Back in September, Palm, Microsoft, and Verizon Wireless released a few tantalizing details about the Palm Treo 700w, then called the Palm Treo on Windows Mobile 5, but left us wanting much more information on the long-fabled smart phone. Finally, at CES 2006 in Las Vegas, the three companies announced its availability and many more details, including the final name. Yet while we were initially excited by the Windows-based Treo, our elation slowly deflated as we spent more time with the device. The once fresh-seeming features, such as photo speed dial and responding to calls with text messages, are now available on the Palm Treo 650 through third-party apps, so they're no longer unique to the Treo 700w. Also, we couldn't help but find the Treo 700w's washed-out screen uninspiring over time. Still, for those who want native Windows support, the smart phone offers good call quality, solid battery life, and excellent one-handed operation. The Treo 700w is now available to all through Verizon for a pricey $499, although it should be a bit cheaper with service. The companies will release GSM versions of the Treo 700w but probably not until the middle of the year.

Design

Part of what makes Palm's Treo line so successful is its form factor, so we're glad to see that the company didn't mess with a good thing when designing the Treo 700w. Like its Palm OS-based sibling, the Palm Treo 650, the Palm Treo 700w measures 4.4 by 2.3 by 0.9 inches and is a hair heavier at 6.4 ounces. Although the dimensions of the two devices are the same on paper, the 700w actually feels heavier and looks thicker. The heft may be a turnoff to some, but the device feels solid in the hand and comfortable while held up to your ear. Also, the Treo 700w sports a classic silver and charcoal-gray color scheme that will look good in any boardroom.

Unfortunately, the Palm Treo 700w doesn't share the same sharp resolution as the Treo 650 (320x320 pixels). Rather, at 240x240 pixels, images and text don't look as defined as on the Treo 650, and though the Treo 700w displays 65,000 colors, they look a bit washed out. That said, the display isn't all bad. Below the display is a navigation keypad that's similar to the 650's. There are two action keys that give you quick access to various functions, depending on which screen you're in; for example, from the Today screen, you can launch your messages or the menu. Beneath the soft keys are the Talk, Start, OK, and End buttons, split in pairs by the four-way navigation toggle and the center Select key. All controls are well spaced and easy to use, and we love the fact that you can operate the smart phone with one hand--you don't have to rely on the stylus to access menus and applications.

Of course, the Treo 700w's QWERTY keyboard is even handier (are you reading, e-mail fanatics?). The device sports rectangular buttons instead of the oval-like keys found on the 650, but the two smart phones do have something in common: a squished layout. Users with larger digits should take note, but on the upside, the keyboard is well backlit and provides a nice tactile feel. There's a volume rocker on the left spine of the smart phone, as well as a customizable quick-launch button just below it. The infrared port, the MMC/SDIO expansion slot, and the ringer/silent switch sit atop the 700w, while the MultiConnector port and the 2.5mm headset jack line the bottom. As noted in our review of the Treo 650, we find the placement of the headset jack a bit inconvenient, but it's not a deal breaker. Finishing out the design elements of the Palm Treo 700w is a camera lens, a self-portrait mirror, a speaker, and a user-replaceable battery on the back. The smart phone comes packaged with an AC adapter, a USB ActiveSync cable, and a wired headset.

Features

The feature that sets the Palm Treo 700w apart from the rest of the Treo family is obviously its Windows Mobile 5 operating system. With it, you get the new Microsoft Office Mobile Suite, including Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile. The first two apps add support for charts and tables--an enhancement to previous versions--while the latter is completely new. Although you can't edit slides in this version of PowerPoint, it's nice to be able to view presentations right on your device. The biggest draw for many, however, will be Outlook Mobile. The Treo 700w will be upgradable to Microsoft's Messaging and Security Feature Pack, which includes support for push e-mail. Now, you can receive Outlook e-mail in real time (along with POP3 and IMAP4 accounts, including Hotmail and Yahoo), appointments, contacts, and tasks directly on your device via a connection with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. The Treo 700w's complementary support for Verizon's EV-DO network sweetens the deal, as it means faster download speeds of around 400Kbps to 700Kbps. Other wireless options include Bluetooth for hands-free calling (there's also a speakerphone) but unfortunately no Wi-Fi, and you can't use the device as a wireless modem for your laptop when you are on the road. Palm says the Treo 700w will support its Wi-Fi card, so you can gain access that way.

