Palm Treo 180

Handspring says it will offer a corporate BlackBerry-like (always-on) e-mail solution later this year, but until then, business users will have to make do with POP3 e-mail applications, such as the included JP Mobile One-Touch Mail, which allows you to forward e-mail to the device from existing POP3 accounts. We also had no trouble getting our AOL mail after we installed AOL Mail for Palm OS and were able to send SMS messages to e-mail addresses and other GSM-enabled cell phones in the United States and abroad. Handspring says you can use the Treo in Europe and Asia once you activate international roaming with your carrier.

Positive performance
Overall, as a phone, the Treo 180 (GSM 900/1900) performs well and is surprisingly comfortable to talk on; it feels like using a standard flip phone. We also appreciated the quality of the built-in speakerphone, which can easily be turned on and off by tapping an icon on the screen, and the inclusion of an ear bud-style headset for hands-free conversations. Our only gripes are that the phone could sound a little louder and battery life could be better. In our tests using VoiceStream's network in New York, we managed to reach Handspring's rated talk time of 2.5 hours and 60 hours of standby, but that's fairly mediocre.

In the end, we came away impressed with Handspring's efforts. Though it's still a work in progress, this is a solid and enticing smart phone that should improve when GPRS service, which offers faster data rates (about 28Kbps) and always-on connectivity, becomes more widespread. Handspring has a color version in the works, and we'd also like to see a CDMA model that's compatible with 1xRTT (3G) networks. But at $399 with service activation, the Treo 180 is strongly worth considering.

Editor's note: The Treo 180 will be available for purchase on the Web in February and retail stores in March. Later in the year, Handspring will offer a free downloadable software patch that makes the phone compatible with GPRS networks. At this time, Handspring hasn't announced which service providers will support the Treo 180, but it will do so shortly.