Friday, April 14, 2006
Palm's Treo 700w Reviewed: Part 2 (Software, Performance, Conclusions)
Posted by Janak Parekh in "HARDWARE" @ 06:00 AM
Note: this is a continuation of part one. If you haven't read that, you may want to check it out first. Also, if you have comments, please post them in the part one discussion thread.
WM5, Palm-style
Palm's decision to customize various aspects of the WM5 OS has been one of the hot topics of discussion about this device, and I have to say, I really like most of the changes. Most of them are geared towards making the Palm a better phone solution, something that's lacking in most of the HTC Pocket PC Phones today. I'll briefly ("briefly" :lol:) touch upon the major changes in this incarnation of the WM5 OS.
Figure 30: The default Today screen configuration.
Here's the Today screen you get when you first turn on the device (well, without the 22 emails in my mailbox or my speed dial entry. :P) This is when the 240x240 resolution first hits home and you realize that there's barely enough space for more speed dial entries or other Today plugins. 8O
Figure 31: Inbox at the default font size. Another great example of the 240x240 screen and how the default font size makes it near-useless.
There's a simple workaround: go into the Screen Control Panel applet and notch the font size down one notch. The result is much better and perfectly readable. (You can actually notch it down two positions, but I found the smallest position to be a bit uncomfortable when reading in casual settings.)
Figure 32: Inbox at the smaller font size. Better.
Figure 33: The default Today screen configuration, at the smaller font size. Finally, a little space to work with here.
Now, let's go through the Today screen items, one-by-one. On the Start bar there's the usual complement of icons, with one addition: a battery. This isn't the lame two-piece AKU2 battery indicator, but rather a custom high-resolution battery indicator. There's also the nice little thunderbolt to remind you when it's charging.
Palm also uses different network connection icons than HTC when you're connected via the cellular network. As shown in figure 34, there's several different types of icons when you're connected to a network.
Figure 34: Status icons when you're connected to an EVDO network. From left to right: EV is available but there is no current network connection; an EVDO network connection has been established but is idle/suspended; an EVDO network connection has been established and is active. There are corresponding 1X icons when you're connected to a 1x network.
These are significantly different from HTC's/WM5's default icons, and I have to say, I prefer the Palm icons more; the arrows are longer, making it easier to differentiate active and idle connections. I'll describe the network connection's behavior in greater detail towards the end of this review.
Next, there's the ERI (enhanced roaming indicator; it shows I'm on Verizon, but in case I'd roam onto Sprint, that should change), followed by the GPS indicator and the Bluetooth indicator. (Note that's not real GPS, but rather tower triangulation-based GPS.) Incidentally, that Bluetooth indicator's all you have - there's no irritating flashing blue light on this device! :clap: When Bluetooth is enabled, that grey BT logo turns to a blue BT logo. Simple and effective.
Smart dial and speed dial
Below the ERI is the smart dial (my terminology) lookup field. This is the heart of the Treo phone operation. Yes, you heard me right: you do most of your phone operations right from the Today screen. You also cannot remove the ERI or the lookup field from the Today Control Panel applet, although you can "hide" the lookup field, which is almost equivalent; I haven't found a way to hide the ERI, although I don't mind it there. To start dialing, you just start typing. You do not need to focus on the field (and, if the field is hidden, you of course cannot focus on it). If you start typing a name, it starts to drop down a matching dialog; if you start typing a number, it usually guesses correctly and just fills the field with a number.
Figure 35: Dialing my name.
Once you've typed several characters, you can either continue typing or you can start scrolling. If you press Send or the d-pad action button while a number is selected, it will dial that number. If you want to go to the contact record, just highlight the name with the contact card icon and hit the d-pad action button. Simple!
(Incidentally, I've heard that if you get a SMS, email, or phone call, the WM5 "toast notification" appears and the list disappears. Some people don't like this, but it makes sense from my perspective.)
Figure 36: Dialing a number.
Now, I'm sure some of you are thinking, "but wait, Janak! What happens if you need to dial a name that's defined by keys on the number pad?" In general, the Treo handles this correctly; it prefers to match a name until you dial a combination that no longer matches any entries, then automatically switches to numbers. If you are the special person who has 8,000 contacts and can't dial a number from the Today screen, there's a dedicated numeric dial pad (see figure 40).
When you've selected the entry you want, and hit the d-pad action or Send, you get the dialing window, which has also been customized by Palm.
Figure 37: Calling someone (or voicemail).
