Palm Treo 755p Cell Phone Review - Hardware
Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (9.30)
We were able to type 46.5 words per minute (WPM) on the Treo 755p's keyboard. This is very solid and right about what we expect to see from a good QWERTY keyboard. You can see below that most of our comparison devices, all of which have a QWERTY, also scored in this range. You'll also note that the Treo 755p did significantly better than the Palm Centro, that's the bonus of having the larger more comfortable keyboard.
T9 and Auto Complete (0.0)
The Treo 755p lacks predictive text entry and auto-complete features when typing.
One Hand Usability (0.0)
For those who like to text with one hand we do our words per minute (WPM) test using just one hand. The Treo 755p saw the typical QWERTY keyboard penalty here as it plummeted to 25.7 WPM when typing one handed. QWERTY keyboards just aren't optimized for one handed typing and you see a similar drop with almost all of our comparison phones. The only exception is the T-Mobile Shadow, which has a hybrid keyboard with two letters per key that's easier to use one-handed.
Keypad Backlighting (5.0)
The Treo 755p's keypad backlight is well lit, but we did detect some light leakage and the lighting isn't as good at the edges as it is in the middle. There's also a complete lack of lighting controls for the keyboard.
Controls
D-Pad/Joystick (8.0)
The D-Pad on the Treo 755p is the same one found on the Treo 750, which means it's very comfortable, easy to use and is very accurate. We love the D-Pad on the Treo lineup and the 755p doesn't disappoint.
Touch Screen (7.0)
As with all Palm OS devices the Treo 755p has a touch screen. We found the touch screen to be pretty responsive and appreciate that most of the on screen buttons have been optimized to be used with your finger, which means you won't need to pull out the stylus very often. This is much better than Windows Mobile devices like the Treo 750, where a stylus is necessary for most operations.
Jog Dial (0.0)
The Treo 755p doesn't have a jog dial.
Soft Buttons (0.0)
As with all Palm OS devices the Treo 755p lacks soft buttons. Instead you are meant to tap the buttons found at the bottom of many screens.
Volume Control (7.5)
The volume buttons on the Treo 755p are big, easy to reach and give you good key travel and tactile feedback.
Power and Standby (7.5)
The power button on the Treo 755p is a secondary function of the end button. We found the button large and easy to use. Just tap on it once to put the phone into standby and tap it again to turn it back on. As we mentioned previously you can't turn the Treo 755p all the way off without taking the battery out so standby is all you get. You'll be using this button a lot and we're glad it's so comfortable.
Other Buttons (10.0)
In addition to the buttons discussed above the Treo 755p has the typical set of Palm OS specific buttons. to the left of the D-Pad is a calendar button and to the right is a messaging and home button. On the left side of the phone is a shortcut button that's assigned to voice memo by default and on the bottom right of the keyboard is a menu button. Many of these have secondary functions and many can also be re-assigned to fit your needs.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (8.50)
As with other Palm OS devices the Treo 755p has a square 320 x 320 pixel screen. This is pretty high resolution with 25% more pixels than the typical 320 x 240 pixel screens we see on devices. It's also significantly better than the Treo 750, which also has a square screen but was limited by the operating system to a 240 x 240 pixel resolution. The high pixel resolution means that things look sharp on screen.
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (9.43)
Pixels per inch (PPI) is a measure of pixel density. Higher pixel density means sharper images on screen and richer colors. Lower pixel density can lead to the screen looking washed out. The Treo 755p has a pixel density of 188.6 PPI, which is very good. You'll note below that only the Centro did better in this area, because it has the same screen resolution but a smaller display. By contrast you can really see the difference between the Treo 755p and the Treo 750 here as the 750 lags far behind in terms of pixel density.
Screen Physical Size (0.0)
The Treo 755p has a very comfortable 2.4 inch display. This is standard for Treo devices and provides enough screen real estate for most actions. That's not to say we wouldn't mind having a larger display like the Sidekick LX, but of course that would require a bigger device too.
Screen Brightness (6.90)
The Treo 755p's screen measured 58 lux, which is a little on the low side. To test screen brightness we point the phone's browser at a blank white screen, turn the brightness up to maximum and use a lux meter to measure the brightness. You can see below that we had a couple of phones with over 100 lux, which is near the top of what we've seen, with the Treo 755p much nearer to our lower scoring comparison phones. This has an impact on the legibility of the screen in bright light, as we'll discuss next. On the plus side the Treo 755p does allow you to select from 16 different lighting levels, but there's no light sensor to automatically adjust the backlight.
Screen Bright Light Performance (3.0)
The Treo 755p's poor screen brightness has a serious impact on it's legibility in bright light. To test this we shine 3000 lux on the phone's screen and judge how legible it is. The Treo 755p performed pretty poorly in this test. We could barely make out icons and you can forget about reading text. The fact that the Treo 755p has a touch screen, which tend to perform poorly in bright light situations, also contributes to this poor performance.
Color Depth (0.0)
The Treo 755p's screen can display sixty-five thousand colors. This is pretty par for the course and we would have liked to a screen with more colors on Palm's latest device. Sixty-five thousand colors should be sufficient for most users, but more colors would have provided wider color range when viewing photos and videos or playing games.
Ports & Storage
Power & Data Ports (2.0)
The Treo 755p uses the same multi-connecter found on all Treo devices to connect the phone to a computer. On the one hand this is good because it allows users to use the wide range of Treo accessories that rely on the multi-connector. On the other hand we pretty much hate proprietary connectors and wish that Palm would finally just move on to a standard Mini USB connector. The Treo 755p's power port is also proprietary, guess what we think of that.
Headphone & Jack Compatibility (2.0)
Moving away from proprietary ports the Treo 755p has a 2.5mm headset jack. Although not as good as a 3.5mm jack it's still much better than the proprietary headphone jack we see on a lot of phones. Unfortunately you'll have to use a wired set of headphones with the Treo 755p as it doesn't support wireless stereo Bluetooth headphones.
Internal Storage (1.0)
The Treo 755p has 60MB of user accessible storage, which should be more than sufficient for contacts, calendar appointments and a few additional applications. If you want to store multimedia on your device you should go out and get an expansion card.
Expansion Slot & Format (8.0)
The Treo 755p uses Mini SD cards, which is a departure from most phones that use the Micro SD standard. That said it's not a departure we're unhappy about as Mini SD cards are larger and more difficult to lose than their smaller cousins. The card slot on the Treo 755p is just like that found on the Treo 750. It's on the left side of the phone and has a plastic cover that's easy to open up. The slot itself is spring loaded and easy to get cards in and out of. The Treo 755p also supports higher capacity cards so you can go up to four gigabytes of data with an expansion card.
