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As we've come to expect from Nokia phones, the Nuron has excellent voice quality and strong reception. If making calls and holding a signal are important to you, the Nuron is definitely a good choice. It has better reception than the Cliq XT and Nexus One Android phones. Again, like most Nokia phones, the Nuron plays well with Bluetooth headsets, car kits and stereo headsets-- it's not finicky in the least. The contacts application is the usual Nokia affair with plenty of fields. The PIM applications sync with Outlook on the desktop, but there's no iSync plugin (at least not yet). Using the Ovi Store application, you can download Mail for Exchange which supports syncing with MS Exchange 2003 and 2007 as well as Google contacts and calendar.

We're a bit disappointed that the phone has only 3.6 Mbps 3G HSDPA when most T-Mobile smartphones are now shipping with the faster 7.2 Mbps flavor. The Nuron is a quad band GSM world phone with 3G on T-Mobile's US 1700/2100MHz bands. It features Nokia's usual webkit-based web browser that really impressed us 3 years ago but now looks a little weak compared to the Android and iPhone browsers. It's not bad though and does a good job of rendering desktop sites (and it's much better than RIM's BlackBerry web browser). Email comes in the form of Nokia Messaging, which is functional but not sexy. The phone works with POP3, IMAP, Gmail and MS Exchange email (Exchange support is a free download).

Here's our video Nokia Nuron video review where we cover physical design, compare it with the Cliq XT and iPhone, demo Ovi Maps, test the web browser and more.

T-Mobile markets the Nuron as a navigation phone since it has a GPS, TeleNav and the now free Nokia Ovi Maps. Ovi Maps has come a long way for US navigation and it does a good job of providing turn-by-turn directions for driving and walking. The POI database is weak though and we couldn't get the phone to reliably find popular chain supermarkets and stores like Walmart and Safeway. It did guess at stores located 6,000 miles away in Europe though! For POIs, we suggest Google Maps and TeleNav. Note that TeleNav is a $10/month subscription service but it does have an excellent POI database and excellent spoken driving directions.

The GPS hardware performs well and the phone got a quick fix and it held onto it with aplomb. The display is moderately visible in sunlight, but if you use a dash mount and locate the phone where it catches lots of sun, the screen will appear washed out.

The Nuron has a 1320 mAh Lithium Ion battery that performs better than higher end smartphones on T-Mobile. The Symbian OS and Nokia's old school ARM 11 CPU are easy on the battery and there's no WiFi to drain power like mad. With moderate use, the Nuron should have no problem lasting at least two days on a charge. If you use navigation the draw of the GPS and 3G will shorten battery life and we suggest a car charger.

The Nokia Nuron is a pleasant entry level touch screen smartphone. The touch screen and UI aren't up to Android's level but the phone is easy to learn and use, and it's more pocketable than most smartphones. There's social networking for Facebook and MySpace on board, a good web browser and decent email support and you can download more apps from the Ovi Store. The Ovi Store doesn't have the wide selection of apps you'll find on iTunes or the Android Market but the staples are covered well enough. We're a little disappointed that there's no WiFi on board to compensate for T-Mobile's relatively smaller 3G coverage area but the phone performs decently enough on EDGE for email, web browsing and navigation.

The screen's resolution is good at 360 x 640 and it's sharp and clear. It's hard to beat the Nuron's one-two punch of great voice quality and reception too. But the 2 megapixel camera is a let down, especially from a company like Nokia who makes such impressive imaging phones.

Here's our video review of the Motorola Cliq XT covering physical design, comparisons with other phones, Telenav, the Music application and more:

Motorola knows how to make a phone, and by that we mean a product that's good for calling (you do still use your smartphone to talk to folks, don't you?). The Cliq XT has excellent incoming and outgoing voice quality and it sounds a bit better than the Cliq and markedly better than the Nexus One. Voice is land line clear with no significant background noise and no voice feedback. The DSP and dual mics do an excellent job of canceling ambient noise, even in cacophonous big box stores. Volume through the earpiece is a bit louder than average and the speakerphone is loud and clear (it's great for voice navigation using Telenav in the car). If calling is important to you, the Cliq XT scores big.

Reception on 3G is something of a disappointment, especially for a Motorola phone. In places where our Nexus One gets -81 db the Moto gets -99 db, and the Nexus One isn't an RF demon. If you live in a weak coverage area, keep this in mind. If you have moderate to strong coverage, the phone works fine and we had no problems with dropped calls or overly slow data.

