After leaking a presentation of its newest smartphone last week, Palm Inc finally unveiled Treo Pro, the handset described by the company as “the best looking Palm ever.” Palm developed the Treo Pro in order to keep the pace with rival producers such as Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

The Treo 850 comes with major design modifications. It’s slimmer than its forerunner and has a wider screen. Palm officially unveiled the Treo Pro on Wednesday and posted a written announcement for the new smartphone. The announcement remained on the company’s Web site for several hours.

According to information provided by Palm on its Web site, the Treo Pro is 4.4 inches high by 2.3 inches wide by 0.5 inch deep and has 4.7 ounces. It features a 320x320-pixel resolution touch screen and the full QWERTY keyboard resembles the Palm Centrino, while the navigation keypad is new.

Destined for business users, the Treo Pro runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and also has the Microsoft Office Mobile Suite and Direct Push Technology for real-time e-mail delivery. It also provides its users with high-speed UMTS/HSDPA support, Wi-Fi Internet access, Bluetooth, an international power charger, a 3.55mm stereo headset, and GPS. It is also equipped with the largest battery used by Palm.

"It's a significant step for us," said Brodie Keast, senior vice president of marketing for Palm, about the company’s new smartphone.

"You can expect every product to be an improvement over the last one."

But all those cool features won’t necessarily come cheap. According to information posted on the producer’s Web site, the Treo Pro will be unlocked, unsubsidized and will be sold through Palm stores and other sellers for a price of about $549.

The unlocked Treo Pro will hit the U.S. market this autumn, while in Europe and Australia it will be released in September through carriers such as Vodafone, O2 and Telstra respectively. With a Vodafone contract, Palm’s latest smartphone will be available for 0 to 399 euros depending on the pricing options.