Best PDAs

The bottom line: The addition of Wi-Fi makes the RIM BlackBerry 8820 an even more powerful communication device for business users, taking it beyond just e-mail and phone calls.

The 320-by-240 display is gorgeous, and navigating the device via the small--but very usable--QWERTY keyboard and BlackBerry Pearl -like trackball is quite comfortable. The full QWERTY keyboard is easy to type on, and the 320-by-240-pixel display is big and bright. Excellent e-mail handling. Call quality was quite good, though, and the included speakerphone worked well. No camera. *

The BlackBerry 8820 on T-Mobile gets it right when it comes to Wi-Fi, and we definitely like the HotSpot @Home service. We'd like to see plenty more improvements to the aging BlackBerry UI, including a nicer looking calendar and more productivity apps, but we think some business customers will find the UMA capabilities useful, and perhaps even cost-cutting. We could lament the lack of good multimedia options, but there is always the BlackBerry Curve and the Pearl for that. The 8820 might be t...

Solid Phone and Battery Life Call quality was good on our tests. BlackBerry 8820 Verdict In general, we like the T-Mobile BlackBerry 8820 because of its HotSpot @Home support and comfortable keyboard, and we appreciated the accuracy of BlackBerry maps using the phone’s built-in GPS. Simple Wi-Fi Setup RIM did a nice job integrating 802.11a/b/g without making it complicated. The included 2.5mm headset is plastic and uncomfortable. Videos looked good, and you can play them in full-screen mode,... *

The styling of the BlackBerry 8820 is particularly attractive. The BlackBerry 8820's orb glows white whenever the backlit screen is active and, when depressed, offers an intuitive way of scrolling in all directions around the screen. The Wi-Fi setup was incredibly easy. *

In our tests we were able to find wireless networks easily through the setup tool, connect to them and then surf the Internet quickly and easily. *

The phone sports a 2.4 inch display capable of displaying 320X240 pixels with 65,000 colours. The display is able to adjust automatically its brightness levels depending upon the ambient light conditions existing in the area. The player is able to display track information, such as title, artist and album art. The media player onboard is able to play MP3s and various music formats with ease. The battery on the phone is able to last up to 5 hours of talk time and up to 22 days of standby time. *

The bottom line:
Though it's not a major overhaul of the smart phone, the Palm Treo 755p offers a nice collection of enhancements and solid performance to make it an attractive upgrade.

Test calls over Verizon's network were clear, loud, and distinct, with some minor reception issues outside. *

My 755 Treo is awesome. Core Functions Palm has always been good at developing smartphones that are easy to make calls with, and the Treo 755p is no exception. The build quality is excellent, the soft-touch paint finish is very good, and the QWERTY keyboard is among the best on the market. *

Letters and symbols are masked in white against the deep burgundy are easy to see and the keyboard's backlight is blindingly strong when turned to the max. Buffering speed is average on all clips, but none of the clips have audio in sync with the video. Location search is extremely fast by mobile phone standards and turn by turn directions were accurate in our tests. The sound quality is good via the loudspeaker and the volume is very high. The voice quality was good on both incoming and out... *

Iwouldn.t recommend Palm Treo 700p owners drop their devices and run out to buy this phone, unless you have kind of budget, but I would highly recommend this phone to anyone who has considered buying a Palm OS phone. An underrated OS that remains simple and straightforwared, Palm didn't have to improve much to stay ahead of Windows Mobile, as WM6 is still playing catch-up to many features the Palm has had for months. Still, heavy competition looms, and we wonder if the lack of media features ...

Evolving the Treo product line to keep mobile professionals connected, productive and entertained, Palm, Inc. introduced the Palm Treo 755p smart device, a new Palm OS Treo for Sprint. The CDMA Treo 755p is the first Treo device to offer built-in Microsoft Direct Push Technology email support; Google Maps for mobile; and the latest Treo design, with integrated antenna, slimmer form factor and mini-SD slot. Sprint is the first carrier selling the next-generation Treo 755p, which is available f...

The bottom line:
The North American Edition of the Nokia N95 brings some notable additions, including 3G support and better performance, to make this powerful smart phone even better. However, it'll still leave a deep gouge in your wallet.

