Palm Treo Pro

“Until Palm unleashes the JesusTreo (rumored to descend in 2009), this reworked, dolled-up device is as good as it gets for the once-mighty smartphone company.We recently had the displeasure of testing the upcoming 800w. Yuck. This disappointing misfire is essentially a chintzy blue brick with minimal added functionality (aside from WiFi). Then the Pro showed up with its shiny, rounded, tuxedo-black exterior and a handful of practical OS shortcuts. Aside from the industrial iPhone-like design lines, those shortcuts are enough to make even the most die-hard Machead grin and bear Windows Mobile (almost). At the top of our shortcut list were the dedicated WiFi button on the right side and customizable button on the left (ours was set for camera). Circumventing the main menu and tiresome nav made the phone a joy to use. The touchscreen, on the other hand, was far from blissful. Laggy and unresponsive, we found ourselves double and sometimes triple tapping - even with the stylus.”

“The Palm Treo Pro is, without question, the best looking Treo smartphone produced to date. There are no unnecessary creaks from the plastic body, and though it's slightly hefty, it feels solid in your hand. Unfortunately, the high-gloss piano black finish attracts fingerprints very easily and hairline scratches seem to appear out of nowhere. The camera is rather poor, though the music experience is great, thanks to the conveniently located speaker and standard 3.5mm audio port. The battery life on the Treo Pro is phenomenal, and I am pleased to report that our review unit did not lock up at all. While the size of the stylus rendered it basically useless, the QWERTY keybaord and flush display allowed me to use the Treo Pro without the stylus, most of the time. Based on this, we at MobileBurn.com give the Palm Treo Pro a 'Highly Recommended' rating, though with a warning that you may want to invest in a protective case, for grip and to protect the finish.”

“We cracked open the Palm Treo Pro yesterday and used it all day today. The good news about the Palm Treo Pro is the design. This is an incredible achievement and step up from the previous Treo devices we’ve seen in the past. I must say I like to feel of the Pro in my hand… it feels smooth with its rounded edges and only weighs in at 133 grams. It has a 2.5 inch (320 x 320) touchscreen display with a full QWERTY keypad. If you’re a previous Treo user you’ll notice that the buttons are spaced out a bit more, but for me, still too close together as I had to backspace a number of times while typing my messages. The glossy (gets lots of fingerprints) and shiny Black is a nice feature and adds some much needed class to the Treo lineup. With all this said there’s nothing truly new to the actual workings, it comes loaded with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional so you can edit your Word and Excel documents and read your PowerPoints and PDF’s. Some features include a 2-megapixel camera (8x digital zoom and video capabilities), Wifi, built-in GPS, Bluetooth, can hold up to 16GB of extra memory, 3.5mm headphone jack. Over the next week we will give this a good run for its money and test out the GPS, Web, Music player, Camera/Video and battery life.”