Smartphones of Note

While advances in general PDA design were either slow in coming, Palm OS 5 and integrated wireless, or didn't pay immediate dividends in terms of performance, Pocket PCs with Intel's XScale processor, the smartphone or PDA/phone hybrid came into its own in this past year.

Exciting new products, such as Handspring's Treo Communicator, first released earlier in the year, demonstrated the potential of these devices, while by the end of the year Samsung and Kyocera upgraded a couple of the earliest PDA/Phone hybrids with models that promise to set the standard for excellence in the coming year.

Old standbys, such as Nokia's Communicator, got even more powerful, while T-Mobile's Sidekick proved that the smartphone wasn't just meant for the business or high-end user. Microsoft left no stone unturned by attacking the smartphone from the PDA first/phone second side with its Pocket PC Phone Edition operating system and mobile phone first/PDA second side with its new Windows Powered Smartphone OS.

In part one of this article we cover the latest in Palm OS smartphones, while part II talks about what's been happening with Microsoft-based smartphones, Symbian (Nokia & Sony Ericsson), BlackBerry and T-Mobile's Sidekick.

Treo Communicators

Handspring made the biggest splash of the year in the smartphone market with its Treo line of communicators, which quickly became the most visible PDA/Phone hybrid, striking a good balance between PDA functionality and phone capabilities. By years end, when competition in the smartphone category heated up considerably, Handspring had released three versions of the Treo (the 180, 270 and 300) and inked deals with several mobile carriers, including Sprint, T-Mobile, and Cingular, to offer the Treo with their phone and data services.

Like the Treo 180 ($99 with service activation), the Treo 270 ($499 with service activation) integrates a mobile phone, wireless applications like email and Internet browsing, and a Palm OS 3.52 organizer. Unlike the monochrome Treo 180, the 4,000 color Treo 270's built-in QWERTY keyboard is backlit, a major advantage over the earlier model. The company also said the color Treo 270's rechargeable lithium ion battery surprisingly offers improved battery life (up to three hours of talk time and 150 hours of standby time compared to 2.5 hours of talk time and 60 hours of standby time) over the grayscale Treo 180 models. Unlike the Graffiti-based Treo 180g, there are no plans for a version of the Treo 270 without a keyboard. Both Treo models weigh in at a mere 5.4 ounces, feature a 33MHz Motorola Dragonball processor and 16MB of RAM. Cingular and T Mobile offer the Treos as GSM 900/1900 MHz world phones, while T Mobile adds GPRS support on its network.

Treo 270

The Treo 300 communicator is Handspring's smartphone for the PCS Free & Clear plan from Sprint, which is faster than the plans offered for the GSM/GPRS Treo 270. The Treo 300 otherwise has specs that are very similar to the Treo 270. The Treo 300 is a little larger than the other models, 4.4 x 2.8 x .82-inches compared to 4.2 x 2.8 x .82-inches and runs about $499 with service activation from Sprint.

Treo 300

Kyocera 7135

Fast-forward to the end of the year and you've got the long awaited appearance of Kyocera's sequel to the QCP 6035, one of the first Palm OS smartphones. The specs of the Kyocera 7135 Smartphone, which is the most phone-like Palm OS smartphone, makes it a powerhouse in the land of PDA/Phone combinations.

Like the Treo, the Kyocera 7135 features a clamshell design and CDMA2000 1X technology that enables data speeds of up to 153 kbps. Unlike the Treos, the screen is a part of the top half of the clam, allowing the company to include an actual keypad rather than simulated buttons on display (ala the Treo) for dialing and an area for Graffiti on the bottom half. Unlike the Treos, the Kyocera 7135 doesn't include a thumb keyboard. The Kyocera 7135 also offers a high-resolution screen with 65,000 colors, It features assisted GPS technology and an expansion card slot compatible with both MultiMediaCard and SD card standards. An onboard MP3 player lets users download and listen to songs in CD-quality stereo sound, while a separate external display allows for caller-ID while the phone is "closed."

Kyocera 7135

The 7135 weighs 6.6 ounces and measures 3.0 x 2.4 x 1.1-inches. Alltel is the first carrier to offer the 7135. It sells for $499 with service activation.

Samsung SPH-i330

Another long-awaited smartphone sequel that finally appeared at the end of the year was Samsung's Palm OS-based SPH-i330 ($499 with service), an upgrade from the company's earlier SPH-i300, the first color Palm OS smartphone in North America. The dual-band/tri-mode phone has 16MB of RAM, a 160 x 240 pixel, and a 256 color display for navigating pop-up screen menus and viewing websites with the Handspring Blazer multi-mode browser. As with the earlier SPH-i300, the SPH-i330's display also serves as its keypad.

Samsung SPH-i330

It features an always-on data connection that runs on Sprint's CDMA2000 network, which supports data speeds averaging 50 to 70 Kbps. The device measures 4.9 x 2.3 x 0.7-inches, weighs less than 6 ounces and has specs for talk time of 170 minutes and standby time of 174 hours.

Keep on the look out for the Palm OS Samsung SPH-i500, which is slated to appear early in 2003. It has a similar clamshell design to the Kyocera 7135, but is more compact, with the display on the top half of the clamshell and the Graffiti area and keypad on the bottom. In fact, one interesting feature has the Graffiti area above the keypad. The clamshell phone runs on Palm OS 4.1 and comes with a 65,000 color display and a 66MHz processor. It measures a compact 3.4 x 2.1 x .85-inches and weighs only 4.5 ounces.

Samsung SPH-i500

Tungsten W

The Palm Tungsten W ($549 without wireless service), slated to appear early this year, has little in common with its Palm OS 5 brother, the Tungsten T. The Palm OS 4.1.1 device is the first Palm branded handheld with integrated GSM/GPRS wireless capabilities, a built-in keyboard and a high-resolution screen. It features the same 5-way button for one-way navigation as the Tungsten T. With carrier activation, Palm said the Tungsten W handheld is a data-centric handheld, making it a PDA first and mobile phone second, that provides a combination of wireless email, SMS messaging, phone functionality, business applications, and Palm's PIM software. AT&T Wireless is slated to provide service in the U.S.

Palm Tungsten W

Like the Treo, the device includes only a 33MHz Motorola Dragonball processor and 16MB of RAM. It has a 65,000 color and 320 x 320 display as well as a built-in thumb keyboard. It measures 4.80 x 3.07 x 0.650-inches and weighs 6.5 ounces. To use the device as a phone, user's must use a headset like with the BlackBerry phone hybrids. If the device delivers on its promised up to 250 hours standby and 10 hours talk time then it will be one of the best smartphones in that regard.