Monday, November 16, 2009

Trading Moto Q for Palm Treo Pro

So I have a long history of using Palm (or Handspring, when that was an offshoot). I got the first ever "smartphone" which was a Handspring, with a huge device that when you add, converted PDA into a phone as well. It was awesome to use... but had awful reception. I got it in early 2000's. After it broke (because I inevitably dropped it), I also lost all my contact information. So I got a Palm PDA... going from black and white and eventually colored Tungsten. I still carry it.

So about three years ago, when I decided I needed a phone with data plan so I can actually check my personal email from work, I was debating whether to get a Palm Treo or Motorola Q from Sprint. Frugality got the best of me, and I ended up getting a Moto Q. It was functional -- I could check my personal emails. But I thought, what if I got a Palm?

With Palm Pre out, I have been wondering how to get my hands on it. It would be perfect -- get rid of my old Palm Tungsten, have a great phone, and not follow the herd in buying an iPhone. Because my Sprint plan expired earlier this year, I went to see if I could get it without losing my plan. No dice. I have SERO plan... $30 per month, 500 minutes, unlimited data and text messages. Sprint doesn't allow these plans for Palm Pre.. and it wouldn't even let me pay full price for it. So, after looking around and talking to the sales rep, I decided to get Palm Treo Pro.

It's rather funny because it's the only Palm phone that does NOT use Palm's operating system. So, that also means, I cannot get rid of my old Palm Tungsten. But so far, I really like Treo Pro. I was able to download Opera Mobile and Skyfire. I like Opera Mobile for getting quickly to my email sites... but Skyfire for getting to just regular sites such as Lala.com... and listen to my mp3's! How cool is that? It also has Mobile Office so that I can edit Microsoft documents if I wanted to, storage card space that would allow me to expand up to 32 gb, camera (which I'm still trying to figure out), ability to move between different open applications, and more stylish phone.

In all, I'm glad I traded up from Moto Q (the battery was dying on me so it had to go). And maybe by the time the 2 year contract expires, I can trade up for Palm Pre.

2 comments:

MC said...

I found your blog while trying to research the treo pro as an upgrade phone for my SERO account. Did you buy that from sprint? When I hit the upgrade link it says that I may need to add a "pro pack" which is an additional $30 and practically useless. Oddly, it would let me select two other windows phones without issues.

haeji said...

I did buy from Sprint. I did not do it through website but actually called them. I was told I did not have to upgrade my SERO account. I was pretty specific -- I said I only want to know what phones I can use for SERO plan. And I had researched online and pointed out, isn't Palm Treo Pro one of those? ;) The lady was pretty helpful. She tried to get me to buy a Samsung phone initially...