Take a quick glance at Hewlett-Packard Co.'s new smart phone -- the iPaq hw6515 -- and you might think you've seen it before.
With its miniature qwerty keyboard, touch screen and five-way navigation button on the front, the iPaq -- available starting this week -- looks a lot like Palm Inc.'s popular Treo 650.
In addition to their similar designs, each can be used -- with varying degrees of success -- as a phone, address book, appointment calendar, e-mailer, Web surfer, camera and video player.
Of the two, the iPaq has a bigger screen and it also sports a feature lacking in the Treo -- an on-board GPS function.
But it's not necessarily better. After testing the iPaq for several days, I prefer the Treo, mostly because of its superior keyboard and overall ergonomics. And because it just looks cooler. (OK, so I'm shallow.)
Here's how the two competitors stack up:
Price: The iPaq costs about $450 if bought with a two-year cellphone service contract. For its debut, it will be offered only by Cingular Wireless.
The Treo costs $300 to $450, with a contract, depending on discount programs and which of the several cell providers you get it from.
Operating system: The iPaq uses Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile software for several functions including its address book and calendar.
The Treo currently comes with the Palm operating system, which is especially favored by Macintosh fans because it can communicate with their computers as easily as it does with Windows PCs. And early next year, the Treo also will be available in a Windows Mobile version.
Also coming for the Treo in 2006: the option of adding Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry service that's all the rage. It features push technology that lets you know whenever an e-mail is received. So far, Palm says this option will be available only on the Treo models that use the Palm operating system.
Internet: On both phones, Internet access is done through cell networks, which require data plans from cell providers. Neither phone is equipped for Wi-Fi.
You can configure either phone to get your home or office e-mail, but don't be surprised if you need some help from a tech support person to get that function going. And keep in mind that on the small screen of a smart phone, sending and receiving mail via a website (such as Yahoo or your company's site) is difficult at best.
