Palm Treo Pro Cell Phone Review - Hardware

The Treo Pro's keyboard yielded very good results in our text entry tests, despite its tiny buttons. The touchscreen isn't as sensitive as we've seen on recent competitors, but it works well enough. We had some issues with some of the Treo Pro's other buttons lacking travel and sitting too flush with the sides of the device.

Text Words Per Minute (10.05)
In this test, we time how long it takes to enter a standard set of text using the fastest text entry method available and calculate words-per-minute from the result. Despite the availability of numerous on-screen text entry methods on the Treo Pro, the physical QWERTY keyboard was still the fastest method for this test, yielding 50.27 words per minute in this test, second only to the iPhone 3G.

The Treo Pro's teeny weeny keyboard buttons

You should be aware that the Treo Pro's keyboard has teeny weeny buttons that are best pushed with a fingernail instead of the pad of your finger which will most likely press several keys at once. We recommend that you try it out first to see how it suits you. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

T9 and Auto Complete (5.0)
The Treo Pro does have an auto-completion option for text entry that can be enabled in the Input panel in Settings. You can adjust how quickly a word is suggested after you begin typing and how many words are suggested each time. There is also an Auto Correct option to correct commonly misspelled words automatically.

The on-screen input method options

One-Handed Typing (7.31)
To see how easy it is to enter text with just one hand, we do the same test as we do in the Text Words Per Minute section, but use just one hand, of course. This test usually results in lower scores for devices with QWERTY keyboards since they're designed for 2-handed use and it's more area for just one hand to cover. The Treo Pro was no exception, posting 36.56 words per minute in this test, putting it on par with our comparison devices with the Treo 750 lagging behind all of them. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Keypad Backlighting (4.0)
The Treo Pro's keypad backlight works in tandem with the screen, turning on and off at the same time with no separate controls to adjust it relative to the screen. It lights the keyboard evenly with no light bleed around the edges of keys. Using the Treo Pro in a dark room should present no problems whatsoever.

D-Pad/Joystick (6.0)
The Treo Pro's D-pad is a large center select button surrounded by a silver ring with a raised edge. This silver ring acts as the 4-way button portion of the D-pad, which is typical of recent Treo models. Pressing on the edge of a ring to move up, down, left, or right  instead of actual buttons takes a little getting used to and may not be easy for those with larger fingers. Even the HTC Touch Diamond, with its D-pad 4-way embedded in the plastic surrounding the center select button, offered more room and certainty for navigation. But the Treo Pro's D-pad does offer good tactile feedback and travel, though we recommend that users with average to larger glove sizes check it out in person before plunking down the not-unsubstantial amount of cash needed to purchase the Treo Pro.

Touch Screen (6.0)
The Treo Pro's touchscreen is a resistive panel and requires a bit more pressure to register touches than the ultra-sensitive capacitive touchscreens of the T-Mobile G1 and the iPhone 3G. Using the stylus garners the best response from the screen but you can also use your finger, though a fingernail is even better.

The Windows Mobile user interface is not designed for navigation by touch only, and is not customized as such on the Treo Pro. Regardless, there are multiple text input options beyond the physical QWERTY. An on-screen QWERTY keyboard is available, though the stylus is definitely the only reliable touch method to use with it given the small size of the virtual keys. Additionally, there are 3 alternatives that will allow you to write on the screen using normal text in your own handwriting, or modified versions of the alphabet similar to the Graffiti text entry prevalent on Palm's PDAs back in the day.

Jog Dial (0.0)
The Treo Pro does not have a jog dial.

Soft Buttons (0.0)
The Treo's soft buttons are virtual ones that are activated with the touchscreen, which we do not score.

Volume Control (4.5)
The Treo Pro's volume up/down control is a rocker button on the top left side of the phone. It's made of smooth plastic and is almost flush with the side of the phone, with no markings whatsoever to differentiate one end from the other. It's easy enough to tell which end to press given the orientation of the phone, but we would appreciate some markers on the buttons or at least a rocker that doesn't sit so flush with side panel to make it easier to find and operate.

Oddly, it's possible to press the volume rocker right in the middle, resulting in wacky behavior on the on-screen volume indicators that come up. We haven't seen the ability to press a rocker in the middle like this in other devices with rocker volume buttons. Each end of the rocker has good tactile feedback but less travel than we'd like.

