In Brief

Long-time Treo users were understandably somewhat dismayed when the first broadband model, the 700w, came out based on Windows Mobile, rather than the familiar and friendly Palm OS platform. They wondered if they would be forced to switch, or if the Palm OS would become a poor relation to the Windows version. With the release of the 700p last month, Palm relieved those anxieties, and proved there is plenty of steam in the Palm OS engine yet. Available from both Sprint and Verizon Wireless with EV-DO service, the 700p builds on the 650's lauded interface while adding welcome features like better multimedia support and a 1.3 megapixel camera. It is also officially supported on the Mac platform, unlike the 700w. We review the Sprint model here.

This spring, Sprint and Verizon formally unveiled unlimited tethering plans for their Treos, so you can use your phone as a modem for your laptop. The ability to get online anywhere in your carrier's EV-DO service area is a boon for those of us who'd otherwise hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Sprint's plan is especially attractive, since it costs less and is also far less restrictive than Verizon's, which does not allow multimedia streaming, among other things.

For all its great features and usability, the 700p does have one glaring omission -- it does not support the Palm Wi-Fi card. We're a little mystified about this, since the 700w has built-in Wi-Fi support, as do other high-end Palms. Palm itself has said it has no plans to add Wi-Fi support in the future, but we can hope an enterprising third-party fills the gap.

Despite this shortcoming, the Sprint Treo 700p is the best Treo yet, and a worthy successor to the vastly popular 600/650 series.

In Depth

Design-wise, the 700p feels much like the 650. Keys and buttons have new (and better) shapes, and colors have been tweaked, but the size and weight are virtually identical. The screen is the same size as on the 650, 320-by-320 pixels, and much larger than the skimpy 240-by-240 LCD found in the 700w. The extra real estate is immeasurably valuable in a broadband device like this, where you want to watch streaming video and surf the Web. It also helps greatly in taking pictures and video with the new 1.3-megapixel camera.

As on the 650, the camera lens and self-portrait mirror are on the back of the phone, which also has the speaker and the door for the replaceable Lithium Ion battery, The infrared port, silence switch, and expansion card slot are at the top, and the headset jack and USB/Power port are at the bottom. Finally, the left side has the volume rocker and a programmable application button.

While attention is naturally focused on the Web, email and multimedia features in a PDA, at the heart of things, the Treo is a phone, and the 700p is the best Treo yet in that regard. The process of making and receiving calls is easy and well-thought-out, and new touches such as the "ignore with text" option, also present in the 700w. The ringer switch at the top now vibrates when you push it to mute, providing positive feedback so you don't need to take it out of your pocket or purse. Voice quality is very good, pairing with Bluetooth headsets is easy, and there are lots of ringtone options. However, the speakerphone is somewhat tinny, and we wish the Treo supported voice dialling over Bluetooth, something you'll find on most competing smartphones.

But the raison d'etre of the 700 series is broadband access, which you don't need just to make voice calls. Web access and email are where the EV-DO radio really shines, with speeds nearly 10 times faster than the Treo 650, although still noticeably slower than Wi-Fi/DSL access. We clocked average speeds between 300 and 600 Kbps, somewhat less than the rated 400 to 700, but very good in a slightly suburban area. Things would probably have been even faster downtown. On a 650, you often have to wait a minute or more for a complex page to load. With the 700p, the wait time is in seconds. Emails download proportionally faster too, although EV-DO upload speeds are only a fraction of the downstream throughput. It will take a while to send a bunch of photos from the built-in 1.3MP camera.

Setting up Versamail is easy and pretty much the same as on the 650, and now adds Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, a key feature for corporate users. Out-of-box support is also included for AOL Mail, Apple's .Mac, EarthLink, GMail, Yahoo and other standard POP or IMAP servers. Web browsing with Blazer also works well, sooo much faster now with EV-DO, as compared to the 650.

On the multimedia side, the new camera/video application makes it easy to snap pics and then email them directly from the viewer. Photos are up to 1280-by-1024, almost four time the image size as the Treo 650. To take a picture, you simply select the Camera icon, aim the viewfinder/LCD screen at your subject, and click the center button in the five-way navigator. Then you click again to save the picture to memory, or delete it, at which point you can take another picture. Picture and video detail was good, although colors were washed out. Outdoor pics with strong lighting work best.

The 700p also includes Pocket Tunes for MP3 playback, and SprintTV streaming video, an added-cost service with variable fees depending on which channels you choose. Some channels are free. XM radio streaming is another extra-cost option. Pocket Tunes is upgradeable to the Deluxe version for use with online music stores like Rhapsody, Napster, MSN Music and Yahoo.

Other software bundled with the 700p includes the standard PIM collection (Contacts, Calendar, Memo, Tasks), Documents To Go (for Microsoft Office viewing/editing), Audible, eReader, and a few games.

Internal RAM is better than in the 650, but won't be enough when you start taking lots of pictures and downloading documents and tunes. The SD/MMC slot supports cards up to 4GB at least, and we recommend buying the biggest you can afford. You'll have no problem filling it up.

As we noted above, the 700p has no Wi-Fi support, and none seems to be in the works. Bluetooth support, however, is very good. We were able to Hotsync with our laptop via Bluetooth on the first try (although much more slowly than via USB), and connect to headsets easily. The phone-as-modem support worked very well also, although took a lot of experimentation to get working. (The manual only includes information about tethering a PC laptop via USB, with no mention of Bluetooth or Mac connections.) Once we got the Bluetooth modem working, we managed speeds of 176-320Kbps on our MacBook Pro tethered to the phone, even indoors with just two bars of signal strength. Other devices like printers, GPS adapters and USB-Bluetooth dongles are also supported, but we didn't test them.

The Sprint 700p is distinguished from the Verizon version by its special services, such as SprintTV and XM radio streaming, as well as data plan terms and costs. In a broadband device, unlimited data is really required, and Sprint's terms are the best available. Unlike Verizon, Sprint will not cut you off if you go above some arbitrary usage figure, or do typical things like download video and audio with your Treo. This is especially important when using the phone as a modem for your laptop, when you might do things like make VoIP calls or videoconference, both of which would violate Verizon's data contract. Both companies make you pay extra for phone-as-modem capabilities, but Sprint is cheaper overall. Sprint's PAM plan is priced at $50 per month ($40 on current special offer with a two-year contract), and includes unlimited data on your phone as well, so you don't need to sign up for a Vision plan. Verizon charges $15 for modem use, on top of the regular $40 unlimited data fee, for a total of $55. Both companies require a voice plan to obtain these rates.

The 700p comes with a USB sync cable, earbud headset, and power adapter in the box, but you'll likely want to add a few other accessories, such as an extra battery, carrying case, auto adapter, and perhaps a desktop cradle that doubles as a second battery charger. Battery life is rated at about 4.5 hours of talk time, but we got a lot less using Bluetooth tethering and watching streaming media. We recommend charging it every night to avoid run-downs.

So is the Treo 700p right for you? If you are moving up from an earlier Treo and want to keep your investment in the Palm software and interface, the 700p is the natural choice. It adds key features like broadband access, a 1.3MP camera, and laptop tethering. Compared to the 700w, it also has official Mac support. If you must have Wi-Fi too, however, the 700w is your best option.