Exclusive Pics of the Palm Treo 850
92 comments
Filed in Exclusives, Handsets, Palm

Ahh Wednesdays. Is the first half of the week over or is the second half of the week beginning? Optimist or pessimist, here at BGR we’re doing our part to make today as painless as possible. How about we start out with an exclusive dose of some live shots of the Palm Treo 850! Truth be told, this puppy is pretty smooth looking! Details are still coming in but we can tell you it’s sporting a 400 MHz processor and 100 MB of RAM. Hit the jump for a nice comparison pic with the BlackBerry 8800.
[Thanks, Anonymous]










On May 21, 2008 @ 10:00 am, Game Player Said:
Straight keyboard - no royalty to … uh … RIM?
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On May 21, 2008 @ 10:28 am, Phil750 Said:
That’s actually not shitty. Not sure about the Centro keys, but we’ll see …
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On May 21, 2008 @ 10:37 am, Sean Said:
Easily the best looking Treo ever to exist. I’d actually consider buying this. It’s a HUGE step up the from the true ugliness of the 800. Good job Palm!
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On May 21, 2008 @ 10:41 am, Matthew Said:
Looks really good, shockingly.
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On May 21, 2008 @ 10:45 am, backbeat Said:
If this is the most innovation Palm can create, given the genuine envelope-pushing that top-tier manufacturers are accomplishing, they deserve to be circling the bowl. If only the market would push the lever and flush them out of their misery, as they’ve become an embarrassing pock.
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On May 21, 2008 @ 10:45 am, Kyle Albanese Said:
I will agree, it is the best Treo ever, that being said could for the love of god we change up the design!!!!!
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On May 21, 2008 @ 10:47 am, justblase Said:
FUGLY! Yeesh, who in their right mind would buy this when HTC is doin’ what they do?
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On May 21, 2008 @ 10:49 am, rileyfreeman Said:
uhhh how bout a gsm or cdma info?
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On May 21, 2008 @ 10:53 am, Randy Said:
@ backbbeat: LOL! Much more eloquent than I could ever say it. Bravo!
Not interested Winmoble anymore (although the Xperia is nice looking). Where is the Palm Linux Platform?
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On May 21, 2008 @ 10:53 am, Head Scratcher Said:
It looks like a black Centro - why is that exciting again?
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On May 21, 2008 @ 11:15 am, miles Said:
Step in the right direction.
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On May 21, 2008 @ 11:24 am, Jas Said:
Well, now this is better than the 800w.
Look, I still love the damn keyboard of my Treo750.
So if this thing has the requisite:
1. 3G / 3.5G
2. quad gsm
3. wi-fi
4. gps
5. touch-screen (WinMo Professional)
6. USB port
Also looks like the screen is FLAT, so you can actually use your finger to scroll easily.
Then yeah, I may still be interested in this device.
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On May 21, 2008 @ 11:52 am, backbeat Said:
Whoever believes a ‘Treo’ must retain the crude basics of “a screen, keyboard, earpiece on top, mic at the bottom and some buttons” just described the very definition of “generic” while Palm cannot execute function nearly to the degree of RIM or many HTC devices. Congrats, Palm and welcome to 1990!
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On May 21, 2008 @ 12:20 pm, Malatesta Said:
Why do people keeping saying that?
RIM’s patent is on “…a hand-held electronic device with a keyboard optimized for use with the thumbs.”
The Treo 180, 300, 600 didn’t have the smile either and yet Handspring/Palm caught the ire of RIM.
Where the heck did this urban legend start?
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On May 21, 2008 @ 12:21 pm, LK Said:
Finally a new design out of Palm. While I still wouldn’t buy this phone, at least it isn’t sporting circa-2006 aesthetics.
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On May 21, 2008 @ 12:26 pm, Nate Said:
I think there’s a serious lack of buttons on the front of this phone.
I want a dedicated button for every, single, function of the phone. This appears to come close… but not close enough.
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On May 21, 2008 @ 12:41 pm, Jas Said:
The beauty is in the function of the device.
I don’t need nor want a freaking touch-screen just for the sake of having a touch-screen because it is “cool” and a fan-boy thing to have.
My Treo750 simply works. Period. With a few additional features it would have been better, granted 3 years ago. But release the updated features on a form factor that the world is used to and a bit slimmer to boot? F’yeah!
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On May 21, 2008 @ 12:43 pm, Jas Said:
Need and want a true keyboard. Even the RIM keyboard is lacking in the layout and button placement - for example there is no dedicated “period” button as is on the Treo750.
So I have to push “alt” then the “period” button?
Nah. No thanks.
I’ll keep my “generic” design and wonderful Treo keyboard. Thanks!
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On May 21, 2008 @ 12:47 pm, backbeat Said:
@Mal - Who said _anything_ about RIM’s patent? Did they patent “generic”? Hardly!
BTW: What’s the patent number involved which frustrates you so mercilessly? Having done several years of work with utility patents, I call BS.
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On May 21, 2008 @ 12:53 pm, MItch Said:
Jas, if you hit space button twice on the blackberry it will automatically place a period for you. I am not pushing blackberries or anything, just wanted to point that out.
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On May 21, 2008 @ 12:53 pm, Outrigger Said:
@Jas
Clearly, you have never used a blackberry or else you would’ve known that pressing the space bar twice would produce a period after a sentense. Its called a shortcut that Palm never implemented. Can you spell DUH?
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On May 21, 2008 @ 12:53 pm, backbeat Said:
@Jas - 2 quick presses of the spacebar has always produced a period on a Blackberry.
If typing more than a very short text message, it’s even more frustrating to have to press Alt-letter key just to get a CAP on the Treo.
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On May 21, 2008 @ 12:55 pm, ops Said:
be nice if they ever went with a 640×480 screen or better
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On May 21, 2008 @ 12:59 pm, Gauntlet Down Said:
An easy Google for “Handspring Rim keyboard” and maybe “settlement” will turn up the 2002 history of the keyboard litigation.
The patent(s) RIM has cover a lot of things but the UNIQUE part was the curve of the keyboard (and is in the 2002 patent) - http://tinyurl.com/4s5hbn
There existed PLENTY of tiny keyboards on small devices before RIM got around to patenting features - tiny is NOT the patent (or, gack, “front facing” Where the heck did he get THAT!!? HA HA HA!).
BTW - you would think Mal-whatever, who pontificates on TreoCentral often with no facts to back him up there either, would do a search THERE for the 2002 posts about this.
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On May 21, 2008 @ 1:13 pm, Dave Zatz Said:
@justblase This *could be* an HTC design… they’ve done other hardware for Palm. I think Palm sees themselves as a mobile software developer and mobile software integration company these days.
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