Palm Treo 755p from Verizon Review

For the past month I have been road testing the new Treo 755p from Verizon Wireless for Gadgets On the Go. The following is my review of the newest Palm Treo smartphone to debut on the Verizon Wireless network.

Body Style

The single biggest improvement that the Treo 755p has to offer over the model it replaces, the Treo 700p, is it’s redesigned body. The 755p now has an internalized antenna bringing it in line with many of the other competing devices on the market today. For many customers, this will be a welcomed and long awaited change.

Palm has also worked to improve the way the Treo feels when you are holding it in your hand. To achieve these improvements, Palm used soft touch paint and changed the contours along the sides. Rather than a convex edge, the sides of the Treo 755p are concave. As a result, the Treo 755p is much easier to hold as you are rushing about your busy day. The Treo 755p is also slimmer and lighter than the 700p, though it is hard to notice the change even with the two devices sitting side-by-side.

Software Enhancements

The Treo 755p is noticeably more stable than the Treo 700p. During the entire month I was using the 755p, the device did not reset once on me. Google Maps is now bundled on the device and has been integrated with the Contacts application. To use the feature, look up an address in a Contacts records, and tap the Map button. You can now quickly obtain directions to locations that are in your contacts database. (If you plan on using this feature, or others that require a connection to the Internet, you will want to purchase a Verizon Wireless data plan in addition to the voice plan.)

For the most part, the software on the Treo 755p felt snappy and responsive. I was able to quickly jump between the preinstalled and third-party applications that I installed on the device. While over-all performance has been improved over the Treo 700p, the Blazer web browser still had a little bit of a lag starting up and closing down.

During my trial period, there where four applications that I either upgraded or installed to enhance my personal productivity. These items are subjective and will vary from user to user. I started off by installing Treoware’s LEDOff utility to over ride the constant blinking of the Verizon Treo’s LED since I prefer the LED to only blink when I need to be alerted to an event. I also installed Tyler Faux’s LudusP utility; which I used to remap the Menu button to the green send button. For me, it is a more natural movement to press the green send button to open a menu when my thumb is on the 5-way navigator than reaching down to the Menu button located in the lower right of the keyboard. Since I use my Treo for writing and note taking, I upgraded the bundled version of DataViz Documents To Go from version 9 Professional to version 10 Premium for Microsoft Office 2007 compatibility. And lastly, since I like to listen to music while I write, I upgraded Normsoft Pocket Tunes from version 3 to version 4.

Read the full review on GadgetsOnTheGo.net…

[Via GadgetsOnTheGo.net]