Palm Treo GPS Navigator Review: TomTom 6 on the Treo 650, 700p and 700w

In August 2006, Palm and TomTom announced a bundle that let Treo owners add real turn-by-turn GPS navigation to smartphones that had no GPS hardware built in. The Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition paired a separate Bluetooth GPS receiver with TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 software and a memory card preloaded with US and Canada maps, and it worked across three very different Treo models: the Palm OS-based Treo 650 and Treo 700p, and the Windows Mobile-based Treo 700w. Mobility Today covered the package the same day it was announced, with a three-page hands-on report from David Ciccone. That original review is recoverable through archived snapshots and is the basis for the sections below describing what Mobility Today itself observed; independently verified period sources fill in the rest, and this article stays focused on this specific TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 generation rather than later Palm or TomTom products.

What Was the Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition?

The Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition was an accessory package, not a built-in feature of any Treo. It bundled a separate Bluetooth-enabled SiRFstarIII GPS receiver, TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 navigation software, and a 1GB SD memory card preloaded with street and highway maps of the United States and Canada, along with a vehicle cradle and charging equipment. The receiver connected to the phone over Bluetooth rather than plugging into it, and it was the receiver — not the Treo itself — that actually tracked satellites. This distinction matters because it's easy to assume, in hindsight, that a phone running full turn-by-turn navigation must have had GPS hardware inside it; in this case, none of the three supported Treo models did.

Why This Package Mattered in 2006

Most smartphones of that era, including all three Treo models this package supported, shipped without any built-in location hardware. Drivers who wanted turn-by-turn directions generally had two options: carry a separate, dedicated GPS unit such as a TomTom GO or a Garmin StreetPilot, or rely on printed directions and route familiarity. Palm's package offered a third path — pair a compact external receiver with a phone the owner was already carrying, rather than buying and carrying an entirely separate navigation device from scratch. It didn't remove the extra hardware completely, since the receiver was still a physical object with its own battery to manage, but it consolidated the maps, routing software, and display into a device already in the owner's pocket.

TomTom NAVIGATOR 6: What Shipped With the Package

Palm and TomTom announced the GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition on August 15, 2006, and at that point TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 was available exclusively through this Palm-branded bundle rather than as a standalone purchase. This article is describing that specific, 2006-era sixth-generation NAVIGATOR release — not later TomTom software built for the iPhone or Android years afterward, which worked in completely different ways.

Core navigation functions included spoken turn-by-turn directions, a points-of-interest database covering categories like gas stations, restaurants, and airports, automatic rerouting when a driver left the calculated path, on-screen map browsing, and route planning. Mobility Today's own hands-on coverage also walked through several features that were new to version 6 specifically at the time: entering GPS coordinates directly rather than only searching by address, a "TomTom Buddies" feature that could show other Buddies-list users' locations on the map when they were located somewhere within the currently loaded map region, updated Tele Atlas map data that displayed local road names and named exits rather than only exit numbers, and a speed readout that changed color once a driver exceeded the posted limit.

Inside the Box: What the Package Included

Based on Mobility Today's own account of unboxing the bundle, the retail package included:

• A Bluetooth-enabled SiRFstarIII GPS receiver, pairing directly with the phone over Bluetooth
• TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 software
• A 1GB SD memory card preloaded with US and Canada maps, meaning a buyer wasn't required to separately download maps before first use
• A vehicle cradle with a windshield mount
• Charging equipment — Mobility Today specifically described a dual charging cable capable of charging both the GPS receiver and the Treo at the same time, plus a separate USB SD card reader

Mobility Today's reviewer also noted that the packaging itself carried Palm's own branding rather than TomTom's, and that a single retail package covered all three supported Treo models — a buyer didn't need to separately hunt down a Palm OS version versus a Windows Mobile version before purchasing.

Mobility Today's Original Hands-On Review

The original article, titled "Palm Treo GPS Navigation Bundle," is recoverable through archived snapshots of mobilitytoday.com. It was written by David Ciccone and posted on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 — the same day as Palm and TomTom's announcement, with reader comments at the time congratulating Ciccone on getting hands-on access before Palm's own public rollout. The piece ran across three pages covering the box contents, a tour of TomTom NAVIGATOR 6's features, and roughly two weeks of hands-on use, tested primarily on a Treo 700w.

