I've been living with my Treo 650 for quite a few years. It's been a workhorse, but frankly, it's on a slow road to the glue factory. When I first got this phone it was state-of-the-art. In fact, it was the only smartphone available. I've been a Palm user since the original Palm Pilot back in 1996. I upgraded various models along the way, including the Palm III, Sony Cleo, Treo 600 among others. But updates from I’ve been living with my Treo 650 for quite a few years. It’s been a workhorse, but frankly, it’s on a slow road to the glue factory. When I first got this phone it was state-of-the-art. In fact, it was the only smartphone available. I’ve been a Palm user since the original Palm Pilot back in 1996. I upgraded various models along the way, including the Palm III, Sony Cleo, Treo 600 among others. But updates from Palm were always slow; in recent years, they’ve become absolutely glacial. Let’s face it, Palm lost the plot a few years back. They spread themselves too thin. They failed to keep the OS up-to-date. And they got their clock cleaned by the Blackberry and more recently the iPhone. Palm invented the category of the smartphone but failed to stay relevent. No wonder Palm ranks last in a survey of customer satisfaction. Maybe my Treo 650 has been dropped too many times and now the quality of voice connections is just too crappy. Some of the buttons have now become intermittent, so it’s sometimes hard to turn the phone on or off. And there’s a gaping crack in the seam between the front plate and the back that makes me nervous. In some ways, it’s a testament to the quality of the Treo that I’m still using this phone after four years. Just about every other Treo user I know has moved on. There’s things I absolutely love about the Treo 650 and there’s things that drive me nuts. Here’s the quick rundown: Pros: -Its a GSM tri-band phone, and works pretty much anywhere in the world -It’s got a very good keyboard -It’s got good email (I use Snapfish) -It’s got a simple but effective calendar and contacts -It’s got a decent display -The user interface is simple; not a lot of excess clicking -There are plenty of third party applications (I use RunnersLog to track my running.) -Battery life is decent (5 hours talk time) and you you can swap it out for a spare -Syncing with windows outlook is pretty easy (though sometimes everything gets duplicated) Cons: -It’s bulky (4.4″ x 2.3 x .90) and heavy (6.3 oz) -It’s got this big stub of an antenna -It doesn’t fit into my pants pocket, so I use a clip on case that unclips anytime I bend down to pick something up or get into my car -The voice quality is lousy; I’ve taken to using a headset all the time -Speaker phone not very good -The bluetooth connectivity is flakey and doesn’t always work -Web browsing is so slow as to be useless (though I will use Google when desparate) -The camera is awful So here’s my requirements list for a new phone: -Must be GSM tri-band -Must have better voice quality -Must weigh 4 oz or less -Must be pocketable (smaller than the Treo 650) -Must have a QWERTY keyboard I can type on -Must have good email -Must have a decent calendar -4 hours or more of talk time Optional requirements: -3G support for faster browsing -Built-in camera that is not completely useless -Decent speaker phoneIf anyone has made the switch from Treo 650 to something else, let me know how it went. Meanwhile I keep hoping to see if Apple’s former “podfather” Jon Rubenstein can have a positive impact on Palm. And maybe the long-rumored GSM version of the Palm Centro will make its way to AT&T in the next week. Alternatively, maybe I just wait for something cool like the newly unveiled Sony Ericsson X1. Open Source