When you slide out the PPC-6700's keyboard, the screen automatically reorients from portrait to landscape mode. This is very cool. Although the keyboard buttons on the PPC-6700 are slightly larger, they're still chicklet-style keys and they're no easier to use than the Treos', even for my chubby fingers.

Display
As much as I'd like to give the PPC-6700 extra points for the keyboard's cool factor, it's only real benefit is that it frees up some screen real estate, giving the PPC-6700 a 240x320 pixel display, compared to the Treo 700w's 240x240 display. Of course, the Treo 650 has a higher resolution display than both devices, clocking in at 320x320.

I found the missing 80 pixels very apparent when I moved from the Treo 650 I've been using to the Treo 700w's smaller display, particularly when surfing the Web. The display of the PPC-6700 was more tolerable, since I could get a bit more on the landscape-oriented display.

Network
On the other hand, because both the Treo 700w and the PPC-6700 support the high-speed EvDO network, accessing Web pages was wildly faster on both of the newer devices. It took me 12 seconds to download the graphics-rich ZATZ home page on both of the new devices. Compare that to a whopping 74 seconds on my Treo 650. This feature, alone, may be nearly enough to get many users to select one of the Pocket PC phones.

While we're on the topic of networks, both Treos support Bluetooth, but the PPC-6700 has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Since Wi-Fi can be so versatile, and there are more and more Wi-Fi hot spots, the potential for this is enormous. We haven't tried running Skype over the PPC-6700 yet, but this device is potentially capable of some interesting VoIP (Voice over IP) applications.

Camera
All three devices have a camera, but the cameras in the Treo 700w and PPC-6700 are of a substantially higher resolution than the camera in the Treo 650. The Treo 650 has an 0.3 megapixel camera, while the two others have 1.3 megapixel cameras.

You can easily see the difference in the following two test pictures. Figure D was taken with the Treo 650.

FIGURE D


Here's Pugsly, as captured by the Treo 650. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Our bear Pugsly makes another appearance in the ZATZ magazines for this test. Since he lives in the ZATZ Labs, he's the perfect model. That's not to say he's a model bear. He bites and isn't particularly well-behaved. That's why he lives in the ZATZ Labs and not with all the other bears. In Figure E, his essential bearness is captured far better with the Treo 700w.

FIGURE E


Pugsly's much happier with this picture. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Feature comparison
From strictly a features point of view, you can't beat the PPC-6700, as Table A shows.