Verizon announces Treo 755p

THE GOOD NEWS: Verizon catches up to Sprint with a Palm Treo 755p offering.

The Bad News: Even after an instant online rebate for signing the usual two-year Verizon Wireless contract, the 755p will set you back $400 (or $350 after a mail-in rebate).

On Sprint's site, however, they say you get a 755p for $250 if you sign their two-year agreement - no mail-in rebate required. (Sprint's smaller Palm Centro, with fewer features and all the rebates, comes to $100 - it definitely feels less sturdy than any of the Treos.)

Palm's Press Kit sent along some obviously retouched “photos”. This one gives you a nice look at the Verizon logo on upper right.

Verizon offers only a single colour scheme (no purple ones? - Ed)

The Palm Treo 755p has Qualcomm's EVDO Rev 1. (EVDO, the 3G technology that both Sprint and Verizon use, moves data at 400-700 kilobits per second for their North American mobile networks.) Sadly, still no WiFi or WiMAX. Treo 755p still uses the Palm OS, however, according to crystal ball gazers a Linux version is supposedly planned for 2009.

The 755p has a 1.3 mexapixel camera and voice dialing for an extra monthly charge from Verizon. You can buy that software for a one-time fee from the folks at Voice Dial It.

The 755p's miniSD card can handle 4GB of storage. Verizon's 755p appears to be rather bare-bones as far as carrier-provided software bundles, with only Verizon’s VZE E-mail in ROM. We have been using Chatteremail for over three years on our Treo 650. Yesterday there was an update to Chatteremail.

Having been on Palm's Treo 650 since it was announced. The ultimate question is will we spend $350 US quid to have only faster downloads and a smaller battery? Then there are all the extras we have purchased: like chargers, cables, keyboard, extra batteries, and, all those extra 2GB SD cards.

The answer for us is: not now. Our trusty Treo 650 gets Mad Mike's emails fast enough whereever Verizon has coverage. µ