Nevertheless, the Treo 270 is still worth considering for those looking for a Palm OS PDA/phone combo, as it has enough features and good enough phone capabilities for many potential users. In addition, Handspring has done a good job of making the Treo 270 available worldwide, making it one of most ubiquitous Palm OS smartphones on the market.

In the U.S, Handspring recently announced a version of the Treo 270 co-branded with T-Mobile for $399 with service activation and a $100 mail-in rebate. It is also available for $499 from Cingular (which we tested here) or $699 unsubsidized. The price of phone/internet service plans vary. For instance, Web access costs from $9.99/month for 2MB of downloads to $34.99/month for 20MB for T-Mobile. This is on top of the phone service costs.

PHONE

The Treo 270 integrates a mobile flip phone (GSM 900/1900 MHz), wireless applications like email and Internet browsing, and a modified version of a Palm OS 3.52 organizer that is not upgradeable to more recent versions of the Palm OS. It weighs a mere 5.4 ounces and measures a compact 4.2 x 2.8 x 0.82 inches or a little larger than a deck of cards. The top part of the flip phone includes the speaker that you press against your ear as well as a clear plastic area that allows you to view the Treo 270's display when it is shut. The handheld's application buttons conveniently stay available when the Treo 270 is closed.

We found the Treo 270 comfortable to use as a phone when open but preferred using the bundled earphone/microphone headset that plugs into the left-side of the device for longer conversations, as we found the width of the device to be a little too wide to hold in our hands during extended use. You can also use the Treo 270 as a speakerphone, which worked very well under all but the noisiest conditions.

Users can dial phone numbers on the screen from a keypad, a fifty name speed dial list, the built-in QWERTY keyboard by pressing a blue-function key and using the numbers that are highlighted in blue over letters as a kind of mini keypad, or directly from the address book by clicking on a contact. The Treo 270 also features 3-way calling, a vibration mode and a button to turn off its ringer.

Speed Dial List

Ringer Switch

One area of the phone that we were concerned about before use was whether moisture from the skin would affect the device's display. We're happy to report that our cheeks maintained enough of a distance from the screen to have this not be a problem.

In terms of battery life, the specifications for the Treo 270 state that it should deliver up to three hours of talk time and 150 hours of standby time. During the course of every day use, with a lot of Web surfing and phone calls, we found the device needed to be charged every night or two over the course of two weeks.

FEATURES

The Treo 27O has a 4,000 color, 160 x 160 resolution display, which is adequate for most uses. Figure on the low number of colors supported (many PDAs and newer smartphones support 65,000) and low resolution as a trade off for extended battery life. During testing, the screen performed quite well indoors with diminished results outdoors even though it is transfelective, meaning it reflects light when outside. The screen size is a little smaller than most PDAs, but larger than what you'd find with most phones.

While I've never been a fan of built-in keyboards, preferring handwriting recognition instead, the Treo 270's back lit QWERTY keyboard nearly changed my mind. Though the keys are small, they are raised nicely, so after some practice, I found myself writing quicker with the keyboard than I have ever done with Graffiti. Since the Treo 270 does not support Graffiti or have an area to use it, mastering the keyboard is essential. Nevertheless, one can use CIC's Jot instead, which represents the future of Graffiti in Palm OS 5.2 and beyond, but is available for most versions of the operating system. Jot allows you to write on the whole screen of a handheld rather than just the Graffiti area and features characters that are closer to real writing than with Graffiti.


QWERTY keyboard

The Treo 270 includes a 33MHz Motorola Dragonball processor, which is pretty slow by today's standards with the ARM processors supported by Palm OS 5. Then again, less MHz generally means lower power consumption, always a plus for a phone. There is no memory card support, so users must make due with the bundled 16MB.

INTERNET/EMAIL/SMS

A GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) upgrade has been made available for the Treo 270, which delivers faster Internet access via the handheld's bundled Blazer browser at around 28.8k modem speeds. During testing, it took us anywhere from just a few to forty or fifty seconds to get online, but once online, we could switch back and forth between email, SMS, phone and organizer features. One drawback is that you must also go through the Cingular homepage before going on to surf the Web.

Handspring's Blazer browser is okay, as it reformats web pages to fit on the limited size of handheld displays. This causes all pages to be displayed as one column, so it sometimes takes a little effort to get the information you want. JavaScript isn't supported, so some websites won't download correctly. These are mild problems for most users as there are plenty of sites out there that have been formatted for small screens. In addition, other browsers exist for those who need more features, such as the ability to download a Web page as it would appear on a desktop. A rocker switch or jog dial resides on the side of the Treo 270, enhancing your ability to navigate through Web pages with the Blazer browser, such as jumping from link to link. The jog dial also works with other applications on the Treo that have been enabled for it.


Blazer Browser

As for email, though Treo doesn't come with a full-scale email application, Handspring offers its own email service called Treo Mail, which is available in Corporate or Internet editions. The Internet edition is designed for accessing POP3 accounts and costs $50 a year, while the Corporate Edition runs on a PC and re-directs desktop email to the Treo for $100 a year. The Internet edition allows you to schedule when the Treo 270 automatically checks for email, which is nice, but is limited to only one POP3 email account. The are other email applications that provide a more robust set of features if that's what you need.

Though we didn't test this feature, a GPRS enabled SMS application allows you to send and receive short test messages to other GSM phones and any email address.

CONCLUSION

The Treo 270 set the bar by which other Palm OS smartphones have been compared. Though some have passed that milestone in different areas (more memory, memory expansion, faster processors, later versions of the operating system, etc.), as a whole, the Treo's 270 is still a good choice for those who want a decent Palm OS device with mobile phone capabilities that are easy to use.