The Treo 680 has now been made available as a SIM free handset, customers can now buy the Palm One Treo 680 without having to sign up to a lengthy contract or be tied to a new network as the handset is unlocked and open to all UK networks.

Say hello to the Palm® Treo™ 680 smartphone. It’s your phone along with email, messaging, and web access. Not to mention your contacts, calendar, photos, and songs. Sounds like a lot. And it is. But everything’s so easy to learn that you’ll actually use it, which makes it anything but a typical phone.

The same goes for design. Pick up the Palm Treo 680 and you’ll notice a large colour touchscreen and an easy-type keyboard. Since the Palm Treo 680 is just the right size, you have the freedom to take it anywhere and still be connected to friends, work, and family. Of course, there’s also something called an “off” button, for when you don’t want to be connected at all.

Palm Treo 680 Deals

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It is that time of year again when the UK mobile phone network operators are busy finalising exclusive deals with the manufacturers giving them sole rights to market the new products.

This year has been all about the colour variant, the networks have been fighting amongst themselves to sign deals for new colour versions of popular mobile phones and it seems that this year Vodafone have opted for the Gold coloured handsets by securing a deal with Sony Ericsson for three new gold mobile phones.

The most recent addition that Vodafone have managed to get the exclusive sales channel for is not a colour variant, neither is it a normal flip, slide or candy bar mobile phone, it is in fact a powerful PDA phone manufactured by Handspring who are better known as Palm One.

This new device is officially called the Treo 500, however Vodafone have rebranded this to Treo 500v, the ‘v’ obviously standing for Vodafone. This is not a new marketing ploy by the network, they have a range of handsets that they have branded with a V, sometimes at the start of the model number as in Sony Ericsson V640i and sometimes at the end as with the Treo 750v.

Interestingly, the Treo 500v is a direct upgrade to the 750v, confusing as new models usually have higher model numbers but true none the less. The new Treo 500v weighs and measures less than the 750v and introduces some important software upgrades and new features.

The 500v runs on Windows Mobile 6.0 operating system and offers the full qwerty keyboard as seen in all palm devices, the outer casing is manufactured from a metal alloy as opposed to plastic which gives the handset a feeling of quality and expense, a definite advantage over other PDA smartphones.

Although the 500v does not offer a touchscreen, text input is easy with the well spaced keys so writing and editing emails and text messages is made quick and simple. WiFi is also present for wireless connections to hotspots, intranets and other devices as is Bluetooth with A2DP stereo support, this allows for stereo broadcast of any music tracks to compatible headphones and speakers.

The Treo 500v is a 3G enabled device which facilitates fast download speeds of email attachments, new applications and mobile content such as themes, wallpapers, ringtones and games. Using 3G services also keeps the user up to date with the latest news and sports headlines, weather reports, new movie trailers and music videos plus support for streaming media.

The 500v has a 2.0 megapxiel camera with a built-in flash for low light levels, a digital zoom for close up picture capture and supports video recording and playback of short clips. There is also a secondary VGA camera dedicated to video calling, with 3G the user can not only hear the person they are conversing with but also see them on the screen of their handset. This feature is particularly useful in business where workers are out in the field, they can relay information back to the office in realtime rather than having to verbally explain the situation.

The Treo 500v supports a number of common pocket editions of mobile software such as internet explorer, word, excel and pocket office applications, this gives the handset an edge over others as the user can literally take their work with them when leaving the office.

The Palm One Treo 500v is a powerful handheld device that offers the latest communications and connections technology and with the extra software and applications, makes staying in touch whilst on the move a far easier and simpler experience.