PDA Reviews

One of the brainchildren of technology has been the Smartphone or the PDA device. If computers revolutionised the world at once, these PDAs have led to the second revolution. Their advent has completely changed the world and especially the business sector. Hence the new PDAs featuring in the market are of great value and are very much useful and comfortable to use. So, people are now looking forward to buying such PDAs so as to keep up with the advancement in technology. If you are one of such kind, then here is one of the best PDAs that adorns you.

Acer is predominantly well known for its laptops and desktop PCs. But in order to patch up its position in the PDA market and to withstand the fierce competition from HP, Dell, Samsung and few other giants, it has released the Acer beTouch E100 series Smartphone.

Design and Display:

The E100 is a sleek PDA and comes with block form factor. It looks very stylish, just like a candy bar and in particular, the black coloured one is the best looking of all. Its dimensions are (H x W x D) 113 x 56 x 12.8 mm and they show that it is indeed slim. It is also very light in weight, weighing just about 118.0 grams. Its SAR value is 0.732 W/kg. The special features in the design are the Acer UI 3.0 and the scroll wheel. These are indeed very useful and make it easy for scrolling and browsing as there is no number pad as in normal PDAs. The 2 megapixel camera is an addition to its beauty. The camera is good and gives you no troubles.

The 3.2 inch display is a reasonably big one and hence is very comfortable for viewing. The TFT resistive touchscreen is an additional feature and it is not delicate. So, even after a prolonged use, it does not get damaged. The display has a 65k colour system, as expected. The screen resolution is 240 x 400 pixels and type WQVGA.

Features:

Acer has come out with some new features to add to the value of the beTouch E100 Windows Smartphone. Its highlight  feature is the My Phone. With this feature, you can upload the contents of your phone to the web and can also synchronise them. Contents like the contacts, events, files and others can be synced with this feature. Another one is the Windows Marketplace, powered by Microsoft. With this feature, you can always connect your phone to the internet and the browse for software and applications. You can also buy and download them if you like.

3G / HSDPA:
Acer has released this phone with the main feature being the 3G and the HSDPA or the High Speed Downlink Packet Access. These two are the unique features of Acer E100. With the 3G facility, you can have faster and accurate access to the mobile networks. The HSDPA is another important feature relating to the mobile network access. It is an enhanced 3G option that allows the networks based on the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. This enables higher data transfer speed and capacity. These days, many companies are offering this option of HSDPA via Wi-Fi or Ethernet and also for ports for the connection of the conventional landline telephones. So, this feature enhances the speed of the network and hence increases the signal strength.

Touchscreen and Scroll Wheel:
The Acer beTouch E100 PDA Phone comes out with two of the features that many others currently do not have; a touchscreen and the scroll wheel. The touchscreen is rather a common feature you will see on many of the PDAs. But this one is more durable. We see that many of the touchscreens are delicate and they get damaged after a long use. But this one is robust and is not damaged that easily. It has to be robust because there is no stylus provided with the phone and hence you need to use your fingers. When it comes to the Scroll Wheel, it is very easy to operate on. It makes your work easier especially while multitasking. Since there is no keypad provided, the Scroll Wheel is the only option and it plays a major role in the operation of the phone. Browsing and scrolling are easy on this phone with this option.

Wireless Connectivity:
For any PDA, wireless connectivity is one of the most vital applications and without it the PDA does not serve the purpose. The Acer E100 has an integrated wireless connectivity and an integrated GPS receiver in it for easy access to any wireless network. The GPS system helps you track your position and also know the routes to the nearby places. With this feature, you can also combine the PDA with the navigation software and covert the device into a fully operating sat navigating device. Or you can also use it with Google Maps software to find out ways to different places nearby you. Places such as restaurants, cash machines, pubs, banks and others in your vicinity. So, this is one of the distinct and useful features available with the Acer E100.

The connectivity includes the Quadband for the GSM frequency bands and there are also many connectivity options for you such as the A-GPS, GPS, HSDPA, and HSUPA.

Customisation:
The Acer beTouch E100 3G/HSDPA Windows Smartphone features the option for the customisation of your phone. With this facility, you can personalise the looks and the options the way you want with your phone. While the default model of the phone comes out in black outfit, Acer provides you with a few more colours that make your phone look very cute. These colours include pink, green and red. All the colours are bright and most importantly, they are replaceable. You can always put on and remove these colours covers whenever you want. Also, the customisation option is extended to the options and applications featuring in the phone. You have a customisable home screen that allows you put your best and the most important applications before you. This feature leads to the delight of many people.

Social Networking:
However busy you are, you would always want to catch up with your friends and family. Social networking is the answer to this and hence the Acer E100 provides you with it. It features social networking websites such as Facebook and Flickr. With these, you can check out your favourite videos, blogs. You can also chat with your friends and share your views, photos and videos with them. Even while you are on the move, you can always be in touch with your dear ones.

Windows Mobile 6.5:
The Acer beTouch E100 is powered by the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. This is just like the heart of the PDA. This operating system from Microsoft is very effective for mobile use and allows you access to applications like Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and other important applications. You can also browse the web with the help of the Internet Explorer. All these applications are very well known to all and are also very easy to use on the mobile. There is a corporate email server so that the business users can also get themselves connected securely to the mail server and then access their emails when they are out of office.

This rather new Operating system from Microsoft is a very interesting one. It features an updated version of a honeycomb style main menu in it, and this not only gives a stylish appearance, but it also makes it easy to browse and scroll between the different options and applications featuring in the phone. There is also a finger-able screen for home and contacts so that it is easy to go to the home page and also to view the contacts faster. The Internet Explorer application is also revamped with some of the new features like the touchable zoom option, with which you can zoom the web pages to the required extent. This is a very appreciable option and it is actually required in the PDA phones because; the screens are considerably small in these phones and make it very uncomfortable for viewing. So many people feel it difficult if the web pages are too small to read. This is the one of the areas where Acer scores over the others. Also, as discussed earlier, the features like My Phone and Windows Marketplace are one of the very utile options provided by Microsoft. So with the combination of Microsoft Windows Mobile and Acer beTouch E100, you have the power in your hands.

