The phone also offers an easy one-touch voicemail management system, by means of which you can set up a speed dial that will allow you to access any compatible voicemail box. In the settings, you can define username and password so you don’t have to go through the hassle every time you access your voicemail.

Messaging is fun. Instead of listing messages sequentially in the inbox, the phone sorts them according to the person you're interacting with, in what the company calls 'chat-style' view. This is brilliant; exactly how I would love my messages to be displayed.

For incoming calls, ringtones have been further segregated to known caller, unknown caller, when on roaming etc. This is painful! Some may find it useful, but I like to keep my ringtones constant.

The Treo 750 comes with an application that allows you to use a foldable Bluetooth keyboard that makes taking notes, replying to mails, writing letters, etc. much easier. It cannot, however, be paired with other phones. This compact keyboard can be yours for Rs 5,500.

The usual assortment of features have been thrown in — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, even a Picsel PDF viewer. I shan't dwell too long on the media aspect. It uses Windows Media Player for music and is just average. Windows Mobile phones have always been very bad music players. Camera is below par. It’s a 1.3MP camera that churns out over-exposed pictures with maximum noise.

The Microsoft Direct Push technology enables you to receive office email, calendar, contacts etc through Exchange Server 2003. The device also supports Xpress Mail and POP/IMAP options.

The battery life is another thing that I think is brilliant. You don't have to worry that your smartphone will conk off before the end of the day. In fact, I tested this phone by charging it for just half an hour every 12 hours and using it to the max, and it still didn't die on me.

Conclusion

The phone is priced at Rs 22,000 and if you can deal with a slow machine, this Palm Treo should be a good buy. Just remember there are other Windows Mobile phones in the market (such as the Asus P535) that even offers Wi-Fi for the same price. To be fair, they wouldn't necessarily offer all the features included in this Treo. Ultimately it's you who must choose one over the other...

Laiq Qureshi