Palm Treo Pro Unlocked Phone with 2 MP Camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, and MicroSD–U.S. Version with Warranty - Buy Cell Phone | Cell Phone Review | Best Cell Phone Deals

I love my new Treo Pro. I have been using it for about 2 weeks and already plan to hold on to it for the long haul. Little, history, I have had the Origional Treo, 200, 600, and 650. This is the best of them all. I swtiched two windows mobile 2 years ago because… well the PALM OS is dead in my book. That aside, I really missed the treo. I think palm gets how to build a nice device.

Keyboard: Works great. I find for a thumb keyboard and now with some experience I can fly with it. Personally, I love the thumb keyboard. Perfect for one handed operation with little compromise.

Thin: This thing fits very nicely into the pocket and the screen guard is excellent. I dont even know I have it with me and I never accidently Dial anyone. It fits in the hand wonderfully.

Buttons.. Some devices are going away from having so many buttons. However I like the ability to launch frequent programs. The Pro is great at letting you customize. (You have many hardware buttons and some of them can also be configured to have an Option + Hardware button application bound to them)

Also, you have hardware button access to volume control and wifi.

GPS: Works great. I installed and worked right away.

Power: this device is not a power pig. With normal use I get a good run off it. Mind you, I use applications on it all day along and SMS extensively.

Camera: I havent used it. Frankly, it doesnt matter how many mega pixels any phone has, it still just a phone camera. Quality is never that good. But it is good enough for those fun quick shots.

Dislikes: well, the screen is a standard windows mobile device screen. I was hoping for a new device, especially manufactured by HTC it would have a bit more kick to it. However, its very functional and does what I want. One thing I love is how they built into the keyboard access to the brightness control. This is something all devices should have. Its really hard to increase the brightness if you can read the screen. No problem with the treo.

The ALT key on the keyboard allows you to access characters not on the keyboard, including accented letters for various languages. What I dont like is that its a little window that shows up with about 8 characters show and you scroll to see more. Well there are a lot of characters, it would be better if they just filled the screen so you can quickly find the special character you want.

Windows Mobile Phone Dialer stinks! This is true in my opinion for any windows mobile device. Its a phone, but you have to navigate often 2 to 3 screens deep just to get a phone number. For example, you start typing someones name and the dialer appears. It instantly starts searching for a name. Great! When you select a name by pressing enter, it pulls up their contact screen. (HUH???) yes, you now get to see more info about them. I just want to DIAL the phone number. Long story short, for simple dialing its more complicated than it needs to be. Second, the Windows Mobile phone dialer always seems unresponsive and slow. Its a phone… but the phone is slow. it makes no sense. This is not a critisim against the treo, but if this your first Windows Mobile device you will be a bit disappointed with this.

My Final gripe is that it uses the Micro USB Cable. I dont know why. All I can say is that about 90% of my small electronic gizmos use Mini usb and now I have a new cable standard to deal with. I am sure there is some value to it, but I dont see it. Yes, the connector is smaller, but the cable is still just as thick and just as long. So why I need a thinner (by maybe a few hair widths) I dont know.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Click Buy Great device.
Rating: 5 / 5

I love my new Treo Pro. I have been using it for about 2 weeks and already plan to hold on to it for the long haul. Little, history, I have had the Origional Treo, 200, 600, and 650. This is the best of them all. I swtiched two windows mobile 2 years ago because… well the PALM OS is dead in my book. That aside, I really missed the treo. I think palm gets how to build a nice device.

Keyboard: Works great. I find for a thumb keyboard and now with some experience I can fly with it. Personally, I love the thumb keyboard. Perfect for one handed operation with little compromise.

Thin: This thing fits very nicely into the pocket and the screen guard is excellent. I dont even know I have it with me and I never accidently Dial anyone. It fits in the hand wonderfully.

Buttons.. Some devices are going away from having so many buttons. However I like the ability to launch frequent programs. The Pro is great at letting you customize. (You have many hardware buttons and some of them can also be configured to have an Option + Hardware button application bound to them)

Also, you have hardware button access to volume control and wifi.

GPS: Works great. I installed and worked right away.

Power: this device is not a power pig. With normal use I get a good run off it. Mind you, I use applications on it all day along and SMS extensively.

