Review - Palm Treo Pro

If you’ve been reading my sites for a while, you’d know that ever since the Treo 700w hit Verizon a couple years ago, I have had a soft spot for the Palm Treo line. The Treo 700w was the 1st Treo to come out with Windows Mobile. That was huge in my book for Palm. Following on, The Treo 750 became my go to phone for about 6-9 months and I really loved the phone and email experience on the 750.

This year, Palm released the Treo 800w on Sprint. If history would repeat it’s self, you would have expected a GSM version of the 800w a few months later. I was expecting to see a Treo 850 on AT&T sometime late 2008. I am not sure if Palm will offer a Treo 800w in the GSM variety, but they have released the Palm Treo Pro, unlocked in the GSM Variety. That is what I have been using for the last couple weeks.

The Palm Treo Pro is a Windows Mobile phone that breaks out of the typical, yet popular, Treo mold that we’ve all become familiar with. The progression has gone from the early Treos with the big antenna to the sleek, antenna-less Treo 750, to the smaller (non Windows Mobile) Centro, to the Treo 800w, and finally a new chapter in the book in the Treo Pro.

The Treo Pro is a slim, more modern phone with a glossy black finish. The Treo Pro has been manufactured by one of the leaders in mobile phones, HTC too. The buttons have been moved around a bit from the Treo and the keyboard has been redone to be smaller.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX

• Palm Treo Pro
• Removable and rechargeable battery
• AC charger (100-240 volt, 1A power cable)
• USB sync cable
• Stereo headset (3.5mm)
• Getting Started Guide

Comparison Shots

                           Apple iPhone                                                           AT&T Epix

 
                             T-mobile G1                                                             AT&T Tilt

Some Popular Size Comparisons

Technical Specs

• Platform - Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition
• Processor - Qualcomm MSM7201 400MHz
• Display - 320×320 transflective color TFT flush touchscreen
• Radio - HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM radio - Tri-band UMTS – 850MHz, 1900MHz, 2100MHz  - Quad-band GSM – 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 1900MHz
• Wi-Fi - 802.11b/g with WPA, WPA2, and 801.1x authentication
• GPS - Built-in GPS
• Wireless Technology  - Bluetooth® 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate; Infrared (IR)
• Memory - 256MB (100MB user available), 128MB RAM
• Camera - 2.0 megapixels with up to 8x digital zoom and video capture
• Battery - Removable, rechargeable 1500mAh lithium-ion; Up to 5.0 hours talk time and up to 250 hours standby
• Expansion - microSDHC cards (up to 32GB supported)
• Connector - MicroUSB™ 2.0 for synchronization and charging
• Audio - 3.5mm stereo headset jack
• Dimensions - Length: 4.49″, Width: 2.36″, Depth: 0.53″, Weight: 4.69 oz - Weight: 5.4 ounces

THE DESIGN

Most people don’t carry a smartphone because they care what people “think” of their phone. Phones can be fashion statements or status icons in some circles, but not in mine. That said, the Palm Treo Pro is only the second phone that I’ve used that someone actually stopped me to ask what it was. In fact, I have been approached 3 times in the couple weeks I’ve been using it to inquire. I guess it goes to say that the Palm Treo Pro is a sexy device. I tend to agree, I really like the looks of it. I do wish that they would not have sacrificed keyboard real estate to make it more sexy.

Let’s start out at the bottom of the Palm Treo Pro. Immediately, you will notice that there is a headphone jack, yes a headphone jack. To the right of the headphone jack is your microphone and to the left is the micro USB connector that charges and syncs the phone. I don’t like that Palm went away from their standard connector for charging and sync, but change for the better is good. Being that this device was manufactured by HTC, you would think that they would have done Mini USB like most phones they make. That’s not the case here, its micro USB. There goes the all in one charging solution.

On the left side of the Palm Treo Pro, you have a volume up/down button and the programmable camera button. I normally set my camera button to Microsoft Voice Command.

