 Dec 2007

Anonymous verified purchaser

Score 7.0/10

+ Reviewer left no comment

- After having two of these phones and both going down with same fault (The screen just suddenly goes blank without any warning) I personnally wouldn't recommend getting one.

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6 of 6 people found this review helpful

purchased 07 Jan 2008

rachel, bolton

Score 7.0/10

+ email, internet and features

- battery life. I have to charge my phone daily

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6 of 6 people found this review helpful

purchased 22 Jan 2008

Mycroft, Hampshire

Score 8.0/10

+ Nice size for a smartphone and looks good.

- Call volume can be little low.

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6 of 6 people found this review helpful

purchased 24 Jan 2008

Anonymous verified purchaser

Score 9.0/10

+ Looks fantastic, is easy to use, QWERTY keyboard makes text messaging easy. Battery lasts forever, music and videos are of good quality, screen resolution is fantastic.

- screen is easy to scratch, not many choices of colours for background.

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5 of 5 people found this review helpful

purchased 07 Feb 2008

Carol, Gosberton Westhorpe

Score 8.0/10

+ The best thing about the Palm Treo 500v is being able to sit in my motorhome on top of a remote Scottish mountain while browsing the internet on my laptop using the Treo as a modem!

- The battery life is the only thing that lets it down.

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5 of 5 people found this review helpful

purchased 03 Feb 2008

Anonymous verified purchaser

Score 8.0/10

+ This is a good entry level smartphone which gives you a chance to try out Windows Mobile. You would still need to be pretty computer literate though to use it easily. The low cost of it has made it it a worthwhile switch for me. Being able to synchronise my PC with it is a revalation and I can't wait to add in an extra data card and be able to review documents on it. Downloading webmail was straightforward to set up.

- The synchronisation with my PC on Vista was very hard work to get sorted out. I had to download an upgrade of Windows Mobile before it worked and spent hours on the internet finding out what the fix was as none of the technical help available (without paying a fortune) could help me. I do find the navigation a little laborious. This may be that I am still getting used to the phone. Necessarily with so many functions it is more complicated than a standard mobile phone.

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5 of 5 people found this review helpful

purchased 26 Feb 2008

Sandra, Southend , “retired housewife”

Score 7.0/10

+ Reviewer left no comment

- Instruction manual is not user friendly for first time users. A fools guide to using the phone would be good for new users to this type of phone then advance to the manual.

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4 of 4 people found this review helpful

purchased 24 Apr 2008

Michael, London

Score 4.0/10

+ Reviewer left no comment

- Not sure why Palm teamed up with Microsoft for this product. Palm software is much more intuitive and user-friendly, so this model feels like going backwards. I am amazed that you can't do simple things like copy and paste text with the software. I suppose it's my fault for selecting a "Smartphone" rather than a PDA. But there is nothing smart about the phone - you'll be much more productive with a touch screen PDA.

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3 of 3 people found this review helpful

purchased 06 Feb 2008

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Expert reviews for Palm Treo 500v

PC Advisor expert review - by Rosemary Haworth

The Palm Treo 500 is the first of the Treo smartphones that breaks with tradition in terms of the PDA handset design.

This Palm Treo 500v review continued on PC Advisor

reviewed 29 Feb 2008

PC Advisor expert review - by Rosemary Haworth

The Palm Treo 500v is a real departure for Palm. Itﾒs not the first handset it has launched that runs on Windows Mobile rather than the PalmOS, but the handset itself has been radically redesigned.

This Palm Treo 500v review continued on PC Advisor

reviewed 02 Oct 2007

Product Features

3G	Yes
3G allows mobile phones and mobile dongles to achieve broadband speeds similar to that of home broadband. This allows users to browse the internet, email and download files and video whilst on the move.
Touchscreen	No
Touchscreen technology allows you to move and click things directly on the screen using your finger or a stylus pen.
Type	QWERTY Keyboard

