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A month ago, Palm introduced its latest smartphone, the Treo Pro. It started taking pre-orders a couple of weeks later. Today, the PDA pioneer officially started shipping the sleek obsidian-black Treo Pro.

The smartphone will set you back $549. It won't be available for less, in the U.S. at least, as Palm is only offering the Treo Pro unlocked. While that means you can use it with T-Mobile or AT&T or any other GSM carrier of your choice, an operator is offering it directly, so the cost of the smartphone won't be subsidized.

The Treo Pro is a handsome addition to the once heralded Treo line. You've got the usual candy-bar shape, BlackBerry-styled QWERTY thumb-keyboard and hi-res 320 x 320-pixel touch screen.

It runs on the latest edition of Microsoft's mobile-device platform, Windows mobile 6.1 Professional. Enhancements to Windows Mobile include a feature that allows you to perform a Web search directly from the Today screen.

Because the Treo Pro sports a quad-band GSM radio for voice and speedy tri-band UMTS/HSDPA 3G for data access, the new smartphone is a true world phone that can be used in most international markets.

There's also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. Palm's added a convenient button to turn Wi-Fi on and off with this Treo model.

Hardware specs for the 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.5-inch, 4.7-ounce Treo Pro include a 2.0 megapixel camera for picture and video, 128MB of RAM, 256MB of Flash ROM and a microSD card slot for additional storage. Its 1500 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated to last for 5 hours of talk and up to 250 hours stand-by time.

Additional features include a ringer switch to enable you to quickly silence the Treo Pro, a new voicemail indicator, and a screen saver to lets users know at a glance - without turning on the device - what time it is and whether they've missed a call or have a new SMS/MMS message.