Palm Treo 750

The U.S. market is usually the last to receive innovative telephony products because of all the hoops the FCC and carriers make developers jump through. Palm's new Treo 750 was released in Europe last year, and I have been wondering when we'd finally get to see it this country. I got my answer at CES 2007 when Palm and Cingular Wireless announced that it will be available at the end of January. All I can say is: it's about time!

A GSM-capable Treo!

Outwardly, the Treo 750 is nearly identical to the Treo 700w and 700wx, except that it no longer sports the ugly external antenna and has some minor changes to the QWERTY keyboard. The most important difference is internally. The 750 is Palm's first 3G/GSM device, which makes it usable not only on Cingular's network, but almost anywhere else in the world. In addition, there are some minor improvements to the form factor that make the device more usable.

The Treo 750 runs on Cingular's GPRS, EDGE, or UMTS networks for surfing the Web. The GPS and EDGE networks are slower than the EV-DO networks used by the Treo 700w and 700wx. The UMTS network offers data speeds that average between those of the Cingular EDGE and the Verizon and Sprint EV-DO networks. Unfortunately, Cingular's UMTS network is currently available in just six U.S. metro areas—Dallas, Detroit, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. Some may argue that the slower EDGE network is a step backward from the faster EV-DO network available for the 700w and 700wx machines. However, this compromise allows the 750 to become a 3G/GSM world phone.

Changes to the hardware features

Palm replaced the all metal stylus that came with earlier devices with a mostly plastic one, and placed the stylus "silo" (the hole is slips into) over a little. The body of the 750 is not quite as thick as its predecessors, and the sides are fluted, which makes it easier and more comfortable to hold. The expansion slot has moved from the top to the right edge behind a small trap door, which also hides the reset button. Also, the infrared port is now located on the right edge of the device.

Unfortunately, it still has that complicated Treo connector at the bottom of the unit that requires a separate cable for USB syncing and another cable for charging. Why not combine the two functions with the use of a standard mini-USB connector as most other machines have these days?

My biggest disappointments were with the low resolution 240 x 240 pixel display and the lack of Wi-Fi. The square screen leaves room for the QWERTY keyboard, but other developers have used a horizontally-oriented QVGA screen to accomplish this. And why no Wi-Fi? One can only speculate. Perhaps Palm was influenced by the carrier, who would rather have you paying network charges instead of using free hotspots. Palm also switched from an SD to a miniSD card slot to add storage memory to the device. Fortunately, there is a miniSD Wi-Fi card available for the device (Spectec miniSD Wi-Fi Card, $89.95, http://store.treocentral.com). Unfortunately, it uses the slower 802.11b standard.

The new 750 incorporates the same 1.3 megapixel camera found on the earlier devices. It does have more setting adjustments than most phone cameras, but a camera is only as good as its resolution. Most of the newer Pocket PCs are going to 2 or even 3 megapixels. Palm should get with the program.

The device incorporates Bluetooth 1.2, but the software codecs have been upgraded so that you can listen to stereo sound and use wireless Bluetooth headphones. Also, it still has the pesky 2.5 mm jack instead of a more standard 3.5 mm one. This requires an adapter to use with most headphones, external speakers, car kits, and other accessories. You can also use the 750 as a modem connected via Bluetooth.