Performance:

Processor performance:
The Acer beTouch E100 features the Qualcomm 7225 processor with 533 MHz cycle speed. This is not a famous one and is also not the best one in the market. But at the same time, it is also not the worst one. So, the performance is good but you cannot expect it to be the best. With so many features that are discussed above, the processor gives you just about good performance. There is also a hue and cry among its customers that there is a problem of system hanging and the phone hangs at particular times while performing particular tasks. This may prove to be one of the minuses in this mobile.

Camera:
This model from Acer features the 2 megapixel camera in it. With this, you can get digital pictures that look as if taken by a digital camera. So, you can get pictures with good clarity. You can then view the pictures on a high resolution screen with good clarity. You can the share these pictures with your family and friends through the social networking websites like Flickr and Facebook. You can also connect to the internet and then send these photos through email to all your dear ones. This camera also has the digital zoom option and this option, more often than not, does not reduce the quality of the image too much. So, you can always capture your joyous moments by the Acer E100.

As a multimedia player:
You can also record videos with this camera. This one supports video recording for a video resolution of 240 x 320 and the frame rate of this camera is 30 fps. The camera supports many video formats such as MP4, 3GP, WMV, H 263 and H 264. Video streaming through the internet is also possible with the Acer E100.

This beTouch E100 PDA smartphone has many options when it comes to playing music. It supports many formats like MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA. So, there are no problems concerning the conversion of the music files from one format to the other. Also, you can also sync your mobile with the Windows Media Player and then play the music of your interest. Also, playing of ringtones is easy with this mobile. The mobile supports different formats of ringtones like monophonic, polyphonic (64) and MP3. So, you can download ringtones of different formats without worrying about their compatibility.

Messaging:
The Acer E100 has many messaging options that include SMS, MMS including video, instant messaging through MSN and email through POP3, SMTP, IMAP4, and MS exchange.

Memory:
Coming to the memory of the mobile; there is a lot of memory on offer for the storage of. You can store unlimited number of numbers in the phonebook. This is a very good feature. In many of the mobiles these days, there is a certain limit even when it comes to the phonebook. But there is no such limit with the Acer E100. All your calls such as the dialled calls, missed calls and the received calls are stored for a period of 30 days. For all this, there is an internal memory in the phone. But for all other purposes, there is a need for an external memory card. There is a slot available for a micro SD card in the phone. This external memory card is essential to store all the files such as music, videos, documents and other data. So, you can transfer the data easily with the help of this micro SD card.

There are different call features such as Hands Free and Caller ID facility. With the Hands free facility, you can talk over the phone using wireless technology. With the Caller ID facility, you can see the number of the caller.

Connectivity:
There are two types of connectivity options: Mini USB and Bluetooth. With the mini USB, you can sync your mobile with your PC and then share or copy files between them. So, this is a very important tool. Also, the Bluetooth software is a very important feature nowadays. It has been one of the most important features in all the mobile phones. This also is essential for the data transfer between many devices, but the only difference and an advantage is that this is a wireless type of data transfer system and it can be used anywhere on earth between two devices that support Bluetooth.

Security:
For any PDA, especially for the ones involving the connection to internet, security of the private data is at stake. So, there is always a possibility for the loss of confidential or personal data. So, that is why Acer has ensured that there are no such problems by introducing new Security features such as Device Lock, Remote Lock and Memory Card encryption. With the device lock, your phone will be locked when not in use. The remote lock locks the internet access to the phone so that there are no viruses entering into your phone. The memory card encryption software scans the memory card for viruses and deletes if there are any. All these options save your phone from data corruption.

So, all the options and features discussed above help greatly in the performance of the phone and overall performance is considered to be good.

Battery:

The battery is Lithium ion type with amperage of 1140 mAh. With this battery, you get a standby time of about 400 hours and a talk time of five hours.

Warranty:

Acer offers parts and labour warranty for a period of one year from the date of purchase.

Verdict:

The Acer beTouch E100 is a good mobile to have. It has a very slim design and is perfectly apt for business professionals. The touchscreen display is fine and all the features are very useful and unique. The internet connectivity is good and the most important thing is that it is one of the few models that have a phone facility. Many of the others do not have such a facility and hence, this is one of the pluses. The only minus in this mobile is that it hangs quite frequently and many customers have already expressed dissent regarding this. The cost is also a bit on the higher side. Other than these, there are no problems at all and it is a very good gadget to have, especially when you are on the move.

Acer beTouch E100 Smartphone - Technical Specification Table

Overview:

Pros:

• Powerful processor
• Snappy and efficient performance
• UMTS 3G feature
• User friendly QWERTY keyboard
• Excellent sound quality
• Bluetooth implementation
• Redesigned firm grip surface
• Great usability features
• Improvised camera with video recording at 30fps
• MS Voice Command feature

Cons:

• The Battery is smaller, thus the battery life is also shorter
• No built-in Wi-Fi system, so users have to add an external Wi-Fi car
• The square 240 x 240 pixels screen is smaller than the standard size, which reduces the visibility and even though most of the software are compatible with this resolution, it is not at all good enough for gaming.

Review:

Palm Treo is a big name in the international market of PDA phones and smartphones. Palm Treo phones are of two types, one is the Palm OS and the other is Window Mobile. Both have been rather a revolutionary achievement. When the predecessor of Palm Treo 680 was released, it was claimed to be a landmark in the PDA and smartphone market. Palm Treo 750 from Palm and Cingular was said to be a cross of a smartphone and a pocket pc, such were its features and attributes and it took the Treo family a step ahead in the international market as well. It was the most refined and power redefined Windows mobile Treo.

Design:

A make-over:
Palm Treo 750, the predecessor to the Palm Treo 650 is a redesigned version of the same, but convenience and comfort level of users has been well kept in mind. The case redesigning makes the Palm Treo 750 look more compact and precise. Moreover, a stubby jutting antenna which was found in the previous editions of the Palm Treo has been removed. Palm Treo 750 sports a palm-friendly look and shape and has soft, rubberized and padded grip in various colour schemes.  The Palm Treo 750 is solid and well made in terms of looks and feel and feels wonderful in hand.

The feel:
Palm Treo 750 PDA Phone has a soft-touch rubberized finishing, which helps to have a firm grip of it in hand. The surface texture is thrilling and appealing and the Palm Treo 750 is slick and lighter than the previous editions of Palm Treo PDA phone series. The base colour is navy blue and has a bezel silver display along with side grips made up of plastic which looks like brushed metal by appearance. There is a single LED which is hidden, that is, the silver bezel is devoid of any window. Only while indicating charging status, the LED lights up to show its existence, which does not keep flashing to notify and indicate any kind of phone service or Bluetooth status. Thus, users who do not like LED flashes for notifications, Palm Treo 750 is good news for them. Moreover, the LED does not even flash to notify about appointment reminders and alarms, thus it is not user friendly enough because one has to look at the screen to check for missed alarms and reminders. This PDA phone has a single-piece ample stylus, unlike the generalized telescopic, ultra-thin ones, which is an added advantage with the user friendly interface. It is easy to grip and more efficient in usage terms.

Average Display:
The Palm Treo 750 Smartphone sports a 16-bit 4.4 x 4.4 cm square TFT touch screen. The square 240 x 240 screens are not really a great thing when compared to any other devices in the market and it is quite a loss as around 80 pixels are lost from one side, as compared to the generalized standard screen resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. These screens are also compatible with few other phones and are found on other Palm Treo models as well as on the HP iPAQ hw6945. These 240 x 240 screens, even though quite smaller in size are very easy and comfortable on user’s eyes.
The only mentionable drawback of these screens is that the text and graphics are smaller in size and looks as though they are crammed in to fit the 2.6” LCD screen. The Palm phone’s tough transflective touch screen which has a display of 65k colours and can support both landscape and portrait modes of viewing, though it is baseless as the its screen is square, and not rectangular. Therefore, there will not be any kind of change in the view in landscape mode in a square screen. The LCD is very bright and the colour saturation level is also remarkable. The picture quality is also very sharp which maybe an added benefit because of the crammed screen space, which means a greater pixel density, which in turn enhances sharpness.

The Keyboard:
The keyboard of the Palm Treo 750 is still highly similar to the Palm Treo 700 series and has the same kind of key size, tactile feedback and key travel. The backlit keys are predominantly black and the number keys are silver for fast and easy dialling and they are 9mm wide and 10mm tall. The number keys also share letters with them, so to enter numbers the Fn key has to be used, but the Fn key is sticky and it does not need to be pressed and held. Pressing it once will let one access its function and pressing the Fn key twice will activate num lock, just like the shift key. The keyboard is not roomy enough, but is quite usable, thus, unlike other QWERTY phones, thumb movement is quite restricted in the Palm Treo 750. Moreover, for characters and symbols, including colon, can be found under a pop-up list on pressing the Alt key, which is a bit tacky as there is no place for characters and symbol keys directly on the keypad.

Buttons, Ports and Connectivity:
The Palm Treo 750 PDA phone does not have a jog wheel, but around the d-pad surrounding the phone has OK buttons which thus helps in improved one-handed operation of the device. The device also has a Windows Start Menu. Moreover, the Treo 750 has below its display screen, the usual Windows Mobile software keys and the call send and call end buttons are in their usual standard locations. The volume up and volume down keys are on the left hand side of the device and along with it there is another button which is user-assignable and it is generally set to camera by default. On the right hand side of the Palm PDA phone, there is a large Infra Red window and there is also a miniSD slot below that covered by a door. Other than these, towards the bottom edge of the device, there are the Charge and sync ports. Towards the top the ringer on/off slider is located along with the stylus.

The speakerphone, camera lens and the self portrait mirror are on the back side and the battery is available on the rear with a cover. The SIM card slot as usual is placed beneath the battery and under the miniSD cover, along with a soft reset hole. In order to perform a soft reset, the Palm Treo 750, user will have to remove and re-insert the device’s battery. Beneath the standard earpiece there is a square coloured touch screen and below that a 5-way navigator along with two soft keys is present whose function can be changed dynamically depending on different applications. Overall, the Palm Treo 750 is a re-designed model of its predecessor and is just a bit narrower and a little bit thicker but has a classy look. Users who have a fascination for larger in size smartphones would not mind this device, whereas it might not be well-appreciated by fickle minded, fashion conscious users because of its size.

Features:

Windows Mobile phone:
The Palm Treo 750 has customized its operating System is quite a number of ways to enhance and improve the usability as in comparison to the prior Palm Treo Windows Mobile pocket PC phones. Included in the list of these improvisations are Speed Dialling, which is picture based and is styled in list form; Screen plug-ins for search queries like Google; A search bar to find a contact by the name and/or number for easy dialling and to top it, the right soft key is basically a shortcut which allows access to various applications like the dial pad, the contact list, the call log, the Wireless Manager settings for the device itself and the Today screen or the speed dial. Pressing the Fn button and the OK button, locks the phone’s screen and all other buttons and pressing and holding the ‘ok’ button gives access to the Task Manager. The Alt key provides a pop-up menu for all special characters and symbols in almost everywhere where it finds its usage and the battery icon on top of Today’s screen when tapped shows the remaining percentage of charge. The provision for speed dial helps to assign a contact to any particular letter or rather key on the keypad. Thus pressing and holding that particular key will allow easy and instant call access to the related contact saved for that key. The Treo 750 PDA phone also includes MS Voice Command 1.5 along with its various customizations which helps in supporting Bluetooth headsets.

Data reception:
The Palm Treo 750 has a GSM radio which catches signal anywhere in the world where GSM service is available and thus the Treo 750 is a device that can be used conveniently, worldwide. Its quad band GSM radio works on the 850/900/1800/1900MHz bands and can also handle GSM, GPRS and EDGE. The phone’s 3G radio also works on the European and US bands (850/1900/2100MHz) and it supports UMTS rather than the standard HSDPA for data even though the latter one is faster in its service. UMTS at 384k might top out, although faster results are a sure thing if Cingular’s proxy is used, which is hardcoded into its registry for IE in relatively stronger service areas. Palm’s promised upgrade in Q1 2007 moved the Palm 750 to HSDPA servicing, which means an upgraded and enhanced speed ranging from 600-1,000k can be obtained in strong Cingular 3G coverage areas with a theoretical maximum speed of 1.8 Mbps, which technically is quite high and almost impossible to get on any other PDA phone. Before that, two different utilities were developed for the non-HSDPA enabled HTC Hermes device which was to enable HSDPA on the device.

Internet:
The Palm Treo 750 PDA Smartphone has IE and Outlook in their respective mobile versions for any kind of Internet-based work or tasks. The benefit of Outlook is that it supports IMAP and POP protocols, more than one email accounts, various authentications and MS direct push email. Moreover, it is highly user-friendly when it comes to mobile messaging and user can also install any kind of compatible third party Windows Mobile browsers like Opera and Opera Mini for instance. But for the Opera Mini browser, a Java VM installation is required for it to run as Mini Opera requires the same as a platform and the Palm Treo 750 does not come preloaded with the JAVA VM. Once Java VM is downloaded and installed the third party browser, Mini Opera will function properly and moreover it helps in certain other things in bits and parts for example it will also make the PDA phone compatible for viewing maps via the Google Earth provision.

Camera and its features:
The Palm Treo 750 PDA phone has a 1.3 megapixel camera; can click photos up to a maximum of 1280 x1024 pixels and the device also supports a wide variety of low profile resolutions which are helpful in usage in caller id’s, contact photos, email, or Multimedia messaging service (MMS).The Palm Treo 750 offers a 2x digital zoom and has three different modes, namely the Normal, the timer, and the burst mode. There are three different settings for rendering image quality and a use can chose to save a clicked photo in the MiniSD card. But, other than this, there are no variety of image settings, effects or balance as the Palm Treo 750 uses a standard Windows Mobile 5 application component, named as the Microsoft Microsoft’s Pictures and Videos application, which is a very generalized and standard camera application. The Palm Treo 750 can shoot synchronized video along with the audio in 3GP format at a very high frame rate of 30fps. Audio recording is optional, that is the user can turn it on or off according to his requirement and relevance, and video recording resolutions can also be altered from 352 x 288 (CIF) to 176 x 144 and moreover, the recording length is also specified, ranging from a minimum of 15 seconds up to unlimited.

The Acoustics:
The Palm Treo 750 is a killer when it comes to applications. Due to the 3G’s superior quality voice codecs, the incoming and outgoing call quality of the PDA is excellent and the volume is also more than sufficient, even though it does not have an impressive external sound quality in compared to the previous Palm Treo models. The reception quality is of the 3G as well as the GSM is also quite good. The Palm Treo 750 has a 2.5mm stereo headset jack and a loud speakerphone which is placed on the rear of the device and the phone comes with a complimentary stereo headset with inline microphone.

Voice Command:
Treo 750 has customized its features and applications and MS Voice Command 1.5 is a boon with its added Bluetooth headset support. It provides true voice recognition without any kind of tags or training and thus this feature is really helpful as the device can detect voice command and can work accordingly even when the user is busy doing something else when it is inconvenient for hand-held usage. Any button can be assigned as the Voice command shortcut button even the hands free Bluetooth headset is in collaboration to this feature. It is fun and very convenient. Any query or anything a user wants to know or read from the phone can be done by this feature and the voice command feature will tell the user or read out to him via the Bluetooth feature.

On-device applications like the speed dial and the Today Screen and one-touch dialling are also available which help to simplify calling or dialling a contact when Bluetooth head set is not in use.

Software Bundle with Palm Treo 750:
Almost all Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices sport touch screens, on-screen keyboards, handwriting recognition etc, though the handwriting recognition or the software keyboard are not a entirely a main software feature of the Palm Treo 750 PDA phone, as it has a full QWERTY keypad. The software features of the Treo 750 also include viewing Powerpoint presentations, viewing and editing Microsoft’s Mobile Office Word and Excel documents, using the Outlook Mobile, working on the Mobile Internet Explorer etc. Other than this, Windows Media Player 10, Modern Link, Terminal services, viewing and recording pictures and videos, using Pocket MSN along with Hotmail and/or MSN messenger, support of VPN connections and secure certificates, using File explorer, playing solitaire, Bubble breaker and using Calculator are included in the Software feature list of this PDA device. On the PDA outlook, there is a provision for contacts, tasks, calendar, notes and emails which can be easily synchronized only to Windows.

The Treo 750 also includes their very popular application for threaded SMS application, a car kit manager, a key guard facility to lock the device’s buttons and touch screen even when on a voice call. User can also add ringtones very easily using Sounds, and also has a Bluetooth plug-in for Windows desktop along with a wireless manager, which can control both the Bluetooth radio stations as well as the phone itself as a device. Moreover, the bundled third party software are also notable as we get MS voice command, which is amazingly accurate and efficient, Handmark Express, a game names Astra ware’s Dynamite, Sprite Backup and Piscel’s PDF reader and furthermore, a number of download links are also provided for downloading and installing the Avenue and Audible software. It is also compatible with a subscription navigator service called TeleNav, which is promoted by Cingular.

Performance:

Responsiveness:
Recently, quite a number of PDA phones came with a Samsung’s ARM/XScale compatible processor, and the Palm Treo 750 PDA phone has also joined the league as it is loaded with the Samsung SC32442A 300MHz processing unit. The power saving features of Samsung processors along with the strong performance is quite commendable as it is a rare combination for a processing unit. Generally a processor which is very high in performance has a low power saving capability and vice-versa. The Palm Treo 750 is highly responsive considered by Windows Mobile 5 standards without any kind of undo lag opening menus and applications. It has a 500 contact database which opens in a jiffy and scrolling up and down the contact list is also remarkably fast without any kind of problem as such. It supports only 240 x 240 jar extension games which are not very common but then any game which metes out the compatibility requirement runs well enough in the Palm Treo 750 and the device also has a very good video playback.