While on this screen, you can do several things. First, if you're in voicemail, you get little VCR-style controls to control your voicemail via the d-pad and action button. As you'll see in a second, these aren't very fancy: they're just preprogrammed to press the right number in the Verizon voicemail menu system. However, that's just enough; I find these very convenient. If you're a Verizon phone god and want to use the numbers on the thumbboard, you can also do that. (Yes, number dialing in-call for phone menus works just fine.)
There's also a little down arrow there, which implies you can press the down d-pad button. Doing so brings you right back to the Today screen.
Figure 38: Today screen while in a call.
This is really nicely done: the focus changes to the item below the dialing status, which is the first speed dial. To get back to the status screen, simply hit the up button, and you're back. No stylus needed, of course. :)
If you need to redial a number, that's also easy to one-hand: press Send on the Today screen, and a most-recently-called list pops up.
Figure 39: Redial list.
There's also the Dial Pad and Call Log options there, so if you actually need the dial pad for a reason, you can easily summon it. Note that, as figure 40 shows, this is not the usual Pocket PC Phone Edition dialpad; it's a smaller, much more simplified version to fit to the 240x240 screen. It's also not nearly used as much. In fact, I think I may have used it once so far in two months. (To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to summon the traditional Phone applet on the 700w.)
Figure 40: Dial Pad.
Figure 41: The right soft menu on the Today screen.
Figure 42: Preferences menu under the Today screen menu; here's the "Hide Lookup Field" you can use if you want to save screen space.
Finally, there's the Palm Speed Dial. Like the Dial Pad, this is significantly different from the default Phone Edition implementation of speed dial. Speed Dial is configured, by default, under the ERI and smart dial components, but unlike the ERI, you can turn this one off - it's a standard Today plugin.
Figure 43: The Today screen applet on a stock 700w configuration. There are other options below Web Search, but they're standard WM5 fare and are turned off by default.
You can also navigate the speed dial via the d-pad, by tapping on the buttons or by pressing and holding the letter corresponding to an entry. To edit the speed dial, you navigate to the option(s) listed in figure 41.
Figure 44: Speed dial options.
Figure 45: Creating a new speed dial entry.
Interestingly, on the Palm implementation, the speed dial does not have to correspond to a Contact entry. It can, and that's what the link there is for, but for instance, the Palm ships with a "411 Connect" speed dial that isn't in your Contacts. Additionally, the Quick Key field in figure 45 does not have to be a number; you can use almost any letter as well.
Figure 46: Advanced tab of speed dial.
A few more things about speed dial: you can specify extra digits, for example, if you want to automate your voicemail's password. It's interesting to note that the pause does not seem to work in a regular Contact on the Palm, unlike my previous Pocket PC Phones and Smartphones (in which you could use a P for pause, if I remember correctly) -- only the speed dial seems to support it, unless I've missed an undocumented option on how to get it to work. Additionally, there's an option for "voice mail buttons". Yes, you can turn on those little VCR buttons for virtually any speed dial you want. In theory, you could use this for other voicemail systems, although I've never done so.
Lastly, you can also tap-and-hold on a speed dial entry on the Today screen, which gives you a quick menu of options.
Figure 47: Speed dial tap-and-hold.
And that's the smart dial and speed dial features in a nutshell. I really like this feature. It's a cinch to hit Power, d-pad action (to unlock), and to simply start dialing right there. If you're in an application, hit Send to get to the today screen, and then start dialing. I think this is a great example of the work Palm has done, and would like to see this in other devices (or integrated into the WM Phone Edition; I don't know how the licensing works in this regard).
The Today screen search box and other Today miscellany
There's one last Palm customization on the Today screen: the Google search box. Yes, you heard that right. Palm has included a Google search box on the Today screen of a Windows Mobile device. It's great to see Palm has that kind of OEM flexibility, and even though it's utterly simple (it launches PIE and starts the Google search, and that's literally it), it's surprisingly useful. A few less keystrokes, combined with EVDO speed, makes the 700w a great trivia finder during dinner or in a bar, or if you need to look something up quickly while walking down the street. ;)
Incidentally, there is a freeware solution if you want something identical on your non-Palm device. I still find it interesting that Google is featured out of the box on a WM device, though.
Finally, I have one frustration about the Palm customizations on the Today screen. Usually, in WM5, when you get a notification you don't address, the left soft menu turns into "Notification", and just pressing it will immediately show the notification that you didn't dismiss or delete. On the 700w, though, due to the customized menu structure, you get the following instead:
Figure 48: Left soft menu is awkward with a notification.
As far as I can tell, this is Palm-specific, and drives me nuts. That one press is a 50% increase in the number of keys you have to press to dismiss a notification in this new setup. I actually find it easier to d-pad down to the "Text Messages: 1 Unread" line and press the action button instead. It's a little thing, I know, but since Palm paid great attention to the little things on their Today screen implementation to speed common operations, I'm surprised this quirk exists here.
