The original monochrome Handspring Treo was a good design, but the addition of a color screen and backlit keyboard make the 270 a more appealing choice.

When Handspring came out with its monochrome Treos earlier this year, the company was already talking about unveiling a color version of its well-received phone/PDA hybrid. Now, Handspring has finally made good on its promise with the release of the Treo 270. While the 270 inherits some of the drawbacks of those earlier models, it's worth spending the extra money for the color screen and the backlit keypad. If the budget is tight, it's expected that the RRP of the Treo 180 models will drop when the 270 officially hits the market.

Same but with color
The first thing to know about the 270 is that it's virtually identical to the Treo 180 except that it has a color screen. Handspring has managed to fit that screen into a case that's the same size--10.6 by 7.11 by 2.08cm--as those of previous Treos, but the 270 weighs 5.6 grams more, for a total of 153 grams.

The screen is 12-bit (4,000 colors) and bright, but it's not nearly as sharp as the high-resolution screens found on Sony's CLIE handhelds. According to Handspring, the screen is transflective, meaning that it is backlit for use indoors but can also reflect ambient light for viewing outdoors. In our tests, however, the screen got washed out to the point of being unreadable in direct sunlight. Still, it's a big improvement over the monochrome screen found on the Treo 180 and doesn't seem to adversely affect battery life. Unlike the 180, the 270 features a backlit keyboard, which should make thumb typing in the dark much easier.

Tap and dial
Flip open the 270's protective cover, and the display turns on, showing the speed-dial menu, which can store up to 50 names. As with all Palm OS-based smart phones, you can dial a person in the phone book by simply tapping their number. But the Treo 270's phone book puts a space between entries, resulting in a look that's not as clean as that of the Palm Address Book. However, it's easy to locate a desired contact: just type the letter of the person's first or last name, and a short list of entries appears. You can also dial numbers manually by tapping them out on a virtual keypad.

The 270 offers the same blend of phone and PDA features as Handspring's monochrome models. It runs on a 33MHz Motorola DragonBall processor and comes with 16MB of memory and Palm OS 3.52, which is nonupgradable. There isn't a Springboard module slot or space for adding additional memory, but most users will find 16MB to be sufficient.

The wireless-data features still aren't as fleshed out or as user-friendly as they should be. You get Handspring's Blazer browser, which allows you to access the Internet, albeit rather sluggishly (between 9.6Kbps and 14.4Kbps on current GSM networks). However, you'll have to use your own service provider to surf the Web. Another caveat: You can't use the Web-clipping applications developed for Palm's wireless handhelds on the Treo.

Improved battery life
Overall, as a phone, the Treo 270 (GSM 900/1900) performs reasonably well and is surprisingly comfortable to use; it feels like a standard flip phone. We also appreciated the quality of the built-in speakerphone, which can easily be turned on and off by tapping an icon on the screen, and we were grateful for the inclusion of an earbud-style headset for hands- free conversations. As with the 180, we thought that the phone could be a bit louder, and callers occassionally had difficulty hearing us, commenting that we sounded far away. But we were more satisfied with the 270's battery life. In our tests in the US, we managed to reach Handspring's rated talk time of 3 hours. Although we fell about 40 hours short of the rated 150 hours of standby, that's still quite acceptable.

The 270 is definitely a nice step forward for Handspring. At AU$1,599 , the 270 is the most appealing wireless Treo to date and worth the extra investment over its monochrome siblings.

Handspring Treo 270
Company: Handspring
Price: AU$1,599
Distributor: Brightpoint Australia
Phone: 02 8977 5000

Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive, a CBS Company. All Rights Reserved.
ZDNET is a registered service mark of CBS Interactive. ZDNET Logo is a service mark of CBS Interactive.