I can’t help but think that Joan of Arc would be pretty damn unimpressed with modern electronics. Stick with me now, there’s a point coming eventually. Palm’s Treo series have, like the iPod, like perhaps the venerable PlayStation controller, ascended to the state of design icon for a stratum of generations caught in the bloom of portable electronics and information more instant than ever before. And it didn’t take talking bells or a lifetime of purgatory and distrust to achieve it, either; sickeningly short their fame has flourished. So why the Treo and not the perennial favourite the Blackberry? Well, I’d wager that Joan would think its steadfast dedication – to the point of stubbornness – to big corporate business a snub of sorts to the casual cell-loving business person. And so chubby chassis’d and stub aerial’d the Treo cements its place, grinning curve of its thumb-board the only hint of smugness.

More personally, each is interesting to me because I’ve never owned them. I’m yet to find the mp3 player that uncontrollably spills my wallet into someone’s cash register, my skills (and attention span) at gaming amount to a few rounds of Minesweeper and the odd Sudoku, and while the Treo was vaguely attractive its aerial spoilt things and a quick thumbing of the keypad on a store demo unit made me doubt just how useable I’d find it.

Whether that makes me the ideal person to test the new Treo 750v, currently available in the UK from operator Vodafone, or the most unsuitable person I shall leave up to the whims of fanboys and review addicts. There are numerous in-depth reviews of the Windows Mobile 5.0 OS that I don’t intend to rival; instead, this is my Coming of Age in a world of push email and unlimited high-speed cellular data.

Fatter than a Blackjack or Q, less powerful than the rebranded convertible mini-tablets from HTC, you could be forgiven for wondering why the Treo’s industrial design is so praised. At 154 grams it’s comfortably light, and after a few minutes that stout body starts to feel pleasantly pebble-like in the hand, undoubtedly assisted by the soft-touch coating applied to the plastic.