Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition

Is it too much to say that WiMAX gives the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet a reason to exist? Nokia's it's-not-a-phone experiment in extreme Linux geekery now lets you surf the Web anywhere, any time, at least in Baltimore where Sprint has rolled outXOHM , its version of WiMAX. (Baltimore is the only place you'll find it, for now.) But the Nokia N810 Internet tablet WiMAX Edition ($449.99 street) still isn't a handheld that's likely to rule the mainstream market.

A quick recap from our original N810 review: This device isn't a phone, it's a Linux-based handheld computer that connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and now XOHM. The N810 is a pleasure to hold and to use. The 2.8-by-5-by0.55 inch (HWD), 7.9-ounce metallic body feels solid, and the richly colorful 800-by-480-pixel screen slides up to reveal a comfortable thumb keypad. There's a VGA camera built into the side for video calling, and a little stand pops out of the back if you want to prop the N810 up on your desk. A mini-SDHC card can drop into a slot in the bottom. It's an attractive, thoughtfully built piece of hardware.

Besides providing Internet access, the N810 features a media player, an e-mail program, contacts and calendar apps, and other software, but browsing is its real strength. Nokia is the true king of handheld Web browsers—the company's Series 60 phone browser is the best in the business, and the N810's browser renders pages that look just the way they look on a desktop PC, including Flash (but not Java) plug-ins.

There's still no Microsoft Office or PIM support, and the N810 still sometimes stutters when multitasking with music and video. Since our first review, the download servers have been improved, so you can easily grab the various additional apps that Maemo.org has to offer. The site currently lists 256 apps, including a PDF reader, alternative media players, and instant messaging programs.

Of course, the real news here is the WiMAX. I activated the N810 using the XOHM Web site, by punching in the device's MAC address. (It's on a label on the box.) The N810 was working within minutes, and it auto-connected to the XOHM network in Baltimore.

Testing Internet speeds on a handheld that doesn't act as PC modem can be tough, because speed tests are usually restricted by the device's browser or processor, rather than by its modem. (And no, the N810 currently can't tether to a PC as a modem. I don't think that would violate the terms of service; the software just doesn't exist. It might be available in the future.)

I used www.speedtest.net, which is recommended by Sprint. In four tests, I achieved download speeds generally around 1Mbps down and 500 to 800Kbps up—much slower than the results I got with a PC and Samsung's SWC-E100 ExpressCard in the same location. So it's likely the N810's browser slowing things down. The more important test, however, is that Web pages felt fast, maps rendered quickly, and music streamed over the Internet seamlessly.

But when the N810 lost its signal, it had trouble picking it up again. Several times I went to the N810's connection manager after leaving a XOHM dead spot, to find a long list of Wi-Fi networks and no XOHM. When I rebooted the handheld, XOHM reappeared. Nokia needs to make that transition smoother.

The N810 isn't a phone, but it can do VoIP. Gizmo, a free program, worked over XOHM, but Skype didn't. All my Call buttons were grayed out and unavailable, so all I could do was chat. That was disappointing.

The Nokia N810 Internet Tablet WiMAX Edition isn't on the market yet, but the original non-WiMAX model is selling for around $350 or 400. WiMAX certainly transforms this gadget into a more interesting go-anywhere Web surfing device, but I still feel that its primary appeal is to Linux geeks, since it lacks some other key apps and has a relatively high price. Also, WiMAX isn't widely available yet. Today, most people will likely settle on an iPhone 3G, instead. If not, Nokia's own excellent E71, or a XOHM-powered mini-laptop (when those devices are available) are viable alternatives.

SPEC DATA :

Price as Tested: $449.99 Street
Networking Options: 802.11g
Operating System: Linux Internet Tablet 2008
Processor Class: TI OMAP 2420
Type: Linux
RAM: 128 MB
Megapixels: 0.3 MP
Flash Memory Type: Secure Digital

T-Mobile G1 (Google Android Phone)

Call it the T-Mobile G1.0. The first-ever Google Android smartphone is a solid initial effort that, given an open development platform, will grow with time. It's missing a bunch of key features right now—like a decent media player and support for corporate e-mail, for instance. But the G1, manufactured by HTC, is a quality phone with few bugs, and given the open nature of Android, I'm confident that more features are on the way. This makes the G1 a good choice for anyone who wants an expandable phone and is interested in the future of mobile communication.

