The Treo 750's talk time of three hours and 40 minutes was abysmal. We also tested battery life with the Xpress Mail application, used to sync our e-mail and calendar, turned off. Xpress Mail can consume additional battery life depending on delivery settings because it's constantly checking for new mail. The results were still depressing. Some of this is due to Cingular's UMTS network, which uses more power. However, the fact remains that the Treo 750's battery didn't last 24 hours when running Xpress Mail, unless we turned off the phone—and therefore the data connection—each evening. Palm estimates the device's standby time to be about 10 days.

Business users who cannot or aren't willing to charge the Treo 750 every day or so—or at least carry around a spare battery—should think twice before investing in Palm's newest Treo.

The Treo 750's full qwerty keyboard is cramped. Typing long messages or notes using the device's tiny, hard keys can be a chore for users with large fingers.

Scott considered the Treo 750's UI unintuitive. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 representing a UI that's not at all intuitive, he ranked the Treo 750 as a 3. His experience was largely influenced by his familiarity with BlackBerrys; it took him a few days with the Treo to get comfortable with the five-button navigation mechanism. The Windows Mobile Start menu also required adjustment; BlackBerrys are more icon driven, with most programs available within one click from the devices' home screens. Scott found it time consuming and frustrating to find applications on the Treo 750.

In defense of the Treo 750 UI, it is much like any other Windows Mobile-based device or Windows-based PC; users who prefer Windows over other operating systems will appreciate the Treo's UI familiarity.

Though the Treo 750 is at least an ounce lighter than its Treo 650 and 700 predecessors, it is still heavier and thicker than the other phones in our review. These features help to make the device durable, but the phone also feels too big to fit unobtrusively in a pants pocket.

The Treo is streamlined to function with Microsoft Exchange Server. If your organization uses something else, Treo 750 setup can be significantly different. There are a number of ways to link corporate e-mail, calendar and other settings to the device, but each requires additional processes, and some affect device performance. For instance, to use the Good Technology solution to link the device to Lotus Notes, a separate Good server is required, as well as an associated PIN log-in. To use Cingular's Xpress Mail client, users must visit the Cingular site, create an account, download the desktop software, set up the software on the device and complete additional steps before being able to receive messages. The burden of setting up 100 separate Xpress Mail accounts could be enough to make IT staff run cowering away to hide in a closet.

The Treo 750 is by far the most expensive phone we reviewed. In Scott's opinion, the $399 price tag is a bit much—and that's after a rebate and with a new, two-year data plan. Price may mean less to one organization than another, but the Treo 750 is at least $100 more expensive than any other device we reviewed. Deploying only 10 devices would add $1,000 onto the overall project cost.

Though a number of Web forums suggest the Treo 750's camera and expandable memory features can be disabled by tampering with the device, we couldn't find an "official" way for IT administrators to disable these features. (And of course, tampering with the Palm Treo 750 voids its warranty.) If you work for an organization that has banned cameras from its premises, you won't be able to use your phone or bring it into the restricted areas, unless you do so on the sly.

Scott saw no particular business value to consumer features like expandable memory or a media player within a corporate smartphone, except perhaps for executives who might listen to music or watch videos while traveling. He did, however, think his fuel technicians in the field might find the digital camera handy, so he would deploy phones across Direct Energy that have these features—though he has not yet done so. The ability to disable a camera or expandable memory within corporate smartphones would be a benefit, Scott said, but the lack of such safeguards would not keep him from deploying a phone with these features.

We used Cingular's Xpress Mail client to link both the Treo 750 and the Nokia E62 to our corporate network. However, according to the E62's Getting Started Guide, "Xpress Mail is a self service option for accessing your corporate e-mail," and users should check with IT administration to ensure that the company does not prohibit self-service options. We linked to our network without the approval or knowledge of IT staff. (Please don't tell them; it could be embarrassing.) Scott was unaware of the Xpress Mail application until we brought it to his attention, but was quick to note that Xpress Mail would likely be frowned upon from any sort of information security perspective, and that the application "would keep [Direct Energy] from using the device."

How does the Treo measure up to the other phones we reviewed? Read on to find out.

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