Heartwrenching...saying goodbye to my 750

[DjXCaliber]

First off, this is a really long post, so to save all of you the trouble, I'm going straight to the point.

Disregard this thread if:
1. You are coming to South Korea on a short visit (1-30 days) or an extended visit (3+ mos.), and you don't mind paying for international roaming.
2. You've already found a local vendor (i.e., here in S. Korea), who provided you with a reliable SIM that includes data access--PLEASE let me know right away!

You have a decision to make if:
1. International roaming is not your thing, as the costs are prohibitively expensive, it must be a business expense, or paid for as a privilege.
2. You will be here in S. Korea for more than 6 months.
3. You really love your Treo, and just won't give it up like the way I have.

The bottom line: S. Korea's laws are closed to foreign companies (until recently), thus intermediate support for the Treo is based on the timezones in the States. The Treo will work if you have international roaming (mine is based on AT&T's international roaming rates), to include data access, but don't count on the service to be as good as it is in the States. There are no SIM card vendors here in Korea (I've offered up to $200 to my Korean associates who could find a reliable local vendor, not one of them found one).

And now, to my rant....

I work in Korea. I moved here last July. My Treo is more than just a convenience, it's the primary enabler for my work duties. Whether it's a simple activity such as typing up a server status report in my Treo (and then printing it out via bluetooth which always gets everyone's attention), or as complex as you can possibly imagine, my Treo has been there for me.

I really hate doing this, but I'm going to replace my Treo 750 with Samsung's latest Blackjack. The Blackjack is the only PDA phone (so far) that is available mainstream in Korea. In a way this is heart wrenching.

The costs of keeping the Treo 750 have caught up with the practicality of reality. There is no way that the Treo's cost per minute or cost per kilobyte (in the data plan) is in anyway a good deal. Two months ago, I paid more than a hundred dollars for only a few minutes of talking, and for less than a few MB of data transfer based on a 3G connection. I love my Treo and I love the Palm-based PDA phones--but international roaming is killing me. The rates have forced me to use the Treo only for certain purposes, a complete opposite than what I intended it to be almost a year ago. On the one hand I can still use the phone as a basic PDA to work on microsoft office documents (except Access), the Treo is basically a novelty because I do not use the phone-function regularly. Because of that reason, the smartphone's relevancy with my day to day activities is significantly reduced.

It's like buying an H2. It's nice to have and has a true off-road conversion kit that rivals it's wartime Hummer counterpart. But unless you can consistently pay for filling the gas tank, you'd be hard pressed to use it everyday unless you have the cash. If you don't use it everyday, then what's the point of having something that looks nice but isn't used regularly and is just waiting to rust away. You'd be better off looking for a more practical transportation solution. (By the way, it's $8 a gallon for regular unleaded here in Korea)

I've tried to negotiate my contract to include my Treo's voice and data access, but was kindly denied. The contract could cover a PDA phone if it was purchased locally but only with a voice plan. (I'm thinking to myself, "What's the damn point of getting a PDA phone without a data plan?")

As dorky as this sounds, I'm going to miss the day to day activities with my Treo. I truly appreciate Palm for taking the initiative to create the Treo. To me, I think they're really the first who pioneered the PDA phone....

The Blackjack isn't bad at all. At least with the Blackjack, I'll have a local data plan that meets my needs. And if I don't want to use the data plan, the Korean version of the Blackjack has Wi-Fi. So it doesn't matter where I'm at (this is Korea after all), I can still get access to the internet. These on top of a basic voice-plan. How's that for justifying costs?

Still, it'll be hard to let go of the Treo. Ironically, I'm writing this on the Treo after I just placed the order for the Blackjack....

[jfa02]

Man what a mojor bummer. That is indeed heartwrenching if not heartbreaking. I am truly sorry.

[TazUk]

Can you not use the SIM from the Blackjack in the Treo?

[jfa02]

O ne would certainly think so! Maybe that's too logical!