Palm Treo Pro officially announced, will come to U.S. as unlocked model only

One interesting aspect about the Treo Pro is that it will be available in the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific in an unlocked version and not associated with any carrier. There will be carrier versions (Vodafone and O2) in Europe and in Australia. Palm has always had unlocked version in the U.S., but they always came out after the carrier models so this in a slightly different strategy that I plan to ask about in my conference call with Palm later today. The unlocked price in the U.S. will be US$549 (standard unlocked price for Palm) so there won't be any cheap deals with your carrier. 3G support will only work with AT&T, but you can use it with T-Mobile and their EDGE connection.

Specifications of the Palm Treo Pro include Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional running with a Qualcomm 400MHz processor, 256MB ROM (100MB available) and 128MB RAM, 2 megapixel camera, 1500 mAh battery, microSD card slot, 3.5mm headset jack, integrated GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, quad-band GSM and tri-band UMTS, and a 320x320 pixel touchscreen. It has every radio you need and loads of onboard memory to get the job done.

I am VERY interested in this device and can't wait to get my hands on one because I want to see how it feels in your hand. Palm does a fantastic job optimizing the Windows Mobile experience and this looks like a device that just about has it all. I would have like to have seen a 3.2 megapixel or higher resolution camera though and think Palm needs to upgrade from their standard 2 megapixel model soon.

A couple of Palm customizations I see in the product pages is the voicemail light where the "a" in palm on the center directional pad lights up when you have a voicemail and the one touch WiFi button on the right side, similar to the WiFi switch on the 800w. The famous Palm ringer switch is here too and that is something I find very handy compared to menu scrolling.