Palm Treo 800w

The Treo 800w's well balanced design and rubbery grip is a pleasant middle ground between the small but cramped Centro and the bulky Motorola Q9c. The dark blue handset measures 4.4 by 2.2 by 0.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.0 ounces. Its full QWERTY keyboard is identical to prior Treos in size, layout, and feel, right down to the raised plastic keys. It's certainly not as slick as the iPhone 3G, but it's very comfortable to hold and talk into.

The 2.5 inch display's increased resolution now 320 by 320 pixels looks sharp. Though a huge improvement over the 240 by 240 pixel screen that plagued earlier Windows Mobile Treos, it's still not standard size most Windows Mobile handsets are actually 320 by 240. But the increased resolution makes Web browsing and general navigation more pleasant.

It's too early to see whether the nonstandard screen size results in display issues with third party apps the same way the old screen did. Unfortunately the Treo 800w's touch screen is picky it often took several pokes to complete a task. And the included plastic stylus feels cheap. On the plus side, there's a useful hardware switch at the top to switch to silent or vibrate mode, along with a second one for the Wi-Fi radio.

In the box, Palm includes a smallish AC adapter still not as diminutive as the beauties Nokia supplies with its unlocked smartphones along with a set of wired stereo earbuds. The AC adapter jack is microUSB. Better than satisfactory at voice calls, the phone sounded clear and punchy in both directions in most instances, both through the handset and when paired with an Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset.

Outdoors, a moderate breeze was undetectable to one caller. Reception was good, too; it was sufficiently strong to pull in EV-DO data in a rural area outside of Boston. The speakerphone was also loud enough for outdoor use.