On the top side of the Palm Treo Pro, you have the “expected” ringer switch. This allows you to quickly switch the phone to vibrate during meetings or whatever. To the right of that slider is the power button.

 
The right hand side of the device has only one touch wifi button. This button is really handy. It saves you from having to dive down into your settings or hitting the com manager to switch Wifi on/off.

You can really see how glossy this paint job is on the back cover. It’s a sure enough fingerprint magnet. On the back, you have the speaker just to the left of where the sylus tip is laying in the photo. You also have a hold for the camera and the Palm logo. The stylus is one of the worst ones I’ve used to date. It’s short and DOES NOT extend to make it longer.

After sliding the back cover off, it reveals the battery slot, the sim slot, the MicroSD slot, and the reset button. If you blow up the above photo and look at the top left screw, to the right is the reset button. You can’t see it in the photo, but on the left side of the Treo Pro with the cover removed, you can access the MicroSD Slot.

Here is where I was impressed with some aspects and not thrilled about others. The good things about the Palm Treo Pro navigation is the dpad. The center button is big enough too. The one thing you will notice above the dpad is the lack of soft keys. These are the two keys that line up with on screen menus and selections. Instead of having the two buttons Palm chose to let you use your finger on the actual screen where the menus show. To the top left of the dpad is the Windows button and under that, the calendar button. To the top right, the OK button and below it is the messaging button. The green and red accented buttons are the call and hang up buttons.

Here is where I am unimpressed, the keyboard. As you can see in the photo above, the keyboard is almost identical to the one on the little bitty Palm Centro. The Palm Treo Pro’s keyboard is usable, but isn’t very comfortable. I would to have seen a keyboard equivalent with the Treo 700w or 750.

FEATURES
The Palm Treo Pro comes packed with features. Built in GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, and a 2 Megapixel camera. The built in GPS is becoming a standard on smartphones these days, so I am not too excited about that. WiFi is pretty standard too, but this is exciting to me since the Treo 750 didn’t have WiFi. Palm has taken some harsh critisism over not adding WiFi to it’s Treo lineup until this year. Bluetooth works and the rest of the features, blah blah blah. They all work.

Phone
Another true testament included in this review is another quick story. When I received this review unit, I was using my iPhone again. I have used it on/off for the last few months. I had a conversation with another webmaster, Jason Dunn from Pocket PC Thoughts, and he commented on how I sounded different. He asked if I was using a new phone. I asked why and he said that I sounded great and that I normally sound muffled on my iPhone. That goes pretty good for a conversation spanning from Alabama to Canada.

My personal observations are that the call and data quality has been excellent with the Treo Pro. I’ve had no troubles out of the device at all. What I don’t like about the Treo Pro as a phone is the fact that Palm didn’t add their today screen left menu that allowed you to call most recent called numbers and such from the today screen. It’s still not difficult to call, but I liked what I got used to with the Treo 750. You can start punching out a number or contact from the today screen and predictive text takes over and queries your contact data. Like I said, it’s not hard, I was just used to the other way.

GPS
The GPS is nice, but initial fix times are horrible. Palm has included some Google Maps and Telenav to interact with the GPS by default, but you can run out and purchase your favorite GPS software and use it as well.

Camera
The camera is well, a camera. It’s a 2 megapixel, very limited camera. Most of you know how I feel about cameras on phones. The software to control the camera is simple and easy to use. The picture quality is nothing to write home to mom about, but good enough to show your friends that cool car you saw at lunch.

Software
No frills, no gimmicks. Just the way I like. The problem with the fancy UIs that some OEMs are slapping on top of Windows Mobile is that they slow the device down even more. While I admit that TouchFlo and the likes are very nice looking and sure to draw in a different crowd, I prefer the basic Windows Mobile Today screen.

