The missing link between Smartphones and Pocket PCs

Jun 22, 2007 14:21 GMT  ·  By

Better known for its Palm operating system devices, the Palm Inc. company surprised the world in 2005, announcing the development of a new range of smartphones that will feature Windows Mobile operating systems. The first Palm smartphone to feature Windows Mobile was launched in cooperation with Verizon operator and was called Palm Treo 700w. Although the device was only available in the US for Verizon customers, it made quite an impression and made Palm Inc. extend Treo market to Europe as well. In September 2006, Vodafone was the next operator to bring Palm Treo 750v to its customers and the Sunnyvale-based company managed to spread its domination in Europe also.

It took Palm Inc. another 5 months to update Vodafone's Treo 750v and in February 2007, Palm Treo 750 was released as the peak of the series, featuring the latest technology. The selling price varies a lot between the 2 continents, Europe and North America. If you can get the Treo 750 for only $650 in the US, the selling price on the European continent starts from USD $850 and can exceed USD $1000.

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Design

The bulky design of the Treo series, while not the most addictive, it surely stands out from the crowd because of its unmistakable shape. Surprisingly enough, besides the technical features and perhaps the lack of the external antenna, Treo 750 is no improvement at all in terms of measurements or weight compared to previous models of the lineup.

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Nevertheless, Palm has the merit of developing a smartphone with Pocket PC functions, that easily and efficiently fulfill the needs of every customer. The compact form of the device, as well as the QWERTY keyboard, are common grounds for all the Treo series. The successful recipe has been borrowed by the Taiwanese PDA manufacturer HTC, which launched a slimmer version of Palm Treo 750, called HTC S620 aka Excalibur. The resemblance is obvious and strengthens the opinion of many reviewers that the Treo series has been quite successful on the market, and especially in the US.

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With a little "tunning", Palm Treo 750 measures 111 x 58 x 22 mm and weighs 154 grams (battery included). That's bulky even for 1 year old devices, but Palm bet on conservatism and it proved a winning bet after all. To complement its compact form, Treo 750 has its margins a little bit curved to give the users the impression of slimness; indeed, it only makes the smartphone fit better in your palm/Palm.

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The usual QWERTY keyboard is backed by 2 contextual keys, Start and OK keys and the Accept/End calls keys. Be careful when using the End key as it also turns off the display. Actually, this is the only way to "power off" the device, besides taking out the battery. Just like many other Pocket PCs and Smartphones featuring Windows Mobile, Palm Treo 750 doesn't have the "Shutdown" function which is present in most of HTC's devices. The 5-way navigational key is very comfy to use and helps users control the device with only one hand. The bottom of the smartphone features a 2.5mm jack port, a special charge port and a USB pop-port. Right on top of the smartphone, Palm positioned a weird switch that will turn the ringer ON or OFF.

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Treo 750 includes a miniSD slot card for memory expansion and an Infrared port for data transfers, both placed on the right side of the device. On the left side, users will find the volume keys and the voice command key. The back of the smartphone is made from a rubber-like compound which doesn't leave fingerprints and also contributes on the sturdiness of the device. If it's a Pocket PC then it must have a stylus and Palm embedded it on the back of the phone; but unlike any other device, it's positioned on top of it and not at the bottom. There's also a 1.3 Megapixel camera with self-portrait mirror and a speakerphone, both placed on the back of the device.

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Palm Treo 750 comes in a small box with Stereo wired headsets, an USB pop-port cable and a dozen of charger adapters.

Display and Camera

The moment you take a look at the display of the device you can tell that it's not one of the best on the market. Used with 320 x 240 pixels resolution Pocket PCs displays, I was surprised to find that Treo 750 features a 240 x 240 pixels resolution screen that supports 65k colors.

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The display doesn't have a good brightness and it's not even a low power consumer. Visibility under the sunlight is pretty poor, but very good in the dark because of the backlighting system. I wouldn't say that the display is standard, because its quality is lower than in the case of most of today's devices, but in the end it's just an office tool which doesn't really need the best display possible.

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The 1.3 Megapixel camera doesn't feature any flash or macro functions and it only has a 2x digital zoom. The pictures taken are not that bad for what I assume a businessman needs. Maybe macro support would've been great for a shooting documents. There are 5 resolutions available: 160 x 120, 240 x 180, 320 x 240, 640 x 480 and 1280 x 1024 pixels. I don't think you'll be able to use any of the camera functions to improve the pictures taken. As seen in the pictures, you won't be able to tell much from the shots taken in darker areas. But indoor pictures or those with good light seem to be ok.

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If you zoom the images, you can see that they are a little bit blurry and full of noise. Furthermore, you'll be able to use the camera for shooting clips in 2 small resolutions (176 x 144 and 352 x 288 pixels) and save it in 3GP format files. Overall, I think that the camera has been included in the smartphone so you can't really say that it doesn't have one.

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Menu and Software

Palm personalized some of Treo's functions in a way that increases its functionality as an office tool. At the same time, it also left users with the option of customizing pretty much everything. Starting with the Today screen, where you can include or eliminate different useful functions and through the system settings like choosing to close applications that you stopped using, the device offers a really good Pocket PC experience. The unique Quick dial bar on the screen helps users dial faster by inputing only a few letters or numbers in the bar, rather than searching manually in the Contacts or by entering the whole name or number. Of course it can be disabled but it is very useful together with the OK button which brings up the Task Manager menu if you keep it pushed for a few seconds. This way, you'll be able to see what applications your Pocket PC is still running and choose to close any of them, without the need of navigating through the main menu.

