Palm Treo Pro Review

Messaging:

One of the most useful upgrades in Windows Mobile 6.1 is the threaded text messaging, but Palm has been doing this for years.  On the 800w Palm stuck with their application; it is unfortunately absent on the Pro.  It’s a minor gripe, as the functionally is basically the same, but we appreciated the little touches like smiley shortcuts and felt the look was better overall.  We’re sure there is a .cab for it out there somewhere though.  Windows Messenger is bundled with the device.  We’ve been impressed by AOL’s beta version of AIM, but it is not preloaded.

The Pro does email as well. It supports most common formats, such as POP3, IMAP, SMTP, Lotus Domino as well as Microsoft Direct Push. When connected with an Exchange account the user gets real time emails, otherwise accounts can be set to check at intervals ranging from every five minutes to once a day. The user can view and send most attachments, such as Office documents and PDF files.


Connectivity and Data:

The Pro is a quad-band GSM device, with 3G bands available for all markets via variants of the phone.  It features HSDPA 3.6MBit/s and Wi-Fi b/g.  For short range communication the Pro offers both Infrared and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, which supports the following profiles: HSP, HFP 1.5, OPP, SAP, PBA, A2DP, AVRC, HID, PAN.

Wi-Fi on the Pro is a great feature, but Palm’s implementation here sucks.  The connection is dropped once the device goes to sleep by default, meaning that the user has to reinitiate the connection with the Wi-Fi switch.  In the preferences this can be changed to automatically connect on wakeup.  We understand that disabling it during sleep saves battery, but at the same time it means that if Wi-Fi is the only data connection the user will not get email notifications, etc, when the device is sleeping.

ActiveSync handles all the data transfer between your phone and PC. It interfaces with Outlook, allowing the user to both back up their data and stay connected on the go.

HTC has been including Opera Mobile in many of their ROMs, but unfortunately the Pro ships only with Internet Explorer. There is a new zoom feature in WM 6.1, but it’s unremarkable at best.  We’d recommend an immediate download of Opera Mobile 9.5 or Skyfire to beef up your browsing experience.