Verizon Wireless customers seemingly interminable wait for palmOne's Treo 650 should end shortly.

The mobile operator promoted the popular communicator as coming to its network 'soon' on its Web site yesterday, nearly half a year after CDMA competitor Sprint introduced the popular smartphone to the world, and a couple months later than Cingular Wireless began selling the Treo 650 for its high-speed GSM/GPRS EDGE network.

What 'soon' means exactly isn't clear, however.

So we can't say whether it'll be a couple of days or weeks. Either way, Verizon subscribers are sure to be thinking it’s better late than never for the highly regarded smartphone.

Reports state the Verizon Treo 650 is nearly indistinguishable from Sprint's CDMA2000 1xRTT edition. Unfortunately, it appears the wireless carrier, like Sprint, will unfairly disable Bluetooth Dial-Up Networking.

Without Dial-Up Networking, Verizon subscribers can’t employ the smartphone as a modem for notebook and handheld computers. Nonetheless, Verizon Treo 650 owners should still be able to leverage Bluetooth for PC syncing and cordless connections to wireless headsets and compatible printers

As soon as Verizon officially announces the Treo 650, we'll report how much it costs (with and without a service plan). Of course, you'll also want to get a data plan (on top of voice service charges) for e-mail and Web access , so we'll fill you in on those details as well.

Treo 650
Although not a reinvention of Verizon's aging Treo 600, the Treo 650 fixes some weaknesses of the earlier model while adding some nice new features, including an improved keyboard, high-resolution screen, e-mail, PIM functionality, Web browser, and phone capabilities.

The smartphone measures 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.9 inches, weighs about 6.3 ounces, and has an overall appearance similar to the Treo 600's. Treo 650's QWERTY thumb-keyboard has a backlight and a more user-friendly design than the previous model, however. And like the earlier model, there is a Secure Digital slot for peripheral and memory expansion.

Unlike the Treo 600 and its 160 x 160 screen the Treo 650 implements a high-resolution 320 x 320 display, which makes it easier to read documents and Web pages. The Treo 650, as mentioned earlier, also integrates Bluetooth—a glaring omission in the previous model.

As with the Treo 600, the Treo 650 includes a VGA camera for 640 x 480 or 352 x 288 pixel images. The Treo 650's camera is better, however, with improved picture and video taking in low-light situations. With the Treo 650, you also get a 312 MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processor and twice the memory, 32MB, of the Treo 600. As with the Tungsten T5, the memory is non-volatile, which means you won't lose your data in the event of a power drain.

Unlike the Treo 600's battery, the Treo 650's is removable. So you can carry an extra battery (sold separately), and swap it out for additional power on the fly.

For more on the CDMA version of the Treo 650, see Review: palmOne Treo 650 - A Near Perfect Hybrid, where we review the Sprint edition of the smartphone.