Verizon Wireless' newest Treo 755p has been around a while, but does that mean it isn't worth a look? Check out our in-depth review.
Review summary of the Palm Treo 755p (Verizon Wireless):
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_it00.jpg) If you must have a Palm OS device with a large keyboard (no Centro, then), and you can't use Sprint, the Treo 755p on Verizon Wireless is your only option. Too bad, because this phone, and the OS behind it, haven't aged well, and most other smartphones have passed it by. The list of features it lacks is incredibly long, but we'll mention HTML e-mail, GPS, a real Web browser and good multimedia features as things we especially miss. The Palm OS is still simple and quick, very easy to use, but it's looking quite old, and once you start digging into the calendar and messaging apps, you're going to wish for something much prettier. Release: December 2007. Price: $300.
Pros: Large, cozy phone with a comfortable keypad and good-resolution screen. Speedy Palm OS still the same as we remember it.
Cons: Palm OS still the same as we remember it. Lacks most advanced features we see on other smartphones. Pricier than the same phone on Sprint.
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Full Palm Treo 755p (Verizon Wireless) Review:
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Nearly six months after the Palm Treo 755p dropped on Sprint, Verizon Wireless released an identical model, albeit in a different color, for $100 more. But beyond the color and the price tag, the two phones are nearly identical, with only a few bits of software to distinguish them.
Design - Very good
The Palm Treo 755p is thick and heavy by today's standards, even compared to other devices from Palm, like the Centro.. But it is still a comfortable phone to hold and use. The buttons are kind of nubby, but much larger than the Centro's keys with plenty of space in between. And we like the convenient dedicated keys for phone, calendar and messaging, in addition to a few other blank keys, all of which can be customized.
But the design is seriously showing its age. The Palm Treo OS hasn't changed much in, well, has it ever changed? If so, it was too long ago to remember. The display resolution was always a bit ahead of the game, at 320 by 320 pixels, but with icons so bare and ugly, what's the use? Perhaps on a budget smartphone, like the Centro, we'd be appeased by the simplicity, for a top-of-the-line device, we'd expect more.
Calling – Very good
The Treo 755p makes calls that sound as good as any phone we've heard. When speaking to a good land line phone, calls sounded perfect. While the dialing pad is still too small for our tastes, the shape of the phone makes it easy to hold during conversations. The phone still includes all of our favorite calling features, including Bluetooth, a speakerphone, conference calling, and speaker-independent voice-dialing, but there are a few caveats. First, the neat new icon-based conference calling features we've seen on AT&T's version of the Centro didn't make the cut for the 755p. Second, we're still disappointed that Palm makes you buy speaker-independent voice dialing as a third-party software app. Palm needs to buy a company that makes one of these products and offer it for free, as Windows Mobile has far surpassed Palm in on-board voice controls out of the box. Palm's contact list remains best-in-class, with live, while-you-type searching available from pretty much everywhere.
Battery life for calling was fine, at about four hours of talk time. But standby time was very poor. As the phone checked e-mail regularly, we never got through more than a day and a half without having to recharge the phone. Palm needs to learn some power management skills from RIM, whose BlackBerry phones lead the field in battery life.
Messaging - Good
The Palm Treo 755p on Verizon Wireless is a capable messaging phone, but not right out of the box. If you use Exchange ActiveSync or GoodMobile Messaging, the software works very well on the phone, and synchronizes nicely. Of course, you won't get the HTML e-mail like we're seeing on Windows Mobile phones like the Verizon Wireless XV6800 or the Apple iPhone. You also won't see any instant messaging option unless you pay a third party developer for software, because unlike recent Palm offering son Sprint and AT&T, the Verizon Wireless version has no built-in IM client. Palm was a leader in messaging when it developed features like ignoring a call with an SMS message, or threaded SMS conversations, but this phone sees no new innovation like we'd hope for on a Treo.
Productivity – Very good
The Palm Treo 755p is just as good a productivity tool as any Palm device, simply because little has changed. The calendar, to-do list, and office document handlers are all pretty much the same, if not incremental updates. We're a bit disappointed, we've seen some interesting innovation in document readers from Picsel, and we'd like to see a graphical update to the calendar. Still, Documents To Go is an able document editor, capable of performing real editing tasks, just like Windows Office Mobile. The scheduling app isn't as in tune with Outlook as it could be, but we're using Good Mobile right now anyway, which has a style all its own.
Multimedia - Mediocre
It is surprising how much Verizon Wireless has ignored multimedia features on the Palm Treo, especially considering the lengths they went to making the Motorola Q9m a music device. The phone has an mp3 player, PocketTunes, which used to cost extra but now comes free, but it is no better than the most basic phone-based music players we've seen. Otherwise, there is no access to Verizon's VCast content or the VCast music store. There is no A2DP support for stereo Bluetooth. Blazer works just as it did years ago when we first saw it, but someone should let Palm know that the Web has gotten a bit of an upgrade in recent years, and their browser just isn't keeping up. Perhaps multimedia isn't the feature of choice for business users, but the apps we've found on the Treo 755p are completely out of date, and in most cases years old.
Laptop sidekick - Very good
Download speeds were fine with the Treo 755p we tested on Verizon Wireless' network in Lower Manhattan. We averaged in the mid-600Kbps range, which is good, and saw spikes near the megabit range. Pairing with our laptop could have been easier, but Palm's HotSync application, while dated, does a fine job backing up programs and info from the device. We would have preferred a mini-USB cable instead of Palm's proprietary HotSync cable, but here Palm's adherence to years-old standards is convenient for us, as the Treo 755p worked fine with all of our old peripherals and car chargers from our older Palm devices.
Price and availability
The Palm Treo 755p is available now from Verizon Wireless for $300 with a two-year contract agreement and an instant online discount of $100. A mail-in rebate of $50 is available, when signing up for a qualifying data and voice plan.
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