Palm treo phone games

While our test unit didn't have one, the final version will include a protective sleeve for those who want to use it. By far, the biggest design innovation is the rocker switch with a center button, which Handspring refers to as the five-way.

This navigational button is similar to the ones found on many phones and Palm Tungsten handhelds, and it allows you to control nearly all of the Treo 's functions--not just the phone features--with one hand. It works amazingly well. The applications included with the device, such as the POP3 mail program, the Blazer browser, the P-Tunes MP3 player, and the Kinoma video player, are already enabled for the five-way; many others are in the works.

The backlit keyboard is another story. It's significantly smaller than even the miniature keyboards on competing devices. The rounded, asymmetrical keys and some smart software compensate a little, but we found it difficult to adjust to the cramped keyboard, though we use BlackBerrys on a daily basis. Still, it's acceptable for short URLs or text messages and is a reasonable trade-off to keep the size and weight down. The jog dial on the side is gone, replaced by volume buttons for the ringer and the phone only.

A separate switch atop the Treo turns all device sounds on and off; with the latter, the mobile goes into vibrate mode. Also on top is a power switch, an SDIO expansion slot for adding memory or accessories such as a Wi-Fi adapter, and a metal stylus.

At the opposite end is the headphone jack, which unfortunately uses the space-saving minijack that we've derided on other compact PDAs such as the HP iPaq On the back are the VGA camera lens and a second speaker tuned specifically for the vastly improved ring tones and alarms, as well as the speakerphone.

While no cradle is included, this is a relatively minor omission, considering most people will be satisfied with the compact charger and USB syncing cable. The Treo gives you the best of both worlds; it has the features of both a power PDA and a high-end phone for voice and data. There are numerous ways to initiate a call with the Treo , but most users will punch the application key that launches the touch-screen dial pad.

You simply tap the red button to turn off and it locks the keys. The on-screen keyguard display now has a larger notification bar that now shows the current time and date whenever you activate the device. The center 5-way navigator is also a bit larger and is a lot easier to grip and thumb around with. The row of application buttons below the screen are user changeable and by default take you to the Phone app, Agenda view calendar and email. Hitting the blue option key before tapping a button gives you a few more shortcuts which you can also customize.

The menu key has been moved to the bottom right of the keyboard and gone is the former convenient home and menu key arrangement from the The home key is part of the application buttons on the far right and can't be changed by design.

The menu key has been awkwardly relocated to the bottom of the keyboard next to the infrequently used alt key. This reshuffling of the key navigational array is a disappointment.

I also ran into trouble with a lot of games and a few apps. Often the home key is over-ridden by the games and there is no way to quit out of the current app and you can get stuck. Fortunately, there is a third party utility that lets you remap the buttons to your own preferences and you can revert to the more efficient style. Size wise, the Treo p has dimensions of 5. It pretty much shares the same dimensions and weight as the Treo and w.

The device has been given a much needed boost in the memory department. Both the dbcache and dbheap internal application memory space have been increased for improved program memory space allocation. The dbheap is now up to 10 MB and the dbcache has a 18 MB capacity. This is a positive step up for both application development and overall device stability, though is still a bit conservative. The p improved on two of the major drawbacks of the Treo limited internal memory and device stability.

While there are still a few quirks and bugs with some third party apps, generally I found the p to be much more stable. The 's main limitation was its cramped internal memory. Even with external memory expansion, things can get crowded quickly if you had more than a few applications and games installed. In addition, many apps store their databases in internal ram such as email and the browser cache and rely on having a few megs free in order to operate correctly.

Palm engineers are currently testing 4 GB size cards for compatibility, some 4 GB cards may work others may be incompatible at this time. Display The Treo p has a 2" x 2" inch square display. It is a x pixel TFT touch-screen display that supports 65, colors.

The display on the p is an improvement from previous models. The new display has much "whiter" whites and a noticeably better color saturation rate and chromaticity.

It does a decent job of remaining viewable in direct sunlight, as well as lighting up a dark room at full brightness. It also appears a bit brighter than the screen at the same brightness level and had a slightly better viewing angle.

