Product Reviews

Once a pioneer of handwriting recognition, Palm seems to be steering away from the scribble method of text entry. Its previous smartphone, the 750v, had a built-in qwerty keyboard as well as a touchscreen and stylus; the new 500v has a keyboard and no stylus.

The 500v is a Windows Mobile smartphone, but it's aimed more towards consumers than business types. The first clue to its intended market is in the styling. The 500v is all trendy white plastic, rounded edges and big friendly buttons. The second is the thorough reworking of the Windows Mobile 6 operating system to appear far friendlier. Instead of relying on submenus with long text lists, the 500v's categories are arranged in tabs like a web

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browser. As you switch to each tab you're presented with a list of icons for relevant programs and options, which makes it easy to scroll through and keeps each list manageable.

The phone is easy to set up for messaging. If you have an email account with a provider such as Google Mail, Yahoo or Hotmail, the 500v can automatically download the necessary settings. Windows Live Messenger is also installed, so you can chat to other users for a fraction of the cost of texting. The keyboard is designed to be used with your thumbs, and while the keys are small enough that you'll make the occasional typo, it's still far quicker than typing with a number pad.

Pocket Internet Explorer isn't the best mobile browser, but it can display most web pages and makes a fair job of reformatting pages to fit the screen. One of the most useful preinstalled programs is Google Maps. This streams street-level map data over the phone's 3G data connection, so you'll never get lost. The 500v has 3G data but no WiFi networking, so you should consider paying extra for an unlimited data contract if you plan to send lots of emails or download maps regularly.

The Treo 500v is a good-looking and easy to use smartphone which is great for messaging. Free on a cheap contract, it's very good value.