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Palm Treo 750 runs Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC featuring AKU 2.6.3. While not the latest in itself, this still boasts the latest security patches as well some improvements regarding ActiveSync compatibility and more "cosmetic" functions (i.e. changing font color). You'll discover another cool option introduced by Palm when you receive a call and you won't have the number registered in you phonebook. After ending the call, you'll be asked if you want to register the newly received number in your Contacts. Wired Car Kit is another specifically developed application that will ease the use of the device in a car. You can find the option in the Settings menu below the Sounds & Notifications option. Still, there are some things that are missing and I can point you to some. For those new users that haven't got the chance of owning a Palm, Treo 750 also includes a Quick Tour Guide that will teach you how to use the device, functioning just like a step-by-step tutorial. The entire PocketOffice package is included, thus offering users the option of reading or editing .doc, .xls or PowerPoint files.

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There is no Java Manager whatsoever, so you'll be stuck on using Pocket PC compatible software or you can just download it from here. The very useful function X-close is not featured by the Palm's running platform. Fortunately, the OK button can ease your pain as I have stated above. There's also the problem of reseting the device. You won't find the option in the menu, instead check the miniSD card slot to find the very small Reset button that enables the much need option. Overall, the operating system is extremely compact and customizable at the same time, enabling users to experience a great functionality. It seems that Palm developed the missing link between Pocket PCs and Smartphones.

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Communication

The most technologically advanced smartphone from its lineup, Treo 750 features HSDPA, EDGE, GPRS, Bluetooth, Infrared and USB connectivity. If your operator's network supports HSDPA speeds you'll be able to transfer data with up to 1.8 Mb. Personally, I only managed to reach a speed of 282 kbps for downloads and 105 kbps for uploads. EDGE also offered lower speeds than usual with only 173 kbps for download and 94 kbps for upload.

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I was also expecting low data transfer speeds on the Bluetooth 1.2 connectivity, but the results were a real disaster, no more than 14 kbps. Still, the device has potential and perhaps tests made on different operator networks will reveal better results, but I doubt that the difference will be notable. Unfortunately, the device doesn't feature WLAN connectivity or GPS receiver, which reduces the versatility of the smartphone.

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The quad-band (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) has an excellent signal reception and the quality of the voice calls are above average. I only experienced signal losses when WCDMA band was enabled. But if you rarely use it for voice or video calls, and most of the time you only activate it for data transfers you won't have any major problems.

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Processor and Memory

Palm Treo 750 is powered by a Samsung SC32442A CPU which runs at 300 Mhz speeds. This is a pretty good processor for a smartphone and even for a Pocket PC. From the tests, you can clearly notice that Treo 750 was not designed for gaming.

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The display benchmark scored pretty low (lowest in most of the cases) compared to some Pocket PCs that feature processors with almost the same power. As I have explained earlier in this review, Treo's display is obviously neither the best nor the crappiest in its class. The device works very well until you load up you memory with opened applications; after that you will probably experience slow menu navigation or low speed startups.

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The device has 128 MB flash memory and about 60 MB are at the user's disposal. Storage space can be increased through a miniSD memory card up to 2 GB.

Performance of the smartphone was pretty much satisfactory for what it has to offer.

Multimedia

This adds to the negative part of the device, as sound and image are very low. Do not even think of using the smartphone as an MP3 player as the sound is flat, with no bass or highs. Not even the use of better headsets will improve the quality and this can be a real pain if you're a music lover. Windows Media Player 10 supports MIDI, MP3, WAV files as well as movie files for watching clips. There's nothing else in particular about the multimedia part and I'd rather stop here ? as Palm did (?!).

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Battery

Treo 750 comes with a usual 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery, which takes about 3.5 hours to replenish. On a standard use, keeping the display ON with maximum brightness, I have registered a 7 hours autonomy of the battery. The official numbers for the Smartphone's battery are 200 hours in standby mode and about 4 hours and 30 minutes in talk time mode. Everyone knows that these numbers vary greatly as people are using a Pocket PC in different ways for different things. Still, if you use the device only for calls you will have no problems in attaining almost 4 hours of talk time.

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Impressions

The perfect link between a smartphone and a Pocket PC, Treo 750 borrows from both devices to give the users an unexpectedly excellent functionality. Either if you want to use the phone with one hand or with both, it takes you the same amount of time to do something both ways. Even if I wasn't too thrilled about its design I admit that the device amazed me with its simplicity and ingenuousness. For Palm fans the device is available on Omnisoft's site for nearly $900.

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The Good

By far one of the best functionality met in a Pocket PC combined with a good mix of connectivity techs are among the strong points of the device. Low learning curve in mastering its use will attract more consumers rather than its design.

The Bad

Pity that such a flexible device lacks the multimedia part. The low quality camera and display are also two aspects that can't pass unnoticed. Fortunately, Palm "updates" its Treo series pretty frequently so we should stay tuned for a better version soon.

Sales package

Palm Treo 750 smartphone 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery Stylus Charger Charger adapters Pop-port USB cable Palm stereo wired headsets User guide

Photo: Tudor Raiciu for Softpedia.com