Having more pixels than most other smartphones is a definite selling point. People are often impressed at the quality and viewabilty of digital video the small screen. There is also a program available that can automatically convert content from your Tivo. Camera The p includes a 1. It can take photos at a max resolution of x and has 2x digital zoom. It also records video clips with audio at a x resolution. The software takes care of automatic light balance and the camcorder function has an improved FPS capture rate.

A non-camera version will also be made available. The camera quality is pretty standard for a phone-cam. Outdoor scenes and good natural lighting conditions will give you the best results. Since the resolution is higher you get better detailed and clearer pictures than the Treo However the does a better job indoors and in lower light situations. The p camera has a tendency to be very dim and washed out in darker conditions and in low light indoor scenes.

In some indoor, low light conditions the p would be totally dark, when the would have a clear picture. Here are four raw, unedited Treo p photo examples in various lighting conditions partial shade, sunny, indoors, outdoors lowlight :. Bluetooth The p also has built in Bluetooth wireless capabilities.

This allows for accessories such as wireless Bluetooth headsets , GPS navigation kits and using the p as a wireless modem for your laptop which will likely require a carrier DUN plan. The v1. For instance, you could keep a headset connected at the same time you have your Bluetooth GPS running. I noticed that the device can transfer files over Bluetooth a little quicker than previous Palm devices and there is also less interference and static when using Bluetooth headsets.

There is also a new option to leave the device in discoverable mode for a short time period. By setting the device visibility to temporary it will remain discoverable for 2 minutes. EV-DO also allows you to receive calls while the Internet connection is active, as on all previous CDMA devices the phone would not accept calls when using the data connection.

Previously, incoming calls would go straight to voicemail when browsing the web or checking email. It also features E compliance with a built in A-GPS chip that is solely used for the enhanced E emergency location service. However, its coverage is still not as spread out and is still being deployed by carriers in many rural areas and communities far from a major metro area.

My Treo s EDGE connection usually gets around k, while the results of the p ranged from - k. Generally, I would see higher rates outdoors and in downtown areas and a good deal less indoors from my ad-hoc speed tests.

Audio Like previous Treos, p has a dual speaker design, with the front earpiece speaker used for phone calls only while the rear handles the speakerphone, sysytem sounds, games and music.

If you want to listen to digital audio via a headset with standard headphones you'll need to use a 3. The rear mono speaker is well placed just under the camera and can get loud. There is an varied selection of ringtones that can also be used as alarms.

You can record your own sounds to be used as a custom ringtone and alarm. You can also transfer wav and midi files via Bluetooth, beaming or hotsync for use as ringtone sounds. Seeing that the best selling treo software has been a call volume boosting app, VolumeCare , I was wondering if the Treo 's notoriously low ear speaker phone call volume had been addressed.

While I found that the highest setting standard call volume through the speaker is a little better, I still don't think it is adequate at full strength.

Even in some moderately noisy situations and outdoors the max volume did not seem loud enough, but in most situations its not that bad of an issue. Call quality seemed very good as I never had any issues and all calls were very clear on my Sprint review unit. The speakerphone is loud and clear, and I found I get better volume with a bluetooth or wired headset.

One Hand Operation Like all Treos, the p really excels at one-handed operation. The 5-way navigator and on screen cursor combine to make most tasks work without having to tap on the screen.

In fact, it's pretty rare that I even use the stylus, except for games. There is a light blue glow that highlights dialogs and form elements, that acts much like an on screen cursor. It really makes using the handheld with one hand easy and more intuitive. It works well within many of the included apps and is also compatible with many existing and newer third party programs.

It is worth noting that having a touchscreen on a mobile phone is a new concept for many first time smartphone buyers. It really adds a lot to the device functionality, that many experienced PDA users now take for granted. The touchscreen makes many apps and games much more usable, like crossword puzzles and and soduko, and there is always handwritten notes, drawing programs and of course action games. Phone Functionality The Phone application is the centerpiece of the phone functionality that controls calls, contacts, dialing and accessing your shortcut favorites buttons.