Camera: I havent used it. Frankly, it doesnt matter how many mega pixels any phone has, it still just a phone camera. Quality is never that good. But it is good enough for those fun quick shots.

Dislikes: well, the screen is a standard windows mobile device screen. I was hoping for a new device, especially manufactured by HTC it would have a bit more kick to it. However, its very functional and does what I want. One thing I love is how they built into the keyboard access to the brightness control. This is something all devices should have. Its really hard to increase the brightness if you can read the screen. No problem with the treo.

The ALT key on the keyboard allows you to access characters not on the keyboard, including accented letters for various languages. What I dont like is that its a little window that shows up with about 8 characters show and you scroll to see more. Well there are a lot of characters, it would be better if they just filled the screen so you can quickly find the special character you want.

Windows Mobile Phone Dialer stinks! This is true in my opinion for any windows mobile device. Its a phone, but you have to navigate often 2 to 3 screens deep just to get a phone number. For example, you start typing someones name and the dialer appears. It instantly starts searching for a name. Great! When you select a name by pressing enter, it pulls up their contact screen. (HUH???) yes, you now get to see more info about them. I just want to DIAL the phone number. Long story short, for simple dialing its more complicated than it needs to be. Second, the Windows Mobile phone dialer always seems unresponsive and slow. Its a phone… but the phone is slow. it makes no sense. This is not a critisim against the treo, but if this your first Windows Mobile device you will be a bit disappointed with this.

My Final gripe is that it uses the Micro USB Cable. I dont know why. All I can say is that about 90% of my small electronic gizmos use Mini usb and now I have a new cable standard to deal with. I am sure there is some value to it, but I dont see it. Yes, the connector is smaller, but the cable is still just as thick and just as long. So why I need a thinner (by maybe a few hair widths) I dont know.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Click Buy Great device.
Rating: 5 / 5

I’ve been using windows mobile phones for the last four years, for work related purposes. When my HTC Excalibur flaked out on me last month, I checked around and waited for this to come out. I’ve been using it for a few days, but so far I’m extremely happy with the experience.

The touchscreen/thumb keyboard combo with no sliding bits or bulky moving parts was the selling point for me. I use email and IM on my phones constantly, it’s important that it works and is usable. I’m happy to report that this phone does it well. The built in GPS works (ships with Google Maps loaded, but I generally prefer the Live Search application for Windows Mobile). The touch screen generally improves over the basic smartphone experience, as being able to click a link with the stylus is much nicer than navigating with buttons.

As speed and memory goes, so far they’ve been ample, and it’s noticeably snappier than other devices I’ve used recently. I’m planning to use a MicroSD card to get a bit more space, but I do that with every phone. The camera is decent, but nothing spectacular. I do like the camera software on this phone better than the software on the HTC phones.

Very minor features I do like:

- Time on screen when the backlight is off.

- Hardware switch to silent mode

- My Treo link to mobile-friendly information about the device in the start menu

- And of course, comes GSM unlocked. No carriers loading or unloading software before you get the device, things work like a charm out of the box.

Very minor annoyances:

- Everything else uses mini USB to charge, it would have been nice if Palm did too. This uses a proprietary end on a USB cable.

- It’s glossy, and black, but also very smooth. At times feels very slippery, and opening the case to get to the battery can be a pain.

- Camera button is not as responsive as I’d like for starting the camera app. Seems fine for taking pictures.

Overall, very high marks
Rating: 5 / 5

I’ve been using windows mobile phones for the last four years, for work related purposes. When my HTC Excalibur flaked out on me last month, I checked around and waited for this to come out. I’ve been using it for a few days, but so far I’m extremely happy with the experience.

The touchscreen/thumb keyboard combo with no sliding bits or bulky moving parts was the selling point for me. I use email and IM on my phones constantly, it’s important that it works and is usable. I’m happy to report that this phone does it well. The built in GPS works (ships with Google Maps loaded, but I generally prefer the Live Search application for Windows Mobile). The touch screen generally improves over the basic smartphone experience, as being able to click a link with the stylus is much nicer than navigating with buttons.

