The Treo 650 is supposed to be officially released on Monday, but Palm slipped a press release out last week and most of the carriers are talking semi-openly about it, so there aren’t a whole lot of secrets left. The only details left uncertain are shipping dates and prices.

Here’s a quick recap:

• Phone/PDA hybrid
• 320x320 screen
• Bluetooth
• Keyboard
• PalmOS 5.4 (“Garnet”)
• 312 MHz Intel XScale CPU
• 32 MB RAM plus 32 MB of flash for backups
• 1.3 MP camera
• SD-IO slot (maybe WiFi SD support, maybe not)
• GSM model supports EDGE as well as GPRS
• Removable battery

AT&T, Sprint, and Cingular should be shipping it before the end of 2004; Verizon and T-Mobile will probably wait until the middle of 2005. Unlocked GSM phones will probably be $650; it’s unclear what carriers will charge, but it’ll probably be similar to their Treo 600 pricing from earlier this year.

While the official announcement date is Monday, October 25th, the NDA embargo will most likely lift at midnight GMT, which means that US-based sites will start posting details sometime Sunday afternoon, just like the Tungsten T5 release a couple weeks ago.

As usual, there’s a bit of controversy and disgruntlement surrounding the Treo 650. A lot of people were waiting for a Treo with more then 32 MB of RAM, WiFi, and PalmOS 6.x (“Cobalt”). While the Treo 650 includes a number of improvements over the 600 (faster CPU, bluetooth, internal flash, removable battery, EDGE support), it’s more evolutionary then revolutionary. PalmSource claims that there will be almost a dozen new PalmOS smartphones next year; odds are at least some of them will be substantial improvements over the Treo 650. However, I haven’t seen any substantial leaks, and I doubt that any of the other PalmOS phones will show up before 2Q2005. I don’t want to wait 6 months to replace my (rapidly failing) 3-year-old Clie, so I’ll probably order the 650 as soon as its available.

Update: CNet has a nice picture: