In the recent deluge of PDA announcements, Palm manufacturers have been relatively silent. Well, Handspring's new Treo family of communicators is anything but silent. Why? Because not only are they PDAs, but they're mobile phones as well. So now you don't have to worry about sticking a pesky add-on in the Springboard module slot to be able to start chatting on the phone.

The Treo 180 will be the first device released from this new family, sporting a full-fledged QWERTY keyboard in addition to the touch screen interface and Jog Rocker dial. Now, for you Graffiti addicts, there is the 180g version, which is minus the keyboard. However, keyboard or not, it won't add any more space to the 16 shade monochromatic display. The follow-up version of the Treo, the 270, will have a full color display.

Running on a 33 MHz Motorola Dragonball VZ processor, the Treo 180 uses the Palm OS 3.5.2H. All of the normal software goodies, plus some others, are there as well: Phone Book, Instant Lookup, Date Book Plus, SMS Messenger, Blazer Web browser, To Do List, Memo Pad, Advanced Calculator, HotSync Manager, and CityTime World Clock. The Treo is equipped with 16 MB of memory.

Battery life comes not from AA batteries in the Treo, but rather a rechargeable Lithium-Ion internal battery, supporting more than 2.5 hours of talk time or 60 hours of standby. The 4.3 x 2.7 x 0.7 inch steel blue frame weighs 5.4 oz, which is not bad for an all-in-one device.

For Web access, the Blazer browser is standard, as is support for HTML, WAP, cHTML, xHTML, cookies, and HTTP proxy servers. If security is your main concern for wireless browsing, the 128-bit SSL should help some. The Treo 180 works on a dual mode 900/1900 GSM network, with the ability to upgrade to a GPRS network.

Pricing and Availability

The Handspring Treo 180 is available now for an estimated $399 with service activation, and $549 without.

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