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You may have heard of the Palm Pilot-the original in the long line of PDAs
over the years, and the pioneer because of which you so gleefully manage your
appointments, schedules and tasks on one small little device today.
The Palm range of devices have always used a proprietary operating system and
though it was widely regarded as being a stable and easy-to-use platform, it
lost out to Windows and Symbian. The fact that new and improved versions of
Windows Mobile and Symbian have been turning up very regularly didn't help much
either. Finally, the sheer amount of software available for them and the ever
increasing user base meant that Palm was getting out of mind for most. Now, with
the Treo 750, Palm seems to say 'If you can't beat them, join them!'
Windows Mobile 5.0 is what you'll find on the Treo 750-similar in operation
and features to most of the Windows Mobile PDAs out there today -with a few
Palm-only enhancements thrown in for good measure (like the handy search plugin
on the today screen). You have all the usual support for push email, Office
documents, Internet Explorer, Pocket MSN and even the notoriously addictive
Bubble Breaker game.
The exterior is still instantly recognizable as a Palm device, but it
thankfully does not have the thick antenna that the Treo 600 and 650 were cursed
with. Appearance wise, the 750 is actually a lot like the Palm OS-based Treo
680, which is also available here as an option if you're averse to Windows. The
keyboard has a bright backlight and is a joy to use. On the left is a volume
rocker and a smart key that can be configured to open any application. What's
more, Palm is bundling a sweet Bluetooth folding keyboard to make typing out
those long emails a lot easier. The keyboard uses two AAA batteries and connects
via Bluetooth. Unfortunately, they've chosen to make the keyboard exclusive to
Palm devices. It won't work with other Bluetooth phones.
The screen is a fairly standard 65k touchscreen, but with a resolution of 240
x 240 pixels; perfectly square. The square screen is something you'll see often
on devices with full QWERTY keyboards on front. Call quality was excellent all
round, with the 1200 mAh battery lasting two days with calls, SMS, email and
Bluetooth usage. The 1.3 megapixel camera is about average and there's no flash,
but there is a self portrait mirror. Overall, a very competitive player in the
Windows Mobile space, though the inclusion of Wi-Fi would have made it even
harder to beat. Other similar options in this price include the Sony Ericsson
P1i (Symbian UIQ) and HP hw6965 (Windows Mobile).
The new soft-touch
finish makes the Treo 750 nice to hold and use |
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| The backlit QWERTY is a joy to
use, with just the right size, spacing and feedback |
The 240x240 pixel screen is
square, unlike the usual 240x320 pixel rectangular screen found in most PDAs |
On top is a mechanical switch
for silent mode. You can switch off all audio without even looking |
Product name:
Palm Treo 750
Price:
Rs 26,990
Recommendation:
Contacts:
asia.service@palm.com
www.palm.com/in
Specs:
Quad band GSM/UMTS (3G), Windows Mobile 5.0, 300 MHz Samsung processor, 60
MB shared memory,
MiniSD slot (up to 2GB), backlit QWERTY, 1.3 MP camera, 240 x 240 pixel
touchscreen, Bluetooth, Infrared,
1200 mAh li-ion battery, 154 g |
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