The Cliq XT has 3G HSDPA 7.2 Mbps on T-Mobile's US bands (1700/2100MHz). It's quad band GSM with EDGE and it will work anywhere in the world GSM service is available. Motorola has enhanced the stock Android web browser with pinch zoom support and Flash Lite. The drawbacks are that even Flash Lite can slow down web page loading and pinch zooming isn't as fast and fluid as it is on the iPhone 3GS, Nexus One or even the HTC Hero. The distinctly midrange 528MHz CPU doesn't help, but even the Hero does better which leads us to believe that Motorola's pinch zoom driver isn't as polished as HTC's.

Like the Backflip, the Cliq XT is a mid-priced Android phone with a better than middling camera. The 5 megapixel camera with autofocus lens takes nice shots, though they're a bit over-sharpened. Colors are saturated and natural and images don't look terribly over-processed other than the sharpening. The camera can also shoot video, though at a less impressive CIF 352 x 288 pixel resolution. The camera can geotag images and the GPS managed to get a fix quickly.

The GPS performed adequately with Google Maps and Telenav, though Telenav warned us every few miles that the GPS had lost its fix for about 15 seconds at a time. This didn't cause navigational mishaps but it was curious since we were driving under clear skies in a suburban setting with no tall buildings or looming trees. Telenav is a $10/month subscription service that gives excellent spoken directions and has a good POI database. Since the Cliq XT runs Android 1.5, it doesn't have the newer version of Google Maps that has free spoken directions (that requires OS 2.0 or newer). Since the Cliq XT should get the 2.1 upgrade at some point, it should also get the newer Google Maps. Google Maps has the usual map and satellite views as well as street view.

Though MOTOBLUR phones haven't done well in the battery department, the Cliq XT does the best so far. While we had to charge our Motorola Cliq and Backflip nightly with just moderate use, the Cliq XT actually make it 1.5 days. We know that's not great, but it's a step in the right direction. More important, we found it could make it through a business day on a charge even when checking our various social networks and email.

No kidding, it's not a Nexus One. But then it costs much less and you can take it to your local T-Mobile store if you have problems. The Cliq XT isn't a power user's phone, but it's a solid Android handset. We confess that we prefer the Cliq on T-Mobile and the Backflip on AT&T, not just because of their hardware keyboards but because they're a bit quicker and look much better. The Cliq XT doesn't look Motorola, it looks more like a cheap Asian handset. But it does run Android-- a very powerful yet fun OS that's easy to expand with apps, and it has excellent call quality. We like the added multimedia software and still enjoy MOTOBLUR, and the camera is quite decent. But Motorola's web browser enhancements, which sound exciting on paper, in fact slow down the browser when viewing full HTML sites.

Like the Motorola Cliq and Devour, the Backflip has Motorola's MOTOBLUR social networking software running on top of an older version of Android. And that's a sore point: power users and upgraders won't be getting a new version of Android if they purchase the Backflip since it's running the original 1.5 Cupcake OS. Motorola and AT&T have indicated that an update to 2.1 is coming in approximately 2 months, which bodes well for the Backflip. That said, if you're an Android newbie or even a moderate user, the difference between Android OS releases is subtle. The 2.1 OS adds necessary support for spoken navigation in Google Maps and 2.0 adds support for multi-touch (pinch zooming, though only the Nexus One supports this natively), and these are the two biggies that separate the new from the old. MOTOBLUR and Motorola's/AT&T's software make up for some of the older operating system's deficiencies anyhow. For example, Motorola adds MS Exchange support that's better than the fairly weak Google implementation in 2.0, and AT&T and Moto have added multimedia software that's better than Google's also weak default players. That said, we miss the updated OS' convenience features such as favorites for calling and more features in the Android Market.

