Summer’s hottest new cell phones
June 27, 2006 by Mike Wendland
Cell phone technology is improving so fast it’s hard to keep track of all the new models that are being released. If you’re ready to upgrade, my NBC-TV piece this week shows four of the hottest new models.
If there’s one thing that these four new devices have in common it’s this: They’re connected…to the Net, your calendar and contacts and your friends. First up… the Blackberry 8700c:
Blackberry sets the standard for e-mail and the bright new screen on this unit makes it the best BlackBerry yet. It runs on its own system but does synchronize contacts and calendar info with desktop computers. My biggest complain is that as a phone, it’s a clunker. You buy this for e-mail… the phone quality will probably disappoint you.
Then there’s the Treo 700w. It runs on the brand new Windows Mobile 5 system… which means it synchronizes perfectly and instantaneously with your computer’s Outlook program. Enter info on the Treo, it shows up on your desktop… and vice versa. Alas, it doesn’t work with Macs.
Motorola’s new Q phone just came out and it’s the slimmest and trimmest full featured Windows Mobile 5 smartphone you’ll find anywhere. The synchronization isn’t as fast as the Treo’s. though, although an update that will fix that is expected anyday now. I found some of the navigation controls on the Q cumbersome but the cool factor of this phone is hard to beat.
Then there’s the T-Mobile Sidekick3, the most anticipated wireless device of the summer. Where the Treo and Q are geared to business users, the SK3 is for consumers, targeting twenty and thirty-somethings particularly. It has lots of Instant Messaging features, great e-mail and Web surfing and hands down, the best keyboard I’ve ever encountered on a smartphone.
Thanks, this is handy. I like the looks of that Sidekick3….but I’m clearly out of the demographic as I’m 63 years old! But I’m probably a bigger geek than most twenty-somethings. I’m ordering mine tomorrow. But tell us more about the Q. I’d pick that just as easily.
Geez, all I want is a PHONE! I don’t want games, video, etc.
When I got a phone call from my sons who were strapped in a car, upside down, in a drainage ditch, the LAST thing I’m asking them is “How did you score on the games?” or “Did you take a photo?”
Give me a PHONE!