Steven of Panic just posted an article discussing his acquisition of a Treo 650. Its more of a comparison with the Sidekick, but its a worthwhile read.

http://stevenf.com/mt/archives/2005/04/sidekick_2_vs_t.php

That's helpful.

And the lack of Bluetooth is what kept me from ever getting a Sidekick.

Howdy, Rosyna. You asked if I had answers to any of your questions -- I can try!

- Does anyone have this phone?

Yes. :)

- What are your experiences with Salling Clicker and iSync?

I've not used Salling Clicker. As I mentioned in my article, iSync works beautifully for me, but I do use Missing Sync, and not the included Palm Desktop software.

- Does the phone have any downsides whatsoever?

No phone is perfect. My blog post (above) covers my main complaints. Also, keep in mind I've only had it for just shy of a week.

- How does the thing work as an actual phone?

Fine. I have had a few dropouts, but I think that's just the state of GSM in my area. I've not had a dropped call yet. Volume has been fine for my needs so far, and nobody has complained about sound quality from their end. So far, no great shakes, does what you'd expect and that's about it.

- Has anyone tried using IRC from it?

I have not. I am not an IRC'er, but I'm sure apps exist. Don't know if you'd be able to switch to another app without dropping your IRC connection...

- Problems / Issues with T-Mobile

The biggest problem is they don't offer it, so you'll get no subsidy / activation discount. You'll either have to get an unlocked Cingular version, or get stung to the tune of $700 to buy one unlocked directly from PalmOne.

In terms of functionality, it should work fine. Their GPRS network is slower than Cingular's EDGE network, but also costs about half as much per month.

- Palm OS 6

You are correct in that it will probably never run Palm OS 6. Palm has historically not provided migration paths for users of older handhelds. There may be an OS 6 Treo someday, but it will not be the 650. Please keep in mind there are no shipping OS 6 devices, and no estimated release dates of one that I know of.

- Windows Mobile devices

Although Windows Mobile vs Palm is its own can of worms, with arguments in both directions, I can't recommend the current batch of Windows Mobile phones. They typically just strap a cell radio onto a Windows Mobile PDA and call it good, without too much thought about how one uses a mobile phone. The Treo has much better integration.

Hope that helps somewhat!

you won't be able to use the phone to get your computer online -- the dial up networking (dun) bluetooth profile is disabled on the phones from the carriers.

I have the Treo 650 (on Sprint) and like it just fine. It's very good as a phone. It just needs some hand-holding as it's quite temperamental. But I've come to rely on it now and couldn't imagine going back two devices... two things to sync, two things to charge...

For the record, peter royal, I applied the DUN patch (available at shadowmite.com) and use it to get my computer online all the time.

I'd like to chime in with respect to Salling Clicker compatibility. It does work, but you should use a fixed/patched Clicker client application. It's available from the salling web site, and fixes d-pad left/right functionality, and Bluetooth issues on unlocked GSM models.

Skip the Palm and get a Sony P800/900/910

Much better interface

Thought I would chime in. I am, by being a real estate appraiser, using VPC on a 15 Powerbook and in the field all the time, a big fan of both Bluetooth and Wifi. I went for a different solution which works nicely, but is a bit more complex. I have a sony ericsson T616 and a Palm Tungsten T3 as well as a Jabra Bluetooth earphone. I have a wifi card for the T3 as well. The T616 sits in my briefcase or in a car charger with keys locked. I use Sailing Clicker to contact my powerbook. I dial from the T3 or by voice over the earpiece. The T3 is small but expands and has a really great screen. I use webpro to surf from the T3 when I need something quick and don't want to get out the laptop. I use the t616 to surf from it or the laptop when I can't find an access point (getting rarer all the time). Only time I use the phone by itself is if I am going to a movie(vibrate mode). I use iSync to sync to both t616 and T3 (redundancy is not a vice(. Rather than having one device that does all jobs so/so, I went for devises that all work well and work together seamlessly. To me, the T3 is still the best design palm has come up with. Sony makes great phones. The jabra pairs with both the phone and the laptop. Well, thats my 2 cents

Treo 650 iSynch works very well with Tiger, and if you get a locked GSM phone, you can use Bluetooth dial-up networking if you download the patch from http://www.shadowmite.com .

I love mine -- it's the first phone I've had with a QWERTY keyboard, and I thought I'd hate the keyboard. I bought it so that I could rule QWERTY keyboards out forever as a bad idea. I was proven very, very wrong. Not only does the keyboard work well, but the Palm interface has been tremendously well integrated with the keyboard.

The only downside is that PalmOS is less-than stable. At least it uses some kind of watchdog mechanism and resets itself when a crash is detected.

Oh yeah, it pretty much supports no Bluetooth profiles. Headset, dial-up networking (with patch), and OBEX. That's it. In practice, that's not too bad, though I wish I could browse the filesystem via Bluetooth and sync using SyncML. Oh well.

You can enable BT browsing on a Palm with http://www.softick.com/bluefiles/ .

I have a 650 on T-Mobile. There is a serious problem maintaining connections with T-Mobile. There are (extended) times when you cannot use the phone because it is trying to connect to the data network. Obviously, if you don't use the data then you're fine from that perspective, but in fact the phone quality is very low on this phone with TMO, and the reason I bought it, knowing of the poor phone quality, was because of the data. However, as I say, the data connection is HIGHLY unstable. There are times when it goes on for 15 minutes to half an hour, trying over and over to connect, which it does, then apparently it disconnects. A techie I know says it looks like TMO is disconnecting but he can't figure out why. My wife has a 650 also, on TMO, and gets the same problem, so it is not the phone (they are both new from Palm, GSM unlocked, a significant investment).

I got a Cingular Treo 650 and convinced a cool Cingular tech on the phone to unlock it for me. Now I have been using it with T-Mobile with absolutely no problems at all. Reception is excellent. I sync it with my Mac (Panther) with no problems at all. This is a superior product. I only wish it came with more memory, support for the Palm sd wifi card, stereo headphones, and a cradle. You can certainly get sd cards. Adapters for headphones are also availabe, as are cradles. I am reading mixed success with the hack for the Palm wifi card. I'm holding out on that until the hack is stable or Palm supports it.