The 5.6-ounce G1 looks like a grown-up Sidekick. It's a rectangular black phone (4.6 by 2.1 by 0.6 inches—HWD) with rounded corners and a big 3.2-inch, 320-by-480-pixel capacitive touch screen that's bright and responsive. Below the display, there's a trackball; Menu, Home, and Back buttons, and buttons to pick up and end calls. Volume and camera controls are on the sides of the handset, and the 3-megapixel camera is on the back.

Slide the screen up to reveal a comfortable little QWERTY keyboard. The keys are slightly domed and separated. They're not as excellent as, say, the BlackBerry Curve keys, but they're on a par with the keys you'll find on a Sidekick.

The G1 starts up to a configurable home screen onto which you can drop any application you'd like, along with a big analog clock and a Google search box. And, yes, this home screen is completely configurable—you can even throw out the phone dialer if you want. You drag icons around on three virtual home screens, through which you scroll with a flick of the finger, just like on the iPhone.

By default, most of the phone's applications are hidden in a "drawer" that pops open with a single touch. (Again, you can move them to the home screen if you wish.) Working Android apps will be familiar to anyone who's used a touch-screen device before, with two twists: Hitting the physical Menu button brings up context-specific options and you can pull down a "window shade" from the top of the screen at any time to suppress new messages alerts and calendar alarms.

To select items on the screen, you can use either your fingers or the trackball. I found the trackball especially useful in the Web browser, where some links were too small to click with my finger.

A quad-band EDGE, dual-band HSDPA phone (1,700/2,100), the G1 works on T-Mobile's 2G and 3G networks here in the U.S. and on high-speed networks overseas. You can't use this phone as a modem for your PC, at least not yet.

We achieved 600-to-700-kilobit-per-second speeds in the G1's browser on the 3G network, which is fairly typical for a 3G phone. We also connected to our WPA2-secured 802.11g wireless network without a problem, though the G1 doesn't support T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home system for making calls over Wi-Fi. RF reception was decent.

Calls on the G1 sound terrific, at least for the person who's using the phone. Calls on T-Mobile's 3G network in New York were loud, clear, deep, and well-rounded. There's no in-ear feedback of your own voice, but whether that's good or bad is a matter of taste. The speakerphone is loud and clear. But the phone's mic layers your voice in with a lot of background sound on the other end. The G1 made calls with our mono Plantronics Voyager 520 Bluetooth headset but couldn't successfully pair with our stereo Motorola S9 headset. You get voice dialing, but you can't trigger the feature with a Bluetooth headset; you have to tap an icon on the phone. Your MP3s can be used as ringtones.—next: What You Get and What You Don't

SPEC DATA :

Price as Tested: $179.00 List
Service Provider: T-Mobile
Operating System: Other
Screen Size: 3.25 inches
Screen Details: 320x480, 65k-color capacitive TFT LCD touch screen
Camera: Yes
Megapixels: 3.1 MP
802.11x: Yes
Bluetooth: Yes
Web Browser: Yes
Network: GSM, UMTS
Bands: 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100, 1700
High-Speed Data: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA
Special Features: Music
Notes: Price: $179 w/ two-year contract

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 (Alltel)

Ah, the joy of a BlackBerry Curve. One of our favorite smartphones ever, the Curve just works—and that goes for Alltel's model too. It's a great buy for anyone who wants a terrific phone with unparalleled messaging, excellent media features, and a bit of Web thrown into the mix. One complaint, though: Alltel could have done a little more to set its model apart from the pack.

The Alltel Curve, in sober gray, looks like a darker, handsomer version of Verizon's model. For a basic rundown of the Curve's design and features, check out PCMag's review of theVerizon or Sprint Curve.

On Alltel's network, the Curve sounds as beautiful as ever. Reception is excellent, and volume is pretty much perfect, with no distortion even at the top level. And the speakerphone is loud and clear. Curves are among the best voice phones we've tested, and this one is no exception. This Curve also got particularly stellar battery life, with over 6 hours of talk time.

Like other Curves, Alltel's has a 3.5mm headphone jack for phone or music headsets and works with mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets. Oddly, I could trigger the VoiceSignal voice dialing with our mono Aliph Jawbone, but not our stereo Plantronics Pulsar 590 headset.

Alltel lets you use the Curve as a modem for your PC (but not for a Mac) on Alltel's EV-DO Rev 0 high-speed network. The carrier provides easy-to-use software that enables a one-click connection—it was a snap to set up. Speeds were slow for EV-DO, though, at around 400 kilobits per second down, but this seemed to be a problem with Alltel's network—our other smartphones ran even more slowly in modem mode.

So what does Alltel bring to the table? In terms of software, the carrier's model falls somewhere between Verizon's sparse offerings and Sprint's richer ones. You get Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger IM clients but no AIM. The free Google Maps for Mobile uses cell-tower triangulation to get a rough location fix, but there's no bona fide GPS (unless you pay for additional software). Buried under an odd icon marked "Axcess Shop" is an information app, which gives you news headlines, weather, stocks, and traffic information.

You can also buy software for the Curve, and this is where things get interesting. Alltel's MobiTV-based streaming Axcess TV ($9.99 per month) is available, along with Garmin Mobile ($9.99 a month) for true GPS capabilities and DynoPlex MasterDoc ($49.95), which provides enhanced attachment viewing. Shape's IM+ ($49.95) adds MSN, AIM, and MySpace IM to the Curve's list. There are also plenty of games to be had, among them Guitar Hero.

RIM's forthcoming BlackBerry OS 4.5 will include support for Microsoft Office document editing through DataViz's DocumentsToGo program, and Alltel will offer a free upgrade to Curve owners. That combined with the standard Curve features, such as the great camera, including video recording; the terrific BlackBerry messaging, including both SMS and MMS; and the new PC software, which helps transfer music and videos over from Windows XP and Vista PCs to the phone, makes Alltel's Curve 8330 as much a winner as its Verizon and Sprint cousins. We think it's the best balance of smartphone functionality for Alltel subscribers.

SPEC DATA :

Price as Tested: $229.99 - $519.99 List
Service Provider: Alltel
Screen Size: 2.5 inches
Screen Details: 320x240 65k color screen
Camera: Yes
Megapixels: 2 MP
802.11x: No
Bluetooth: Yes
Web Browser: Yes
Network: CDMA
Bands: 850, 1900
High-Speed Data: 1xRTT, EVDO
Processor Speed: 312 MHz
Special Features: Music

Samsung Behold SGH-T919

Samsung's Behold SGH-T919 brings a mix of fun multimedia features to T-Mobile's new 3G network. If you're looking for some 'wow' without springing for a smartphone, the Behold's big touch screen, fun and unusual interface, and 5-megapixel camera might just fill the bill. Just be aware that better versions of each of its individual features can be found other handsets—just not all on a single phone.

The Samsung Behold looks and works a lot like Sprint's Samsung Instinct or Verizon's LG Dare. All three are feature phones with extra bells and whistles; they look and feel a little like smartphones, but aren't as expandable or complex. The 3.9-ounce Behold is a 4.1 by 2.1 by 0.5 inch (HWD) black slab with an attractive plastic back that looks like brushed metal. On the front of the handset, there's a big, 3.1-inch, 240 by 400-pixel touch screen above the Pick Up, Hang Up, and Back buttons. Camera, Lock and Volume buttons reside on the sides of the phone, and a whopping 5-megapixel, autofocus camera lives on the back. One sour design note: the MicroSD card slot is tucked under the battery, which makes getting at it a challenge.

Samsung's TouchWiz interface makes using the Behold fun. Like on the LG Dare, the home screen is highly customizable. You can drag various icons for apps including the music player, the photo viewer, the IM client, and the Web browser from a sidebar and plop them anywhere you'd like on the home screen. I found the touch screen and accelerometer to be responsive.

As a voice phone, the Behold isn't bad, as long as you don't venture into areas with a lot of background noise. Since this is a 3G phone (T-Mobile 3G only, but global EDGE), I experienced the richer tones of a 3G call, without the hiss I hear on a lot of 2G T-Mobile calls. Indoors or in a quiet area, the earpiece volume was fine, and a lot of in-ear feedback made talking pleasant. But outdoors, the earpiece had trouble triumphing over very noisy areas, and a lot of background noise came through the microphone. The speakerphone was loud, if tinny, and also transmitted a lot of background noise. The phone comes with a wired headset for its oddball, proprietary Samsung jack. It also worked fine with our Plantronics Voyager 520 mono and Motorola S9 stereo headsets, including activating the excellent Nuance voice dialing system. Battery life was very good for a 3G phone, at 5 hours and 10 minutes of talk time.