Memory:
Unlike its predecessors, the Palm Treo 750 has a 64Megabyte RAM to run applications and programs, which is standard for any other smart phones or PDA phones. Out of this 64 megabyte RAM, approximately only 29 megabytes are free post-booting and the Palm Treo 750 also has a 128 megabyte flash ROM, out of which only 60 megabytes are available for users as a lasting and persistent memory that can survive total battery drainage. It has a miniSD card slot, which is expandable up to 2 gigabytes for expansion of the basic storage. The Palm Treo 750’s miniSD slot also supports SDIO and the device is also compatible with Spectec’s miniSD Wi-Fi 802.11b card.

Multimedia Capabilities:
The Palm Treo 750 PDA phone comes with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile for MP3, Internet, Radio and Video Playback is formats like WMV, 3GP and ASF, like any other Smartphones or Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC. It also supports third party players and music streaming from iTunes to the phone is also possible with the use of Avenue software bundled via the download link. The sound may not be very loud, but the sound quality through the rear speaker is very clear and the stereo headphones have an excellent sound quality as well. Because of the phone’s square screen size, a perfect aspect ratio is not possible for video playback, but with the help of ATI graphics accelerator, video playback is not that bad an experience on the Palm Treo 750. The Palm Treo has a plausible average video playback speed of around 477.40% with original frame rate of 24fps and original data rate of 310 kbit/s. These are quite remarkable benchmark results compared to other models of the Palm Treo series or any other PDA phones available in the market.

Camera performance:
The Palm Treo 750, like the other models of the Palm Treo series. A 1.3 megapixel camera is a total disappointment in such a loaded phone, where any other phones sport a better resolution camera. But, some improvisations have been made in the palm Treo 750’s camera, which in spite of having the same resolution as its predecessors, gives us better picture quality with good colour hue and saturation, with minimal noise and generally with generally almost correct and proper colour balance. Due to its high frame rate, the recording quality is quite good and the picture is smooth, though at times it seems to be a bit blocky. Be it the change in camera hardware, or change in lens, or better processing techniques, but whatever it is, the Palm 750 is definitely way better in its image taking potentials than the other models of the same series, even though it has the same camera resolution as the others.

Bluetooth:
The Bluetooth has been modified and improved as well in the Treo 750. The device has an absolutely normal range and efficiency when it comes to the Bluetooth device, compared to the poor range and sometimes iffy status in case of dial up networking in the previous models of the Palm Treo series. The Palm Treo 750 is highly compatible with handsfree features and has a good efficiency even though it has a dial up networking. The Palm Treo 750 has A2DP for Bluetooth headphone stereos and can also handle AVRC for controlling the playback with head set buttons. The Palm Treo 750 PDA phone also has a well modified and efficient Bluetooth 1.2 radio and this device also supports handsfree, headset, and a serial port which is used by the Bluetooth GPS other than its compatibility with A2DP and DUN and it is also complimented with file transfer profiles. Overall the Bluetooth service of the Palm Treo 750 is very good and moreover the sound quality of the Bluetooth mono and stereo is also excellent.

Battery Life:

The Palm Treo 750 PDA has a 1200 mAh Lithium Ion battery, which complements the weight reduction solution of this model, as the other Palm Treo models sport a larger 1,800mAh battery. Thus, if used moderately, the Palm Treo 750 has to be charged every alternate day in average with the push email turned off. With the push email turned on, the battery life reduces to some extent and the charge might last as long as 24 hours. Thus, the Palm Treo 750 PDA phone has average battery consumption unlike the other power hungry models of the Palm Treo series. The Treo has in box, a compact charger of 110-240v and it is the only mean to charge the device, as it does not support USB charging, even though it might well synchronize with USB and power cables. Thus, users will have to carry the compact world charger on road or anywhere they go, which might be tacky at times, and the fact that it does not support USB charging is a con.

Box contents:

The package contents include Palm Treo 750 PDA phone, Lithium Ion Battery, Compact AC charger ( 110 – 240v), USB sync cable, Stylus, Screen Protector, A user manual and a Software CD.

Warranty:

Palm offers its Treo 750 PDA 12 months warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

The Palm Treo 750 PDA phone is not another shattering bulky not-so-efficient model of the Palm Treo series, and neither is it just a redesigned model of its predecessor. The Palm Treo 750 is very efficient and in many ways better than other phones of its league in terms of performance. It sports an improved, faster and more performance and power saving oriented processing unit, an enhanced and improved video playback, a well modified and improved camera, and a better, and more powerful implementation of Bluetooth in a slim, light-weight, well textured, antenna – less casing. But the best thing about the Palm Treo 750 PDA phone is that it is the first Palm Treo model promoted by Cingular, which is available with GSM service! The Palm Treo 750 PDA phone, unlike the other models of the same series, is neither just moderate in call quality, nor is too low on sonority and audio quality. It is both loud and very clear when it comes to the sound quality, be it the rear speakers, or the head set, and the call quality is also far better. It is user-friendly, which is very important and with a good grip and redesigned casing, feels great in hand. Concluding it all, the Palm Treo 750 PDA phone is quite a package with a number of modifications, redesigning, customizations of efficiency performance and usability. For users who love the power of windows mobile and are also fascinated by one hand operation and qwerty keyboard, the Palm Treo 750 is quite an obvious choice without a second thought.

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Palm Treo 750 PDA Smartphone - Technical Specification Table

The Palm, Inc is a renowned company all over the world and especially in the UK and the US. Of late, it has been producing PDA phones into the market to retain its position in the PDA market. It has released its latest model, the Palm Centro into the market, with new features and options, is attracting the customers. People who are fed up with the weight and bulk of the previous model, the Palm Treo, can now look forward to a much lighter and a better PDA smartphone from Palm. If you are fed up with the Treo but still want the Palm PDA and its unique Operating System, then the Centro is the right option for you.

Design:

The Palm Centro is almost a slenderised version of the Treo, as it has lost its bulk significantly. Its dimensions are better now,(H x W x D) 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches, and it has obviously lost its weight and now weighing just 4.2 ounces (119 grams). It is considered as the smallest PDA phone that is ever released by Palm to date. It has come out in two vivacious colours along with Black viz. Olive Green and Vibrant Rose. It fits into your palm easily and its smooth case makes it better for handling. Its 320 x 320 Transflective colour touch screen makes it look very cute and easy to handle. The QWERTY Keyboard is a new feature and the keys are gel-soft and very nice with good sensitivity to touch. It also has customisable side buttons for easy access to your options and the Menu button is at the bottom of the keyboard. The headset jack, the microphone and the Connector are all respectively from left to right, at the bottom of the handset.

Features:

The Operating System:
Unlike the palm Treo, the Palm Centro PDA Phone has very distinctive features that reduce the gap between the Palm and other well established and powerful companies like Nokia and HTC. As usual, it features the unique platform or operating System, the Palm OS, made by ACCESS 5.4.9. This is a different OS and also a useful one. It has a good Bluetooth connectivity, which is must faster than the Treo’s.

Documents to Go Professional Edition:
The Documents to Go Professional Edition, version 10, is a new feature that helps you in handling your documents faster and with more efficiency and is especially very useful for the business people and executives. With this particular feature, you can create and edit documents such as Microsoft Word and Excel files. You can also PowerPoint presentations and can open and read PDF files.

Interesting Add-ons:
Microsoft Direct Push Technology is provided for the delivery of Microsoft Outlook Email as it receives. There are thousands of add on applications available for download and use. Another feature that is very interesting is that the Palm Centro smartphone can be used as a modem to connect your laptop to the high speed network. This serves as a very good purpose particularly when you are travelling.

Internet Applications:
The most attractive features are the ones that involve the celebrated internet applications like Facebook and Google. The Facebook for Palm, is a software feature that allows you to get instant access to Facebook and helps you connect and share with your people. The Google Maps is another very useful application that helps you locate the places in the world. These two are the most important and the excellent features that came with the Palm Centro. The HotSync is a giant application that supports data synchronisation from your mobile at a faster rate. You can also visit Yelp, Flickr and many more with the Centro. There is an Email facility for accounts like Gmail, Yahoo and AOL. It also provides you with the download section that takes care of your downloads from the internet. The Sprint Mobile Email allows you to send and receive Emails very quickly even while you are on the go. This is a very crucial feature that is useful to all the executives.

Instant Messaging:
Instant Messaging or the IM facility is very much useful in being in contact with your dear ones. This comes with a chat style view that makes the messaging much more lively than ever. Instant messaging is possible with Yahoo, AIM and Windows Live Messenger.

My Centro:
The My Centro option is a unique feature that has an array of new options for you to explore on. The Quick Tour option enables a quick look at the working of your phone. This is very useful for the first time users as they need to adapt to the new software. The five way navigator enables easy access to multiple options at a time.

Watch TV and Shop online:
You can also shop online for anything and then helps you in managing your buying options very effectively. The Sprint TV is an additional feature that can be used to view the TV programs on your mobile. After you install the software, then you can avail this facility. The Blazer 4.5 is a web browser that is quick enough. The Sprint’s EvDO network seems very nice as browsing became very easy with this option.

Other features:
The Nuance Voice Control option makes subtle changes in the voice of the speaker and can give the impression of a different person speaking. The Pocket Tunes Deluxe has all the tunes and the ringtones that make your phone sound melodious. The world clock feature shows you the time around different parts on the globe. Last, but not the least, the dual-band Radio plays you the radio from different local radio stations.

Performance:

The performance is good and certainly a lot better when compared with Palm’s previous versions of PDA mobile phones.

Call Quality:
When we speak of the Centro, the first thing that we are reminded of is the Call quality. The Call quality is excellent. It can be compared to that of a landline phone. It has been tested and both the speaker and the receiver sounded great to each other with excellent quality. So, there are no problems at all with the Centro, when it comes to the Call quality.

Speed:
Also, the CPU or the processor, Intel X Scale PXA270, is fast enough with 312 MHz frequency. It works with both CDMA 2000 (3G) and GSM networks. The internet connection is fast and the browser is quick enough and very seldom, it encounters a problem.

Camera:
The 1.3 mega pixel digital camera, with 2x digital zoom facility, performs well even in dim light circumstances. It can give you good video and picture quality. All the pictures and the videos that are taken can be stored in the built-in memory card of capacity of 128 MB. You can also use any other memory card, if you want higher storage capacity. You can separately buy a 4 GB expansion memory card. A microSD card is supported by the phone.

With all the features mentioned above, the Palm Centro performs well and its performance has filled in the gap between it and its competitors.

Palm Centro Battery:
The battery is Lithium ion of 1150 mAh. The battery is removable and replaceable. It has a life of up to 300 hours for standby mode and up to 3.5 hours of talk time.

System Requirements:
For the process of synchronisation, you must have a desktop or a laptop system that meets the requirements. Your system must have an operating system that is either of Windows XP, Windows Vista or Mac OS X v 10.2 – 10.4.

Warranty:

The customers are provided with a warranty of up to 2 years from the date of purchase.

Verdict:

This is a great opportunity for the people who want a good PDA for a low cost. The Palm Centro PDA is amazingly low when it comes to cost, just $99. So, it is very cheap and valuable. You cannot otherwise imagine a good PDA phone for such a low price. It also has a wide range of applications that are very useful. The features are fine and appreciable. The performance is up to the mark. The Bluetooth connection has minimum problems. The Facebook and Yahoo facilities are great. The Palm Centro is currently the rated when it comes to the internet traffic. The Call quality and the voice clarity are excellent and on a par with the best in the business. The web browser is fine and very interesting. The Palm operating system might be a new encounter to many but it is easy to adapt and simple to use. The touchscreen display is very good and the battery life is okay. Many say that the battery life is lower than many other PDA phones, but for such a cheap amount, you cannot expect for more. The minuses are that the keyboard is too small for an average hand. The PDA does not look that stylish. It lacks that ‘wow’ factor in it and when compared to the design of the other companies in the market like Nokia, HTC and a few others, it looks a bit toy like. The phone lacks a very good speaker. There is also no Wi-Fi in the phone and it is definitely going to cost to Palm. On the whole, even though it costs cheap, it can be bought due to its unique features. It will do a world of good to the mediocre businessmen.

