In phone mode, the keypad can be used to search through the Address Book database to pick out phone numbers for quick dialing. This is one of the best features of this device, and nicely demonstrates the kind of tight integration between phone and Palm device that's possible. You can also flip up the keypad, pull up the Palm Address book, shown in Figure B, choose an Address Book entry, and dial a number from a pop-up list.

FIGURE B

When searching for an address, you can flip up the keypad, pull up the Palm Address book, choose an Address Book entry, and dial a number from a pop-up list.

In PalmOS mode, shown in Figure C, the cellular phone keypad flips forward to expose the four core application buttons, the up and down buttons, and the Graffiti writing area. On the pdQ, the application and directional buttons are rubberized just like the cellular phone buttons. While we understand that the designers probably wanted to do this to keep out the elements, it detracts somewhat from the PalmOS experience and doesn't have the same clicky/snappy feeling that I am used to from a Palm device. This is just my personal preference, of course. The target audience for this device may never have used a Palm device before and might feel differently.

FIGURE C

In PalmPilot mode, the cellular phone keypad flips forward to expose the four core application buttons, the up and down buttons, and the Graffiti writing area. Click picture for a larger image.

The screen on the pdQ is somewhat disappointing, as it uses the 4-shade greyscale backlit technology used by the older Palm IIIs and PalmPilots. This is understandable, as the design for the pdQ was finalized well over a year ago, before the Palm IIIx's, Palm V's , Visor's, and TRGpro's superior 16-shade greyscale reverse backlit screens were introduced. The screen area is also somewhat smaller, to accommodate the smartphone form factor.

Personally, I think they could've gotten slightly more screen real estate out of the pdQ by eliminating the sidebar on the right part of the screen area. This bar has silkscreen buttons for contrast, phone power, call log, and HotSync, functions which could've easily been duplicated by using "soft buttons" like the Visor and Palm V use.

One of the other problems with having the screen area on the front of the device where the headset, microphone, and phone buttons are is that when you speak into the phone, the screen has a tendency to build up oils from the user's face and accumulate moisture from breathing into the microphone. I don't really know how this problem can be solved, short of putting the Palm screen on the rear of the device where the battery is, and having the phone part of the device use its own small LCD screen for displaying phone numbers.

It's possible that the current 16-greyscale and the upcoming color Palm screens won't exhibit these kinds of problems on future pdQs and Palm-based phones from other vendors like Nokia and Motorola, but if you're seriously looking to replace your Palm device and cellular phone with a PalmOS-based phone like a pdQ over the next year, you may want to carry a handkerchief as well to wipe off the screen periodically.