From here you can simply start punching in numbers, or letters that and it will display your matching contacts or you can click to goto your phonebook. The favorites function allows you to setup quick shortcuts to frequently dialed numbers, groups of contacts, device applications, emails and web links. It has a nice scrolling animation when you expand the list, which can store up to 70 custom buttons.

The phone application also shows your signal and battery strength, bluetooth status, data status and the number of new email or text messages. There is also an option to display your next upcoming calendar appointment in the main screen. The phone display options support choosing a background photo or wallpaper or can show the standard dialing pad.

You can tap the green phone button from within the phone app to bring up a shortcut list of your recently dialed calls and can find shortcuts to your call history or the dial pad. When a call is in progress, call related options and functions are available as large on screen buttons. With one click you can start a conference call, mute, switch lines on call waiting or exit out to the device to lookup something in your datebook or other application and remain on the call. When you have an incoming call, the phone displays the name and caller picture if you have one assigned.

If the number is not found in your contacts, the screen will show which US state the call is coming from. There is also a new option for handling incoming calls and that is "Ignore by Text. Another unique feature I found useful was that the phone will ask you to save unknown numbers as new contacts or add to an existing contact when you dial or receive a call from a number not already stored on your device.

SMS chats are saved by person in an IM chat style view, which is an excellent way to keep track of all your sms conversations. When composing a new text or mms message the software will now automatically bring up your lists of contacts so you can just type the first few letters or numbers of a recipient and it will show matching numbers and email addresses from your list of contacts.

Attaching photos and voice memos to multimedia messages is pretty painless and quick. You can use the Treo p as a wireless modem for your laptop or desktop computer. The USB cable is finally able to 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. Battery The Treo p comes with a mAh Li-ion rechargeable battery that can be removed via the cover on the back. The cover also hides the reset hole, which can be activated with the stylus tip.

Official battery lifetime is rated at 4. With my own personal usage pattern, which included heavy internet usage and a few phone calls a day and Bluetooth on all the time, I am able to go roughly days on a single charge, which is impressive for a high end phone. I felt that battery life was comparable to the , but the EV-DO use is seems much more power hungry and with a lot of net usage I saw my time between charges drop. I also felt I got better battery life out of p than with the w, but battery life varies greatly with how you personally use the device and features.

While this is still the same Palm OS 5 Garnet core, there have been a number of improvements to the Palm Treo platform that extend the functionality and multimedia capabilities of this device. Its full blue titlebar and silver, grey color scheme and buttons give these apps a more modern and attractive feel. It's too bad this new UI style is only used in a few of the newly commissioned apps. Among the updates are small, but nice visual queues such as more high-res phone status icons and a new shortcut menu icon.

Instead of the classic command stroke, the shortcut icon has been updated with the more appropriate menu key icon for accessing common shortcuts in drop down menus. The phone signal strength now shows 5 bars instead of four, the bluetooth icon now changes to indicate activity and there are blue small triangle icons that indicate when EVDO is in range and shows activity though curiously this icon is only shown on the phone app - which does not use the data connection.

There is a new alerts notification, that shows an animated bell in the top left corner that takes you to the notification screen when you have new alerts such as missed calls, alarms or todo's. The battery meter icon is also a little more high res, and you can click on it to check the percentage remaining. The p 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 streaming software, you can access Windows Media player format streaming video and audio to the device.

For instance, you can navigate to npr. You can also visit a some movie preview websites such as Netflix. You can press Fn and the OK button to lock the phone's buttons and screen, press and hold the OK button to go to the Task Manager and press the Alt key pretty much anywhere to bring up a list of common characters and symbols, and tap on the battery icon at the top of the Today Screen to see the remaining charge percentage.

Speed dial allows you to assign any contact to a letter on the keyboard, so you'll press and hold the "d" key to call Doug or whatever key you choose to assign to Doug. Palm includes MS Voice Command 1. UMTS tops out at k, though you may see faster results when using Cingular's proxy hardcoded into the registry for IE in strong service areas such as ours. Palm states that they'll release an upgrade in Q1 that will move the Treo to HSDPA which means speeds from ,k in strong Cingular 3G coverage areas with a theoretical max of 1.