Also unique to the Treo 700w is the customizable Today screen, which provides convenient and quick access to widely used apps. For example, you can now dial by name just by entering the first couple of letters of a contact, rather than having to dig through your whole address book. You can also easily surf the Net by entering text in the Web search field at the bottom of the Today screen, and Internet Explorer Mobile kicks in.

In addition, the Palm Treo 700w includes some new phone features that should make mobile professionals smile. First, say you're in a meeting and an important call comes through, but you can't get to it. The Treo 700w lets you reply with a text message to let callers know you received the call but were otherwise engaged. We checked out this text function, and it worked wonderfully. The Treo 700w also supports photo speed dial, which you can quickly access from the Today screen, and lets you call contacts by photos, as well as a user-friendly, icon-based voicemail app that supports numerous systems at work or home. While we love these added phone capabilities, we should also note that you can now enjoy these same features on the Treo 650, thanks to third-party developers. An app called SharkMsg by Ludus Technologies can perform the same "ignore with SMS" duties of the Windows Treo, and Electric Pocket has developed a program called PhotoDial that allows for photo speed dial.

All that said, we have to give the advantage of one-handed operation to the Treo 700w. With the combination of the useful shortcut keys and the Today screen, we could perform most operations without having to break out the stylus--truly convenient for working on the go.

For entertainment, the Palm Treo 700w includes Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, so you can listen to music and watch videos, plus it supports WMA, WMV, and MP3 files, among others. Also, for extra kicks, you can now assign any supported video file as a ring tone. If you want to take photos of your own, the Treo 700w comes equipped with a 1.3-megapixel camera, an improvement upon the Treo 650's VGA camera. There's a 2X zoom, and you can choose from three quality settings (High, Normal, and Low) and five resolutions (1,280x1,024, 640x480, 320x240, 240x180, and 160x120). You can also adjust the brightness, and once you've snapped your image, you can rotate it or crop it to your liking. Image quality was decent but definitely not printworthy. In video mode, you get two quality settings (176x144 and 352x288) and brightness controls. Plus, you can choose to limit video clips to 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or none at all. Once you're done, you can assign your masterpieces as wallpaper or photo caller ID, or you can save them to the phone's internal memory. There's 128MB of memory (60MB is user accessible) onboard, but thanks to the SDIO/MMC expansion slot, you can load a nice memory card with such multimedia content and save the internal memory for other apps.

Performance

We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) Palm Treo 700w in Las Vegas and the San Francisco area using Verizon's network, and call quality was excellent. Conversations were loud and clear on our end, and our callers reported the same. Speakerphone quality was a mixed bag. While everything was fine on our end, callers said we sounded far away. We had no problems pairing the Treo 700w with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset, although call quality diminished slightly. Powered by a 312MHz Intel XScale processor and EV-DO support, the Treo 700w had no problems surfing the Web, and load times were fast.
The Palm Treo 700w's battery is rated for a talk time of 4.7 hours and a standby time of 15 days, which is decent for a phone. In our tests, we met the rated talk time, but standby time fell short by about 5 days. According to FCC radiation tests, the Treo 700w has a digital SAR rating of 1.26 watts per kilogram.

Rating

Design: 7

Features: 7

Performance: 8

Verdict

The good: The Treo 700w runs Windows Mobile 5 and sports the same great, compact form factor of the Treo 650. This smart phone also comes with Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and EV-DO support.

The bad: Unfortunately, the Treo 700w doesn't include integrated Wi-Fi and has a somewhat poor 240x240-pixel resolution.

The bottom line: The Palm Treo 700w brings Windows Mobile and a number of useful features, such as push e-mail and photo speed dial, to the much-beloved smart phone, but its heft and its washed-out screen has us giving the edge to the Treo 650.