After the release of the CDMA 800w, we expected Palm to unveil a GSM version soon after. Well, that day has come, but instead of a new model number like Treo 850, the company has decided to go with the name Treo Pro instead. This handheld is the first HSDPA-enabled Treo to come with Wi-Fi built in, finally breaking the tradition of Palm leaving out one or two key connectivity options in its new products. This brings it in line with other Windows Mobile (WM) products out on the market which are usually armed to the teeth with features.

Design

Design-wise, each Treo traditionally had a mixture of brushed metal and matte plastic finish. Even though the last Windows Mobile Treo 750 lacked an external antenna, you could still tell from a glance that it's similar to the much older Treo 650, thanks to the design language. If you liked that, prepare to be disappointed as the Treo Pro looks more like the company's Centro device. The Treo Pro is clothed entirely in a glossy plastic material (which picks up fingerprints easily) and has rounded edges instead of an angular theme. The fact that it comes only in black (for now) gives it a more professional look compared with the Centro which is targeted at the mass market. Nonetheless, we have to say that the older Treo design does project a more "businessy" feel. The upside is, of course, the size and weight. At 133g and 114 x 60 x 13.5mm, it's significantly lighter and much thinner than earlier Treos.

The front face of the Treo Pro is very clean. The screen is flush with the bezel, much like how HTC designs its Touch series of PDA-phones. This makes it possible to do away with the physical softkeys, though we are not too sure if that's a good thing. One of the key advantages of using a Treo device is that the user interface (UI) is designed so you hardly have to touch the screen. However, because there are no softkeys on the Treo Pro, having to touch the bottom corners of the display becomes a sure thing as that's how you bring up most of the context menus in Windows Mobile.

There are no physical softkeys so tapping on the screen is inevitable.

Like the screen, the shortcut keys around the directional pad are also flush. These include a Start key, OK shortcut and two others to access the Calendar and Messaging applications. They are flanked by the Call and Hang-up keys which are essentially black, round buttons with green and red rings around the edges, respectively--the only signs of color throughout the black-and-white color theme of the Treo Pro. The directional pad itself is a raised silver ring which can be depressed in four directions with a large select button at the center that has the Palm logo prominently displayed.

Like other Treos before it, the Pro can be turned off by pressing the Hang-up key. This also automatically activates the keyguard feature so the device doesn't get turned on accidentally and make random calls while in your pocket. With the Treo Pro, Palm has also added an additional power button on the top edge, putting it in line with most other WM handhelds which have dedicated power buttons. Also found on the top edge is a ringer switch for toggling the silent mode--a mainstay of Treo handhelds.

The screen found on the Treo Pro is a 2.5-inch, 320 x 320-pixel display. This screen resolution is similar to earlier Palm OS Treos like the 680 but not so common for WM devices. Another WM product using this screen is the Samsung SGH-i780. We found it to be sufficiently sharp, though colors appeared a little washed-out when viewing photos and videos.

Looking further down, we come to the most important part of any Treo device, the QWERTY keypad. Compared to previous Palm models, the Pro's keypad is much closer to the Centro's design than the Treos'. Though it isn't as cramped as the Centro's, this keypad has keys that have a rectangular shape and top surfaces which are too flat. This makes it hard to distinguish one key from another. The older 650, 680 and 750 models are examples of thumb-operated keyboards that work because of the shape of the keys and a slight curve in the layout. In this case, the slight irregularity is actually an advantage. We felt that in trying to make the Treo Pro easier on the eyes, Palm has watered down one of its strongest features--the tradition of an excellent QWERTY keypad.

Features

As in previous Treo devices, many of the user-friendly features such as a dedicated ringer switch and auto keylock remain intact in the Treo Pro. In addition, Palm has included a Wi-Fi power switch right beside the IR port. A shortcut key to access the connection manager page is common in WM PDA-phones, but Palm has made it so the button just turns on Wi-Fi and automatically connects to whichever preset access points you have configured when in range. This is clever because the Wi-Fi radio is one of those features which get toggled a lot, and cutting down the steps to do so is a great move.

Yes, you heard right, the Treo Pro has Wi-Fi. That's not all, too. This iteration even comes with GPS built-in for satellite navigation. All these signify a departure from Palm's annoying habit of leaving out one or two important features that are usually found in competing products from other manufacturers.

Because it includes a 3.5mm audio jack, the Treo Pro suddenly becomes a good choice for those who use their PDA-phones as music players. Couple that with the fact that it has a microSD card slot which accepts up to 32GB microSDHC media, and you have a medium-capacity MP3 player which will accept any of your regular headphones.

While we applaud the use of a standard audio jack, Palm went ahead with a micro-USB port instead of the more common mini-USB variant for charging and syncing. To be fair, this is actually a step up from the proprietary port used on the Treo 750. But we will list this as a negative because it's more likely that most people have a mini-USB cable lying around rather than a micro-USB one.

The setup screen you get when plugging in the Treo Pro to a PC for the first time.
(Click for larger)

Ease-of-use has always been one of the trademarks of Treos. Before Microsoft made it a standard feature on Windows Mobile 6.1, Palm already put threaded SMS into its Treo 750 device. But since the OS underwent its last update, Palm's little touches have become standard on all current Windows Mobile devices. As long as you have WM6.1 on any device, you get threaded SMS, quick dialing from the Home screen and a Getting Started shortcut for easy setup and activation of services like email and Bluetooth pairing. So, instead of its custom apps, Palm has gone with the WM6.1 defaults for those features. Nonetheless, there are still certain customizations including a Google search bar on the Home screen and a drop-down Task Manager program which lets you see which applications are running in the background and to close them quickly. This Task Manager program is owned by HTC and was licensed to Palm for the Treo Pro.

Aside from the ease-of-use features on the device, one thing we found very useful was the automatic synchronization setup function. If you plug in this handheld for the first time to your Windows computer, it will launch a desktop program which helps you set up your synchronization settings. This will install ActiveSync for you if you don't already have that, check for the availability of Outlook and set up your mail if you so desire. While seasoned Windows Mobile users would probably prefer to do all these manually, someone switching to this platform from perhaps Palm OS or Symbian will find this feature very useful indeed.

A 2-megapixel camera is found on the back of the Treo Pro. It is pretty utilitarian with no autofocus, no LED for lighting up your subject in dark situations and no preview mirror for self-portraits.

Performance

A removable battery with a capacity of 1,500mAh is found in the Treo Pro. This provided us with about 2.5 days of use before a recharge was required. The 128MB RAM and 400MHz processor made for pretty snappy performance. With nothing running in the background, about 60MB of RAM was free for running applications.

Call quality was fine and the speakerphone volume was loud enough for situations that were not too noisy.

We tested the GPS and it found our initial location fairly quickly. For an even faster satellite lock, a QuickGPS application is also available which downloads a small file that helps the internal GPS pinpoint the satellite locations faster. Note that no bundled maps and software for turn-by-turn navigation come with the Treo Pro.

Conclusion

Feature for feature, the closest device to the Palm Treo Pro would have to be the Samsung SGH-i780. They both have their advantages over the other. The Palm comes with a 3.5mm audio jack and some convenient user-friendly features, while the Samsung has a snazzy custom Home screen, good QWERTY keyboard and two batteries as standard.

But if you take it from a price point of view, the i780 has the huge advantage of being more than S$100 cheaper over the Treo Pro. And since the handheld from the Korean chaebol has been out on the market for more than half a year now, we wonder what took Palm so long and if it could have done better than its current S$938 price tag.