MOTOBLUR extends the standard Android home screens from 3 to 5 and it has widgets for Happenings (an aggregate of all social networking tweets/posts/whatever), a Twitter widget where you can Tweet, a Messages widget (ties to the universal inbox that handles text messages, email and direct/private messages in your social networks), Social Status (you can send updates to your social networks all at once if you like) and more. It's cluttered if you turn everything on, but you do have 5 screens to spread things out and you can remove any widget that bugs you. As we noted, MS Exchange 2003/2007 support is on board and MOTOBLUR adds a few other handy services. Using your computer and a web browser you can log into your MOTOBLUR account and locate your lost or stolen device (using its GPS) and remote wipe the phone. The bad news is that you must create a MOTOBLUR on the Backflip before you can use the phone (yet another account in your life). That account will sync with only 1 MOTOBLUR phone, unlike Gmail and Google sync which allow you to sync one account to multiple phones. If you get a new phone, you'll have to delete your MOTOBLUR account from the old phone (the nice part is that you can use MOTOBLUR to transfer your data to your new phone).

Given the Motorola Backflip's unique design and MOTOBLUR software, it's much easier to give you a feel for the phone using video. We show you every twist and bend, and take Google Maps, AT&T Navigator, the web browser, YouTube player and AT&T Video through their paces. We also do comparisons with the Acer Liquid (an unlocked Android phone with high end specs and AT&T 3G on the 1900MHz but not 850MHz band), the Motorola Devour, the Nexus One and the iPhone.

As you can see from the video, the 528MHz Backflip is a decent performer but it's not as fast as the 1GHz Nexus One. It's just slightly slower than the Motorola Devour. Despite the added burden of Motorola's software, the Backflip is no slower than the myTouch 3G which runs vanilla Android on the same CPU. For $99, you don't get high end Snapdragon or Cortex-A8 CPUs, sorry. But we find it tolerable enough. The phone has 256 megs of RAM which is enough to run Android 2.1, and it has 512 megs of flash storage. The SDHC microSD card slot is compatible with cards up to 32 gigs and a 2 gig card is included in the phone. The card slot is under the battery door.

The Moto is a quad band GSM world phone and triband 3G HSDPA 7.2Mbps world phone with 3G on AT&T's bands and 2100MHz for Europe and Asia. Here in the Dallas area we have solid HSPA 7.2 coverage and the phone averaged 3,000kbps via the Speedtest app available on the Android Market and 750kbps on DSL Reports' web-based beta iPhone speed test. Web pages load quickly (thanks to the fast connection rather than the slowish CPU) and apps download quickly on the Android Market. Note that AT&T requires a data plan with smartphones, so you'll have to pony up $30/month for their smartphone personal plan if you buy this phone with a new contract.

Voice quality is loud and clear via the earpiece, though on some calls we could hear our own voice transmitted back. Our callers said we sounded very clear and the phone's DSP did a good job of whacking background noise. The speakerphone is fairly loud and fuller than average, and made for clear calls on both ends. The phone worked well with the Plantronics Discovery 925 Bluetooth headset as well as the Jawbone Hero and as you'd expect music sounded good with the Motorola S9 HD stereo Bluetooth headset. The phone has a 3.5mm stereo headset jack, but no headset is included in the box. The Backflip has both speed dialing and voice dialing.

The 320 x 480 pixel capacitive display is very sharp, clear and bright. There's no auto-brightness setting but the phone does have a proximity sensor (no cheek dialing) and an accelerometer (which you can turn off if you one want the phone to switch orientation when the keyboard is deployed). The 3.1" display suits the resolution and text is readable but not overly large. We'd love a higher resolution display but that would make the phone larger and more expensive, and we do appreciate the Backflip's small size.

The keyboard is very large and backlit in white. The keys are slightly domed and don't have a huge amount of travel (but more than the Moto Droid's). They're large and easy to type on using the pads of your fingers and there's no need to poke carefully with fingernails. This is definitely a good keyboard for large-handed guys, while those with small hands might find it hard to reach the center keys. There are dedicated keys for menu, search, back, home, email and the web browser. The camera lens and LED flash are embedded in the lower left corner of the keyboard.

Like all Android phones, the Backflip cloud syncs to Gmail for email and contacts and Google Calendar. There's no cable syncing to Outlook on the desktop since the OS doesn't support that (HTC's Sense UI enhanced Android phones do come with HTC-developed desktop syncing software). As we mentioned, you can work with several other popular social networking services, MS Exchange and get POP3/IMAP email too. MOTOBLUR integrates all synced services in your address book and does its best to avoid duplicates. Photos for caller ID are pulled from your Google, Exchange and social networking services.

Given AT&T's relationship with Yahoo, they've chosen to override the standard Google search with Yahoo search-- what a strange concept; a Google phone that uses Yahoo search. All other Google Android goodies are intact: Google Maps, Gmail, Google's YouTube player, Google Talk and more. And you can of course use the excellent webkit web browser to get to Google's search page. Still, we're less than pleased with the switch.

