WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 360 min, With digital camera / digital player, 4.3 oz
THE GOOD
The RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 boasts a sleeker design that includes an optical trackpad, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a brilliant display. The smartphone is 3G capable and offers Wi-Fi with UMA support, Bluetooth, and GPS. It also gets a faster processor and updates to BlackBerry OS 5.0.
THE BAD
The BlackBerry browser doesn't compare to the competition. The handset's compact size results in a smaller display and keyboard, but they aren't deal-breakers.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 brings T-Mobile its first 3G BlackBerry and improves on its predecessor with a sleeker design and more power. We only wish it had a better browser to complete the package.
CDMA2000 1X 1900/800, 385 min, With digital camera / digital player, 6 oz
THE GOOD
The Motorola Droid boasts a gorgeous display and the benefits of Android 2.0, including a faster Web browser, Google Maps Navigation app, and better messaging and contact management. It also offers excellent call quality, long talk time, and improved speed over previous Android devices.
THE BAD
The QWERTY keyboard feels flat and the dialpad control is restricted to the home screen. Music and video capabilities still trail behind the competition. Dual-mode functionality for world-roaming capabilities would have been a nice addition. The Droid does not support Bluetooth voice dialing.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Despite some design issues and a couple of missing features, the Motorola Droid is the most powerful and fastest Google Android device to date. It fully embraces the openness of the Android platform and offers Verizon customers a smartphone that certainly rivals the other touch-screen devices on the market.
CDMA2000 1X 1900/800, Up to 214 min, With digital camera, 4.2 oz
THE GOOD
The HTC Droid Eris offers a slim design, plentiful features, and satisfying performance. It also has pinch and zoom multitouch.
THE BAD
The HTC Droid Eris has mixed multimedia quality. It comes only with the Android 1.5 OS, there's no file manager, and internal performance was occasionally sluggish.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Though its performance wasn't completely top-notch and we would prefer a more recent Android OS version, the HTC Droid Eris is a satisfying Android device that offers a nice contrast to the Motorola Droid. And you can't beat the price.
GSM 850/900/1900 (Tri-Band), 180 min, With digital camera / digital player, 3.8 oz
THE GOOD
The Samsung Mythic is a slim and lightweight phone, and you can customize its home screens and menu pages. Its multimedia feature set includes AT&T Mobile TV, and it has good performance.
THE BAD
The Samsung Mythic's streaming video needs improvement, and its Web browser has only two zoom settings.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Samsung Mythic is an admirable multimedia phone with the added bonus of AT&T Mobile TV.
CDMA 800, 300 min, With digital camera / digital player, 3.6 oz
THE GOOD
The Samsung Caliber is slim and lightweight with an attractive display. It has plenty of features like a built-in accelerometer, a 3.0-megapixel camera, and a full HTML browser. It also has great call quality.
THE BAD
The Samsung Caliber lacks Wi-Fi, and the touch screen takes some acclimation.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Samsung Caliber could use some refinements, but it is overall a decent touch-screen multimedia phone for U.S. Cellular.
The Samsung Behold II boasts a vibrant AMOLED capacitive touch screen. The smartphone includes more-robust multimedia capabilities, and its 5-megapixel camera takes excellent pictures. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 3G support are all included.
THE BAD
The phone is expensive, especially compared with the competition. The TouchWiz interface isn't all that useful. Runs Android 1.5.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Of all the Android devices, the Samsung Behold II offers some of the most powerful multimedia features, but its high price tag is a major turn off.
GSM 900/1800/1900 (Tri-Band), Up to 240 min, FM radio, 3.9 oz
THE GOOD
The Doro PhoneEasy 410 has a bright display with a large font, a spacious keypad with large digits, text messaging, Bluetooth, basic PIM tools, and an FM radio. It is affordable and has good call quality as well.
THE BAD
The Doro PhoneEasy 410 doesn't have any external display.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Doro PhoneEasy 410 is a basic, easy-to-use phone for seniors and anyone who's new to cell phones.
The T-Mobile Tap has a comfortable and lightweight design, a music player, a 2.0-megapixel camera, an FM radio, and GPS. It has good call quality as well.
THE BAD
The T-Mobile Tap's small screen size results in a cramped virtual keyboard and a difficult browsing experience. The Web browser feels a little primitive as well.
THE BOTTOM LINE
If you can get past the limitations of the screen size, the T-Mobile Tap is a decent midrange touch-screen phone.
The Palm Pixi features a remarkably thin design and an improved QWERTY keyboard. An updated OS brings Yahoo integration as well as enhanced messaging features. It also offers Bluetooth, GPS, and 3G support.
THE BAD
Lacks Wi-Fi. The smartphone can be sluggish and battery can drain quickly. The camera's picture quality is subpar and still lacks video recording and editing options.
THE BOTTOM LINE
While not as powerful as the Pre, the Palm Pixi offers first-time smartphone buyers a decent set of features in a sleek little package. However, to be really competitive, we think it needs to come down in price just a touch.
Sony Ericsson Equinox TM717 - carbon black (T-Mobile)
EDITORS RATING
6.7
SPECS
WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 600 min, With digital camera / digital player / FM radio, 3.4 oz
THE GOOD
The Sony Ericsson Equinox TM717 has a bright display, multimedia features, and decent call quality.
THE BAD
The Sony Ericsson Equinox TM717's external display and controls aren't easy to use. We continue to push Sony Ericsson to abandon proprietary ports and memory cards. Speakerphone quality is average.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Sony Ericsson Equinox TM717 has potential, but its multimedia features are undermined by design missteps and a subpar speakerphone.
TwitterPeek Mobile Tweeting Device with Lifetime Service Included (Gray)
EDITORS RATING
3.0
SPECS
3.8 oz
THE GOOD
The Twitter Peek is slim, lightweight, and has a handy jog dial on the side for scrolling. You can do almost everything on this that you can do on the Twitter Web site. We also like the feel of the QWERTY keyboard.
THE BAD
The Twitter Peek does not display full 140-character messages on the home screen, links in tweets lead to badly rendered text-only Web pages, you can only view images from TwitPic and no other Twitter photo service, you can't have multiple Twitter accounts on it, it can take a long time to load new tweets, and it doesn't load all the missed tweets between when it's powered off and back on. It is also far too expensive for what it does.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Twitter Peek does not deliver a positive Twitter experience, which is especially disappointing because that is its only purpose.
TwitterPeek Mobile Tweeting Device with Lifetime Service Included (Aqua)
EDITORS RATING
3.0
SPECS
3.8 oz
THE GOOD
The Twitter Peek is slim, lightweight, and has a handy jog dial on the side for scrolling. You can do almost everything on this that you can do on the Twitter Web site. We also like the feel of the QWERTY keyboard.
THE BAD
The Twitter Peek does not display full 140-character messages on the home screen, links in tweets lead to badly rendered text-only Web pages, you can only view images from TwitPic and no other Twitter photo service, you can't have multiple Twitter accounts on it, it can take a long time to load new tweets, and it doesn't load all the missed tweets between when it's powered off and back on. It is also far too expensive for what it does.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Twitter Peek does not deliver a positive Twitter experience, which is especially disappointing because that is its only purpose.
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