Okay, enough about the Today screen. On to other Palm WM5 customizations and Verizon's additions.
WM5, Palm-style
Palm's decision to customize various aspects of the WM5 OS has been one of the hot topics of discussion about this device, and I have to say, I really like most of the changes. Most of them are geared towards making the Palm a better phone solution, something that's lacking in most of the HTC Pocket PC Phones today. I'll briefly ("briefly" :lol:) touch upon the major changes in this incarnation of the WM5 OS.
Figure 30: The default Today screen configuration.
Here's the Today screen you get when you first turn on the device (well, without the 22 emails in my mailbox or my speed dial entry. :P) This is when the 240x240 resolution first hits home and you realize that there's barely enough space for more speed dial entries or other Today plugins. 8O
Figure 31: Inbox at the default font size. Another great example of the 240x240 screen and how the default font size makes it near-useless.
There's a simple workaround: go into the Screen Control Panel applet and notch the font size down one notch. The result is much better and perfectly readable. (You can actually notch it down two positions, but I found the smallest position to be a bit uncomfortable when reading in casual settings.)
Figure 32: Inbox at the smaller font size. Better.
Figure 33: The default Today screen configuration, at the smaller font size. Finally, a little space to work with here.
Now, let's go through the Today screen items, one-by-one. On the Start bar there's the usual complement of icons, with one addition: a battery. This isn't the lame two-piece AKU2 battery indicator, but rather a custom high-resolution battery indicator. There's also the nice little thunderbolt to remind you when it's charging.
Palm also uses different network connection icons than HTC when you're connected via the cellular network. As shown in figure 34, there's several different types of icons when you're connected to a network.
Figure 34: Status icons when you're connected to an EVDO network. From left to right: EV is available but there is no current network connection; an EVDO network connection has been established but is idle/suspended; an EVDO network connection has been established and is active. There are corresponding 1X icons when you're connected to a 1x network.
These are significantly different from HTC's/WM5's default icons, and I have to say, I prefer the Palm icons more; the arrows are longer, making it easier to differentiate active and idle connections. I'll describe the network connection's behavior in greater detail towards the end of this review.
Next, there's the ERI (enhanced roaming indicator; it shows I'm on Verizon, but in case I'd roam onto Sprint, that should change), followed by the GPS indicator and the Bluetooth indicator. (Note that's not real GPS, but rather tower triangulation-based GPS.) Incidentally, that Bluetooth indicator's all you have - there's no irritating flashing blue light on this device! :clap: When Bluetooth is enabled, that grey BT logo turns to a blue BT logo. Simple and effective.
Smart dial and speed dial
Below the ERI is the smart dial (my terminology) lookup field. This is the heart of the Treo phone operation. Yes, you heard me right: you do most of your phone operations right from the Today screen. You also cannot remove the ERI or the lookup field from the Today Control Panel applet, although you can "hide" the lookup field, which is almost equivalent; I haven't found a way to hide the ERI, although I don't mind it there. To start dialing, you just start typing. You do not need to focus on the field (and, if the field is hidden, you of course cannot focus on it). If you start typing a name, it starts to drop down a matching dialog; if you start typing a number, it usually guesses correctly and just fills the field with a number.
Figure 35: Dialing my name.
Once you've typed several characters, you can either continue typing or you can start scrolling. If you press Send or the d-pad action button while a number is selected, it will dial that number. If you want to go to the contact record, just highlight the name with the contact card icon and hit the d-pad action button. Simple!
(Incidentally, I've heard that if you get a SMS, email, or phone call, the WM5 "toast notification" appears and the list disappears. Some people don't like this, but it makes sense from my perspective.)
Figure 36: Dialing a number.
Now, I'm sure some of you are thinking, "but wait, Janak! What happens if you need to dial a name that's defined by keys on the number pad?" In general, the Treo handles this correctly; it prefers to match a name until you dial a combination that no longer matches any entries, then automatically switches to numbers. If you are the special person who has 8,000 contacts and can't dial a number from the Today screen, there's a dedicated numeric dial pad (see figure 40).
When you've selected the entry you want, and hit the d-pad action or Send, you get the dialing window, which has also been customized by Palm.
Figure 37: Calling someone (or voicemail).
While on this screen, you can do several things. First, if you're in voicemail, you get little VCR-style controls to control your voicemail via the d-pad and action button. As you'll see in a second, these aren't very fancy: they're just preprogrammed to press the right number in the Verizon voicemail menu system. However, that's just enough; I find these very convenient. If you're a Verizon phone god and want to use the numbers on the thumbboard, you can also do that. (Yes, number dialing in-call for phone menus works just fine.)