As speed and memory goes, so far they’ve been ample, and it’s noticeably snappier than other devices I’ve used recently. I’m planning to use a MicroSD card to get a bit more space, but I do that with every phone. The camera is decent, but nothing spectacular. I do like the camera software on this phone better than the software on the HTC phones.

Very minor features I do like:

- Time on screen when the backlight is off.

- Hardware switch to silent mode

- My Treo link to mobile-friendly information about the device in the start menu

- And of course, comes GSM unlocked. No carriers loading or unloading software before you get the device, things work like a charm out of the box.

Very minor annoyances:

- Everything else uses mini USB to charge, it would have been nice if Palm did too. This uses a proprietary end on a USB cable.

- It’s glossy, and black, but also very smooth. At times feels very slippery, and opening the case to get to the battery can be a pain.

- Camera button is not as responsive as I’d like for starting the camera app. Seems fine for taking pictures.

Overall, very high marks
Rating: 5 / 5

I have been a Palm OS user for years, and I finally decided to switch to windows mobile given the beautiful design of the Treo Pro.

The phone itself is great and I have no complaints, it is true that the back cover is a little hard to open, the first time, I’m a 7 month pregnant woman and have no problem opening it, once you follow the instructions in the manual and learn the trick it`s fairly easy. The wifi is fast, the design is great, many people complain about the small keyboard, but I find it perfect, maybe my nails and slim fingers help, but I really have no complaints, it is a phone not a keyboard after all.

Windows mobile on the other hand, has it`s advantages but in my opinion is way too slow, I`m an engineer used to speed and efficiency and I really miss the fast performance of Palm OS, besides, it takes to many steps to do something you could easily perform in a couple of clicks before.

It’s taking my mind more time to create the habits to perform basic activities, since they take so many steps, to send a message used to take me 30 seconds, and now 60 or 90, I know 30 seconds may not be much, but it is double what it used to take me, and frankly to much for me.

It has given me some small glitches like no rings for a couple of hours, and I have to soft reset it to get the sound back, but nothing major or frequent.

If you get the SPB mobile shell software you will miss the palm os less, and get more productivity, this program is definitely a must.

I strongly recommend to see the reviews in treonauts to choose software and freeware such as skype, skyfire, opera, etc to enhance the experience.

I’m happy with the phone, but I surely wish it was a new version of palm os instead of Winmo.
Rating: 4 / 5

I have been a Palm OS user for years, and I finally decided to switch to windows mobile given the beautiful design of the Treo Pro.

The phone itself is great and I have no complaints, it is true that the back cover is a little hard to open, the first time, I’m a 7 month pregnant woman and have no problem opening it, once you follow the instructions in the manual and learn the trick it`s fairly easy. The wifi is fast, the design is great, many people complain about the small keyboard, but I find it perfect, maybe my nails and slim fingers help, but I really have no complaints, it is a phone not a keyboard after all.

Windows mobile on the other hand, has it`s advantages but in my opinion is way too slow, I`m an engineer used to speed and efficiency and I really miss the fast performance of Palm OS, besides, it takes to many steps to do something you could easily perform in a couple of clicks before.

It’s taking my mind more time to create the habits to perform basic activities, since they take so many steps, to send a message used to take me 30 seconds, and now 60 or 90, I know 30 seconds may not be much, but it is double what it used to take me, and frankly to much for me.

It has given me some small glitches like no rings for a couple of hours, and I have to soft reset it to get the sound back, but nothing major or frequent.

If you get the SPB mobile shell software you will miss the palm os less, and get more productivity, this program is definitely a must.

I strongly recommend to see the reviews in treonauts to choose software and freeware such as skype, skyfire, opera, etc to enhance the experience.

I’m happy with the phone, but I surely wish it was a new version of palm os instead of Winmo.
Rating: 4 / 5

I bought this treo after my phone and PDA died almost simultaneously. I had avoided a treo mainly due to the smaller screen compared to my Palm Tungsten but needed a device with a keyboard and wasn’t interested in RIM products.

I initially bought an iPhone but gave it to my wife due to 1. Poor phone functionality 2. Crippled sms (message forwarding, MMS, file attachment; Apple?) , crippled Bluetooth and lack of a hard keyboard.

