Treo 680. Add colour to your life.

Last night was a late night for me. I stayed up till about 2am waiting anxiously for the official announcement from Palm at the Digital life conference in New York. In the true spirit of Treo fans around the world, every editor / blogger from treonauts, treocentral, everythingtreo etc were all at the launch, waiting to hear about Palm's new (and last) treo release for the year.

And boy, did they release a shocker. Here's the official announcement at Treocentral.

Everyone, meet the new Palm Treo 680. That's right, you see 4 colours here. From left to right: Graphite, Rusty Copper (orange), Arctic White and Crimson Red. Read about the specs here at palm.

Some good sites to read blogs on the Treo 680 are Treocentral (above), Treonauts and Engadgetmobile. There are many others, but these were the ones I've been following up closely on since last night.

Now, if you're an existing Treo 650 user, you're probably going to realise that this new 680 isn't exactly a tremendous upgrade from the 650, and you'll probably wonder what's the big deal anyway. Well, after having read many reviews and forums, I now understand Palm's vision on this. Its basically a model meant to expand their user base. The rumoured release price is estimated to be (locally) around $500-$700. Compare this to the Treo 650's 1st launch price of $1,250 almost 2 years ago. For a smartphone like the 680, being priced at this range will definitely attract many into the treo fold.

For me personally, just seeing it without the antenna, reading about the increase in memory and some minor adjustments in the user interface... that's all the convincing I'll ever need. To top it off, it now comes in 4 colours! Awesome! (I've mentally narrowed it down to either Arctic or Copper. Helps to be prepared sometimes you see)

For those of you non-Treo-believers out there, you have GOT to try out a Treo. Don't diss it until you've dabbled. I used to be a hardcore Nokian for many many years, until my recent dabbling with SE, but once I tried out the Treo 650. That was it. I was hooked. It ran my life. It held ALL my contacts, ALL my appointments, meetings and reminders, acted as my daily alarm clock, served as my storage device for my photos (taken from my 6.3mp digicam), became my mp3 player, movie player (compatible with avi, 3gp, mpeg files) and so much more! If this still doesn't convince you, then maybe the idea that you can msn on the treo (through EDGE, GPRS) might appeal to you!

Don't diss it till you try it.

In any case, it's not in Asia yet. To be shipped in November only. So the earliest we might get it could be end-Nov or early Dec. Nuts! More waiting.

On a separate note, today has also been a good day. Both Nokia 6230i and Nokia 6111 as advertised on my "d3x second chances" blog has been sold! Success!