There's also a little down arrow there, which implies you can press the down d-pad button. Doing so brings you right back to the Today screen.
Figure 38: Today screen while in a call.
This is really nicely done: the focus changes to the item below the dialing status, which is the first speed dial. To get back to the status screen, simply hit the up button, and you're back. No stylus needed, of course. :)
If you need to redial a number, that's also easy to one-hand: press Send on the Today screen, and a most-recently-called list pops up.
Figure 39: Redial list.
There's also the Dial Pad and Call Log options there, so if you actually need the dial pad for a reason, you can easily summon it. Note that, as figure 40 shows, this is not the usual Pocket PC Phone Edition dialpad; it's a smaller, much more simplified version to fit to the 240x240 screen. It's also not nearly used as much. In fact, I think I may have used it once so far in two months. (To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to summon the traditional Phone applet on the 700w.)
Figure 40: Dial Pad.
Figure 41: The right soft menu on the Today screen.
Figure 42: Preferences menu under the Today screen menu; here's the "Hide Lookup Field" you can use if you want to save screen space.
Finally, there's the Palm Speed Dial. Like the Dial Pad, this is significantly different from the default Phone Edition implementation of speed dial. Speed Dial is configured, by default, under the ERI and smart dial components, but unlike the ERI, you can turn this one off - it's a standard Today plugin.
Figure 43: The Today screen applet on a stock 700w configuration. There are other options below Web Search, but they're standard WM5 fare and are turned off by default.
You can also navigate the speed dial via the d-pad, by tapping on the buttons or by pressing and holding the letter corresponding to an entry. To edit the speed dial, you navigate to the option(s) listed in figure 41.
Figure 44: Speed dial options.
Figure 45: Creating a new speed dial entry.
Interestingly, on the Palm implementation, the speed dial does not have to correspond to a Contact entry. It can, and that's what the link there is for, but for instance, the Palm ships with a "411 Connect" speed dial that isn't in your Contacts. Additionally, the Quick Key field in figure 45 does not have to be a number; you can use almost any letter as well.
Figure 46: Advanced tab of speed dial.
A few more things about speed dial: you can specify extra digits, for example, if you want to automate your voicemail's password. It's interesting to note that the pause does not seem to work in a regular Contact on the Palm, unlike my previous Pocket PC Phones and Smartphones (in which you could use a P for pause, if I remember correctly) -- only the speed dial seems to support it, unless I've missed an undocumented option on how to get it to work. Additionally, there's an option for "voice mail buttons". Yes, you can turn on those little VCR buttons for virtually any speed dial you want. In theory, you could use this for other voicemail systems, although I've never done so.
Lastly, you can also tap-and-hold on a speed dial entry on the Today screen, which gives you a quick menu of options.
Figure 47: Speed dial tap-and-hold.
And that's the smart dial and speed dial features in a nutshell. I really like this feature. It's a cinch to hit Power, d-pad action (to unlock), and to simply start dialing right there. If you're in an application, hit Send to get to the today screen, and then start dialing. I think this is a great example of the work Palm has done, and would like to see this in other devices (or integrated into the WM Phone Edition; I don't know how the licensing works in this regard).
The Today screen search box and other Today miscellany
There's one last Palm customization on the Today screen: the Google search box. Yes, you heard that right. Palm has included a Google search box on the Today screen of a Windows Mobile device. It's great to see Palm has that kind of OEM flexibility, and even though it's utterly simple (it launches PIE and starts the Google search, and that's literally it), it's surprisingly useful. A few less keystrokes, combined with EVDO speed, makes the 700w a great trivia finder during dinner or in a bar, or if you need to look something up quickly while walking down the street. ;)
Incidentally, there is a freeware solution if you want something identical on your non-Palm device. I still find it interesting that Google is featured out of the box on a WM device, though.
Finally, I have one frustration about the Palm customizations on the Today screen. Usually, in WM5, when you get a notification you don't address, the left soft menu turns into "Notification", and just pressing it will immediately show the notification that you didn't dismiss or delete. On the 700w, though, due to the customized menu structure, you get the following instead:
Figure 48: Left soft menu is awkward with a notification.
As far as I can tell, this is Palm-specific, and drives me nuts. That one press is a 50% increase in the number of keys you have to press to dismiss a notification in this new setup. I actually find it easier to d-pad down to the "Text Messages: 1 Unread" line and press the action button instead. It's a little thing, I know, but since Palm paid great attention to the little things on their Today screen implementation to speed common operations, I'm surprised this quirk exists here.
Okay, enough about the Today screen. On to other Palm WM5 customizations and Verizon's additions.