As the carrier typically does, T-Mobile has locked down this phone, prohibiting you from installing your own apps; in all fairness, though, the Behold isn't a smartphone. But this means you're stuck with a mediocre browser, and underwhelming e-mail and IM programs. The IM app handles AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! and Windows Live messenger; the e-mail program supports AOL, Gmail, Yahoo!, and a few other ISPs, but not generic POP/IMAP e-mail. The browser is the popular NetFront 3.4, but with a twist: T-Mobile passes all pages through a WAP-translation portal which makes it easy to read the basic text content from Web pages, but it also mangles their layout. It's safest to stick with mobile-formatted pages on this phone.

The 5-megapixel camera doesn't quite measure up to the one in the Motorola ZN5, still it's a lot better than the 2-megapixel shooters you get on many feature phones. The Behold's camera captured about 25 percent fewer lines than the ZN5's, resulting in fuzzier images. Also, the LED flash is very weak compared to the ZN5's Xenon flash, and shutter lag was disappointing at 1.93 seconds (compared to a snappy 0.45 seconds on the ZN5.) On the positive side, using the Imatest testing suite, the Behold showed low amounts of noise at all light levels, and pictures had cooler tones than the ZN5's. And the Behold has a better movie mode than the ZN5 does, capturing relatively smooth 320 by 240 videos at 15 frames per second. You can store your pictures in the phone's roomy 200MB of onboard memory or on a MicroSD card up to 16GB.

Using the included USB cable or Bluetooth, the Behold syncs with Samsung's free PC Studio 3.1.2 software for Windows Vista. You can also transfer files to and from Macs or PCs with Bluetooth; file transfers were unusually fast for a phone, at around 1 megabit per second, but PC Studio is much rougher than either Nokia's or Sony Ericsson's PC suites. You can copy single contacts, calendar entries, tasks, and notes from Outlook or just type them in on your PC, but you can't select a range of entries or folders to copy. The program imploded when I tried to copy all of my calendar entries back to 2004. PC Studio also lets you copy music and video files over to your phone, but it doesn't transcode them into the right formats for on-the-go viewing. MP3, AAC, and WMA music files are supported, and you can use your own songs as ringtones. The music player is very attractive, displays album art, and supports the typical sorting options. In my video tests, the Behold played a 320 by 240, 30-frame-per-second MPEG4 movie file smoothly in landscape mode, but an H.264 video stuttered badly. You also get TeleNav GPS driving directions software. But since the phone is satellite-only and not AGPS, it had trouble locking on and finding a location when we tried it in two different boroughs of New York City.

The Samsung Behold isn't the best at any one thing, but it offers up a lot on a single device. On T-Mobile, the Motorola ZN5 is a better camera phone, the T-Mobile G1 delivers far superior Web experience, and the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 offers free Wi-Fi calling and syncs with iTunes. But the Behold balances a little of this, and a little of that in a fun device that just might make it worth your $200.

SPEC DATA :

Price as Tested: $199.99 - $399.99
Service Provider: T-Mobile
Operating System: Other
Screen Size: 3.1 inches
Screen Details: 240x400, 262k-color touch screen
Camera: Yes
Megapixels: 5 MP
802.11x: No
Bluetooth: Yes
Web Browser: Yes
Network: GSM, UMTS
Bands: 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 1700
High-Speed Data: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA

HP iPAQ 910

HP iPAQ 910

HP's venerable iPAQ handheld line has seen its ups and downs over the years. But today, the company's tight enterprise focus distinguishes it from its competitors. Even Research In Motion, the perennial business-handset manufacturer, has pushed into the consumer smartphone space. But HP is sticking to its corporate guns. The unlocked iPAQ 910 is HP's latest business smartphone, and the successor to the company's hw6900 series handsets. The new version comes loaded with Wi-Fi, GPS, and HSDPA data radios, along with a 3-megapixel camera, and good video-playback performance. But first and foremost, HP is positioning the iPAQ 910 as a corporate e-mail device that can access workplace data anywhere in the world.

Despite the iPAQ 910's bulging feature set, it's not ungainly—in fact, it looks much like a BlackBerry 8800 or Motorola Q9c. The handset measures 4.5 by 2.5 by 0.6 inches (HWD), and is fairly hefty: 5.4 ounces. Still, those numbers pin it as slightly smaller and lighter than the Palm Treo 755p—an apt comparison, given the iPAQ 910's 2.5-inch, 320-by-240-pixel touch screen and stylus input. HP packs into the box an AC adapter, a USB synchronization cable, a metal stylus, and wired stereo earbuds.

