Let me be honest. I am a Palm OS person. I can only see Palm’s new Treo 750 from a jaundiced perspective. Therefore, this article is more about comparisons and learning curve than it is a straight out device review.

There are many things about the Treo 750 that I love. The camera takes photographs that are astoundingly crisp and clear. It’s going to be depressing going back to my Treo 700p. Check out the two photos below. You don’t need to be told which was taken with the Treo 750.

Incidentally, both photos were beamed to my laptop via Bluetooth. I had no trouble pairing either the Treo 700p or the 750 with my laptop. But I haven’t been able to get the Treo 750 to receive. It accepts Infrared but not Bluetooth.

The 750 has word completion built in. No need for a 3rd party app like on the Palm OS Treo devices. It’s similar to TextPlus in both its application and options. If you are a frequent texter/emailer, having this available out of the box is a real boon.

Speaking of out of the box, remember when you first get a new device (or even hard reset an old one), and you calibrate the touch screen? I had to find a magnifying glass to do that on the Treo 750! Unlike my Treo 700p, which calibrates via a nicely visible red bullseye, the 750 calibrates with an old fashion crosshair. The directions are on the same screen, and when the crosshairs fall on the text, finding the center is difficult. Of course, this is a minor complaint to say the least.

The form factor is superb. The rubberized body feels good in your hand, and I like the lack of antenna so much that I’ve already converted my Treo 700p to the short antenna in mytreo.net/store. Of course, the stylus is also rubberized, and I understand some people are unhappy about that. To be fair, there is so little need for the stylus that it is really a moot issue. The 750 is a little slimmer than the 700p, and it really shows in the keyboard and hard buttons. If Palm tries to make the Treo line much smaller, the keyboard could be rendered useless.

The screen is small too: 240 x 240 compared to the 700p’s 320 x 320. That means that small things do appear even smaller, and with the crammed Windows style home screen, it’s back to the magnifying glass for me. It wouldn’t seem so bad this Palm OS loyalist, except for the next pointed difference between Palm and Windows Mobile.

I have always been taught to turn off my toys when I finish playing with them. So when I’m done using my Treo, I hit the red power button. On my Treo 700p, when I do that, the power goes off. When I hit it again later, the power goes back on, and I’m wherever I left off. On the Treo 750, if I hit the red power button, I’m taken immediately back to the Start screen, without the benefit of having closed the active application. The only alternative is to not hit the power button, and let the Treo 750 power down in its own time. Then when I turn it on later, it’s right where I left it.

Closing Windows Mobile applications is a drag, too. It’s not only very different from using the Palm OS, but completely different from using Windows on a desktop. You can leave an app without closing it (especially if you accidentally click that red button!), but there’s no tab anywhere to either easily return to it, or see that it’s even open. This is probably the height of the learning curve for a Palm user who’s switching to Winmob. The Start screen is home, not the launcher, and you have to remember to press the ok button (or tap the little x in the window’s upper right hand corner) to exit each app, including the launcher.

Navigation itself is simple. As I mentioned earlier, you really don’t need to take out the little rubbery stylus. You can do everything by using a combination of the Windows button (which is like the Start button on your desktop), and the 5-way navigation pad. There are definitely areas where tapping the touch screen is faster, but it’s not a necessity.

The biggest drawback to the Treo 750, if you’re upgrading from any other Treo device, is the mini SD card. Why Palm went with the mini I can’t imagine. On the bright side, unlike previous models, you won’t have to worry about losing your card since it now goes in the side and has its own little door. That I like.

When I first started looking at the Treo 750, my biggest question was “what can it do–out of the box–that the Palm OS versions need 3rd party software to do.” I was surprised to find that the answer is “precious little.” The main thing that the Treo 750 will do natively is give you the ability to set up photo dialing. Considering there are countless applications available for Palm OS to do this (PictureDial, PhotoDial, and DialByPhoto, to name a few), and it’s strictly for fun, it’s not a big deal.

I was more interested in the Treo 750’s native voice command. I was disappointed. You don’t have to train it, and it’s interactive, which his nice. But it’s neither intuitive, nor dependable. Palm has neglected to list all the commands in the user manual, and, of the few listed, the Treo 750 didn’t understand three out of five. I’d rather deal with a 3rd party application on a Palm OS device (Treo Voice Dialing, Voice Control, or VoiceNavIt, for example), that needs to be trained. Then I know I’ll be understood. I did not try pairing a Bluetooth headset with the Treo 750, so I don’t know if voice commands will work that way. However, as poorly as it worked holding the device in front of me, it probably doesn’t much matter.

The only other thing that the Treo 750 can do that the Treo 600, 650, or 700p needs a 3rd party app for is MSN messenger. However, since most of us are not satisfied with merely one instant messenger, there’s still more needed (Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, etc.).

One final note, with Bluetooth enabled, but the radio turned off, the charge on the battery has lasted a full week!

The Treo 750 is a slick little device, but it won’t sway me to give up the Palm OS. Of course, if you’re new to the smartphone scene, and not burdened by the thought of making a jump to a new operating system, the Treo 750 is a great choice.

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Filed under: Editorials