I like going with the under dogs, so even with the “under whelming” verdict for the Palm Treo Pro, I’m not too unhappy that I asked Santa for one & it is currently in the mail from the Dell store. I am currently using the WM6 on the Motorola Q9h & a major feature I’ve missed on a not so bad OS is the lack of a touch screen, which I had gotten used to from the Palm Treo 680.

The Treo can’t be that bad, palm listened & gave us an unlocked phone with WiFi along with a standard 3.5mm audio jack, which makes me happy. I’m also looking forward to the seemless synchronization with my MS Outlook 03/07.

I am slightly perturbed with the cheap looking centro type keyboard compares to the one my Q, but then again the phone does have a touch screen with a stylus.

Let’s go Palm
Let’s Go!!

I wasn’t blown away by it at first, but I’m starting to really like it now. S60 seems to be confusing to navigate at first but I’m getting the hang of it.

The best part of the qwerty keyboard is that I don’t have to deal with T9 anymore and Nokia has included text auto-correction for those of us with big fingers. I’ve never used an iPhone – but I’m guessing it functions similarly to the iPhone’s self correcting feature for the on-screen keyboard. (Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or so they say…)

I use the phone with my Vista Laptop and it works perfectly – I’m not so sure about Mac OS. I just checked and there is a version of Missing Sync for Symbian, but I have no idea how good the software actually is.

It’s available online everywhere, but the best prices seem to be available through Amazon, Newegg or Buy.com for around $320-390 USD (Amazon had a gold box special last week for $320) (I live in Canada, so can’t order at these prices…)

I’ll thought Someone should chime in and defend Windows Mobile a bit.

While WM cab a bit underwhelming at times (especially when you compare it to the iPhone) what it does best is offer a more or less consistent experience on a variet of hardware. Sound Familiar?

Seriously, one of the major problems with WM phones has been that the manufacturers have tried to skimp on the costs a bit by using slower processors and less internal memory. That more often then not leads to sluggishness as WM allows Multitasking, allowing you to have multiple programs running at the same time.

If the Hardware is decent, it runs quiet well. Another problem that often affects performance is when The company selling it dosen’t customise it to optimise performance, or adds a alot of crap ware (carrier’s I’m looking at you).

What’s there if properly configured is a very powerful system, with a ton of configurable and a very active user & development community (xda-developers).

I’ve personally been using WM phones for years, and while I’ve tried using Palm’s and Blackberry’s , There was nothing there which convinced me to switch over.

In the End it does depend very much on the user and the usage scenario. I Enjoy hacking my Phone, and trying new stuff on it all the time. WM’s pretty much met my needs for that.

Palm Unfortunately has gotten really long on the tooth, and the OS seems antiquated. I Loved my TX, But that was 4 Years ago.

Blackberry is great if what you mainly want is Great mail access. But I’ve personally never gotten into it.

The iPhone looks great and feels great when using it, But I’m leery of stepping inside a closed ecosystem, where I’ll need to void my warranty to put non approved stuff on it. Not to mention the Exclusive contract.

My preferred PDA “solution” (sorry) has alway to have a small dumb phone and a PDA, but essentially because my TX will not tether to my newish phone (SE K800i), I am going to have to look elsewhere. I’m not that keen on a centro (although mildly tempted) because of the lack of WIfi and the screen size. I feel that palm have pulled support for their PDAs to get us to buy their smartphones, a real kick in the teeth for people who spent £250 on a product only 2 years ago.

Oh well, I suppose i’ll just add to the sense of melancholy here in this thread, of people who are very affectionate towards Palm, but simply not satisfied by their current situation.

PS on a technical note, does anyone know how easy it is to use a 3G phone as a modem for a standalone Windows Mobile PDA? Probably with WM 5 or 6

Julie – sorry to use the forum for tech support!

Please keep in mind that at the time, Microsoft was competing with Palm on the Pocket PC/Windows Mobile side. Had Palm not agreed to an alliance with Microsoft, it’s very likely that Palm (PalmOne then) would have died a lot quicker (think Netscape).

