Palm sure has that immediate access thing covered. If you prefer your Treo handy to the max, the luxurious, well crafted Leather Holster will do the trick in style. Its permanent, rotating clip attaches a pliable pouch of soft Nappa leather to your belt. It works fine on waistband or bookbag strap, too.

The product’s craftsmanship is outstanding - neat black stitching, tight to the edge, and excellent quality materials throughout. The plastic clip’s a little bulky, however, mounting the pouch well off the attaching surface. It rotates through 360 degrees with strong detents every 30 degrees, so you can put the pouch in any position. I don’t recommend using it upside down, lest you tempt the Gravity Gremlins, but it’ll go there if you insist.

The clip could use some more grip. It depends on mounting over a rather thick strap or belt – or the waistband of your pants – and a thinner strap doesn’t fill it up enough to make it grip. On the other hand, filling it up too far keeps its tip from engaging, and it’ll be more likely to fall off. I’ve had it lose its grip only a couple of times, but I’m not sure whether to blame myself for not securing it correctly, or the clip for letting go. Be forewarned.

It’s probably possible to break the thick plastic clip, but with the considerable hard use I’ve dished out, it hasn’t even loosened up. Fitting it over a flexible cloth strap often requires two hands – one to pry the clip’s jaws apart slightly, and the other to slide the clip over. A clever barb on the clip’s tip decreases the chance it’ll slide off accidentally, but only if what it attaches to isn’t overly thick. In my use, the clip completely surrounds the strap, so the barb works only as a trap.

On a wider strap, I’d be concerned about it sliding through the clip (and off, and bounce on unpleasant-to-consider surfaces like concrete). Thankfully, attaching the holster to belt or waistband is a one-hand operation, easy as pudding (pie?).

The bulky, non-removable clip makes the Leather Holster none too desirable for pocket carrying, but in capacious pockets it’ll work fine. I sometimes slip it into my pockets - if I’m in too big a hurry or have my hands full of stuff to carry and no extra appendage to perform the attach-to-strap operation. It’s a one-handed breeze to attach it to my favorite camera bag’s straps, because those are thick, stiff leather. Maybe I should just wear the camera bag all the time, eh?

Usability

Palm’s Leather Holster keeps your Treo at the ready, but you have to remove the phone to do anything with it. Even so, cutouts in the bottom of the holster allow access to the earphone jack. Nice. If your earphone’s connector doesn’t make a right turn, you’ll be able to remove the phone from the holster without disconnecting.

The holster’s flat on the back, a shape suggesting that the Treo should ride facing inward. This is an excellent choice for extra protection of its touch screen. It will work the other way, however – at least this is the case with my Treo 650, 700p, and 700w.

With the Treo 680, the fit front to back is a little too loose for my comfort. The 680 doesn’t rattle around, though, since the holster fits its width snugly, but there’s so much room around it on front and back that there’s not enough grip, in my book, to keep it from flying out. Therefore, I don’t consider this holster a good choice for the unadorned Treo 680, especially for the extra safety minded - notwithstanding Palm’s promotional copy otherwise. I particularly would not recommend using the holster upside down with the 680. That gravity thing, you know.

Now the good part. If you’re using Seidio’s 2400 mAh Extended Battery in your Treo 680, as I am (review coming soon to a TreoCentral near you), then the Palm holster fits a little snug, but it does fit. With the bigger-battery hump, it’s not as easy as it ought to be to retrieve the 680 from the holster, and the insert-remove operation usually – as opposed to “occasionally” with the other Treos – wakes the device up. Don’t look for this holster to work with other Treos using extra capacity batteries, however. They’re thicker than the 680, and they fit the holster snugly before you add the battery hump.

Protection

The top of the Treo sticks out of Palm’s leather holster, so it stays totally unprotected. In a drop (ack!), the Treo’s antenna stays out there, and its bottom corners remain available to take a bump. I’ve dropped my Treos, but lucked out and had no damage or scrapes, but don’t try this at home. Or anywhere else.

Otherwise, the holster affords quite good protection from flying objects, bumps, and scrapes. It’d be useless in a downpour, even upside down, so plan on covering it with your hand. Or tote a large, heavy umbrella and improve your chances that it won’t rain.