Sree's Top Three Cool New Cellphones
Saturday, April 26, 2003

This segment brings you quick, easy-to-use information each Saturday morning at 7:45 on TV and on Friday night right here on 7online.com.

This week: Cool new cellphones.

When I step out of a cab, I do my gadget dance - tapping my various pockets to make sure each of my gadgets is in place: cellphone, personal digital assistant (PDA), and, often, digital camera. Since my wife can't stand the dance, she's one of the people happy about the trend of so-called "hybrid gadgets" - devices that combine two or more functions. The good news is that these gadgets are getting better and cheaper each month. Of course, hybrids will have some compromises. For example, none of the phone-camera combos can substitute for a stand-alone digital camera; but they are nice for taking quick shots and e-mailing them instantly to friends and family using the phone.

After testing several of these devices, I am focusing here on the ones which place emphasis on the phone functionality, and combine it with one other main element - two with cameras, the other on a PDA. Each of these are for different styles and budgets. Get any of these and your friends will be jealous. After all, for a lot of people, that's one of the main considerations when buying a phone.

	Kyocera 7135 SmartPhone 7135: This phone does a lot of different things. It's a powerful phone, fully functional Palm, an e-mail machine, a Web browser and a digital music player that can hold about 100 MP3 songs. The color screen is absolutely brilliant and the integration of the various programs is superb. I especially liked the way it accesses the Web. The cost, after rebate: $550, and is available with Verizon and Alltel.
	Sprint PCS Sanyo 8100: Unlike other camera phones which have a separate attachment for the camera (something you can easily lose), this is an integrated camera. It allows you to record voice memos with the photos, so when you send them to an e-mail address, you can send an "audio caption," too. With rebate, it's about $100 and really brings the cellphone-camera within reach of many people.
	Nokia 3650: You've probaly seen this phone's funky ads, which promise a high "cool factor." It certainly will get others' attention: It has an unusal shape, a round, rotary-style keypad and a nice color screen. Its camera holds about 200 photos that are 640 x 480 pixels and it even has a video recorder that can record eight seconds of video (not much, but just imagine, video on your phone!).The PDA functionality is decent, with software that sychronizes with Miscrosoft Outlook for contacts and calendar items.

And bonus sites where you can compare cellphone services:
LetsTalk.com & WirelessAdvisor.com

Also, if you want to hear about phones before they become public, visit PhoneScoop.com.

Write to techguru@sree.net and let me know your thoughts.