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise that the deal was made as we can now look back and see how little innovation Palm has made with respect to the OS, hardware, etc. The Windows Mobile Treo seems to be the main thing that has been keeping them alive for the past 5 years. Nothing innovative they have come up with in these years have done anything. LifeDrive, and Foleo with exception of Centro (which is really another Treo in different casing and design) were tossed out just as quickly as they were released.

I am doubtful that Nova will really be reality either.

Yes, it was a big deal when Palm decided to produce Windows Mobile phones a few years ago. I agree that it was an odd decision. It would be my guess that Palm OS based Treos outsell Windows Mobile ones.

I enjoy the Centro, but do not love it- screen is small, inaccessible card (although SoftTick’s Blue Files has helped me with that. I will be reviewing it soon), annoying buttons, etc.

iPhones are dang cool and seem to be getting better, Blackberry is great, etc. Palm may well be a dead man walking.

I suspect that my next smart phone will not be a Palm either.

I don’t like the scanning of your entire card for media material and it’s too big to keep installed. I’m not planning on getting Kinoma Play and just settling on viewing streams via bookmarks instead.

As for Coreplayer, I also paid for the Palm OS version and was so disappointed that it didn’t support steams (back when I bought it. Not sure if it does now) so I have no plans to pay for another media player that will likely disappoint again.

It’s not like these apps are cheap either.

Of course I will check it out! Most important is: tactile feel of the keyboard, speed and (foremost) – synchronization. Will it do that as good and as bulletproof as the Centro with its Palm OS?
Guess we will just have to wait and see.

As far as expensive, my days of buying $500 phones are over…I’m sitting here looking at my treo 650, looking at my T1 (which is my favorite PDA except I didn’t need the slider), and all those accessories (keyboards for the UNIVERSAL connector that wasn’t, cases, cradles, etc) I bought for them that are now collecting dust. I am happy with my centro ($99) and if they come out with an open source phone for cheap that’s where I headed.

I’m surprised at the buttons, and yes the centro’s cover was very difficult as well. It is a little easier now that I’ve had it about a year:)

And oh, I HATE windows mobile. I never plan to go there.

Thanks for the review. The treo pro LOOKS very nice though.

I’m in the exact same place that you are. So I’m sad in a way, but then excited too. I’m actually charging up an old Nokia that I have. The N80. Why? I dunno… ;o) I could put the SIM back in my Centro, but I am just not inspired to do so.

I am seriously considering moving on beyond Palm branded devices including Treos and seriously thinking Blackberry, Nokia and others. The iPhone, although seems great, but again, the lack of a physical keyboard (the virtual ones don’t work for me) and wireless keyboard support is what holds me back.

I am thinking that my ‘palm’ days are over. Now, I’m getting excited about getting something else.

I had a chance to play with a Blackberry (I think it was an 8020 or something like that [a device about 4 months old]), and I really didn’t like it. Very unusual menu structure and a bit unlogical. Not my kind of device.

What would tickle my fancy, would be an iPhone – a little smaller and not “luxurious” as the current model. More like a “roughing it” version

Otherwise I am waiting for the Tube to come out (Nkoia 5800 Xpress Music). I’d like to daddle with that for a while!!

The Treo Pro looked like a nice device on paper, but the proof is in the pudding. Thanks for the great review. I am no longer tempted to buy it, as if I could afford it anyway.

I don’t like Windows Mobile at all. It takes 5 clicks to get anything done. I have a new iTouch that I like alot, but I’m not so sure I’d want it to be my phone OS. Other than the browsing experience, I love my Centro. I wish someone would come out with a better browser for Palm OS. I’d pay $30 for a decent browser.

I want to like Windows Mobile each time I decide to give it another try and it never works out for me. So yeah, I would definitely concede that I probably don’t love this phone because of the OS. But it’s the hardware too. That’s why I mentioned that even if this had Palm OS on it, I would still be unhappy.

I’m seriously considering trying another Blackberry device soon. I liked the Pearl when I reviewed it a few years ago. The data plan was the prohibitive issue then…