Nokia E63

Nokia E63

Product summary

+ve's: The sleek Nokia E63 offers a full QWERTY keyboard and full e-mail capabilities. The Symbian smartphone has integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G support. It's also one of the more affordably priced unlocked phones.

-ve's: The smartphone lacks integrated GPS, and call quality could be better. The camera doesn't produce the best pictures, and there's no side-mounted volume rocker.

conclusion: The Nokia E63 offers a more wallet-friendly price tag compared to other unlocked smartphones and does so without sacrificing too many features; we just we wish the call quality and camera were better.

Specifications: Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ;
Talk time: Up to 660 min ;
Combined with: With digital camera / digital player / FM radio ;

HTC Touch Pro2

HTC Touch Pro2

Product summary

+ve's: The HTC Touch Pro2 features a sharp, spacious touch screen and an easy-to-use full QWERTY keyboard. The Windows Mobile smartphone also includes conference call management tools for business users and offers good call quality. It also has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

-ve's: The smartphone is heavy and bulky. No U.S. 3G support on this version and it's expensive. Onboard memory is low, and we would have liked an upgraded camera.

conclusion: With a feature set to match its large size, the HTC Touch Pro2 will be a great device for power and business users once it finally hits North America and adds U.S. 3G support.

Specifications:
Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ;
Talk time: Up to 510 min ;
Combined with: With two digital cameras / digital player / GPS receiver ;

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music

Product summary

+ve's: The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers a sharp touch screen and compact design, it also features a 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G support.

-ve's: The user interface needs some work including the input and navigation methods. The Nokia Music Store is not yet available in the United States.

Conclusion: The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers an attractive design and feature set, but the touch-screen phone has some shortcomings compared with the competition.

Specifications: Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ;
Talk time: Up to 540 min ;
Combined with: With two digital cameras / digital player ;

HTC Touch Diamond-2

HTC touch Diamond 2

Product summary

+ve's: The HTC Touch Diamond-2 boasts a sleek design with a larger and sharper display than its predecessor. The enhanced TouchFlo interface makes navigation easier. The Windows Mobile smartphone also features Wi-Fi, GPS, a 5-megapixel camera, and good general performance.

-ve's: No U.S. 3G support yet. The onscreen keyboard is a bit cramped and the smartphone lacks a standard headphone jack. Call quality could be better.

Conclusion: The HTC Touch Diamond-2 brings some notable improvements over its predecessor and promises to be a powerful touch-screen smartphone when it finally arrives in the U.S.

RIM Blackberry Tour 9630

RIM Blackberry Tour 9630

Product summary

+ve's: The RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 offers world-roaming capabilities as well as Bluetooth, GPS, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. The smartphone offers a great design that combines a sharp display and an easy-to-use QWERTY keyboard in a fairly compact size.

-ve's: The smartphone lacks Wi-Fi. The Web browser falls short of the competition, and there's a bit of shutter lag on the camera. You can't save applications to a media card.

Conclusion: With a winning design and fast performance, the RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 is one of Verizon Wireless' top smartphones for both business users and messaging fanatics.

Specifications:
Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 / CDMA2000 1X 1900/800 ;
Talk time: 300 min ;
Combined with: With digital camera / digital player / GPS receiver

Nokia N-97

Nokia N-97

Product summary

+ve's: The Nokia N-97 features a touch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, and 32GB of internal flash memory. The smartphone also offers 3G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS and comes equipped with a 5-megapixel camera.

-ve's: The N-97's touch user interface isn't well integrated and can be inconsistent and confusing, especially compared with the competition. We would have preferred a capacitive touch screen instead of resistive.

Conclusion: While the Nokia N-97 is packed with features and offers the freedom of an unlocked phone, its clunky touch interface, sky-high price tag, and outdated operating system make it hard to recommend when there are better touch-screen smartphones on the market.

Specifications:
Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ;
Talk time: Up to 400 min ;
Combined with: With two digital cameras / digital player ;

Apple i-Phone 3GS

Apple i-Phone 3GS

Product summary

+ve's: The i-Phone 3GS finally adds common cell phone features like multimedia messaging, video recording, and voice dialing. It runs faster; its promised battery life is longer; and the multimedia quality continues to shine.

-ve's: The i-Phone 3GS call quality shows no improvements and the 3G signal reception remains uneven. We still don't get Flash Lite, USB transfer and storage, or multitasking.

Conclusion: The i-Phone 3GS doesn't make the same grand leap that the iPhone 3G made from the first-generation model, but the latest Apple handset is still a compelling upgrade for some users. The i-Phone 3GS is faster and we appreciate the new features and extended battery life, but call quality and 3G reception still need improvement.

Specifications:
Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ;
Talk time: Up to 600 min ;
Combined with: With digital camera / digital player / GPS receiver ;