Palm Treo 755p hands-on
Let's be real: the new Treo 755p is more or less what the 700p should have been. There's not exactly anything wrong with it, just that it's been a year since the 700p came out and all the improvements to the 755p are rather minor. Click on for some first impressions of the Treo 755p, as well as a gallery of hands-on shots.
Yeah, it's a tiny bit thinner (0.8-inches vs. 0.9-inches) and lighter (5.6 ounces vs 6.4 ounces) and they've finally lopped off that antenna which has been missing from Windows Mobile-powered Treos for a while now, swapped the SD card slot out for a miniSD card slot, and added a nice, soft finish (we're not feeling the burgundy, though you might), but otherwise everything's about the same. It's the same version of the Palm OS (version 5.4.9), same screen size and resolution (320 x 320 pixels), same wireless radio (EV-DO Rev 0, not even a bump up to Rev A), same Bluetooth (1.2, you'd think it'd kill 'em to upgrade to 2.0), same 1.3 megapixel camera, same battery life, same processor (312MHz XScale), same amount of memory (128MB of RAM), etc. You get the picture, and to be fair, Palm makes it pretty clear with the model number that this isn't meant to be a major upgrade.
There are a few cosmetic differences worth noting (besides that lopped off antenna). The casing of the 755p is more or less identical to that of the Treo 750, with the memory card slot and IR port moved to the right side of the phone, a larger speaker, and a slight indentation along each side that makes the phone a bit easier to hold. One thing we were hoping is that they would have ported over to the 755p some of the UI improvements they've made with the Treo 680, but no such luck. Google Maps does come pre-installed (as well as Bejeweled), but the probably the most exciting new free app they've included (well, technically made available for download) is Sprint IM, an instant messaging program from Thumbspeed that's compatible with AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN Messenger. It's something that's been way overdue, and the app itself is clean and easy to use (though we weren't able to successfully log-in with any of our AIM accounts).
The bottom line is that if you already have a Treo 700p, you definitely shouldn't have any buyer's remorse -- that is unless you really, really hate that antenna -- there aren't enough improvements here to make it worth the money you'd spend. If you're still holding on to that 650 or (gasp!) 600, and you're ready to upgrade, you may as well take the plunge and get the 755p.
Click here for the pics!
