Josh Rubin of Cool Hunting published his first impressions of working with an unlocked Treo 650. He talks about the contacts application, email, instant messaging, and SMS/MMS, and why he thinks the Treo 650 is a huge improvement over the 600.

I exchanged emails with him and asked how he got his unlocked Treo 650 on-line. Here's what he told me:

I already had a T-Mobile SIM, but the unlocked version comes with all the carrier information pre-configured. When you put in a SIM, it detects carrier and updates the settings. The phone itself doesn't need activation, per se. You will, of course, need an activated SIM. This is standard practice for handsets and carriers on the GSM network.

It's interesting to hear that he's using it on the T-Mobile network, since I have an active T-Mobile SIM, and I'm pretty happy with the service I've been getting through them. As I said in an article I wrote a couple of months ago, I'd prefer to purchase an unlocked handset so that I can feel free to work with the GSM carrier of my choice, now and in the future. Josh's experience makes this seem more possible for me now.