I was initially wary of buying a windows mobile device due to prior poor experience with pocket pc software. I have been pleasantly surprised by this device.

1. Speed-very fast overall, the only slowdowns I experience is with notes for some reason. I’ve accumulated 100′s of them over the yrs but this is no excuse as my 7 yr old palm could speed through them

2. Call quality is crystal clear much better than the iPhone’s in my area.

3. Bluetooth-this phone is compatible with Audi’s car kit and the voice quality is stellar. Palm’s site states it does not download contacts to the car but it did download some of them in my case. All the BT protocols of a 21st century device are supported unlike the iPhone’s 20th century implementation.

4. “Proper” GPs-not that iphone wannabe gps. Quick signal locks and 1 month free trial of TeleNav turn-by-turn is nice. I’ve heard TomTom’s software works pretty well with this device.

5.Battery life is so so, with email downloading in the background it will last about 2 business days. With a lot of websurfing it will barely last the day. I would say it’s better than the iphone, not by much though.

6. Touchscreen-finger friendly, I only use my stylus to write ink notes or use Epocrates.

WM 6.1 although it looks ugly compared to the iPhone OS, is a true multitasking OS, actually feels like a portable computer. I can wait for a satellite lock loading, go to another program and return back to the GPS as it finishes.

7. Form factor- love the size, overall dimensions are nice and its quite thin, great job on the design. Keyboard key material is fine for me a Treo newbie.

Overall this phone is a keeper, the combination of hard keyboard and touchscreen is great, while the addition of some apps (SPB, skyfire, kinomaplay to name a few) make it a truly superb device.

Rating: 5 / 5

I bought this treo after my phone and PDA died almost simultaneously. I had avoided a treo mainly due to the smaller screen compared to my Palm Tungsten but needed a device with a keyboard and wasn’t interested in RIM products.

I initially bought an iPhone but gave it to my wife due to 1. Poor phone functionality 2. Crippled sms (message forwarding, MMS, file attachment; Apple?) , crippled Bluetooth and lack of a hard keyboard.

I was initially wary of buying a windows mobile device due to prior poor experience with pocket pc software. I have been pleasantly surprised by this device.

1. Speed-very fast overall, the only slowdowns I experience is with notes for some reason. I’ve accumulated 100′s of them over the yrs but this is no excuse as my 7 yr old palm could speed through them

2. Call quality is crystal clear much better than the iPhone’s in my area.

3. Bluetooth-this phone is compatible with Audi’s car kit and the voice quality is stellar. Palm’s site states it does not download contacts to the car but it did download some of them in my case. All the BT protocols of a 21st century device are supported unlike the iPhone’s 20th century implementation.

4. “Proper” GPs-not that iphone wannabe gps. Quick signal locks and 1 month free trial of TeleNav turn-by-turn is nice. I’ve heard TomTom’s software works pretty well with this device.

5.Battery life is so so, with email downloading in the background it will last about 2 business days. With a lot of websurfing it will barely last the day. I would say it’s better than the iphone, not by much though.

6. Touchscreen-finger friendly, I only use my stylus to write ink notes or use Epocrates.

WM 6.1 although it looks ugly compared to the iPhone OS, is a true multitasking OS, actually feels like a portable computer. I can wait for a satellite lock loading, go to another program and return back to the GPS as it finishes.

7. Form factor- love the size, overall dimensions are nice and its quite thin, great job on the design. Keyboard key material is fine for me a Treo newbie.

Overall this phone is a keeper, the combination of hard keyboard and touchscreen is great, while the addition of some apps (SPB, skyfire, kinomaplay to name a few) make it a truly superb device.

Rating: 5 / 5

I was switched from a Blackberry to the Palm Treo Pro by my organization, so I’m a pretty captive audience. Two weeks in, I’m on my third one (replaced twice). The inconsistency in quality is very frustrating. I suspect that many of the issues are Windows Mobile, but I have to rate the entire package – they don’t offer it with anything else.

Pros:

- Form factor is nice.

- WiFi works well (but drains battery).

Cons:

- Battery life – will not last longer than a day if you do anything with the phone.

- Quality – As I said, I’m on my third one. Different problems each time.

