Everyday Use

The Treo Pro has done a fine job slipping into my everyday life. Part of the reason that's possible is that I am already familiar with Windows Mobile. However, even to those unfamiliar with the OS it could be a great fit (see more just below).

In my everyday usage of the Treo Pro in the last week I haven't had any crashes that couldn't be attributed to 3rd party, Beta-stage software. In fact, I'm currently using the Treo Pro with Beta software and still taking "No Reboot Challenge" (day 3 and counting!). My battery life is slightly better than most smartphones I've used recently, Treo 800w included, giving me a full day of charge with moderately heavy usage and 2 days with medium usage. That 'medium' usage included push email, at least an hour's worth of web browsing, nearly an hour's worth of calls, an hour or so of music, and easily three hours worth of fiddling around with the OS and games over the course of two days.

Palm is famous for customizing Windows Mobile in a certain way: it may look like a plain-Jane install of WinMo, but underneath the hood there are many enhancements that tie it more closely to the hardware and overall speed it up immensely. The Treo 800w is probably the pinnacle of this philosophy: although it doesn't have specs that scream power, it is the snappiest Treo I've ever used.

Note that last sentence -- the Treo 800w is slightly faster than the Treo Pro in my everyday use. That's not to say the Treo Pro is slow at all -- I still find it faster than most Windows Mobile Pro devices, just not quite as quick as the Treo 800w. That, plus the fact that the Treo 800w has a better keyboard, should help ease some of the pain of Treo 800w owners who feel they've received the short end of the design stick from Palm.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, of all the smartphones I have available to me, the Treo Pro is the one I want for my everyday use.

Why the Treo Pro Will Be My "Main Brain"

When people approach me and ask what kind of smartphone they should buy, my answer is always to stop them and ask them if they know which carrier or network they want to be on. Monthly fees always end up costing more than the phone itself and your smartphone is no good to you if you can't get signal (For more, see "How to Buy a Windows Mobile Phone"). So while the Treo 800w is "the most productive Treo I have ever used," it's not a smartphone I can use every day, Sprint's signal is just too poor in my area.

I'm on AT&T, then, and when I wrote at the very beginning of this review that the Treo Pro is the culmination of many years of waiting, I meant it. Every smartphone presents compromises and when you're considering a smartphone you need to think about what's most important to you and find one that emphasizes those things. For me, the Treo Pro hits pretty much all of my "Must Haves" with no difficulty:

One Handed Use: My favorite smartphone form factor is still a touchscreen combined with a QWERTY keyboard underneath it. The Treo Pro fits this bill better than any other device currently on the market: it's easy to use one-handed and the fact that it has 5 customizable buttons within easy reach means it's easy to multitask without having to use both hands. The keyboard is easy to type on with one hand too.

Powerful OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 still isn't especially pretty and Palm hasn't included any of the eye-candy you can find on other Windows Mobile devices. Still, Windows Mobile 6.1 is flexible, powerful, and can be as easy to use as the PalmOS once you get your head wrapped around its metaphors for usage (for more, see "The Windows Mobile Interface"). There's a large body of great 3rd party software too.

Good Messaging Support: Windows Mobile handles email very well -- with some software from SEVEN and Nuevasync, I am able to get push Gmail without having to hassle with forwarding to an Exchange server. Typing on the keyboard is "good enough" for me.

Decent Browser: Pocket Internet Explorer isn't exactly "decent," but it does to job for light web browsing. For heavier web browsing, there is a great set of next-gen browsers coming online for Windows Mobile now and in the coming months.

Good Battery Life: The Treo Pro's got it.

Small Form Factor: Ditto.

Business Use

For the reasons above and for a few more, the Treo Pro his the sweet spot for this power user. I suspect it will do the same for other power users. The Treo Pro's real target market is business, however, and there I think it will be a qualified success.

Because it sports Windows Mobile 6.1, the Treo Pro has out-of-the-box support for push email, contacts, calendar, notes, and tasks with Exchange. Just as important for the enterprise, it's compatible with Microsoft's new Mobile Device Manager software, which allows sysadmins to manage Windows Mobile devices as easily as they manage desktops on their network. The Treo Pro is secure, fast, and offers Microsoft Office as well, letting you download, create, and edit documents directly on the device.

The Treo Pro's success in the enterprise will depend largely on whether or not Microsoft is able to make the argument overall that Windows Mobile is a better solution than BlackBerry for large companies. They're making a few inroads (especially internationally), but the jury really is still out on whether or not they'll be able to stop the BlackBerry juggernaut.

The Treo Pro certainly isn't going to be able to do it singlehandedly. For as innovative and cool as it is, it still isn't a BlackBerry Bold killer. The Bold is definitely the Treo Pro's main competitor, they both feature nearly identical radios and feature-sets. The breakdown of their respective advantages goes something like this:

• Treo Pro Advantages: Windows Mobile 6.1, smaller form factor, touchscreen
• BlackBerry Bold Advantages: BlackBerry OS, larger keyboard, higher resolution screen

Note that the OS is a 'Pro' for both devices. I prefer the Treo Pro because I prefer Windows Mobile, but in the corporate world I'd be in the minority. I personally think that the BlackBerry Bold is RIM's Treo 650: a great device that basically represents the pinnacle of what they can do now, but also signals the end-of-the-line for what they can get out of their current operating system. (There's a Master's Thesis on mobile technology in that last sentence if anybody's interested in writing it)

Time will tell with regard to the fight between Windows Mobile and the BlackBerry OS, but unless RIM has an entirely new OS up its sleeve, it's not well-positioned against Windows Mobile in the long term. Windows Mobile, for all its foibles (and they are many), has a clearer long-term development roadmap, a more flexible and scalable platform, and is much easier for 3rd parties to develop for. So far those advantages haven't been enough to seriously harm RIM, but if RIM doesn't continue to innovate they likely will.

Of course, Apple's the wildcard here, but Palm doesn't expect that the iPhone poses a serious threat in the enterprise space for either RIM or Microsoft (yet). The good news for all three companies is that there's plenty of room for everyone.

As for the other factors like the screens and keyboards, they are what they are. The Bold feels awfully wide, the Treo Pro feels a little cramped: pick your poison.

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