Can't remember where I put everything."
Sound familiar? Perhaps too familiar? Maybe your next cell phone conversation should be, "I'd like to look at your smart phones," spoken over a display case.
In the first part of this article, we looked at feature phones, which have capabilities beyond calling, letting you do instant messaging or take photos, for example. Smart phones push that to the next level. By incorporating more powerful processors and more flexible operating systems, they gain a degree of PC-like expandability that lets many of them support hundreds of third-party apps—and makes them real threats to PDAs.
Four of the major . service providers—Cingular (which now owns AT&T Wireless), Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon—offer smart phones. Nextel plans to come out with one in the future. We've combed through our vast library of smart-phone evaluations and pulled together the reviews of the best devices supported by each carrier.
If Cingular sends your dulcet tones wafting through the air, consider the Nokia 7610 or the Sendo X. In our October, 2004 roundup of smart phones, we gave the stylish 7610, which runs the powerful Symbian OS, a rating of on a 5-point scale, partly for its fine camera, the only 1 megapixel in the group. The Sendo X takes full advantage of Symbian's power, which propelled it to a 4-star rating in the same review. If running applications is a major concern—and especially if you need to browse the Web—look no further.
For Sprint callers, there's the 4-star Sprint PCS Vision PPC-6601, a large, slab-type device—really more PDA than phone—running Windows Mobile 2003. A cleverly designed, roomy keyboard that slides down makes typing as easy as it can be on a PDA, and pushed along by a 400-MHz Intel CPU, applications feel snappy.
T-Mobile subscribers have the widest selection. In addition to the Nokia 7610 and Sendo X offered by Cingular, the company also offers the BlackBerry 7100t, which has a far more phone-like design than its kin. In our smart phone roundup, this 4-star contender won an Editors' Choice—and for good reason: It has excellent e-mail compatibility (as you'd expect), a price that's compatible with your wallet, and a well-designed keyboard that implements predictive text so well, typing is breeze
Good things, they say, come to those who wait. The good news for Verizon customers is that the wait won't be too long. Beginning January 16, they'll have access to the Audiovox XV-6600, essentially the same device as the Sprint PPC-6601. There's one major difference, though: the XV-6600 is the first handheld to take advantage of Verizon's wireless broadband network, currently available in a number of cities, with more coming. With the kind of throughput we got in our testing—from 520 to 670 Kbps—you don't wait for Web pages to download.
There may be a million stories in the tech city, but there don't have to be that many gadgets in your pockets. Pull down your fedora, grab your trench coat, and investigate these reviews.