Ciccone reported that installing from the SD card took about five minutes, followed by wireless activation over the Treo's EV-DO connection that he described as seamless. He noted his Treo 700w had only around 2MB of free system memory available during testing, yet the software ran without the hangs or reboots he said he'd experienced with a competing product, OnCourse Navigator, on the same phone. He also reported the included windshield mount held securely through two weeks of testing without ever coming loose.

His overall verdict was positive: he wrote that the bundle let him retire a TomTom GO 300 unit he'd been carrying separately, and he rated the package 4.8 out of 5 stars. His listed strengths included the mount, handling incoming calls without losing GPS tracking, charging the receiver and Treo simultaneously, traffic alerts, the Buddies feature, how quickly the receiver picked up a satellite signal, and clear voice prompts. His one drawback: he'd have preferred a 2GB card over the included 1GB card.

Some things the recovered review does not include: a specific GPS acquisition time in seconds or minutes, a dedicated navigation-accuracy test, or a stated exact retail price. Those figures can't be confirmed through the recovered text and shouldn't be treated as established beyond what's summarized here.

Setting It Up: Pairing, SD Card, and Activation

Beyond what Mobility Today specifically documented, the general setup pattern for this kind of Bluetooth GPS receiver paired with TomTom software was fairly standard for SiRFstarIII-based receivers of the era — independently verified period documentation, not something Mobility Today itself walked through step by step: insert the preloaded SD card, install TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 from it, pair the Bluetooth receiver through the Treo's own Bluetooth settings, then select that receiver as the active GPS source inside TomTom's settings. Mobility Today's own account lines up with the broad strokes — card-based install followed by wireless activation — without detailing the pairing step itself in the recovered text.

Treo 650 vs Treo 700p vs Treo 700w

All three phones used a similar processor class and offered an SD card slot, so each could accept the same physical memory card from the box, and all three connected to the Bluetooth GPS receiver the same way. The most consequential functional difference for navigation was screen resolution: the Treo 650 and Treo 700p ran at 320x320, while the Windows Mobile-based Treo 700w ran at a lower 240x240. Cellular data support also differed — the Treo 650 predates EV-DO on Treo hardware, limiting it to slower data for anything needing a live connection, such as the Buddies or traffic features described above, while the 700p and 700w both supported EV-DO on carriers that offered it.

Worth noting: reader discussion underneath Mobility Today's own article shows some real-world confusion specifically around 700p support. One commenter pointed out that Palm's own website initially listed the bundle as compatible with only the Treo 700w and Treo 650, omitting the 700p, before other commenters — including Ciccone himself — confirmed 700p compatibility in the comments. That kind of early-documentation inconsistency wasn't unusual around a same-day product announcement, but it's a genuine historical detail rather than something invented for this piece.

Same Software, Different Platforms?

It's worth asking directly whether the same TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 build ran identically across all three phones, or whether Palm OS and Windows Mobile required different builds under one shared marketing name. Contemporary hands-on coverage of the package noted that the bundled memory card carried both a Windows Mobile executable and a separate Palm OS executable of the TomTom application — not one universal binary. That tracks with the underlying platforms: Palm OS Garnet and Windows Mobile 5.0 are fundamentally different operating systems, so TomTom needed a build compiled for each. Combined with the 700w's lower screen resolution, "TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 on the Palm bundle" wasn't a pixel-for-pixel identical experience across all three phones, even under one retail package and one software name.

Compared to a Standalone TomTom or Garmin Unit

Set against a dedicated, standalone GPS unit from TomTom or Garmin, the Treo-based package offered a clear convenience argument: one less device to buy, charge, and carry, since navigation lived on a phone the owner already had. The tradeoffs ran the other way, though. A dedicated GPS unit generally offered a larger, purpose-built screen, didn't depend on a Bluetooth pairing working correctly every time, and wasn't competing with calls, texts, and other smartphone tasks for the same battery and processor. The Palm package also still required carrying a second piece of hardware — the Bluetooth receiver itself — so it wasn't a true single-device solution, just a smaller one. Neither approach was objectively better; the right choice depended on how much a driver valued consolidation versus a larger dedicated screen.