- Finish – shiny black should look cool, but it picks up fingerprints, dirt, etc and looks like you ate lunch off of it after 15 minutes. (can’t blame this just on me – 50 other people using this model have the same result). I purchased a case that reduced this.

- Windows Mobile – It is beyond me that this still is still being released as a phone os. I used it 4 years ago and it was very painful. I mistakenly hoped that 4 years of customer feedback and testing would have improved it. Nothing has changed!

- Now power off or soft reset – I have to remove my batter once a day to reset the phone back to working condition.

Annoyances:

When you’re on a call the “text message”, “missed call” and “voice mail” notifications go off at full volume in your ear. Ouch.

Windows Mobile “ok” key is sometimes “ok” and sometimes “cancel” and sometimes “save” and it’s not really obvious.

You cannot reprogram many of the external buttons by default (I’m not sure if a third party app will do it). Other windows mobile phones have a key for voice dialing, or allow you to hold down the Send key to activate it. This one has not such key, and you can’t program the Send+Hold, or the Camera or the WiFi keys, so no obvious solution there.

History:

The first phone I got wouldn’t hang up. Not with the End button, not with the soft button, nothing! I had to take out the battery to hang up.

The second one started “losing” contacts randomly, even though the Phone History would still have information showing. Eventually the phone froze up. After removing the battery, the phone radio was out, so I could no longer place calls. (I couldn’t open Contacts or other things). Could be windows mobile memory corruption. I had to remove my Blackberry battery twice in two years. I’ve done it 18 times with this phone in two weeks. And even that won’t fix the problems.

The third phone I now have is having random software issues. Setting will not stay and it will not allow me to install any software. It says things install (simple things like a ebook reader), but they don’t show up (but memory has been taken up).

Boy, oh boy… I miss the Blackberry (8830) trackball. That’s the only way to navigate!!
Rating: 2 / 5

I was switched from a Blackberry to the Palm Treo Pro by my organization, so I’m a pretty captive audience. Two weeks in, I’m on my third one (replaced twice). The inconsistency in quality is very frustrating. I suspect that many of the issues are Windows Mobile, but I have to rate the entire package – they don’t offer it with anything else.

Pros:

- Form factor is nice.

- WiFi works well (but drains battery).

Cons:

- Battery life – will not last longer than a day if you do anything with the phone.

- Quality – As I said, I’m on my third one. Different problems each time.

- Finish – shiny black should look cool, but it picks up fingerprints, dirt, etc and looks like you ate lunch off of it after 15 minutes. (can’t blame this just on me – 50 other people using this model have the same result). I purchased a case that reduced this.

- Windows Mobile – It is beyond me that this still is still being released as a phone os. I used it 4 years ago and it was very painful. I mistakenly hoped that 4 years of customer feedback and testing would have improved it. Nothing has changed!

- Now power off or soft reset – I have to remove my batter once a day to reset the phone back to working condition.

Annoyances:

When you’re on a call the “text message”, “missed call” and “voice mail” notifications go off at full volume in your ear. Ouch.

Windows Mobile “ok” key is sometimes “ok” and sometimes “cancel” and sometimes “save” and it’s not really obvious.

You cannot reprogram many of the external buttons by default (I’m not sure if a third party app will do it). Other windows mobile phones have a key for voice dialing, or allow you to hold down the Send key to activate it. This one has not such key, and you can’t program the Send+Hold, or the Camera or the WiFi keys, so no obvious solution there.

History:

The first phone I got wouldn’t hang up. Not with the End button, not with the soft button, nothing! I had to take out the battery to hang up.

The second one started “losing” contacts randomly, even though the Phone History would still have information showing. Eventually the phone froze up. After removing the battery, the phone radio was out, so I could no longer place calls. (I couldn’t open Contacts or other things). Could be windows mobile memory corruption. I had to remove my Blackberry battery twice in two years. I’ve done it 18 times with this phone in two weeks. And even that won’t fix the problems.

The third phone I now have is having random software issues. Setting will not stay and it will not allow me to install any software. It says things install (simple things like a ebook reader), but they don’t show up (but memory has been taken up).

Boy, oh boy… I miss the Blackberry (8830) trackball. That’s the only way to navigate!!
Rating: 2 / 5