About two months ago, Donna Dubinsky CEO Handspring announced that the company has until June plans to release a device that will not belong to the family of handheld Visor, but its design will be borrowed from a smartphone in a series of Treo. However, the novelty, contrary to the company, in which she promised to reorient production to production of smartphones, is a conventional PDA. Continuous conflicts have generated a lot of debate around the future of devices that are not abated until the news release. It turns out, not in vain strove - PDA deserve such attention.
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Dubinsky as the water looked (or rather, in the roadmap:) when talking about a new PDA. The product acts as a kind of middle way between a series of Visor'ov representing conventional handhelds, and a series of Treo, which includes communicators. Treo 90 does not have the communications part of the smartphone, but it has a keyboard and color screen, as well as more than an attractive price. Thus, the new handheld has become a very strong competitor in the niche of low-cost PDAs with a color screen and an expansion slot. But is it still good? You wonder how much brand attributes of Palm handheld computers donated Handspring. In her new child is not accustomed to "palm" of handwriting graffiti, and no slot Springboard, specific to the products of this company. A screen is framed by a black frame, which also had never met in the design and handheld communicators. In general, it came out really kind of strange, nothing on a similar device - an intermediate in the evolution of PDAs to smartphones.
Appearance and ergonomics
Speaking of the Treo 90, first like to mention ergonomics and light weight thereof. Its easy to carry and convenient to use, that is not normally characteristic of a large keypad and handheld communicators. A major contribution to comfort when dealing with this palm makes a keyboard. Of course, the fans draw curlicues shaman with me agree. But in fact, typing using a keyboard is a lot less mistakes, and even a novice to learn graffiti is clearly more complicated than learning how to use already familiar keyboard. By the same brush when typing long texts on the keyboard a lot less tired than when you work with a stylus. Only now there are no miracles, and Handspring still had to make concessions in order to reduce the size of the manipulator.
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Thus, the keys were quite small, and usually an adult is not so easy to type texts accurately. Not all the buttons fit on a small base, so some of them have several functions, but it's not as convenient as we would like. The choice of an alternative function of a key occurs by simple manipulation of the pop-up window on the screen. As a result, the owner of the PDA with 34 keys is able to use 200 characters. In addition, the keyboard is located on the site of graffiti, and therefore performs and functions conferred upon the crippled application buttons that were there once. In general, if you do not pay attention to some minor shortcomings, ergonomics Treo 90 can accept very high. But for all the comforts of the keyboard it has one big disadvantage - the relative complexity of localization. That would not just crack to write - and then there's the keyboard driver is needed, and engraving or a sticker still one set of characters required. So, for Russia, this handheld will have to finish.
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Design innovations are also very good. PDA is made of black plastic, which adds the device reliability. All parts are made in a style that can not help but reflect on the positive side on the exterior as a whole. As I said above, the device is quite small (10.8x7.1x1.6sm) and lightweight (only 114 g). Overall design Treo 90 has turned out pretty strict, stylish and ergonomic.
The Hardware and Screen
No matter how good ergonomics and design new products, without adequate performance and a nice screen it is not a nothing. Although the terms Treo 90, everything here at a level due to Dragonball VZ 33MHz processor and 16MB of RAM. Of course, today it's not the height of perfection, but good to get the configuration to perform everyday tasks. Most palmovyh handhelds and that do not have a more powerful processor for the absolute majority of applications are required. It is gratifying that Handspring did not follow the example of Palm Inc. and did not skimp on memory. This Treo 90 compares favorably with Palm m130 c 8 MB of memory.
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But the screen does not shine "tricked out", rather the opposite - if the resolution remains the standard (160x160), then color impoverished. Now it's only 12-bit against 16 competitors. That is, for the Treo 90 is available about 4000 colors instead of already familiar 65000. But little did this? 12 bits is enough to read books with simple illustrations and the game in most of today's entertainment, but that when viewing photos problem starts. Therefore, looking at the CCP complex graphics or pictures are unlikely to be pleased. But fans will be sure to check out on the road from the screen in delight as the colors that should show the Treo 90, he shows remarkable - there are no distortions or turbidity. Everything clearly. There is another minus the screen. Out on the street during the day, you will immediately feel all the "charms" of his work in bright light. However, this "disease" suffered by most PDAs with color screens. With regard to the size of the screen in the Treo 90 bit smaller than usual. But I'm not inclined to consider this as a weak - after all pixels have not gone away. They just become a little smaller and closer to each other, making izobrzhenie clearer. Incidentally, the display Treo 90 is almost the most striking among palmovyh handhelds. The same Palm m515 and Sony T615C, known for their high brightness, much lower than this index novelty from Handspring. If you compare the screens Treo 90 and Palm m130, major competitors in the niche of inexpensive color PDA, it is worth noting that they are very similar, but the Treo screen 90 is slightly larger. Both the screen a blue tint, but Treo 90, he expressed to a lesser extent. At the same time, the Palm m130 screen capable of displaying all 65000 colors, you will not tell his congregation at the Treo 90. In general, it is very difficult to say which of these screens is better - it all depends on the tasks that are scheduled to perform at the CCP. Handspring for their offspring expansion slot chosen card slot standard, Secure Digital / MultiMediaCard. This is certainly a wise step, since such a slot has long been used in handhelds from Palm Inc., And therefore there are no problems with the search for the periphery of the former Springboard and problems in the transition from Palm'a. I do not think anyone would argue that the Springboard slot was a big discovery company. Though it was released a large number of devices in this slot, they are still far from cheap cost, and size is the same, more memory was an order of magnitude greater than memory for SD / MMC. But one significant drawback of the memory of Treo 90 is still there. It turns out that the novelty does not support the so-called Standard SDIO, which makes use of the device, other than additional memory modules. It is really very serious disadvantage, becausenow just beginning to widely develop the production of peripherals for SD / MMC, which simply would be useless in symbiosis with the Treo 90. Let's hope that soon this will be minus all the same fixes.
