Twelve Black Code Monkeys

With all the excitement over the Pa1mOne’s new Treo 650, forgotten by many is that there’s another phone out there that has a lot of the same functionality and can be found at a pretty darn cheap price. Sure the Treo 600 is now a year and a half old, but it doesn’t make it any less functional. This is the phone I’m currently using (since my Treo 650 hasn’t come in yet), and it serves me very well indeed, as I’ve mentioned maybe a few times here before?

Used Treo 600’s are going for about $300 give or take on eBay these days – I’ve been doing some research as I will be putting my own up for auction hopefully soon enough. But, it appears you can get a brand new one from Amazon.com for as little as $125. Here are the catches: you need to sign up for new service with Cingular, meaning being roped into a two-year contract; secondly, if you want to pay $125 and not $225, you also have to sign up for a subscription to Audible.com. Audible.com, as I’ve mentioned here a number of times, is an audio book download service. You pay $20/month and get two audio books that often could retail for $50 or more each. Huge selection, and they are playable on the Treo itself.

So, if you are looking to switch cell phone carriers anyway (I’m seriously considering doing this myself when my contract runs out with T-Mobile in a few months) and either would be interested in trying out Audible for a year or your already an Audible member but you’ve already fulfilled your commitment, you could enter the Smartphone world on the cheap. And with all the Treo 600 users trading up to the Treo 650, there are tons of accessories available for dirt cheap as well. Aside from this, I’m pretty sure you get the bonus of getting an unlocked phone. Cingular Treo 600’s unless I’m mistaken, are unlocked.