Traffic, Weather, and TomTom PLUS Services

Mobility Today's own coverage of TomTom NAVIGATOR 6's features specifically noted that some of what it demonstrated — including live traffic information — was part of "TomTom PLUS" services rather than baseline software included at no extra cost. TomTom PLUS-style services in this era were generally structured as add-on, subscription-based offerings layered on top of the core navigation software, consistent with what the original review described. This article can't confirm exact pricing or subscription terms TomTom PLUS carried for the Palm-bundled version specifically, so treat "traffic and similar live services required something beyond the base package" as reasonably well supported, without treating any specific price or plan structure as confirmed.

Palm's Later Garmin-Based GPS Navigator (A Different Product)

It's worth being explicit about a separate, later Palm product that shares a similar name and easily gets confused with this one: in October 2007, Palm announced a new GPS Navigator package built around Garmin Mobile XT software instead of TomTom, aimed at a later set of Palm smartphones including the Centro, Treo 680, Treo 750, and Treo 755p. That Garmin-based package used its own external GPS receiver and its own preloaded map card — a genuinely different product generation from the TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 bundle this article covers, with different navigation software, a different vendor, and a later group of supported phones. Nothing here about TomTom NAVIGATOR 6, the SiRFstarIII receiver, or the Treo 650/700p/700w bundle should be read as describing that later Garmin package.

Pricing and Availability

Contemporary trade coverage around the August 2006 announcement listed an estimated US street price of $299 for the Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition bundle. Later coverage from PalmInfoCenter listed the package selling for $229.99 through Palm.com and PalmInfoCenter's own store. Retail pricing for an accessory bundle like this could reasonably vary by retailer and by the point in its sales life it was purchased, so both figures are presented here as reported rather than as a single settled price — this article isn't asserting one number as more official than the other.

FAQ

What was the Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition?

An accessory package pairing a separate Bluetooth GPS receiver, TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 software, and a preloaded map card with a compatible Treo smartphone, announced by Palm and TomTom on August 15, 2006.

Did the Treo 650 have built-in GPS?

No. None of the three supported Treo models — 650, 700p, or 700w — had GPS hardware built in. Location came from the separate Bluetooth GPS receiver included in the package.

How did GPS work on the Treo?

The included Bluetooth-enabled SiRFstarIII GPS receiver tracked satellites independently and sent location data to the Treo over a Bluetooth connection, where TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 used that data for navigation.

What was TomTom NAVIGATOR 6?

The sixth-generation release of TomTom's NAVIGATOR software, offering turn-by-turn spoken directions, points of interest, automatic rerouting, and route planning, bundled exclusively with this Palm package at launch.

Which Treo phones were supported?

The Treo 650 and Treo 700p, both running Palm OS, and the Treo 700w, running Windows Mobile 5.0.

Did the package include maps?

Yes. A 1GB SD card came preloaded with street and highway maps covering the United States and Canada, so no separate map download was required to get started.

Did it require mobile data?

Core turn-by-turn navigation used the preloaded maps and didn't require a live connection. Certain extras, such as the Buddies feature and live traffic information, did depend on connectivity.

What GPS receiver did it use?

A Bluetooth-enabled SiRFstarIII GPS receiver, included as a separate physical unit in the package rather than built into the phone.

How much did it cost?

Contemporary coverage listed an estimated US street price of $299 at announcement, while later coverage listed it selling for $229.99 through Palm's own store — pricing isn't confirmed as a single settled figure.

Could the Treo provide spoken directions?

Yes, through TomTom NAVIGATOR 6, which provided voice-guided, turn-by-turn spoken directions once paired with the Bluetooth GPS receiver.

How did it compare to a standalone TomTom or Garmin device?

It offered convenience by putting navigation on a phone the owner already carried, but still required carrying the separate Bluetooth receiver, and a dedicated standalone unit generally offered a larger screen with no phone tasks competing for the same battery.

Was this the same as Palm's later Garmin GPS package?

No. Palm announced a separate, later GPS Navigator package in October 2007 built around Garmin Mobile XT software for a later set of Palm smartphones — a different product from the TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 bundle covered here.

Nearly two decades on, the Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition reads as a snapshot of a transitional moment in mobile navigation — after paper maps and dedicated standalone units, but well before GPS chips were simply built into every phone sold. Getting turn-by-turn directions onto a Treo in 2006 meant pairing a Bluetooth receiver, loading a memory card, and picking the right software build for whichever operating system that particular Treo happened to run. Mobility Today's own hands-on account of that process, recovered here from archived snapshots of the original review, remains one of the more detailed contemporary records of what actually using the bundle was like.