Band	Tri
Different frequency bands are used in different countries. Most phones can be used across Europe as they are Tri Band. You will need a quad band phone if you plan to travel to the USA.
EDGE	No
A precursor to 3G, this technolgy allows improved data transfer rates allowing features such as video streaming. Read more about EDGE on Wikipedia
WiFi	No
Wifi allows you to connect your device to wireless routers or modems which allows you to connect to broadband internet.
Camera Resolution in MegaPixels	2
The amount of data that can be captured when taking a photograph or video. A larger number represents a higher quality image, though this is also affected by other factors such as the lens size and quality.
Screen Resolution (pixels)	320x240
The number of pixels the screen has. The more you have, the more detail the screen can display, given a high quality source. A breakdown of resolutions can be found on Wikipedia here
Bluetooth	Yes
Bluetooth is a technology for the wireless transfer of data such as contacts, photos and music between mobile phones, computers and a host of other Bluetooth enabled devices. Read more about Bluetooth on Wikipedia
XHTML Browser	Yes
XHTML stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language. XHTML enabled phones are able to browse most internet content.
WAP	Yes
Simple Web browser
FM Tuner	No
An FM Tuner allows you to listen to FM radio stations on the move. You can see a list of FM radio stations at Ofcom:“http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/rau/radio-stations/analogue/analogue-main.htm”.
Email Functionality	Yes
SatNav	No
Satnav is short for ‘Satellite Navigation’. Satellite navigation allows you to see where you are travelling on a map and plan a route to your destination.
MP3 ATRAC Playback	Yes
MP3 playback capability
Operating System	Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard
Software on which the device runs
Memory Card Slot	Yes
Having a memory card slot allows you to save data to a memory card and then transfer it to another device. For example you may put a photo from your camera or mobile phone onto a memory card and then plug it into your printer to print directly. Memory card slots come in many formats: Compact Flash Card Memory Stick Duo Micro SD Card MMC SD Card SDHC Card
Weight (g)	120
The weight of the product in grams.
Talk Time (hours)	4.5
Talk time dictates how long your phone’s battery will last if you were to talk continuously on it from a full charge.
Standby Time (hours)	240
Standby Time dictates how long your phone would last if left on standby, ready to receive calls, but with nothing else being done to it.
HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access)	No
USB Port	Yes
Socket for connecting devices such as a computers and other components
Video Recorder	Yes
Video recording functionality allows the capture of videos in mpeg or avi format which is great if you want to capture a whole scene, not just one moment.
Instant Messaging	Yes
Instant Messaging allows you to communicate in real-time with friends from your phone using services such as MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, GTalk, ICQ or AIM. If you have a good data plan it’s a great way to stay in touch with your friends and save money.
Built-in Camera	Yes
Some GPS products come with a built in digital camera that allows you to photograph the place you are at and then add it to your map. Next time you wish to visit that place you just tap the image and the Satellite Navigation system plots a route. This is great if you don’t want to have to remember street names.
Dimensions (mm)	110x61.5x16.5
The size of the device in millimetres, in width x height x depth.
Java	Yes
A software platform allowing 3rd party applications such as games to be loaded. Read more about Java on Wikipedia
Games	Yes
This is an indication of whether or not the phone has video games installed to play such as Snake or Sudoku.
HTML Browser	Yes
An HTML enabled phone will be able to browse the internet as if it were a normal PC. The exception to this is that it will not be able to show Flash-based content. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language.
Phone book capacity (names)	Practically unlimited
A phone’s phone book capacity indicates how many contact details it can store. Many modern phones come with optional memory cards that can be used to store extra contacts. A contact file is generally small and so ‘Practically Unlimited’ is often given because you would have to have thousands of people in your address book to fill it up.
Colour	Silver
The main colour of the product.

Also known as: Palm Treo 500, Palm 500v

Mobile Phone Buyers Guide

Manufacturer's Description

Say what you really mean. It’s a Palm thing.

Speak clearly. The new Palm® Treo™ 500v smartphone lets you say what you want, how you want with phone, messaging, IM, email, and web in one simple device.1 No more code words or misunderstandings thanks to a full keyboard and a big, bright screen. So you can chat with a quick IM. Browse the web or check your email. Organise your time and tasks. Play music, take pictures, and shoot video. Even work (if you have to). Stay in touch, simply, with the new Palm Treo 500v smartphones.