Both are being sold unlocked, meaning that at launch you won't get them at a carrier's site; rather, you can use them on any GSM carrier worldwide simply by inserting that carrier's SIM card. This flexibility is great for frequent travelers--you're not tied to a carrier or a long-term plan, and you can pop in an overseas carrier's SIM card to keep costs down (if you don't mind changing your phone number). But it also means you don't get the type of carrier subsidy that has made the iPhone 3G so affordable. The Palm Treo Pro debuts at $549, and HP's iPaq 910c Business Messenger costs $499.

Two Phones, Many Similarities

Both of these glossy black, candy-bar handsets sport hardware QWERTY keyboards. Both support just about all of the wireless connectivity a person could currently ask for: Wi-Fi, GPS, quad-band (world) voice, and high-speed HSDPA/UMTS data networks (in the United States, AT&T Wireless is the only nationwide carrier to support this GSM-family high-speed technology).

Viewed side-by-side, the Palm is clearly the smaller and lighter of the two: The manufacturer's specs peg it at 2.4 inches by 4.5 inches by 0.5 inch and 4.7 ounces compared to the iPaq's 2.5 inches by 4.5 inches by 0.6 inch and 5.4 ounces. Neither has an exceptionally generous amount of built-in storage: Both provide 128MB of RAM for running apps and 256MB of flash ROM, most of which will be occupied by operating-system and application files.

Both phones also provide a micro-SD Card slot that lets users add the storage room for images, music, documents, applications, and so on; here, however, Palm outclasses HP by supporting cards with up to 32GB of capacity, while HP supports up to 4GB. Both phones also come with USB syncing cables; Palm's slides into an AC adapter for recharging, while HP's adapter has its own cable.

Each of the phones has a touch screen--unlike RIM's BlackBerrys, which have yet to incorporate such a feature. The Palm's touch screen is a transflective 320-by-320-pixel display, while the HP's is a transmissive 320-by-240-pixel display--but both look crisp and bright. Conveniently, each phone offers multiple navigation options, and each includes a stylus (stored within the unit) and a central navigation touchpad. HP in particular makes single-handed operation exceptionally easy by providing a scroll wheel and an OK button on the right side of the iPaq. Palm, meanwhile, has a handy dedicated button on the right side for turning Wi-Fi off and on.