Fashioned in a glossy black, the iPAQ 910 has a gunmetal-gray chrome surround on the front bezel. With its rubberized back panel, the handset is comfortable to hold and talk into. Control-wise, the iPAQ 910 is the anti-iPhone: neither sleek nor minimal, and covered in buttons, dials, and ports. On the front panel, there's a five-way navigation key in the center, with four buttons to either side, which perform various functions. The left-hand side of the unit houses a hardware volume control, a voice-control button, a mini USB port, and a microSD slot. The right-hand side, meanwhile, contains a scroll wheel—more on this below—along with OK and Camera buttons. On the back of the handset, you'll find the camera sensor and flash, a small self-portrait mirror, and the phone's mono speaker. My preproduction review unit had a troublesome rubber port cover on the left side. Whenever I pressed down one side, the other side popped up. HP claims that final retail models wouldn't have this problem.

The QWERTY keyboard deserves special mention. Given the constraints of smartphone design, no cell-phone keyboard is going to be roomy or comfortable to use for long periods. But the iPAQ 910 excels here, with properly spaced keys, just the right amount of resistance, and a muted click response. There are even dedicated comma, period, and question-mark keys along with the standard issue Backspace and Enter buttons. I found I could type paragraphs at a time without getting frustrated or feeling fatigued.

So about that thumb wheel: It's like the one found on older 8700 series BlackBerrys. But this one is positioned higher up on the right-hand side of the handset. The touch screen is picky—all Windows Mobile touch-screen devices are. But the net effect of the abundance of controls is easy operation, even with one hand. It's probably the most successful implementation of Windows Mobile I've seen in this regard, and speaks volumes to the idea that Apple doesn't have a monopoly on control schemes. If you're familiar with Windows, you'll fly on the iPAQ 910.

Voice calls sounded crisp and clear in both directions, although the sound in the earpiece was a little colder and tinny-sounding than I preferred. Reception was strong enough to pull in weak 3G HSDPA signals in a rural area northwest of Boston, consistent with the reception of other HSDPA phones I've tried in the same location. When paired with an original Aliph Jawbone, the iPAQ 910 sounded spectacular in both directions. But a Cardo S-800 Bluetooth headset exhibited a high level of hiss and even a slight buzz in the background on all calls. (This headset sounds fine when paired to other models). Disappointingly, the iPAQ 910's mono speaker was far too weak for even indoor voice calls, much less outdoor calls or listening to music.

The iPAQ 910 is a tri-band UMTS/HSDPA device with support for 3.6/7.2-megabit-per-second HSDPA data networks. It also works as a broadband modem for a laptop. The built-in Wi-Fi radio connects to 802.11b/g networks with up to WPA2-level security. It also supports Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR. At the iPAQ 910's heart is a 416-MHz Marvell PXA270 processor, 256MB of flash ROM, and 128MB SDRAM, with 76MB free for running programs such as Oracle or Salesforce applications. Those are relatively powerful specs—although HP's PDA-only iPAQ 210 sports Marvell's next-generation PXA310 CPU, which performs better at the same clock speed and also has built-in graphics acceleration. Still, the iPAQ 910 felt reasonably fast in operation, just a tad sluggish compared with recent BlackBerry and Palm OS devices.

Since the iPAQ 910 is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional smartphone, it comes with Microsoft Office Mobile, which lets you view, edit, and create Word and Excel documents out of the box. It can also view (but not edit or create) PowerPoint documents. The handset can synchronize e-mail, contacts, and calendar data with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server. Windows Mobile 6.1 also includes numerous security and encryption enhancements, along with somewhat improved Internet browsing using Internet Explorer. The included MSN Messenger is a plus, but it's not an IM account aggregator, which you can get with many other handsets.

HP throws in a copy of Cyberon's Voice Commander & Recorder, which let me dial contacts without having to train it first. It also lets you respond to e-mail messages by voice. The GPS chipset works with the built-in Google Maps for Mobile; there's also a hidden jack at the top of the handset to add an aftermarket antenna that HP claims will boost its GPS reception fivefold. Finally, HP includes Enterprise Mobility Suite, which is invisible to the user but gives IT departments remote wipe, software provisioning, camera disable/enable, and other management tools.

