A couple of weeks ago gaj-it.com attended the launch of the Palm Treo Pro; a phone aimed at changing the rather downtrodden image of Palm, since the popularity of certain other smartphone named after a fruit, burst on the market. So badly did Palm want to invest in their new image that they created a whole new gastropub for a week purely for this phone launch- talk about effort! PR interns, take note.
The Black Sheep Pub suddenly popped up in Brick Lane on London’s east-side and as it was going to be a one-off venue, I was concerned as to how heavily decorated it would be in Palm Treo Pros for everybody to play with as a means to wile away the night.
Luckily this wasn’t the case, and instead we were treated to a gastronomically delightful dinner while each table received one Treo Pro to test out. In order to show just how easy this handset was to use, we played a game where a series of trivia questions were emailed to us on our phones, and we had to email back our answers. Sounds easy enough, but how long would it take for us to get used to the features we needed to do this task successfully?
Well as it turns out, this was a great test of usability with this handset, as we easily navigated through a range of different menus to email back our answers, and to cheat by using the phone’s internet connection to look up the combined age of 6 deceased comedians. The internet connection was flawless; the trivia questions were slightly absurd.
My only biff with the handset is the keypad, which is more into right-angles than ergonomics. The designed curve of the old Treo’s keypad has been ditched in favour of town-planned straight lines.
The application buttons above the keys are also, completely flat, which may look nice, but in the darkness of a pub (where everyone uses their phone) this lack of a tactile response made it a bit difficult to get to the screen you wanted on first go.
Granted I had been making free with the bar and it was my first time with the phone, so in all fairness, it’s perhaps a keypad that you would have to grow with; like you would with a partner, get to know it better before making a commitment.
What is a step in the right direction is that the new Treo Pro runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, keeping it up to speed with other business-aimed phones on the market. You also have a choice of Wi-Fi or GPS connections.
The Treo Pro will set you back £399 if you buy it upfront, but it is also available on plans through Vodafone and O2.
All in all, the Palm Treo Pro is the black sheep in the smartphone flock, but with the high speed applications in this model, at least Palm haven’t tried to pull the wool over our eyes.
For more info: Palm