Palm Treo 500 Smartphone

Characteristics

• Dimensions 110 x 61.5 x 16.5 mm for 120 grams
• Windows Mobile 6 Standard operating system
• Triband GSM/GPRS/UMTS
• 2.4” screen (not tactile) 240 x 320 pixels and 65000 colours in landscape
• 300 MHz Processor
• 64 MB RAM
• 256 MB ROM (150 MB usable)
• microSD port
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• 2 mega pixel camera
• USB mini port
• 1200 mAh battery

The Palm Treo 500 is the latest mobile terminal released by Palm. Completing the Treo range of smartphones, it is located in the middle of the range and adds to the series of messaging terminals thanks to its full keyboard.

The product is presented as a small terminal with rounded corners and a screen laid out in landscape taking up almost the top half of the device. Below that you will find the control buttons: softkeys, return to the menu and take call. In the lower half you will find a full keyboard, with its miniscule keys being harmoniously laid out.

We note the absence of the camera on the façade, which eliminates the possibility of holding a video conference (but some people will say this isn’t a bad thing). The top part of the face only sees the palm logo, the speaker and a LED which turns on to indicate whether the battery is being charged (red: ongoing, green: charged).

At the top you will find a single on/off button which turns the device off when held down for a long period or will display the menu if held for a short time. This allows you to access your connection manager, lock the keypad or change the phones profile. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that the keys are big, easily accessible and well spaced. Even large fingers will be able to use them with little problem.

On the left hand side, a button and volume controls can be found. On the right hand side… nothing. We cant exactly say that the Treo 500 is swimming in buttons that operate bizarre functions.

At the bottom of the phone, we find a 2.5mm headphone plug (headphones included) and a mini USB port which can also be used to charge and synchronise the phone, which means you can carry a single cable which can do everything. Between the two, a small hole is where the microphone is located.

And the port for the memory card? It is well hidden under the 1200 mAh battery. You will therefore need to turn of the hand set, take off the cover at the back and remove the battery to get access. This is the price of being compact…

As this is one of the strong points of the device: the pick up is excellent and we find it a pleasure to operate. With its rounded form and its light weight of 12à grams, the Palm Treo 500 fits nicely into your hand.

The keyboard, lit from behind, is set out so that the alphabet characters are black, while the numeric keypad ones are in white. There is an option button to activate the second function of each key, a shift key and an Alt key which provides you access to symbols and special characters.

At the back of the device, the external speaker grill is above the 2 mega pixel camera lens: a resolution that is neither better or worse then the competition.