5. Palm Treo 700P: A PDA Phone With Style, Grace and The Palm OS

Reviewer: Barry Gerber

Palm's Treo 700P PDA phone answers the prayers of Palm OS loyalists.

When Palm announced its Treo 700W PDA phone, based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, many of the company's biggest boosters feared that they were witnessing the end of Palm's own operating system, Palm OS. Though Palm argued to the contrary, diehards continued to fear the worst.

With the recent Treo 700P, for "Palm OS," Palm has fulfilled its promise. The 700P has all the great hardware features of the 700W and a few more, and a very nice implementation of Palm's operating system, which many independent observers feel is superior to Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS.

Like the Treo 700W, the 700P is a real PDA. Unlike many cell phones with numeric keypads and tiny display screens, the 700P has a nice size QWERTY keyboard and a large easy to read screen. Dad shouldn't have any trouble quickly thumb-typing email or instant messages or entering appointments and contacts into the Palm OS standard applications. And, you won't see him squinting to make out the text and graphics on the 700P's display.

Both the 700P and the 700W are currently only available from Verizon in the USA. If you buy it with a two year service contract, the Treo 700P will cost you and or dad $399 plus monthly charges.

Is the 700P too rich for your blood? Then consider Palm's excellent and reasonably priced TX PDA with built-in WiFi. We reviewed it last year and it's still available. Check out our review and prices here.