PALM TREO 750V REview

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Palm Treo™ smartphone 

As a fanatical Windows Mobile supporter - I never thought I'd find myself writing an article about how great a Palm device was!

My journey through devices did stop at the Palm stop one time in my past however.  Just before I joined Microsoft I had a Palm V.  I loved the device because its form factor was so small and I used it mainly for my diary and to-do list. 

So here I am many years later writing an article about a fabulous Palm device... this time its running Windows Mobile :)

The Palm Treo 750v is the European cousin of the Treo 700w(and 700wx device)  It's a 3G (UMTS) Windows Mobile device and is launched exclusively with Vodafone.

I've been fortunate enough to have one of these to test for the past 2 months and now it's been announced I can share my thoughts and review it!

 

Specification

Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition

3G UMTS Device

300 Mhz Processor

240x240 Screen

Bluetooth 1.1 and 1.2 support 

Approx 60MB of available memory

MiniSD Slot

1.3 Megapixel Camera

 

Form Factor

The Treo 750v is very similar to the Treo 650 and Treo 700 devices in terms of form factor... it feels about 1mm thinner than the Treo 700w device.  The Form Factor is possibly the perfect size for being both a great phone that you will carry everywhere you go (including evenings and weekends) as well as an excellent messaging device with an integrated QWERTY keyboard. 

Whenever I've travelled to the US I've always noticed how many people carry the Treo 700w now... all of them only ever have one device rather than where I see other users using multiple devices.

Personally I've found the form factor to be perfect as my everyday device..... 

Unlike the Treo 700w the Treo 750v does not have an antenna/aerial so it fits perfectly in the pocket. 

A couple of very neat touches to the overall device are:

  • The MiniSD slot has a cover on it to stop you losing the miniSD card!
  • The Mute switch on the top of the device is an incredibly useful addition!  As you head into a meeting you slide the switch to mute - all system sounds are disabled... the device vibrates to let you know that it is in silent mode. Slide the switch back to Sound On and the device will then make noises as you expect! 

 

Treo as a Phone

The Treo is an interesting device as physically it fits between a Smartphone and a Pocket PC Phone.  The 750v does run Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone software however because the keyboard is external to the device it makes it very easy to make/place calls. 

The device has excellent Audio quality and making/receiving calls has been 100% reliable for me!

Push Email

The Treo 750v utilises Windows Mobile 5.0 and has the integrated Direct Push Email capability.  Because it's a 3G device you can even have your email arriving as you are talking on the telephone! 

Keyboard

The keyboard on the Treo 750v is fantastic.  I've never done so much email or note taking on a device (without a Bluetooth keyboard).  If you have used a K-Jam or similar device it does take a little getting used to as the keys are operated more by the tips of your fingers rather than flat like the HTC style devices. 

The device also has some useful additional keys that make One handed navigation much more simple (more on that later) ...

  • Start Key
  • OK button - so you can action items in any application
  • Alt key to access those (in)frequently used symbols

Screen

The 240x240 screen has had mixed reception from many people.  With many other OEMs using this screen size many application developers are building their applications to cater for it.  Most of the applications I use work with this screen format.   The Screen is very bright and clear however the default brightness was only middle of the scale so when it's turned up it's really bright!

Audio

The good news is that the Palm device does support A2DP and I've been using it with a set of Motorola Bluetooth Headphones to listen to my music on my commute into London.  The quality is excellent and the device operates well when playing music.  Swapping between music and voice calls has also been seamless. 

Battery Life

How is the battery life?   The constant request from customers... well like all things.. it depends on how much you use it...

Today I've had 4hrs of conference calls and about 300 emails on my device... It has been away from the charger since 6:15 am and I'm at about 14% remaining right now. (it's 8pm when I wrote this)

In my use of the device I've found it to always last a chaotic business day.  It will also last a full weekend without carrying a charger.

Obviously if you make a huge amount of phone calls and use 3G a lot then the battery life does get hit however I've found I don't need to carry a charger with me.

One Handed Use

One of the areas Palm has spent a huge amount of time on is ensuring the device can be used one handed.  I did post an article last week on this and got a huge amount of comments on this very topic!  With the Treo 750v I never ever pull out the stylus to operate the device.   Pretty much everything can be achieved through the soft keys and on the device with the 5 way navigator.  There is only one exception I've found  - that is that you can't align the screen ;)

Palm Unique Enhancements

Palm have implemented some very unique enhancements to the Treo 750v which many Treo users may already be familiar with:

  • Today Screen enhancements, which feature the ability to “dial by name” with a few keystrokes on the keyboard, perform a web search directly from the Today Screen and perform one-touch dialing with personalized photo speed dials
  • Ability to manage a call directly from the Today Screen and stay on top of voicemail with on-screen, VCR-like icons, such as rewind, delete and fast-forward controls for easy navigation;
  • Ability to ignore a call and quickly compose a text message, such as “In a meeting” or “Can’t talk”; and
  • Dedicated messaging application for SMS/MMS that is organized in a “chat thread” so users can reference prior messages and use emoticons for a personal touch.

Conclusion

Whilst I get to try a huge amount of devices.  Right now this device is the one that my SIM always ends up back in.  The Palm Treo 750v is going to be huge for both Palm and Windows Mobile!

Feel free to post any questions you have about the device and I'll try to answer them all!