As a media device, the iPAQ 910 achieved only mixed results. Its processor is fast enough for smooth full-screen playback of properly encoded video files. The microSD slot is easily accessible, and although HP claims it works with cards up to 4GB, I had no problems reading and writing to an 8GB SanDisk microSDHC card. Music tracks sounded very poor over the included set of wired earbuds, and upgrading would be a pain owing to the mini-USB connector. Music fared better, with much more bass, over a paired set of Etymotic Ety8 Bluetooth stereo earphones, but these still lacked the richness of a wired set.

The iPAQ 910's 3MP camera includes autofocus, but you'd never know it: The indoor shots were soft, with dull color and blown out highlights. (It fares much better outside.) The weak LED flash is an all-on-or-all-off affair—there's no auto mode; it had virtually no effect on photos, though, so you might as well leave it off, or just use it as a flashlight. The unit records middling QVGA video files, and there's also a direct Snapfish upload feature. Battery life was average for the class at 9 hours 13 minutes of continuous talk time.

The $499.99 (direct) price may sound expensive to those accustomed to subsidized handsets. But for an unlocked smartphone, HP's pricing is pretty aggressive. For comparison, Nokia's E61i, a previous Editors' Choice winner in this category, costs $450 and is far less capable, as it lacks 3G, GPS, and document editing. (The brand-new E71 looks spectacular, but an early review unit turned out to be too buggy; we're still waiting for a final review version.)

The HP iPAQ 910, with its business-focused Windows Mobile design, has a completely different mission from the Nokia N82, our current Editors' Choice for unlocked smartphones. Since we can award our Editors' Choice to only one product in the unlocked smartphone category, we're now giving it to the iPAQ 910, which is hard to beat when it comes to business-class devices. But that in no way diminishes the N82, still the top pick for anyone who wants a stellar multimedia phone with one of the best integrated cameras you can get. Despite very different target markets, you can't go wrong with either one of these top-quality smartphones.

Benchmark Test Results

Continuous talk time (GSM): 9 hours 13 minutes

SPB Benchmark: 365.14

CPU index: 1634.1

File system index: 146.39

Graphics index: 4953.37

SPEC DATA :

Price as Tested: $499.00 Street
Service Provider: AT&T, T-Mobile
Operating System: Windows Mobile Pocket PC
Screen Size: 2.5 inches
Screen Details: 320x240, QVGA, 65K colors
Camera: Yes
Megapixels: 3 MP
802.11x: Yes
Bluetooth: Yes
Web Browser: Yes
Network: GSM, UMTS
Bands: 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100
High-Speed Data: EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA
Processor Speed: 416 MHz
Special Features: Music

The PC Edge / Datawind Pocketsurfer 2

A good idea that's oddly executed, the $299.99 (list) PC Edge is a small handheld device for on-the-go Web browsing, and it pulls up full, desktop-style Web pages quickly and clearly. Unfortunately, its many eccentricities make it difficult to recommend.

A wide, slim (6 by 4 by 0.6 inches HWD, 6.1 ounces) palmtop that browses the Web over a proprietary thin client system, the PC Edge uses T-Mobile's GPRS (not even EDGE!) network to connect to the Internet. It's not a phone; it doesn't have a user-accessible SIM card; and there's no onboard storage. When you press a key on the keyboard, the device links up with Datawind's servers in Canada, which push down highly compressed images of Web pages that are updated several times a second. The device is basically a remote-desktop client for Datawind's browsing servers.

The upside is that sites load faster than on any GPRS device I've ever seen. It's a true technical feat. Pages appear within a few seconds, though as you scroll down, the pages then pause to draw additional chunks. You get all the Web elements you would see on a desktop PC, including Java and Flash—though anything that shifts or changes can do so only once or twice a second, making animations mostly useless.

There are plenty of downsides, though. Graphics aren't sharp. Standard mode dithers pictures down to 16 colors, though you can push it up to 256 colors with relatively little cost in download speeds. If you click on any user elements (such as pop-up menus) on pages, it takes a while for pages to respond. And there's a long delay while typing into some AJAX-based text-entry boxes, such as in Google Docs or Yahoo! Mail. The Edge is sending each character up to the server as you type. In more traditional HTML text-entry fields, the PC Edge lets you type locally and then bundles your text together before sending it up to the central server. There's no sound and, because of the slow frame rates, no video.

