Yes, I know they have moved on, but it's hard to review a Palm without acknowledging its legacy in making PDAs so popular. In the late 1990s, the launch of every Palm device was followed as closely as an iPhone launch today. Now, Palm makes little impact with each new device. Part of the reason is that it has lost the oomph of its original Palm OS and had to go with the tide and use Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS in its handhelds in recent years. This means that all new devices, including this Treo Pro, are made with many of the cookie-cutter features found in similar Windows Mobile devices. Even worse, while HTC and Samsung have snazzier interfaces to run on top of Microsoft's software, Palm has done little in that department.

When you fire up the Treo Pro, you get what a business executive on the move needs - e-mail, Google search and weather. And, yes, Palm does offer a nice out-of-box experience, with components like power adapters nicely packed like Apple's gizmos. However, it's touch and feel don't give you the impression that it is breaking any new ground. The Qwerty keyboard, reminiscent of the popular Treos in the past, is there; as is the sloped corners that are a design feature of older iterations in the family. While these may attract previous Treo users to upgrade, there are features that fall short in the competitive market now. You'll spot the weakness in the screen instantly. The 320x320 pixels screen is a pale shadow of the best out there, like the HTC Touch Diamond's ultra-sharp 640x480 pixels display. Palm will argue, who do you need such a sharp screen to read your mail? The retort: Why settle for less?

Where the Touch Diamond and Samsung's Omnia have made good use of their touch interface with an Opera browser that lets you zoom in and out of a webpage a la the iPhone, Palm is relying on Microsoft's rather clumsy Internet Explorer Mobile browser. The biggest plus point of Palm is its ease of use. After all these years, you're glad it's still trying to make things simple. A handy Wi-Fi button, for example, quickly fires up or shuts down a wireless connection, instead of having you tap on several menus. The Treo Pro packs plenty of features in its 133g frame. First, you get both a touchscreen and Qwerty input. There is a 2-megapixel camera, built-in GPS and a 3.5mm stereo audio jack. If it had been launched six months earlier, the Treo Pro might have been a better contender for a full-featured phone. Coming after more powerful and eye-catching rivals that have grabbed the headlines, it has its work cut out for it. Unlike when Palm was king, this Treo Pro will have to slug it out with the likes of the Blackberry Bold, HTC Diamond and Samsung Omnia.