The Treo 750 is the latest PDA phone from Palm; it promises one-handed operation (a Palm trait), though it’s a windows Mobile based device. The phone has a lot in common with its predecessors on the design front, and it has the distinctive Palm device feel to it-nice! The new phone is tad slimmer than its predecessors; it feels lighter, and the curvaceous design helps hide the bulk. The 2.5-inch LCD screen dominates the front. It is sharp and completelylegible in direct sunlight. The navigational console (buttons) consists of a five-way rocker, two soft keys, and four additional pre-defined keys (Call, Windows key, Hang up, and OK). The dinky QWERTY thumb-board still remains one of the best we’ve seen thus far; though small and cramped, the chances of mistyping are very low. The phone is powered by Window Mobile Version 6; given that the phone runs a 300 MHz processor, this may not have been a smart choice-Windows Mobile version 6 requires a speedy processor. As available memory goes, the Treo 750 is anaemic, and Windows’ dodgy memory management doesn’t help either. Palm has done its bit to revamp the interface and make it easy to navigate without touching the stylus-something we really like about Palm devices. The “Today Screen” shows information such as messages, e-mail, voicemail, appointments, and more upfront; each of them can be accessed using just the navigation keys. To place a call, a contact name can be directly keyed infrom within the Today Screen. On the performance front, the phone is no slouch; the UI is generally zippy-applications open in a snap. We did encounter some instances when the phone nearly crawled when a lot of applications were open, but then no-one opens too many applications simultaneously in a realworld situation. We encountered no signal issues, and voice clarity was good with no background noise or echo. The speakerphone quality is good, too; however, the ringer volume needs improvement. The camera quality is average. At Rs 22,990, the Treo 750 is expensive considering that competing models offer a better feature set at a lower price. Palm is giving away a foldable Bluetooth keyboard along with this phone, but that still doesn’t justify the price. Nevertheless, discounting the high price, the Treo 750 is a good Windows-based PDA phone.