The device is pretty, but it's also a bit odd. It uses a bright but washed-out 5-inch, 640-by-240-pixel passive-matrix display and a flat, backlit keyboard with a bunch of mysterious function keys. These keys control functions like zoom, navigating the Web browser, double-clicking, and activating the built-in GPS, which works with Google Maps. (Or at least it's supposed to; my device thought I was in Florida instead of New York.

The keyboard is just a bit too wide to hold comfortably for thumb-typing, and the Edge's hinge won't let you sit it on a table as a mini-laptop, either. You navigate around pages using a virtual pointer on the screen, which is controlled by a cursor pad on the keyboard. It's a little awkward, especially because my cursor would sometimes run right off the screen and disappear.

The Edge offers a bunch of links to Web applications, including an e-mail client that runs on Datawind's servers, so it's faster than just navigating to your webmail client. You also get Web-based office suites, LogMeIn.com, and an online storage system (25GB). Because it's a server-based thin client, the Edge doesn't have any onboard storage. Google Docs ran slowly, because of the Edge's delay with entering text. LogMeIn.com wasn't very usable because my desktop image was so zoomed out that I couldn't read the names of icons.

My sample device had some build problems and some mysteries. The keyboard was slightly separated from the case on the left-hand side, and the device had a mysterious rubber-covered slot next to the power adapter that wasn't mentioned in any of the documentation.

Ultimately, the PC Edge is a solution to a problem that's swiftly disappearing. At $300 (plus $20 or $30 per month data plan—depending on whether it's on sale at the moment), this device is the same price as a16GB Apple iPhone 3G , which is not only slicker but does a lot more. Yes, the Edge can handle aspects of Web pages, like Flash, that most handhelds fail to do. But navigating the Web and entering data is much easier on other mobile devices. Graphics look awful with the Edge's compression. And the Flash advantage is partially canceled out by the Edge's slow frame rates.

I can't deny the technical feat Datawind has pulled off here. The Edge is slim, and it loads Web pages quickly using an unusual tactic that represents desktop pages with great fidelity. But should you buy it? I'm not sold. For simple Web surfing, I suggest getting a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet or even an ASUS Eee PC 2G Surf instead.

SPEC DATA :

Price as Tested: $299.99 List
Type: Other
Screen Size: 5 inches
Network: GPRS, GSM
Bluetooth: No

Palm Tungsten T, Zire

As a replacement for the Palm V series and the short-lived m500 series, the Palm Tungsten T ($400 street) is a rugged and high-powered PDA that's well suited for mobile professionals. The device is collapsible, and the compact case fits easily in your hand or shirt pocket.

You can slide the case open to expose the Graffiti area—an effective space-saving design for a device that is used more often for data viewing than for entry. A removable, clear plastic cover protects the 320-by-320 display—a vast improvement over earlier Palm units—and a five-way button enables one-handed navigation.

For business users, the Tungsten T comes with Palm OS 5.0, and a 144-MHz Texas Instruments CPU that supports wireless connections and multimedia. It also has a built-in Bluetooth radio for short-range wireless connections.

Thanks to the processor and OS, the Tungsten T is the first Palm PDA designed from the ground up to handle multimedia. It performed well compared with the other Palm OS devices on our audio and video tests, although it's not as good for entertainment as the two high-end Sony models. The Tungsten T is a good choice for mobile professionals and reasonable for entertainment, too.

Combining low cost ($100) and the simplicity of Palm OS, the Palm Zire is a very attractive entry-level PDA. For consumers who want to carry their contacts, appointments, and to-do lists electronically, the Zire is an excellent first PDA purchase and earns an Editors' Choice.

But you get what you pay for. The plastic case is not sturdy, and the device is not designed for multimedia; it has a monochrome screen and no audio capability. It runs only the simplest games. You can't expand it with an add-in card, and don't even think about using it for Internet connectivity or e-mail.

Printed documentation is limited to a brochure, although full manuals are available on CD and online. A removable, rubberized, translucent flip cover protects the screen and flips back easily with one hand, but it tends to fall right back down over the display.

We are pleased to find a rechargeable lithium ion battery in a model this inexpensive. If you're looking for a PDA with easy-to-use applications—and plenty of third-party software—you can't go wrong with the Zire, as long as you don't mind its limitations.