A BIG THANKS to Lena of Seidio for providing the product for this review.

For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

Those who have used a third party audio adapter or headphone on their Treos may have experienced this and those who haven’t who are using a third party headphone or adapter may eventually experience this problem where, over time, the audio jack will fail. What do I mean? If you tend to plug in and remove the headphone or audio jack made from a third party manufacturer, you may experience that over time, and one day, you can’t hear any sound coming from the internal speakers regardless of whether it’s your alarm, phone’s ringtone, music, etc. No sound comes out even when you remove your headphone or audio jack. If this happens to you, you may have likely discovered that the audio port inside the Treo has been damaged due to repeated insertion and removal of the audio jack that apparently doesn’t “fit” the Treo’s specially designed port as nicely as you’d think.

One solution is to return it to Palm to have it repaired if it’s still under warranty. But if it isn’t, you may have to try to take it to a repair shop and get it fixed. And if you’re like most of us where we aren’t so privileged to have such repair shops nearby, you may have to search for an online repair shop, send it off for repairs and wait for it to come back, while enduring weeks of not being able to use your Treo for the duration. Depending on the prices charged plus the shipping, etc, it may not be worth your time and money to get it fixed.

If you are proficient at taking things apart and making repairs yourself, it may be as simple as opening up the Treo and doing some soldering.

Another solution to this problem is buying a new Treo smartphone but depending on the circumstances like money, contract, etc, that may not be a viable choice either.

The cheapest and easiest solution, however has been offered by the people over at Seidio. They have come up with a special audio adapter, that unlike most other audio adapters, this one actually connects not to your 2.5mm port, but to the Treo’s multi-connector port. So, even with a broken 2.5mm port, you can still plug in your 3.5mm stereo jack into this audio adapter and still be able to enjoy your music. Ingenius.

The total length of the audio adapter is about 12.5 cm or 5 inches.

As you’ve figured out already, this is an audio adapter that you plug in your regular 3.5mm headphone jack and then plug in this audio adapter into the multi-connector port of your Treo. Then, launch your favorite mp3 player software and enjoy the music, just like as nothing has changed. Simple. There’s no need to install any driver or software or anything. Just plug and play. Wow.

Problem solved. But wait, this audio adapter may allow you to listen to your music or any audio through your 3.5mm stereo headphones, but what about the microphone? Can you answer a phone call while you’re listening to your music? No, unfortunately not, well, not with this particular model. In order to answer the phone when the Treo is playing your music, you will need to first remove the audio adapter from the Treo. Then, answer your phone as usual and the microphone should work.

Or, you can get a different model of this same design which has the microphone enabled so that you can have the best of both worlds: listening to music and be able to use the microphone.

So, there are two different models for the Seidio audio adapter (Multi-connector). One only allows you to listen to music. The other model allows you to not only listen to the music, but also allows you to use the Treo microphone. You can save a few dollars by getting the regular one, but then, you aren’t breaking the bank either by paying a bit extra for the enhanced version. Regardless, the choice is yours.

To reiterate, I am reviewing the without the microphone enabled.

Picture of Audio Adapter (Connector Type)

Click on the thumbnail images for a bigger picture

Video of Audio Adapter (Connector Type)

Video at YouTube

Here are my observations: This is a great and relatively cheap solution to the problem that a lot of Treo users have experienced, a broken audio jack in the Treo. It’s a simple workaround fix. Simply plug in your 3.5mm stereo headphone jack into the audio adapter and plug it into the multi-connector port of your Treo and enjoy the music. No need to do anything extra or install any drivers or software.

Although this sounds like a great idea, keep in mind that the multi-connector itself is a bit bulky as most of you can see either in the pictures or in the video. Plus, you still have to plug in your headphone. Regardless, you may encounter some problems when fitting the entire setup in your shirt pocket now that you have an extra bulky multi-connector plug to deal with. But, with the extra length of cable and it’s flexible cable design, you can find ways to adjust your headphone setup in a way that isn’t too restrictive or get in the way.

To fit it in your shirt pocket, you can try to flip your Treo upside down so that the connector is facing up or find a different place to put your Treo that can fit the bulkier package. But, it may not look as nice with the connector and headphone wires sticking out. Keep in mind that it’s practically impossible to really improve on this design due to the bulky construction of the multi-connector. You can’t make it more flexible at the expense of the circuitry inside so you there’s a limit on what can be done. Be thankful that Seidio has stepped up to the plate and provided a relatively cheap workaround solution. With this audio adapter, you don’t have to open up your Treo to fix it and possibly damage it. But, on the other hand, the problem isn’t fixed but you have a workaround. I am one of those ones who usually try to find a workaround since I know I’m not comfortable opening anything up never mind trying to repair anything.

Review Summary

The Seidio audio adapter will allow you a relatively cheap workaround solution to a broken audio jack in the Treo. Simply plug in your headphones to the audio adapter and plug that into your Treo and enjoy your music as if nothing happened. It can’t get any simpler than that. Keep in mind that nothing is “fixed” and you aren’t paying for expensive repair fees or sending it away to get it repaired and everything else related to that. Also, the audio adapter is a bit bigger due to the multi-connector design so you may have to adjust how and where you put your Treo. But this audio adapter works.

Seidio has two different versions of this audio adapter in multi-connector design. There is the regular version which I have reviewed here which only allows you to listen to the audio on the Treo and there’s an enhanced version which allows you to use the Treo microphone even when it’s connected. So, depending on your budget and your preferences, either one will work well.

Check out the regular Audio Adapter (Connector Type) for the Palm Treo 650 and the enhanced Audio Adapter (Connector Type) for the Palm Treo 650 with mic enabled at SeidioOnline.

I do not have any affiliation with Seidio but thank Lena of Seidio for providing the product for this review.

Palm® Wifi Card now only $99.99

Thanks for visiting and supporting Palm Discovery. If you are not reading this article from Palmdiscovery.com or Palmdiscovery.net, the website you are reading it from is copying and posting my content without consent. Please visit Palm Discovery for the original source of the material.

Del.icio.us categories: archives categories palm seidio audioadapter audio-adapter multi-connector