Windows Phone Thoughts: Bell Palm Treo Pro Unboxing and First Impressions

This is an unboxing and first impressions video of the Bell Palm Treo Pro. This Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional touch-screen phone is a CDMA phone offered by Bell Canada. The 2.5 inch screen is 320 x 320 in resolution, and the device has a full QWERTY keyboard. It has built-in 802.11 WiFi, a 2 megapixel camera, GPS, Bluetooth, and a microSD card slot. No, it's not a new device, but Microsoft Canada contacted me and asked if I'd like to look at one, and I said yes.

I had a bit of mud on my face with this video because the completely useless "spec" sheet that Bell Canada has on their site lacked any real detail, so I didn't realize the sync/charge port I was looking at was really a microUSB port - I've never had a device that uses that type of connector. Palm also did some voodoo with their USB wall charger - it outputs at 1 amp, but the Palm sync/charge cable connected to my Zune charger (which outputs at 1.5 amps) wouldn't pull a charge from it. So between the cable and the charger, the whole thing might as well be proprietary...the net effect is the same.

As for the device itself, I haven't used it much yet - I have to admit that after using Windows Mobile 6.1 standard devices for so long with the nice sliding panels interface, or HTC devices with TouchFlo 3D, going back to a stock Windows Mobile interface is kind of difficult. To paraphase Dr. Zira from Planet of the Apes, "It's just so damn ugly!". I might have to slap on a better user interface [Affiliate] before I start using it.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He wonders when he'll get to see a Windows Mobile 6.5 device in person.

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