Power and Standby (4.0)
The Treo Pro's power button is on the top of the device on the left side. Like the volume rocker, this button is almost flush with the top panel and has little travel when pressed, though it does have a raised marking to identify it. Once you've turned your Treo Pro on for the first time out of the box, the power button and the End button have the same functionality to put the phone into or wake the phone from standby mode, and we found ourselves not using the power button since it was easier to get to the End button in almost every situation.

Other Buttons (12.0)
The Treo Pro has a few other buttons. On the top is the ring/silent toggle switch that will quickly silence all sound on your Treo Pro, a handy switch to ensure you won't be disturbed as you head into a meeting without requiring you to look at the screen to change the sound settings. It snaps into place firmly and has a red indicator underneath to show when it's engaged.

On both sides are convenience keys that are mapped to applications by default. On the left side is a key that is mapped to the camera, though the User Guide asks you to re-map it to the Voice Command system. Like the volume rocker, it is nearly flush with the side of the phone and has little travel but good tactile feedback. On the right side is a convenience key mapped to the Wi-Fi radio, and it feels exactly the same as the other convenience key.

There are 4 buttons surrounding the D-pad on the front of the Treo Pro. Starting clockwise at the 1:00 o'clock position around the D-pad, there are the OK, Messaging, Calendar, and Start buttons. The Start and OK buttons are built into the touchscreen's plastic surround and were a bit hard to press at first, but they loosened up a bit over time. The Calendar and Messaging buttons are built into the plastic that surrounds the keyboard, though these are easier to press right off the bat. As with the side buttons on the Treo Pro, all 4 of these buttons have little travel but good tactile feedback.

The Buttons settings menu

The best thing about the Treo Pro's buttons is that nearly all of them can be re-assigned to other applications in the Buttons panel in Settings.

Primary Screen Gross Resolution (8.50)
The Treo Pro's touchscreen has a resolution of 320 x 320 pixels.

Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (9.36)
To calculate pixels per inch, we divide the number of pixels by the actual length of one side of the screen. The Treo Pro has 187.24 pixels per inch, a good pixel density relative to many of our comparison phones.

Screen Physical Size (6.08)
We measure the actual viewing area of a device's screen, sometimes finding it to be less than the screen size given on the spec sheet. The Treo Pro's screen measures 2.43 inches diagonally.

Screen Brightness (4.60)
To measure a screen's brightness, we set it to the highest brightness level available, navigate to a blank white web page, and use a lux meter to measure the screen's light output.

The backlight settings menu

The Treo Pro puts out only a disappointingly low 42 lux on its brightest setting. It does not have an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the screen's brightness based on the lighting conditions. There are 10 brightness levels in the Backlight panel in Settings, and you can set different levels for when the Treo Pro is running on battery power or external power.

Screen Bright Light Performance (7.0)
To see how a screen performs in bright light, we set the screen to its highest brightness level, shine the equivalent of bright daylight onto the screen, and see how easy it is to navigate. Despite the Treo Pro's relatively low brightness level, navigating under these conditions was not a problem. The high pixel density and color depth aid the Treo Pro's legibility in bright light such that it's quite usable once you angle the screen to get around the glare.

Color Depth (6.0)
The Treo Pro's screen is capable of showing over 65,000 colors, putting it on par with the HTC Touch Diamond and the Treo 750. Apple does not publish this information for the iPhone 3G, so it has no score in this area.

Secondary Screen (0.0)
The Treo Pro does not have a secondary screen.

Power & Data Ports (7.0)
The Treo Pro has a single MicroUSB connector for for charging and connecting it to your PC. While we appreciate that this is not a proprietary port, MicroUSB is not yet as prevalent as USB and Mini USB, making it just a bit harder to find replacement cords if you need to buy one. Fortunately, the Treo Pro will charge via USB when connected to your computer as well.

Headphone Compatibility (4.0)
The Treo Pro has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and comes with a pair of stereo headphones in the box. Unfortunately, the A2DP Bluetooth profile that allows stereo sound to be transmitted via Bluetooth is not present on the Treo Pro, so wireless headphones are not an option.

Internal Storage (1.0)
The Treo Pro has 256MB of internal storage, of which 100MB is available to the user. This is not a large amount of storage in comparison to many smartphones released these days, but the presence of an expansion card slot mitigates this quite a bit.

Expansion Slot & Format (8.0)
The Treo Pro's expansion slot takes microSDHC cards up to 32GB. Unfortunately, it does not come with a card out of the box, so you'll really need to hunt one down to enjoy any media on the device, but these cards are reasonably easy to find.

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