Camera Phone Reviews

Treonauts compares the camera on the Treo 700w to the Treo 650 and notes, "The starting question is: does a higher resolution camera automatically translate into better pictures? As you can note from the image above the Treo 700w camera is much better at picking up the different hues of the leafs and provides a slightly ‘cleaner’ image."

MobileTechReview reviews the Treo 700w and writes about the smartphone's camera: "The 700w has a 1.3MP camera (no flash) that takes good photos when lighting is decent. Photos taken in poor indoor lighting are markedly undersaturated. It can also shoot video with audio (length limited only by the amount of free storage space on your card or device)."

The New York Times has a review of the Treo 700w. Reviewer David Pogue is not particularly thrilled with the device, in comparison to the Treo 650: "it's a shame that Microsoft's convoluted software has produced such an awkward marriage with the hardware. Longtime Treo fans, in particular, will be absolutely baffled by the new software layout." Conclusion? "It was built for corporate buyers, whose top priorities may not include providing the most pleasurable experience possible for the worker bees."

CNET reviews the Treo 700W, and concludes, "We tested the Palm Treo 700w in Las Vegas using Verizon's network, and call quality was excellent. Conversations were loud and clear on our end, and our callers reported the same. Powered by a 312MHz Intel XScale processor and EV-DO support, we had no problems surfing the Web, and load times were fast. The Palm Treo 700w's battery is rated for 4.7 hours of talk time and 15 days of standby time, which is decent for a phone. We'll run it through performance tests once we get the device into CNET Labs."

PCWorld reviews the Treo 700w and concludes, "The Treo 700w is almost guaranteed to please a growing number of mobile professionals who are tied to Microsoft Exchange Server, and the EvDO support is the icing on the cake. Palm may not have single-handedly solved all the problems of Windows Mobile--it's still a convoluted operating system that frequently gets tangled up in itself--but the Treo 700w is a credible step in the right direction."

Infosync reviews the Treo 700w and says, about the device's camera: "The built-in camera has been upped to 1.3 megapixels, but unfortunately as is common with 1.3 MP cameras the image quality suffers. It's not bad, but image quality is noticeably lower than the Treo 650's 0.3 MP camera. Colors aren't as rich and bright light sources are more washed out and undefined."

Newsfactor reviews the Treo 700w and notes, "A Windows Palm is a big hurdle for users who have eschewed cumbersome Pocket PCs in favor of simpler Palm devices. Though I admire many Pocket PC devices, they do tend to be more complex. It's the same with the 700w smartphone. You have to dig into the Windows menus to get some things done." Conclusion? "If you already use a Treo, there is certainly no reason to bail now. Besides, Palm acknowledges a new Palm OS Treo is in the pipeline. I'm presuming it's a model that would run on Verizon's speedy network. Meantime, for those solidly behind Microsoft, the new Treo does Windows about as well as can be expected."

Mobility Today has a video review of the Palm Treo 700w: "Overall I am very happy with the Treo 700w but will comment on the memory issue once I get an official statement from Palm." (Quicktime needed to view video)

MobileWhack reviews the Palm Treo 700w and notes, "After months of anticipation, I finally got my hands on a Palm Treo 700w. Would Palm work its magic with the Windows Mobile OS like it had with the Palm OS on the Treo 600 and 650? Well not quite. Don’t get me wrong folks. The Treo 700w isn’t a bad Smartphone at all. However, it could have been far better. The 700w suffers from a low memory ceiling, crippling of Bluetooth functionality, and a low resolution screen."

PCMag reviews the Palm Treo 700w and says, about the Pocket PC's camera: "The improvements are inside. The Treo 650's VGA camera has been replaced by a 1.3-megapixel model, which is dim but quite sharp and takes high-res 352-by-288 videos. The 0.4-second shutter lag was good for a camera phone, ensuring that you won't miss snapshots. And the Treo 650's CDMA 1X modem has been pumped up to EV-DO, which runs at about five to seven times the speed of the old technology."

