Palm releases Treo 700p

Palm made the Treo 700p official Monday, releasing its second major update to the Treo lineup this year and its first Palm OS device on a fast cellular network.

As previously reported, Palm unveiled the Treo 700p on Monday, four months after the release of its first Windows smart phone. The 700p can connect to EV-DO (evolution data-optimized) networks, which offer download speeds between 400Kbps and 700Kbps.

Video: Palm Treo 700p with EV-DO
Palm has produced an appealing and promising smart phone. CNET's Bonnie Cha looks at the new Palm Treo 700p.

Carrier availability will be announced at a later date, Palm said in a press release. Verizon Wireless was the exclusive launch partner for Palm at the release of the 700w, the first Windows-based Treo, but both Sprint and Verizon will carry the 700p, Palm said.

The 700p comes with 128MBs of memory, 60MBs of which is available to the user. It also features a Bluetooth chip, which allows users of Bluetooth-equipped notebooks to connect to the Internet through their Treo with networking software included on a Treo for the first time. Before this model, users needed to install the software separately.

Rumors of the 700p had been circulating for a long time, after Palm CEO Ed Colligan reassured Palm OS developers that the company was not planning to abandon the Palm OS after embracing Windows. Palm has been stuck using the same basic version of the Palm OS for two years, as development has stalled on the operating system that introduced many people to mobile computing.