Essentially the Treo 500v is based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Standard OS, rather than the older Treo's Palm based OS. And has lost a fair amount of weight and bulk in the process.

Box Content

We are not sure what came with the box, as we were just sent the handset when we reviewed the product. But expect to find a manual, USB cable and it currently seems that Vodaphone are supplying a free car kit with their business tariffs - worth £50.

Specs

• Platform Windows Mobile 6 Standard
• Display: 2.4" 320x240-pixel Transflective colour screen
• CPU: Intel Marvel Bulverde C5 416 MHz (PXA 270)
• Radio GSM/GPRS/UMTS radio GSM bands: 900/1800/1900 UMTS bands: 2100
• Bluetooth: Yes Ver 2.0
• Memory 256MB memory (150MB available user storage)
• Camera 2.0 megapixels with 2x digital zoom and video capture support
• Battery Removable 1200mAh, 10 days standby, and up to 4.5 hours of talk time
• Expansion MicroSD card
• Dimensions 110mm (H) x 16.5mm (D) x 61.5mm (W)
• Weight: 120 grams
• System Requirements Windows XP, Vista

Design/Software

Palm launched the Treo 500v exclusively on Vodaphone, but as mentioned earlier you can start to get the 500 on its own shortly.

Compared to the original Palm design, which was a bit on the chunky side, the 500v is slim-line and can be easily held for one-handed typing due to its light 120g weight.

There is still a 2.4” screen at the top of the Palm, which was vibrant thanks to its 320 x 240 resolution and its transflective coating was useful for viewing outdoors in bright conditions.

Underneath the screen you will find a Qwerty keyboard. Palm have spaced out the keys as much as possible but they are still a touch squashed together for our liking. Also they were small and a little hard to press for longer periods of typing, but its something you could get used to with practice.

Above the keyboard you have a joypad, which was not that responsive and its build quality could be better.

Unlike the previous Treo devices such as the 680, 700p, the 500v does not feature a touch sensitive screen, but in fairness Palm have introduced a customised menu system to compensate for this.

The menu options, which consist of standard Windows Mobile software, including PIM applications (contact, notes, calendar), Mobile office viewers (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), Windows Live components (Live Search, messenger), all have been grouped into various categories for fast access and it certainly helps when choosing the program you want to use.

Vodaphone have even supplied a business email service (for an additional cost) which is an alternative piece of software to Microsoft’s Push email support via an Exchange server. Of course you can still use the standard Outlook program to pull down pop3 emails.

Connectivity

A bit hit and miss on the connectivity front, this time you get 3G support but it’s only the standard UMTS and you won't find any hi-speed HSDPA here.

Though another feature missing is the front camera - for making 3G video calls - and then there is lack of a Wi-Fi option to, which would have been ideal for linking to Wi-Fi hotspots to gain faster access to websites.

For any form of wireless connection you will have to turn to the Bluetooth 2.0 option, which in fairness does support EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) for 3.0mbps connection speeds.

Performance

Out of the 256MB of memory you do get a respectable amount free storage space to play with - at least 150mb. So adding your own documents or data is not going to cause a problem. But for serious use, adding a memory card via the microSD expansion slot is a must.

Generally the device had no problems playing back videos, opening documents or navigating between windows, primarily thanks to its Intel Marvel Bulverde C5 416 MHz CPU.

Its 2MP camera was average, though it could still take reasonable quality images, but you won't find a flash or macro option, so its appeal will be limited.

During our test calls we did pick up a touch of interference (Tri-band support), but generally this seemed to clear up pretty quickly.

As for battery performance the 1200mAh battery was a massive improvement over its predecessors, so you won’t need to charge the Palm up every day, but as usual the 3G option does take a larger hit on the battery life when used frequently. It has a claimed battery life of 10 days standby, and up to 4.5 hours of talk time.