Palm Treo Pro

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Palm was at the forefront of the PDA (personal digital assistant) revolution, but in the competitive world of mobile phone technology, PDAs fell out of favour as smartphones got smarter. The new Palm Treo Pro aims to redress the balance and put Palm firmly back in contention with Nokia, BlackBerry and the rest of the smartphone movers and shakers. The Treo Pro, a signature Palm phone, is a feature-packed heavy hitter. But has Palm’s innovation given way to imitation and will this new gadget have enough going for it to catch up with the recent clutch of sophisticated touchscreen smartphones?

Features:
With the Treo Pro, Palm has stuck fairly close to the design and build of the Centro (reviewed in Issue 184), preserving the curvy body but favouring a monotone svelte look that’s more aesthetically pleasing. It’s also a bit wider than its predecessor, which frees up space on the Qwerty keyboard. For internet connection, there’s quad-band GSM, GPRS and HSDPA for high-speed mobile data. The Treo Pro uses Windows Mobile 6, rather than Palm’s own operating system, and its internal GPS makes use of a handy Google Maps service, along with an option to get Webraska, turn-by-turn navigation software. The basics are handled expertly too, from push email messaging to music and video recording.

Performance:
Thankfully, Palm has ditched the non-standard headphone socket in favour of a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the sound from the Windows Media Player is top quality. There are lots of well-designed built-in short cuts on the body of the phone that boost performance: a switch on the top edge lets you silence the phone, the power button doubles as a GSM activation button, and a short-cut button gives you the option to go straight to Wi-Fi. Like Apple’s iPhone, Palm opted for a sufficient but disappointing 2-megapixel camera. Unlike the iPhone, however, the Pro is capable of recording video. The most dissatisfying element of the Treo Pro is the battery life: heavy users will need to charge it on a daily basis.

Ease of use:
Being new to Palm can prove a little tricky, but it’s mostly molehills rather than mountains you’ll have to contend with. Those already familiar with Palm and Windows phones will be Pro users in no time, and the fact that it uses Windows OS will make it a familiar system for many users. The compact keyboard makes typing finicky and frustrating at times but it gets easier as you get used to it. Another plus is that you can also use the Pro as a mass storage device across multiple PCs.

Value for money:
Palm has definitely upped its game with this device but it’s also upped the price. The sim-free Pro at £399.99 is more than double the price of the Centro. This is a considerable amount to shell out for the phone itself, although it can be obtained for free on contract. This makes it more expensive than Apple’s pay-as-you-go 8GB iPhone, but level pegging with the 16GB.