The Palm Treo Pro operates on Windows Mobile 6.1 and comes with the following software preinstalled:

ActiveSync; Adobe Reader LE; Bluetooth®; Bubble Breaker; Calculator; Calendar; Communications Manager; Contacts; File Explorer; Get WorldMate; GoogleMaps; Internet Explorer® Mobile; Messaging; Microsoft Office Mobile including Excel Mobile, OneNote Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, and Word Mobile; My Treo; Notes; Pics & Videos; QuickGPS; Quick Tour; SIM Manager; Solitaire; Sprite Backup; Streaming Media; Tasks; Telenav; Voice Command; Windows Live; Windows Live™ Messenger; Windows Media Player Mobile

In previous Palm Windows Mobile devices, there was, what appeared to be a great deal of TLC put into making Windows Mobile better with Palm’s own touches. There is not much of that in the Palm Treo Pro though. There are a couple of things that Palm/HTC has done with the Treo Pro though. Notably there is the new communications manager and HTC’s Memory management application.

A big plus on the installed software is Microsoft Office Mobile (all of the apps) and Microsoft Voice Command. So many WinMo phones leave these out.

Messaging
Palm has their thread SMS messaging application on the Treo Pro. It’s so much nicer than the alternative. Right out of the box, the Treo Pro was ready to sync up with my Microsoft Exchange Server. Two minutes later, all my contacts, appointments, and email are now on the Treo Pro. I will admit that two minutes is fairly quick for setting this up, it’s just that I am a seasoned veteran of changing out phones. The email application is the standard Pocket Outlook that we are all accustomed to.

Internet
I can deal with Pocket Internet Explorer with how little I use a browser on a phone. I use quite a few apps that pull data from the web, but I don’t use the browser much. If you’ve used Pocket Internet Explorer before, nothing has changed. If you need a more rich web browsing environment, I would suggest Opera.

PERFORMANCE
The Palm Treo Pro sports a Qualcomm MSM7201 400MHz. That speed is kind of misleading. If you take the Qualcomm chip clocked at 400mhz vs. the Intel PXA processor the Axim X51v uses clocked at 400mhz, you will see a big difference. Ideally, 400mhz on a Pocket PC Phone is normally sufficient to get the job done. The Treo Pro is no different. Overall, all applications ran smoothly, I had to do no hard resets, and I only saw a couple “laggy” moments. Of course, I try to make sure that I have applications closed when they are not in use and watch my memory like a hawk.

Battery Life
The Treo Pro has a 1500mah battery. That is plenty of battery for the average user. With push email rolling constantly, 1-2 hours of talk time a day, and moderate internet accessing, the Palm Treo Pro was sitting at 1/2 battery life each night when I got home. I could have easily made it through a 2nd day, but I would go ahead and grab a full charge each night. Overall, I am quite impressed with the battery. Be advised that I do not live in a 3G coverage area, so 3G drain was something I didn’t have to deal with.

Conclusion
Ok, let’s see here. An absolutely beautiful piece of hardware, my favorite mobile OS, GSM Phone (unlocked even), and new features like WiFi, what is there not to like? The keyboard? Yes, that’s about it. The keyboard alone would prevent me from buying this phone personally. I have talked with others that have used it and they were able to deal with it, but they also wished the keys were bigger.

Price, There is another thing that will drive some buyers off. Palm is currently offering this phone unlocked only. That means that you have to pay full retail. The good thing is that you won’t be locked into a contract when you take it to your GSM carrier to use it on. $549 is a tad out of the budget for many. There is a rumor that it will be offered by carriers eventually. If you can hang on for that, you will be able to score this slick device for $199-299 after contract or so.

Overall, I can highly recommend the Palm Treo Pro to those that have the need to use Exchange Email, can afford the unlocked price, and want something a little snazzy. It’s not ugly, that is for sure.

PROS

• Sleek, Sexy Design
• Bright Screen
• One Touch WiFi
• Built in GPS

CONS

• Small, Cramped Keyboard
• Lack of “Palm Innovation” added to Windows Mobile
• While the looks of Glossy finish is a Pro, being fingerprint magnet makes this a con
• Charge Sync changed, but not for the better
• Stylus too small

Written by Chris Leckness · Filed Under General, Mobilitysite Reviews, Palm, Palm Treo 
Tagged: Palm Treo, palm treo pro review, treo pro

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