Camera Phone Reviews

Palm Treo 500v

Palm Treo 500v Reviews

digital lifestyles reviews the Palm Treo 500v and writes, "Spinning the phone around, we can see a 2MP camera at the back and speakerphone grill. Thankfully, they haven’t bothered with those pointless face-distorting convex mirrors that turns your face into a fairground attraction."

Pocket-lint reviews the Palm Treo 500v and writes, "Available in "glacier white" and "charcoal grey" it is virtually identical in handset size, and both models come with a 2 megapixel digital camera, QWERTY keyboard and a large screen that dominates the proceedings."

TrustedReviews reviews the Palm Treo 500v and writes, "While there is Bluetooth here, Wi-Fi is absent. A camera lens sits on the back of the casing, but with no self portrait mirror or flash and just 2-megapixel capability it isn't going to replace your stand alone digicam."

CNET UK reviews the Palm Treo 500v and writes, "Picture quality from the 2-megapixel camera was acceptable and good for MMS messages or small prints but we're disappointed that there's no autofocus, LED photo light or flash."

The::unwired reviews the Palm Treo 500v and writes, "Somewhat disappointing is the camera integration. Microsoft ships a pretty basic camera application with Windows Mobile, which cannot do too much, and Palm decided to use exactly this application and therefore you don't get too many options for photos and video recording...Also it results in the quality of photos. Sure, so far I haven't seen a single Windows Mobile device which snaps good photos, compared to other non Windows Mobile devices and the Treo 500v doesn't makes an exception here...Anyway, the camera GUI is a kind of loveless integration and shows that the focus of the Palm Treo 500v isn't on multimedia, even if it's supported."

SiliconRepublic reviews the Palm Treo 500v and writes, "As a competitor to BlackBerry, the Palm device looks stylish, but also presents emails well. Users have a choice of email platforms they want to use such as the Visto service that can sit on most mobile devices and is therefore attractive to the SME. The Palm 500V comes with a very large screen and has a 2.0 megapixel camera with video capture. Because of the screen and full keyboard, the device is a little on the wide side...Primarily, where I think Vodafone is aiming the Palm 500V is at the affordable end of the business email market, and the device should go down very well. It not only looks the part but won’t break the bank at €199 with a contract and €399 without."

CNET UK reviews the Palm Treo 500v and writes, "On the back of the phone there's a 2-megapixel camera capable of taking stills or recording videos. Video captured would only be acceptable to those with a penchant for motion blur. Photos, however, were okay for a camera phone, but you can forget about taking shots in the dark because there's no flash. And if a Yowie happens to run by you one day in the bush, you can also forget about snapping off a few quick pics for Australian Geographic -- the camera controls are buried so deep that the Yowie would probably be in the next state by the time you find them. Some may bemoan the fact that there's no front mounted camera but, given that there's been a greater demand for sweaters in the Sahara than for video calls on mobiles, we'd actually see this as a plus."

IT Reviews has a review of the Palm Treo 500v and writes, "There is a 2-megapixel camera lens on the back of the casing, but this lacks a self portrait mirror or LED flash and doesn't have autofocus. It takes a reasonably good picture, but there are better cameras to be had on smartphones and PDAs."

Palm Infocenter reviews the Palm Treo 500v and writes, "Finally, a Treo camera that keeps up with the Joneses! While the 500v’s 2-megapixel camera isn’t going to make you throw out your SLR anytime soon, it’s a massive step up in quality from the decidedly sub-par 1.3 & 0.3 megapixel cams Palm has given us in the past. The biggest problem with those past cams – the blurring of fine detail – has been mostly corrected, and pictures are even more bright ‘n colourful. But there are two new issues with this one: first, the slightest motion will result in a hideously blurred picture (I realise this is a problem with most camera-phones, but the 500v seemed particularly susceptible). Second, the shutter speed is criminally slow; there’s a near 2-second delay between the time you press the button and the picture actually being taken, which will often lead to blurred pictures (because you’ve moved the camera, thinking the picture has already been taken, when it hasn’t) and doesn’t lend itself well to action shots. Overall, however, it’s a much-needed improvement and makes the camera far more useful, in that you actually want to use it."

Stuff reviews the Palm Treo 500v and writes, "The phone quality was very good with both ends of the connection sounding crisp and clear using both the device and the supplied headset. Photos taken on the 2 MP camera are of similar quality to other 2 MP phones. The only major negative I had is the battery life as I found it needed to be recharged every 2 days or so with reasonable use."