Palm Treo Pro Cell Phone Review

The Palm Treo Pro is a compact Windows Mobile smartphone with both a touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard. It's a GSM device that is sold unlocked, meaning that any GSM SIM card can be used in it and no wireless contract is required at purchase, and it can be bought from Palm for $549. It comes with a USB/charging cable, AC charger, and stereo headphones in the box and comes in one color, Obsidian Black. The Treo Pro has 3G connectivity as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, GPS, and a 2.0-megapixel camera.

The Windows Mobile operating system is a powerful one, and we found it to be pretty responsive on the Treo Pro. The ability to use the touchscreen or the keyboard and buttons to get around offers a good deal of flexibility to navigate, though some on-screen items are too small to hit accurately with your finger and using the included stylus or D-pad are better options. Dialing a call is easy with both the embedded dial pad in the QWERTY or using the on-screen keypad, though the Treo Pro can't quite keep up if you dial quickly.

As is typical with Windows Mobile devices, the Treo Pro's organizer capabilities are quite robust. PC users can sync with their PIM data in Outlook and corporate users can take advantage of Exchange Server synchronization, whereas Mac users will need to find a 3rd-party solution for syncing. Entering contacts and calendar items offers a number of fields for capturing additional detail and Notes and Tasks can be sorted in a number of ways, though true one-touch voice recording is not possible.

Email is another area of strength for the Treo Pro with its push email capability and the ability to handle multiple email accounts and all the message attachments we test. SMS and MMS abilities are also robust, though IM capability is limited to a Microsoft Live account only out of the box. When it comes to web browsing, scrolling around your average HTML page can be a bit of a chore on the Treo's relatively small screen, but you can bookmark your favorite pages and more.

Multimedia on the Treo Pro won't blow your socks off, but using the Treo Pro as your digital music player is possible as long as you buy a microSD card for storage. Viewing videos isn't all that great on the Treo Pro's small screen though it has no problem playing high-bitrate videos.

With 3G connectivity, it will be easy for users to get a high-speed data connection in the U.S. (on AT&T's network only) and abroad. Wi-Fi is a welcome addition as well for even faster data speeds when available and Bluetooth allows easy connection to headsets and other devices or to set up a network to share the Treo Pro's data connection with your computer.

Performance (read the full lab performance results at Wirelessinfo.com)

Audio quality is an important aspect of how any cell phone functions, and the Treo Pro performs fairly well here in terms of audio sent and received, with no major red flags that should pose problems to you or on the other end of the line. Its side tone causes a little concern, coming in much lower than the ideal. Side tone is the amount of your own voice piped back to you through the phone's earpiece that helps you gauge how loudly you're speaking, and if it's lower than it should be, you'll think you're speaking too quietly and may compensate by speaking more loudly than you really need to, which is the case with the Treo Pro.

In terms of imaging quality, the Treo Pro's 2.0-megapixel camera yielded only so-so resolution results and captured under-satured color. Noise is high at lower lighting levels, though this is not out of the ordinary for cell phone cameras. We couldn't test video capture quality due to persistent errors importing videos captured with the Treo Pro. The interface for both still image and video capture isn't too bad, though the menus are a little confusing since they're separated into two areas without much rhyme or reason.

The Treo Pro's battery life is just decent in terms of call time, lasting 4 hours and 44 minutes, below the times posted by other 3G devices like the iPhone 3G and T-Mobile G1. Music playback battery life was below average at 8 hours and 17 minutes, and slightly better than average for web browsing at 3 hours and 58 minutes. If you're a heavy user, plan on carrying a spare battery or getting to a wall outlet at least once during the day or your Treo Pro may not keep up with you.

Comparisons (read more in-depth comparisons at Wirelessinfo.com)

The Treo Pro has a number of worthy competitors in the smartphone space, many of which offer larger screens, better cameras, and more. However, we found the Treo Pro to be a bit of a Renaissance device in that it can do a little bit of everything decently, and quite well when it comes to email and organizer functions. If you're looking for a better multimedia experience, however, a device like the iPhone 3G with its gorgeous screen and superb music and video playback capabilities will be a better choice. If a good camera is high on your list, the Nokia E71 and the HTC Touch Diamond are better alternatives. The Treo Pro's unlocked status and associated high price tag may be deciding factors for you - while you get the freedom to choose your carrier and/or use multiple SIMs without getting tied down to a contract, $549 is a good chunk of change relative to the subsidized costs of competing devices sold by carriers with a 2-year contract. If carrier flexibility is of the utmost importance to you and you want a phone that can do it all, the Treo Pro is for you.

For a more in-depth review, visit the palm Treo Pro Review at our partner WirelessInfo.com