TreoCentral reviews the Treo 700w, and is not impressed with the user interface for the device's camera: "On the 700w, instead of having easy access to options, video and zoom using the five-way navigator visually indicated a click away, everything, save taking the photo, is done through the right hand soft menu. In fact, there is no visual indication of how you take a photo – no capture button, no highlighted circle, nothing. (To take a photo you press the center of the five-way)."

MobileTechReview reviews the Treo 700w, and comments about the camera: "The Treo 700w's 1.3 megapixel camera is an improvement over the Treo 650's VGA affair. That might seem obvious given the resolution increase but all camera phones aren't created equal and we've seen some very nice VGA shots (i.e.: the Treo 650) and some poor 1.3 MP cameras (i.e.: the Motorola MPx 220). The 700w takes sharp photos by camera phone standards, with relatively low noise. Our only complaint is that the photos lack color saturation. Your favorite desktop image editor can crank up the color saturation to good effect, adding little distortion in the process, so we won't complain too much."

MobileBurn reviews the Palm Treo 700w and is not very happy with the PDA's camera: "Another let-down for the Treo 700w is the built-in 1.3 megapixel camera. In theory the resolution that the camera offers is adequate, but the reality is that the image quality it offers negates any benefit of having a megapixel camera. The outer areas of the photos it takes appear blurry, the photos have an overall low contrast, and diagonal lines look particularly jagged when photographed with the 700w. The only high point is a pretty accurate automatic white balance system, which is a good thing since there are no manual white balance settings available."

GCN reviews the Palm Treo 700w and writes, about the PDA's camera: "The 700w comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera that, while not necessarily a business-like feature, can snap photos at 1,280 by 1,024 resolution, which is much higher than the screen can display. It also records fairly good video, with automatic light balancing that is accurate enough to move quickly from dark to bright viewing without significantly affecting visibility. PDA cameras do not normally impress us, but this one seems quite good."

Laptop Mag reviews the Palm Treo 700w and writes, about the 700w's camera: "The newer Treo sports a 1.3-megapixel camera, which in our tests took slightly sharper pictures than the 650’s VGA camera. Those pictures would look better on the 650, however, because it boasts a brighter and higher-resolution (320 x 320 pixels) display."

PocketPCThoughts reviews the Palm Treo 700w and finds the phone's camera to be average: "the camera is "standard-fare". First off, for a change, Palm doesn't include any special software -- it uses the Windows Mobile 5 Pictures & Videos application. It's serviceable, but not nearly as good as the HTC Camera application on the JasJar/Universal."

Technology Evangelist compares the Sprint PPC-6700 and the Treo 700W, and finds neither PDA ready to replace the Treo 650: "I have had more issues with the phone on both devices than I ever did with the Treo 650. Calls placed to me were dropped completely, voicemail notifications were delayed over an hour, and messaging notifications may or may not come in. I believe this is more of a WM5 fault than a device problem as it happens on both the 6700 and the Treo 700w. With the 650 even if I missed a call the device always gave me an audible alert. With the 6700 and Treo 700w that alert only happens about 50% of the time."

Treo 700w features:

* Windows Mobile 5.0
* 1.31 megapixel camera
* EV-DO
* Bluetooth

Update: Verizon announces that the Palm Treo 700w smartphone will be avilable on the Verizon Wireless Network.

From the news release:

For businesses and individuals who want the latest all-in-one mobile communications and business-productivity solution, Palm, Inc. and Verizon Wireless today announced the availability of the Palm(R) Treo(TM) 700w smartphone, the first Treo smartphone to take advantage of Verizon Wireless' BroadbandAccess service on its EV-DO network. The Treo 700w smartphone also is the first Treo smartphone to run the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system, bringing the hallmark Palm ease of use to Windows Mobile for the first time. It combines a great mobile phone with high-speed wireless data access to email and business applications. The Treo 700w smartphone goes on sale tomorrow and joins the Treo 650 smartphone based on the Palm OS(R) platform on the Verizon Wireless network.