Meat
"Soft" part of the CCP before running PalmOS 4.1. This OS was first installed on the product from Handspring - PDA and all previous communicators is powered by a 3.5-second versions. Coming soon all the manufacturer would continue to use the old version, if not for the lack of ready code to support SD / MMC slots in it. That had to withdraw from Handspring outdated software shell. Slight disadvantage is the use of mask ROM type in this PDA. As a result, the user can not upgrade the OS. But if he needed it? I think not - PalmOS 5.0 still requires an ARM-like processor that Treo 90 does not possess. Therefore, drastic changes, even in the presence of flash ROM, you bring all the same could not. Included with the Treo 90 comes with several modified Address Book, in which developers have added some new features and call contacts. For example, it is now possible to see immediately the names and phone numbers in two columns, and the recruitment of the first characters of name from the list of deleted records that do not contain these characters. In addition, it is now very convenient to dial directly from Contacts via the infrared port on your mobile phone. Modifications have touched and Calendar, which received its name in the end "+", got some new features - mostly related to improving the visibility of information on the screen. With regard to third-party software, the Treo 90 comes with a very powerful word processor WordSmith from Blue Nomad, thanks to which the developers at every step proudly point out that "the device allows you to fully synchronize with your desktop PC, including support for Microsoft Word'a". Only for some reason it seems to me that the user will still install the usual Quickoffice, so that additional software in the sales package - plus a controversial, but as they say, it is still nice. Also included is a browser Blazer, fancy version of the regular hours CityTime World Clock and the program to work with SMS Palm SMS Application. As can be seen, the delivery is very self-sufficient and able to meet any user's needs.
Little nothings of life
Besides all of this of paramount importance to the user, of course, has a battery life of PDAs. In the case of Treo 90 with this no problem. New works almost 4 hours at maximum light, and if opolovinit brightness, the handheld will last more than 10 hours. Similar results have and the Palm m130. I can not fail to mention the sound, which is able to publish this device. Of course, this is not the most important parameter of the handheld, but for Treo 90, he is notable, since the internal speaker has an impressive power and has the best loud sound among palmovyh.
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Natural vision is also aware that the developers have already announced new accessories for the Treo. For example, in late June will be available the first cover for the Treo 90 for $ 24.99. As can be seen in the figure, it can accommodate two memory cards, 2 credit cards and 5 cards. In addition, he case is designed so that access to the keyboard is open continuously, and it does not need to shoot to print something. Also being developed are cables to connect the new items with different phones. For example, such accessories for mobile phones announced by Samsung, Kyrocera, Motorola and Nextel. In general, buyers Treo 90 will not be left without support.
Total
So, what do we have? Stripped-down Treo and Visor supplemented in one person with the screen, most likely a screen Palm m130. However, the similarity not only with Display screen: Treo 90 is almost the same for U.S. users, and how much product from Palm for the Russian, namely $ 299. Hence, the adjusted our prices it would cost compatriots somewhere in the $ 400. But do not forget about half the amount of RAM and no keyboard at the m130.I myself am not a supporter of universal devices, and therefore Treo 90 I was not repelled by his truncatedness communications functions. Yes, and the camera I have some other type of memory that is used as the Treo 90 in LCD'shki to show only that the pictures taken I also do not need. But high performance, inherent in all Visor'am in general and Treo 90 in particular, no one hurt. In addition, due to further reduce prices because of the disappearance of label new items, this PDA can become almost the only correct choice among the brethren for the price. In general, the fate of the Treo 90 will decide the time ... and the buyer, of course. The authors, translation: