It's been eight months since Palm released the mildly updated Sprint Treo 755p. Now Palm and Verizon are selling the same two-year-old phone and even pricing it like a new handset. The 755p has plenty of virtues, which I'll get to in a moment. But look at all of the contemporary features this allegedly new-for-2008 smartphone is missing: multitasking, GPS, mobile TV, stereo Bluetooth for music, a light-sensing display, voice dialing over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi—and the list goes on. If none of these features are particularly important to you, the 755p is a reliable choice, just like all Palm OS–based Treos are. Just make sure you check out all the other shiny smartphones in the Verizon display case before choosing this one.

Despite its aged design, the 755p still looks good. The 2.3-by-4.4-by-0.8-inch (HWD) rubberized body is comfortable to hold in your hand and against your ear. The new Azure Green color flatters the design, though in most indoor lighting it appears grayish. At 5.6 ounces, it could stand to lose about an ounce and a half of dead weight. But like the Treo 680, the 755p is still a bit slimmer than 2006-era Treos and lacks the hard plastic external antenna. It includes a hardware ringer switch and a convenient, automatic keyboard lock—two features that belong on every slab smartphone—and it's simple to use one-handed for basic tasks.

The handset's QWERTY keys are a little cramped compared with those of the Motorola Q9m and the BlackBerry 8830. But I've always liked Treo keyboards, and I found this one just as comfortable as the others. The Treo 755p's standard-issue (for Palm OS) 320-by-320 screen is sharp and bright, and it's easy to navigate the OS with the stylus. In fact, that's an understatement: RIM, Symbian, and Microsoft should all take another look at how well designed Palm OS is, because each one still misses the mark.

Like all Treos, the 755p is a good voice phone. Test calls over Verizon's network were clear, loud, and distinct, with some minor reception issues outside. I landed a particularly windy day for testing and the 755p held up well, although the other party could tell readily that I was outside and heard prominent wind noise. The 755p also sounded bright and punchy in both directions through a Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth headset albeit with some intermittent dropouts in the connection. The speakerphone is tinny but loud enough to use outdoors.

The latest 755p is equipped with a 312-MHz Marvell processor, 128MB of RAM, and 60MB of free memory for user programs—all good enough for fast performance. It runs the now-four-year-old Palm OS 5.4.9 and has all the usual goodies, such as a robust built-in organizer with a calendar, an address book, tasks, and memos. Like all Palm OS Treos, the 755p is a good choice for Mac as well as Windows-based PC users thanks to the Palm Desktop native OS X and Windows versions.

For e-mail, the 755p hooks into POP and IMAP e-mail accounts using VersaMail, which needs an update because it still can't display HTML messages or connect to some common Web-based e-mail services. At least it connects to Exchange for Direct Push e-mail. For document editing, Palm builds in DataViz Documents To Go version 8, a killer office suite. But it's two ticks below the current release and lacks key features such as Office 2007 compatibility and support for tracked changes in Word.

Continuing the retro theme, the 755p comes with Palm's Blazer Web browser, which renders basic WAP pages fine but ruins just about everything else. Palm also packs in Google Maps for Mobile. Thanks to the 755p's high-resolution touch screen, this is the best implementation available short of the iPhone's—but without built-in GPS it's of limited use. The 755p also works as a tethered modem for your laptop. Here in New York City, during several rounds of testing, I saw EV-DO data speeds that fluctuated from 270 to 560 kilobits per second, which is on the low end of acceptable.

The 755p doesn't allow for voice dialing or stereo music over Bluetooth—two more knocks against it. Its camera is old news, too, with a 1.3-megapixel sensor and no autofocus or LED flash. The handset took middling, pixelated photos and recorded shaky video at 352-by-288-pixel resolution. The built-in Pocket Tunes plays MP3 files; Palm thoughtfully includes in the box a pair of stereo earbuds with a built-in mic, which is helpful since all Palm Treo connectors are proprietary. The miniSD slot read and wrote files to a Kingston 4GB miniSDHC card without any problems.

Endurance-wise, my 755p evaluation unit lasted 5 hours 4 minutes on a talk-time rundown test—typical for an EV-DO phone. Even in this situation, Palm OS's usability shines, with several staged "battery low" warnings and a neat, timed shutdown at the very end that lets you finish your call.

If the Treo 755p was being sold at a low price, its assorted omissions and flaws would be easier to forgive. In fact, Palm and Sprint took exactly that path with the $99 Centro. But Verizon is selling the Treo 755p at $299 (with contract and online discount), which puts it into the loftier territory of top-notch BlackBerry and Windows Mobile smartphones.

Writing this review makes me sad because Palm is at a crossroads. There's no word yet on a slimmer, lighter, high-end Treo replacement. Worse, the company has delayed its much-anticipated Linux-based version of Palm OS yet again, pushing its release date out into 2009 and once again leaving the ancient Garnet kernel to soldier on once more. The question is, will the company survive until 2009? This Treo 755p is unlikely to help. It's not even old wine in a new bottle—it's old wine in an old bottle.

I suppose it's a useful upgrade for older Treo owners, particularly if they don't want to switch operating systems or purge a heavy investment in third-party apps. Otherwise, Verizon customers not particularly committed to Palm OS should take a long, hard look at the BlackBerry 8830, the Verizon XV6800, and some of the newer dual-keyboard slider models like the Samsung SCH-i760 before choosing this museum piece. I'm taking the 755p's rating down a couple of ticks compared with the identical Sprint version. Even though it's the same phone (and even though I'll always have a soft spot for Palm OS), way too much time has passed without significant updates.

Compare the Palm Treo 755p (Verizon) with several other Cell Phone side by side.

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