Sure, the N95 is a perfectly fine phone, but that's not why it's so expensive. For such a groundbreaking device, the N95's looks, at first glance, are that of an ordinary Nokia slider phone. Voice quality was good through both an HSDPA-capable AT&T SIM card and a T-Mobile SIM. The quad-band N95 gets very good reception on both Cingular's and T-Mobile's networks. *

Nokia's N95, the subject of this review, takes the capabilities of a mobile phone to a new level. The N95 has a beautiful physical design that is rock solid in construction. The music player application is very fully featured and is compatible with most major music file formats. The keys are very stiff and located even lower on the slider than on the N80, which makes them a bit of a tough reach for somebody with large hands. The version of the Nokia S60 user interface on the N95 is very matu... *

A quick glance at the specifications section at the end of this review shows that this is a world-class phone. The N95 has this really cool feature where if you slide the display to the top, you get the number pad and can treat it like a normal phone. As a phone the N95 is just solid. The arrangement of the buttons are fine for all except the most demanding of tasks (games, and sometimes web browsing). Web sites rendered just fine unless I was using GPRS (for some reason using AT&T GPRS sent... *

Versatile, easy-slider design. Integrated 5 megapixel camera. The phone's 2.6-inch, 240-by-320-pixel (QVGA), 16-million color display can be oriented vertically or horizontally (more on that later), and displays sharp text and bright, colorful images. *

The primary 5 megapixel camera can shoot at up to 2582×1944 and record 30fps video at up to 640×480. It has a rubbery feel and really feels great in your hand. The video works great too and is just as easy to shoot video. *

Call recipients said our voices sounded clear and loud. This is true voice recognition and you won't record voice tags-- nice. Each row of keys has a pronounced soft ridge running horizontally, center raised markers on the 5 key and a raised line at the edges of the number pad all of which make for a good "dial by feel" experience. The number keys are easy to press and make for easy text input. This is one of the brightest and sharpest displays on a phone. *

The bottom line: The HTC Vox S710 is an outstanding smart phone that brings a solid set of features and good performance into one sleek device; only the inclusion of 3G support could make this smart phone better.

It's a bit tough to slide the card in, and it goes in upside down for some reason, but at least it's not under the battery. Battery life was great for such a small smartphone: 10 hours 15 minutes of talk time. *

It was even easy to see in sunlight, something that can't be said about most screens. *

The phone is very attractive looking and feels solid in part thanks to its hefty 4.93 ounce weight. Windows Mobile 6 itself brings improvements that are worthwhile, though some of them require Exchange Server, so we're not saying you need rush out and buy this phone just to get the new OS. In short the device felt more like a UMTS 3G phone, which is to say not bad at all. The keyboard slides out easily with spring assist and stays open, however when closed there is some slight movement that'... *

The HTC Vox S710 is an outstanding smart phone that brings a solid set of features and good performance into one sleek device; only the inclusion of 3G support could make this smart phone better.

A lack of 3G is the only major flaw in an otherwise excellent handset

Its flashy looks, long list of features and great performance mean it deserves a place in your pocket.

The bottom line:
The Cingular 3125 changes the look of smart phones with its sleek, flip phone design, and while some minor quirks and performance issues exist, it's still a solid Windows Mobile device.

The internal display is a 2.2 inch QVGA screen, the highest resolution you can get on a Windows Smartphone. There is literally no way to control how bright the screen is. For what it's worth, the camera application is not bad, with a relatively straightforward interface and a minimum of clicking required to take multiple pictures. *

The Cingular 3125 proves that you can have your sexy, slim flip phone and get it with brains too. Data speeds are good and we got an average of 170k on Cingular's data network (with and without their proxy server, for some reason it made less difference on this phone than on some others). With the phone closed, there's the slightest gap between the display and keypad which prevents marring of the display. Fit and finish are excellent and the flat brushed metal keypad (think RAZR again and M... *

Overall, the Cingular 3125 makes for a powerful business sidekick given that it's a relatively compact clamshell. Armed with Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition, the 3125 packs in push e-mail capabilities, an Office document viewer (no editing, but this is a flip-phone after all), robust contact and calendar management, and surprisingly impressive multimedia capabilities. The 3125's design is certainly unique, but never feels cheap or simply cosmetic. If you wish your RAZR could do a lot mo...

The Proprietary connector is easy to get around as well using Bluetooth headphones. Bluetooth is robust with a boat load of profiles and it even works with stereo bluetooth headsets and headphones. *