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What It Is

Now available from Sprint is Palm’s latest keyboard style Blackberry wannabe complete with small screen and a full key thumbpad.  Sprint offers this phone on a 2 year contract basis for $199.99 including $250 instant savings and a $100 mail-in rebate.

What It Isn’t

This is the Pro not the Pre. If you’re looking for a full touchscreen ala iPhone or Storm, you’ve got the wrong phone.

Who It’s For

Cellphone users who are email-centric and have tiny fingers or long fingernails.

Geek Stuff

This Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g enabled speakerphone comes with a dual core MSM7201 400MHz processor, 320x320 65k 16bit touch screen display, microSD card slot, 1500mAh li-on battery, Windows Mobile 6.1 and a check-the-box 2mp 8x digital zoom camera.

Performance

This is one very pocketable tiny phone. But that compactness comes at a cost: a Lilliputian screen and keyboard.  Overall screen size is 1¾  x 1¾ but depending on the application, top and bottom menu bars encroach into the viewing area further reducing usable screen real estate.  An included self-storing stylus is handy for application selection on the touch screen as the diminutive screen size is not very compatible with large fingertips.

The high resolution, high brightness and contrast LCD screen tries to overcome its tiny size by producing a very punchy screen display.  This approach is successful as long as you are indoors.  In outdoor daylight it was difficult to read, and, as with virtually all LCD displays, the toughest test of all - direct sunlight – just killed it.

The speakerphone volume on this tiny little package was remarkable.  Used to turning the volume to max and even then having a bit of a struggle with some phones, the Treo Pro was too loud.  A first, I actually had to turn the volume down.  Battery life was outstanding.  With normal phone, texting, and email use I was able to go several days between charges.

Email setup was simple easily synced with Outlook along with my calendar and all of my contacts.  One note of caution: the phone uses the new micro USB connector and the keying for this connector is not readily discernible.  Make sure you have the plug correctly aligned and do not force it as you can easily damage the receptacle.

Recommendation

Despite my operational complaints due to it being so small, I really liked this phone because it was so small. It just slips so easily in your pocket and there you are with your email, the internet, a nav system and a TV set (Sprint TV) and, oh yes, a phone, mixed in with your loose change. Kudos to Sprint for their basic Sprint TV and Sprint Navigation services included with the phone. They are useful, entertaining and addictive and were hard to give up when I had to return the review phone.

Company Page: [Sprint]