Click to View

palmOne thoughtfully chose to integrate the same non-volatile memory as the Tungsten T5 with the new Treo 650 smartphone. This type of memory lets the data on the handset survive in the case of an accidental power drain.

Unfortunately, the company left the same 32 of RAM found in the previous model, the Treo 600, alone. Low by today's handheld standards, 32MB may provide less storage than indicated; even taking into account that only 23MB of the 32MB is available to the user.

Here's the story:

According to a number of people who have already received their smartphones from Sprint—the first carrier to offer the Treo 650—the new handsets store fewer applications and less data than their previous handhelds and smartphones—including the Treo 600 with the same amount of memory.

mytreo.net points out that the Treo 650 and palmOne's newest PDA, the Tungsten T5, not only share the company's new non-volatile memory technology, but a new file system as well—moving from a records-based to a FAT-based storage implementation.

So instead of 14 bytes of data taking up 14 bytes of RAM, as in previous palmOne devices, the new handhelds require that a minimum of 512 bytes be used no matter a file's size. The net result is an increase in the amount of space required for each data entry.

While this isn't that big of an issue with Tungsten T5 and its 256MB of RAM, it could end up being a major problem for some Treo 650 users, especially those upgrading from the Treo 600. According to some users, software on the Treo 650 takes up between 25 to 35 percent more memory than on the Treo 600.

Another memory issue for the Treo 650 involves palmOne's move to a new database format for its native PIM applications. As a result, the smartphone maintains two databases for each PIM application: one new and the other the old style record.

That way the Treo 650 can support popular third-party PIM software like Agendus, which only handle the older databases. For end-users, however, this situation essentially doubles the amount of memory each database takes up.

Whether problems will affect palmOne's bottom line is open to debate. If fixes aren't developed, one thing is certain: Frustrated customers will have to make do by leveraging the smartphone's Secure Digital slot more than they thought they would.