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Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. So Research in Motion (RIM) should be very flattered indeed by the HTC P4000, a Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC phone (CDMA/EVDO) from High Tech Computer(HTC)—though RIM might not quite see it that way.

Not only does the P4000's Windows Mobile operating system, like the BlackBerry, enable push e-mail, it also features a full QWERTY keyboard - which slides out from under the 2.8-inch touch-sensitive screen - and a scroll wheel that you push in, BlackBerry-style, to make selections.

But to suggest that the P4000 is just a BlackBerry wannabe is unfair. It's actually one of the best, most complete PDA phones we've seen yet, and the design is very cool. The catch: it's available so far only on the Canadian Telus CDMA/EV-DO network. It is supposed to be headed to the U.S. as the PPC-6800 from Sprint. A very similar smartphone, the GSM/UMTS 8525 from AT&T (Cingular) is available in the U.S., however.

Telus sells the P4000 for $200 with a three-year contract, $550 with no contract. (All amounts are in Canadian dollars.) Talk and e-mail plans start at $45 a month (100 minutes, 4MB). E-mail and Web plans start at $25 a month for 4MB.

The P4000 has just about all the do-dads you could want, with the possible exception of GPS. Wi-Fi (11b/g) is built in. So is Bluetooth. There's a microSD card slot to add more memory (2GB for as little as $30 at current prices). The product includes a 1.3-megapixel video-capable camera—not a very good one when judged against single-purpose digital cameras, but better than in some camera phones. Its screen is big for a Windows Mobile phone, with a high-resolution (320x240 pixels, 65,000 colors).

HTC's P4000 is based on the Qualcomm MSM7500 chipset, which has a dual-CPU design that integrates an ARM11 applications processor and an ARM9 modem processor. In our testing, it appeared fast enough for most multimedia applications.

Software
One Windows Media movie rendered at 320x240 pixels did appear a little jerky and showed digital artifacts in fast motion sequences. But in fairness that may have had more to do with the way the movie was rendered than any lack of processing power in the P4000. My 3,500-entry phonebook also caused a noticeable slow-down when launching the Contacts applet, but the applet performed fine once the contacts were all loaded into memory.

The software suite includes the Windows Mobile staples—Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, ActiveSync, the Contacts, Calendar and Tasks applets that synchronize with Outlook using ActiveSync, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, and Word Mobile.

Microsoft's Windows Mobile messaging application, which provides basic pull e-mail, uses a new wizard that makes it very easy to set up an account—you don't need to know your POP incoming mail and SMTP server addresses. But Telus also includes its BusinessInbox service, which uses the hosted push e-mail system from Visto Corp. It will push mail from a POP3 or Exchange server account.

Hardware & Features
The P4000 is the complete package. And it's not a very big package at that; just 4.3 x 2.3 x 0.9 inches and 5.3 ounces (150 grams) with battery.

Its physical interface is fairly well thought out. The front surface is mostly taken up with the screen, but at the top, there are dedicated buttons for launching the mail and browser applications. Below the screen, there's a circular four-way navigator, nicely raised from the surface for positive contact with the edge of the thumb on the hand holding the unit.

Flanking the navigator are two soft keys just below the screen, Answer and Hang Up phone keys below the soft keys, and in the next row, a dedicated key for launching Windows Start and an OK button for confirming data entries and exiting the current application program. (Pressing the OK button in the latter case is equivalent to clicking the OK button in the top right corner of most Windows Mobile application screens.)

The P4000 also makes good use of the other surfaces. On the left edge, at the top, you'll find the jog wheel, nicely placed so right-handers can turn it with an index finger and southpaws with their thumb. It allows you to scroll vertically through menus, Web pages and other application screens. On Web pages and application screens, it acts like a tab key, moving from one link or command button to the next. Pushing the wheel in towards the device activates the highlighted link or command.