Click to View

Even though palmOne's Treo 600 is the most popular smartphone in the United States, it is—at almost a year old—getting a little long in the tooth.

Recent rumors placed the handheld company's next-generation Treo, the 650, as not shipping until after November 1st. According to the blog engadget , however, the eagerly awaited smartphone may ship sooner.

That's because HTC, the Taiwanese original equipment manufacturer of the Treo 650, has reportedly started shipping the mobile handset to palmOne already. As a result, palmOne could start selling the device to consumers several weeks earlier than expected.

Here's what we know about the Treo 650 (see image from engadget):

The new smartphone will supposedly look very similar to the current model-QWERTY thumb-keyboard and size-but should differ quite a bit otherwise.

Unlike the Treo 600 and its 160 x 160 screen, the Treo 650 will have a high-resolution 320 x 320 display, which should make it easier to read documents and Web pages. The Treo 650 should also integrate Bluetooth, a glaring omission in the current model. Bluetooth would allow Treo owners to use wireless headsets and print to Bluetooth printers, for example.

As opposed to the Treo 600, the Treo 650 should also feature a swappable battery and a high-resolution 1.3-megapixel camera for taking pictures and video. It should run on a 312MHz processor and Palm OS Garnet 5.4.

Unfortunately, there are reports that you can't use Treo 600 accessories with the Treo 650. If that's true, it may hurt sales, as some folks looking to upgrade may be loath to lose their investment in their peripherals.

palmOne should ship GSM and CDMA editions of the Treo 650 for an as-of-yet undisclosed price.