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Palm Centro PDA - Technical Specification Details

Overview:

Pros:
1. Numeric Keypad for Text input
2. Bundled Car kit
3. Loads of useful business oriented applications
4. HSPDA Connectivity
5. Convenient Power Switch
6. Amazing Processor speed and hence, great performance
7. Excellent battery life.
8. Hardware lock

Cons:
1.    Camera lacks a flash
2.    An ordinary design
3.    Shutter lag in camera
4.    No Bundled maps for GPS
5.    Bulkier than the average common Pocket PC
6.    Low RAM

Review:

Asus, the Taiwanese company, is an active player in the Windows Mobile smartphones. It lags behind the leading player of the market-HTC.  Asus is not as prolific as HTC; it still has a couple of PDAs in its portfolio. Its main differentiator since the My-Pal devices is the inclusion of GPS. It launched the flagship model – the Asus P750 in the already crowded scene. However, Asus has made sure that the model is not dropped defenseless. It is a Windows Mobile 6 Handheld with HSPDA, a 2.6″ TFT touchscreen, an amazingly fast 520 MHz Marvel CPU, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, stereo and a 3 MP Autofocus camera. Sounds good enough to take on HTC branded devices. But one might re-consider buying the phone due its recent entry in Windows Mobile.

The Asus P750 smartphone caters to users looking for a full featured PDA which can deliver business and GPS functions. It also has its own weaknesses-an average screen diagonal and absence of a FM tuner. It does not have direct competitors even in the HTC league. However, the i-mate Ultimate 8150, the HTC Touch Cruise, the Gigabyte GSmart i350 and the E-TEN glofiish X800 are its rivals.

Design:

Dimensions and Built:
The first impression one gets about the P750 is its well designed in looks and has similarity to some Nokia N series mobile phones. The P750 has a solid built and weighs about a 130 grams, that is 60gm lesser than the HTC TyTN II. Its dimensions of (H x W x D) 113 x 58 x 17.4mm makes it a compact phone in the PDA segment. The P750 is made up of brushed metal on the front and the matt black plastic on the back. The metallic keys give it a distinct high-end feel. Around the display is the brushed metal and above it are the video call camera and the stylishly designed earpiece grill, reminiscent of the Nokia 6500 classic and the E-ten glofiish X800. The coat is wear resistant and the tip of the navigation button is rubber-ized. The stylus is of telescopic design and overall, the phone is ergonomically designed.

Keypad:
Perhaps the most appreciable part of the P750’s design is its well designed keypad. It does not have a QWERTY keypad, something that is initially difficult to adjust to, but a great form factor. Usability however suffers due to the lack of backlighting on the metallic keys of the front row. Apart from this flaw, the rest keys on the keypad have a strong backlighting. Above the screen is the status indicator which changes from colour to colour indicating either battery charge or GSM activation. Below the Display are the joystick navigator, a numeric keypad and a quite number of other shortcut keys including the OK key and the ModeSwitcher key. The P750 lacks a thumbable virtual keyboard, so the stylus comes very handy. The keys might appear to be a bit crowded however they are good to type with. We at PDA reviews, faced a small minor gripe with the ‘2’ button. It required more force to depress than the other buttons.

On the left of the phone are a jog dial button and a shortcut for voice recording. On the right side of the Asus P750 Pocket PC are a GPS antenna slot (to plug in an external GPS antenna for better reception) and a slider that allows you to put the handset in standby more by just sliding it upwards and locking it by sliding it downward. Any accidental press on the keypad brings the device out of the standby mode, so make sure it is locked. But perhaps, the un-noticeable advantage of the slider is the fact that you can lock the keypad in whichever application you use, unlike the other phones, which can be locked only from the homescreen. On the right side of the phone also have a power switch, a camera shutter and a MicroSD slot. The base of the phone has a mini USB port and an audio connector.

Display:
The Size of the Display screen of the Asus P750 GPS PDA is 2.6 inch, smaller than the current standard of 2.8 inches. It has a QVGA resolution of 320 x 240. However, there have been reports of unlocking the display to work in true VGA mode. TFT Technology powers the screen. The colour depth is 65k and the image quality is high. The image dearness and the view angles are better than the P525. Yet the maximum brightness is not very high, which makes it difficult to read it in direct sunlight. This a common issue with most PDAs. The sun resistance is not ideal either.

Interface:
The Asus P750 Smartphone offers a Standard Windows Mobile interface minus the 6.1 upgrade. It does not have anything akin to the TouchFLO of HTC, it has the ASUS Launcher. The upper line has service indicators like the Signal quality, battery meter or GPRS/Wi-Fi etc. The lower line has the contextual button functions. The Default main window shows the current day, the service provider, the messaging stats, the tasklist, the personal data of the owner and the indicator area. It can be varied as per your wishes. The Desktop can feature a custom picture or a photograph. On the main desktop, the start menu contains a list of apps installed on your PocketPC. The Settings options let you alter a variety of settings of your phone.  The Phone has 2 kinds of menus – the quick access and the main menu. To activate the quick access menu press the start button.

The main menu is a windows styled window with icons and app names. The window can hold up to 12 icons per screen. In lieu of a Task Manager, there is a status app that gives you an overview on the CPU Frequency Mode, The USB Mode (Card Reader or ActiveSync), the brightness, the battery, the memory and Storage. In the Interface, the ModeSwitcher application deserves special mention. It gets activated when the ModeSwitcher key on the keypad is pressed. This brings up a row of 4 shortcuts to some features like changing screen orientation and a running tasks switcher.  The last app is the Asus P750 is the Backup which allows a full backup which can be restored later if needed.

