Q vs. Treo 700p??? - Motorola Q Forum

neljak25 · 03-01-2007, 07:06 PM

Can anyone give me any suggestions as to which one of these is better? I have heard both.....thanks!

Marvelous Merv · 03-01-2007, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neljak25

Can anyone give me any suggestions as to which one of these is better? I have heard both.....thanks!

The two are very different phones - I have owned both. Importantly, if you are a Verizon customer, the 700p locks up when receiving text message confirmations from other Verizon users - its a real pain. (http://discussion.treocentral.com/sh...d.php?t=117912)

That being said, if you like the Palm OS, the Treo is a nice phone. There is more shareware/freeware available for Palm OS than there is for WM5-Smartphone. The phone aspect of the Q is better than the Treo - call sound and signal stength are both superior. The Treo is okay, but the Q is outstanding.

The Treo has a touchscreen, the Q has the small formfactor. You won't be carrying a Treo around in a shirtpocket, you can do that easily with a Q.

The camera on the 700p, and the functionality for handling pictures and sending them via MMS is WAY better and easier with the Treo. The Q manages pictures like a bastard stepchild.

The battery life, using standard issue batteries is just a little better with the 700p than the Q.

I really like that the Q uses a mini-USB jack for syncing and recharging - it allows me to use several of these cords that I already have (typically used with digital cameras also), including car chargers. The Palm uses proprietary connectors.

If you are heavily invested in Palm OS, in terms of knowhow and software and user support from a corporate helpdesk, by all means stay with the Treo. If you like the small size and functionality and outstanding call quality, the Q is a nice choice.

betulike2know · 03-01-2007, 08:35 PM

I had the 700p and now i have the Q andI agree with everthing Merv said he's right .... I am a Treo fan my girl still has the 650 ... but i love the Q

Marvelous Merv · 03-01-2007, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by betulike2know

I had the 700p and now i have the Q andI agree with everthing Merv said he's right .... I am a Treo fan my girl still has the 650 ... but i love the Q

Ha- my girl has a 650 too. You know what I also like about the Q? I like that she can't pick up my phone and easily find her way to my text messages and call log!

betulike2know · 03-01-2007, 08:42 PM

hahahaha I know my girl cant .... she has no idea how to work the Q

SafeHarbor · 03-01-2007, 08:48 PM

I provide tech/customer support for Palms, Pocket PCs, and Smartphones. With the Treo 700p, it's not what you see, but what you don't see. The memory arrangement on recent Palms is called NVFS, or non-volatile file system. This means that the "RAM" that we generally think about on Palm devices does not perform the function that it used to. On the older Palms, like the Treo 600, Tungsten C, and Tungsten T3, inactive programs and file shared the same memory as running programs. This means that if you had, say, thirty megs free, a program could use up to thirty megs of RAM to do something. This was sometimes something pretty amazing, too.

Under NVFS, all that "RAM," which Palms boasts is a LOT in the Treo 700p is actually just STORAGE memory. Palm programs don't run in storage memory. For this reason, Palm put some hidden, old-fashioned memory in there for programs to use. This is called "DB Cache" memory. Think of it as the "sandbox" in which programs play on the NVFS Palms. Palm doesn't really want you to even THINK about this. The want the interaction to be seamless.

What it means for applications, however, is that they never will get to run in a lot of RAM on an NVFS machine.

Some Palms have more DB Cache memory than others. The LifeDrive and the Treo 680 have big ones. The Treo 650 and 700p simply don't.

This means that the 700p, for example, would not be a good Palm to run a program that opens and manipulates large databases.

What's "large?" Well, dictionaries, medical databases like ePocrates, eBooks, and GPS navigation programs are.

So I'd take a Treo 680 (codenamed "Lowrider") over a Treo 700p any day. It has half the storage memory of the 700p, but down in the hidden memory where programs really run, it's the winner.

For my own phone, I bought a black Q. It's phone centric instead of PDA centric, but it's PDA enough for me, and I like the multitasking ability. I also like being able to tweak it and show what I want to show on the main screen.

I've owned a PILE of Palms, and I like them. However, I think their day in the sun has passed, and it's time to move on.

Lamar

bubbatex · 03-01-2007, 08:55 PM

I moved from a T650 to the Q and have never looked back. But, my order of importance was a phone, Outlook sync'ing and email. The Phone was first and the Q wins out there. I also love the form factor- the Treo was just simply too big for me once the novelty wore off - which was about 6 months. The funniest thing to me was the touch screen. I thought I would miss it - and I did for about 2 minutes!

Neither phone is without problems, but I can live withe the Q's better b/c of the things I like about it.

Marvelous Merv · 03-01-2007, 09:18 PM

I wish that WM5 had the functionality to STOP multitasking. I'd love to find a little freeware app that would kill all running programs that hadn't been used in an hour...I need to use the Kill All sequence three or four times a day. Multitasking is good, right up until your phone grinds to a halt because you are unwittingly attempting to run ten programs in the background.

SafeHarbor · 03-01-2007, 09:26 PM

Merv, I agree. I don't know why all WMS applications and applets don't have an EXIT choice in the menu.

Lamar

neljak25 · 03-01-2007, 09:30 PM

Thanks for everyone's info and opinions! Appreciate it.
I have had the Sprint Q for about a week now, like it just fine.......friend of mine offered to trade their Treo700 for it, so i am kind of weighing the pros and cons. I know the Treo Costs alot more.......