Palm Treo 700p PDA Preview

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The Palm Treo 700p is the one up from what made the Treo 650 a productive and intuitive smartphone. It features a slightly refined hardware design and a large number of software, multimedia and usability improvements. The 700p is also the first Palm OS based smartphone on the EVDO wireless networks. The p is almost the same as the Treo 700w. The main difference is a higher density 320 x 320 pixel display and a few distinctive buttons. The 700p hardware features softer, more curved corners, squarer keys arranged in a smile pattern and improved keyboard and button backlighting.

The Treo now has true dedicated send and end call buttons. The top buttons are now used for ending phone calls. The red end key also turns the screen off and locks the device. The home key is now located in the row of application on the far right. The menu key had been moved to the bottom right of the keyboard. The center 5-way navigator is also a bit larger and is a bit easier to thumb around with. The other application buttons are user changeable and by default take you to the Phone app, calendar and email.

Size wise, the Treo 700p has dimensions of 5.08" x 2.28" x 0.89" inches (129 x 58 x 22.5 mm) and weighs in at 6.4 ounces (180 g). The 700p is powered by a 312 MHz Intel XScale processor. The device has been given a boost in the memory department. It includes a 128 MB non-volitile chip for program memory of which 60 MB is user-available for program storage. Both the dbcache and dbheap (internal application memory space) have been increased. The dbheap is now up to 10 MB and the dbcache has a 18 MB capacity.

The 700p includes a 1.3 megapixel digital camera built into the rear of the device. It can take photos at a max resolution of 1280 x 1024 and has 2x digital zoom. It can also record video clips with audio at a 352 x 288 resolution. It has automatic light balance and an improved FPS capture rate for video clips. A non-camera version will also be made available.

Palm Treo 700p review preview specsThe Treo 700p has a SD memory expansion slot. Palm has added built in FAT32 support for SD cards up to 2 GB in size. Palm engineers are currently testing 4 GB size cards for compatibility, some 4 GB cards may work others may be incompatible at this time.

While the SD slot does support SDIO accessories, Wi-Fi via a SD card is still not supported. This appears to be a limitation of Garnet, though one can hope for an unsupported, unofficial work-around someday. Palm claims you won't have a need for Wi-Fi if you have an always on EVDO data plan. So we are likely stuck with Wi-Fi expansion sleds for the time being.

The 700p also has Bluetooth v1.2. This allows for wireless accessories such as GPS navigation kits and wireless Bluetooth headsets. The v1.2 spec allows for faster device connections and adds the ability to use more that one Bluetooth device at once. For instance, you could keep a headset connected at the same time you have your Bluetooth GPS running.

The Treo 700p runs the Palm OS Garnet operating system v5.4.9. While this is still the same Palm OS Garnet core, there have been a number of improvements to the Palm Treo platform that extend the functionality and multimedia capabilities of this device. There is a new UI for many of the built in applications. Instead of the classic Palm OS title bar, some applications include a full width blue title bar, that looks like something more out of the Mac OS Aqua theme.

Many of the built-in applications have been updated. The photo viewer has been improved and now displays large photos and thumbnails much quicker. There is finally a voice recorder built in as well. Documents to Go v8 is now built into the device rom and includes native Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) file support and PDF Files.

The 700p has an impressive set of new multimedia capabilities for a Palm device. Both video and audio streaming over the Internet is now built in. Thanks to the high-speed EVDO connection and software powered by Kinoma you can now stream Windows Media player type Video and audio to the device with no additioinal third party software.

Pocket Tunes is included on the device for MP3 digital audio and music playback. It features a new skin that resembles the new Treo UI and is a big improvement over the old RealPlayer. Owners will have an option to upgrade to Pocket Tunes Deluxe for WMA/PlaysForSure support to subscribe to DRM digital music stores such as Yahoo and Napster.

Blazer v4.5 is included for browsing the web. They have also improved JavaScript support, which increases the number of sites accessible and usable on the device. The browser is also better at loading and navigating larger non-mobile webpages. The faster EVDO data connection will allow you to download and load large pages and files in much less time.

For email VersaMail v3.5 is included. It features the usual POP3 and IMAP email support including built in settings for Yahoo Mail, AOL and Gmail. There have also been some improvements to addressing by way of remembering recent e-mail addresses. New sorting options and improved page scrolling are also present. It also includes the ability to sync with a Microsoft Exchange 2003 server, for email, calendar and contact sync. AutoSync can also be scheduled for any combination of email, calendar and contacts.

Palm Treo 700p Smartphone review previewThe phone of the 700p uses a CDMA radio (850/1900). Being a CDMA device, the Treo 700p can access high speed EVDO wireless data networks and can fall back on 1xRTT connection when no EVDO is present. Current EVDO speed average around 300-600 kbps, depending on your signal and location. Palm is not saying at this time if a possible GSM/UTMS version of the 700p will be made.

Easy DUN setup that can be used over Bluetooth or with the USB cable. The included USB cable will now also trickle charge the device so you don't have to worry about draining the battery when using it in DUN mode. Not all carriers may support this feature, and some might even require you to purchase a additional DUN data plan.

new features include "Ignore via text message" feature to the 700p. When you dial or receive a call from an unknown number the phone will ask you if you want to add it to a new contact or add it to an existing one. The ringer switch is now a little more flush with the top of the device and will vibrate when you switch the phone into silent mode.