Features:

Connectivity:
The P750 features Tri band GSM (GSM 900/1800/1900), Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b+g), Bluetooth V2.0+ EDR, USB 1.1 and a built-in GPS antenna and is the first one from Asus to have HSDPA connectivity. So, theoretically, it can hit speeds up to 3.6 Mbps whereas it is usually much lower and depends on the quality of your operator’s network. The Triband GSM radio allows you to roam without a problem. Apart from these, the usual fare of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi allows the user to remain connected with the world. It lacks an Infrared port but there are other options available. So, the Asus P750 is good at what Pocket PCs are actually all about-connectivity. The Wireless Manager is standard. The first one deactivates all the communication modules and the next one handles Wi-Fi , Bluetooth , Phone and Data.
Business Applications:

The various business functional applications include UR Time, Meeting Time Planner and Newstation. With “Ur Time”, one can set up to four different countries. “Newstation” provides news and blog updates through RSS settings. The Meeting Time planner makes meeting scheduling more efficient than ever. AutoCleaner function ensures that your applications are properly closed and free up space and memory for other functions. Perhaps the most interesting business feature that the Asus P750 has is the Business Card Recognition which allows you to capture all details of a business card without the need to input the data into your phone.

Travelog:
One interesting feature of the Asus P750 PDA GPS is Travelog. It allows users to record and share their travelling pictures, routes, Points of Interests (POIs) and schedules. Using Google Earth’s satellite maps format, users can create a journal of their journeys and put snapshots and loads of tidbits about their travel on their blogs with ease. Travelog also provides data like height from the sea level and etcetera. The in-built GPS antenna supports TMC (Traffic Message Service) allowing users to get real time traffic updates and help them avoid those nasty traffic jams. The GPS Catcher feature allows you to update satellite data quickly providing accurate location for navigation on the move. With the GPS Catcher feature, the P750 is able to update satellite data quickly providing the map with the route for your destination.

Location Courier:
The Location Courier feature of the P750 Handheld PDA will also help prevent users from ever getting lost. The Location Courier feature of this PDA reports the user’s position in terms of co-ordinates to predefined contacts preventing them from ever getting lost. Yes, even in large vast open countries, making this PDA the best safeguard for their daily safety.

Lack of Pre-installed GPS Maps:
For a GPS handheld the most important application is maps. The P750 does not come with any navigation software/maps bundled with it. So, the cost of buying those maps adds on to the price of the P750. It has Garmin Mobile XT trial version which is ok to use. When installed with third party software such as the iGo, the SiRF Star III GPS worked like a charm. The lock speed was delightful and the positioning was accurate even in dense city streets.

Intuitive Contact List Search:
Another useful feature that the P750 features is the way it searches for contacts. Just by typing the name on the keypad, all contact names with that combination show up. Users can also preset up to 99 contacts and quickly dial by holding on to the keypad numbers. All of this can be done using the jog dial making it easily operable by a single hand. Each contact has the last call field to it which displays the number and the time in which the last call was made to that contact. A full log including calls to and from numbers, call duration and time of call is available.

Memory:
The P750 has a RAM of 64MB – a disappointment for many. The ROM of 256MB is quite sufficient for basic functionality. The memory card slot is the micro SD standard, which is a universal variant. The maximum card capacity is 4GB. There have been reports that the 64MB RAM can be upgraded to the 128MB by simply replacing the BGA chip with an aftermarket one.

Camera:
For a PocketPC Camera, performance is not usually a high priority. The Asus P750 has a 3 MP auto focus shooter. It offers a nice and well laid menu with features including scene modes (auto, night, and sports), self timer, Burst mode, Colour effects (normal, black & white, negative and sepia) and Geo-tagging. You can modify the white balance, brightness, contrast and saturation. The Asus P750 has let us down in terms of image quality. Its low quality lens makes the images softer on the edges. It fails to reproduce fine details and over sharpens the scene. It lacks a protection cover for the camera, so one has to be as careful as possible. The camera also lacks a flash and a mirror for self shooting. Pictures up to a resolution of 2048×1536 can be taken and videos up to a resolution of 176×144 can be shot. Overall, it is pretty much an ordinary camera.

Performance:

The ASUS P750 runs on the Marvell PXA270 CPU which operates at a frequency of 520 MHz. It is a huge improvement over its previous predecessor and poses a huge challenge to its competitors. The PXA270 core provides a high performance. However 3D profiles in Java are not supported. All the applications we have tested run without a hassle. Even when one runs multiple applications, not much of performance degradation happens.

Accessories:

Along with the Asus P750 is provided a sync and charge cable, a stereo hands-free kit, a user manual, a CD containing essential software, a pouch, a wall socket charger, a spare stylus and the 1300mAH battery.

Battery Life:

The Asus P750 GPS System runs on a bulky 1300mAh which has a reasonable run between charges. Claimed to run for 6 hours talktime and 240 hours on standby mode. It runs for 2 days on moderate usage. A Full charge managed to support the GPRS for a whole 6 hours before running out. The processor speed can be altered to conserve power with four settings available: Turbo, Standard, Power Saving and Automatic mode. In Automatic mode, the P750 was able to play music nonstop from a microSD card for over 12 hours. The battery life is significantly much better than the HTC Diamond which had battery inadequacies.

Battery life:

The Asus P750 is provided with a warranty period of a year.

Verdict:

Asus have outdone all their previous models. The P750 Pocket PC is a wonderful example of business phones that are feature packed and are available in the mid-price segment. It is chunky and the hardware design could have been much tidier. However there is no denying that the Phone is one of the best to be released this season. It has a multitude of buttons which means you do not really need to use that stylus often. It has connectivity features like Bluetooth, WI-Fi, GPS and Edge. It has a great processor and a long lasting battery life. Its features bundled along with some impressive software make it an excellent multi-function handheld.

Asus P750 Handheld PDA - Technical Specification Table