We installed them and are seeing an average of k on DSL Reports mobile speed test. It also ships with a link to get Good Mobile Messaging and you can install 3rd party Windows Mobile compatible browsers such as Opera.

You won't be able to install the free Java-based Opera mini unless you download and install a Java VM since the Treo ships with none. The killer application is of course the phone, and the Treo doesn't disappoint. While audio quality wasn't among the best on prior Treo models, the has excellent call quality.

Incoming and outgoing voice sound like a land line in part due to 3G's superior voice codecs and volume is more than adequate unless you're making a call from the Super Bowl. Reception in GSM non-3G areas in very good. The Treo has a rear-firing speakerphone and a 2. Palm has customized the Treo to ensure you need not fiddle around with the device while jogging through the airport or driving a car. MS Voice Command 1. You can assign a button we used the side button initially assigned to the camera to launch Voice Command or press and hold the call button on handsfree Bluetooth headsets to start Voice Command.

We tested the Treo with the Plantronics Discovery and this worked perfectly. In fact you can press the headset button then ask the Treo "what is my next appointment" or "what time is it? On-device applications such as Today Screen speed dial and one-touch dialing press and hold a key you've assigned to a contact simplify dialing when not using a Bluetooth headset. We love the strong performance combined with power-savings features of Samsung's mobile processors-- two things that don't usually go together in the world of CPUs.

By Windows Mobile 5 standards the Treo is very responsive likely Palm is using some intelligent caching with no undo lag opening menus and applications. It opens a contact database quickly and has no problem scrolling quickly. Video playback is also good, but we'll cover that later.

For storage expansion the Treo has a miniSD slot a rarity now that most phones have moved to the annoyingly small MicroSD standard and can accept cards up to 2 gigs.

While square screens running at x pixel resolution aren't a power user's dream, they're here to stay for the time being since they easily fit into a device with a fixed keyboard. Perhaps we'll one day see a x landscape display on a Treo, similar to the new i-mate JAQ3 Pocket PC phone, but the drawback is smaller text and graphics as those pixels are crammed into a Treo ansd JAQ3-sized 2. The Treo's transflective touch screen is capable of displaying 65K colors and supports both portrait and landscape modes, though I can't imagine a reason to switch to landscape on a square display.

It's quite bright, has good color saturation and is sharp, though it won't strike you as being as sharp as the Cingular since it doesn't have as many pixels crammed into the same space higher pixel density creates a sense of of sharpness. You can use 3rd party players and you can stream music from iTunes to the Treo using the bundled via download link Avvenu software. Sound through stereo headphones is excellent and sound from the rear-firing speaker is clear.

Though the Treo's square screen doesn't offer the perfect aspect ratio for video playback, video does playback very well thanks to an ATI graphics accelerator. Average speed: Data Rate: 1. Frame Rate: 24fps Orig. Those are excellent benchmark results and they beat the Treo w and wx by 3x! For you non-geeks, what does this mean?

The Treo does a great job of playing video and it isn't just a warmed over Treo w. We've already covered some of Palm's customizations and additions, but let's review the standard Windows Mobile software offerings for those who aren't Pocket PC aficionados. Outlook on the PDA has calendar, contacts, tasks, notes and email, which you can sync to a Windows desktop running Outlook.

Palm adds their popular threaded SMS application, a wired car kit manager, Keyguard lock the Treo's buttons with an option to disable the touch screen when in a call , Sounds an easy way to add ringtones , a Windows desktop Bluetooth plugin, and a Wireless Manager to control the phone and Bluetooth radios.

The Treo is compatible with TeleNav a subscription navigation service billed by Cingular. Those of you who've read our Treo series reviews know that we were not fans of the 1. Happily, the Treo takes much improved images that have good color saturation, not too much noise even low-light indoor shots are decent, such as the cat photo below and generally correct color balance.

We don't know if Palm changed the actual camera hardware, lens or simply improved image processing but the Treo undeniably takes better photos than our in-house Treo p as well as the Treo w and wx.