AT&T has loaded the phone with their usual mess of software, some for good and some for bad. We'd say this is the most carrier customized version of an Android phone yet, but thankfully they haven't done more than add apps and switch the default search. The "good" apps are AT&T Music-- not that we're 100% in love with this app but it does improve upon the weak Android 1.5 music player. The AT&T Radio seems nice since it aggregates a variety of popular Internet radio stations into one easy to use app, but somehow AT&T sees fit to charge a monthly fee for content you can otherwise get for free using other Android Market applications or the phone's web browser. AT&T Mobile Video is on board for streaming video and it works quite well on the Backflip. Likewise, we still like AT&T Navigator (powered by Telenav). It gives excellent spoken turn by turn directions and has a good POI database. The service costs $10/month and augments Google Maps which doesn't have spoken directions (at least not until the smartphone gets Android 2.1).

The rest are the usual AT&T bundled apps and junk: MobiTV, Mobile Banking, Where, Yellow Pages Mobile and MusicID, all of which require a monthly subscription and many of which can be replaced with free apps or the phone's web browser. They make some sense on a feature phone but none on a smartphone.

Normally you'll use the Android Market application on the phone to download new free and paid applications. And you can indeed do this unfettered on the Backflip. But you can't install applications that come from other sources since the usual setting that allows you to install non-Android Market applications is missing on the Backflip. While the overwhelming majority of applications are available on the Market (getting approval isn't the mind-bogglingly difficult experience that it is on the iTunes store for iPhones, in fact it's a quite easy and open process), there are some beta applications that are available off-market. Also Android developers may want to test their developing applications on the device rather than in a PC emulator. They can't do this with the Backflip because of that missing setting. Yet again, we'll say that this isn't the phone for power users who want to test beta software that's not available on the Android Market, nor is it a good phone for Android developers. OK, I partially take that back: developers, you can load apps over USB using adb (part off the developer SDK for you normal types reading this). Is this an AT&T conspiracy to make the Backflip more iPhone-like? Did they simply want to lock down installation of potentially iffy software? Did Moto just have a dim moment and forget to turn this setting on? Who knows. Will this matter to the average user? Nope. Will it matter to you? If you understand what I'm talking about and it bothers you, then the answer is yes.

The Backflip has a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus lens and LED flash. That's a relatively high end camera for a mid-range smartphone, and it takes decent but not wonderful photos. Photos have good color saturation and accuracy but you can see digital artifacting at 100% zoom. Images are better than the Moto Droid and HTC HD2, but they can't compete with Nokia Nseries phones that rival a dedicated camera. The phone can shoot video at an unimpressive max resolution of 352 x 288 pixels, 24 fps.

Battery life is MOTOBLUR's sore spot-- all that keeping in contact of social networks takes its toll on battery life since it keeps the data connection active. The Backflip has 3 power settings and ships with the performance mode as the default. This gets you the best performance and provides timely social networking updates and GPS location updates, but battery life is just a day with only moderate use. The middle "smart" setting turns off the 3G connection after a few hours of inactivity and sleeps the GPS and that does improve battery life. But we did notice that upon rising in the morning our social networking hadn't updated for the past 5 hours (no surprise) and it took 30 to 45 minutes for the phone to catch up on social network updates. That's something of a bummer if you want to check out what's going on in Twitter and Facebook while you down your first cup of coffee.

The Motorola Backflip will either have you doing backflips or calling it the "Backflop". We can't and shouldn't try to change your mind since design is akin to personal statement these days. If you dig the Backflip's design and are looking for your first smartphone or just want to get into Android on AT&T, it's a solid choice. If you're the high end phone type, the Backflip probably isn't for you since the CPU, resolution and OS version aren't state of the art-- hold out for the Nexus One with AT&T 3G or consider the Acer Liquid. We like the clear and sharp capacitive touch screen and relatively small form factor. We appreciate that the backflipping design allows for a larger keyboard in a smallish smartphone. Voice quality and reception are quite good as are HSPA download speeds on AT&T's network in our area. We have no qualms with the unique design and find the phone usable and different. While MOTOBLUR isn't for you cyber-unsocials, it's great for those who are into social networking and the MS Exchange support is solid. We could do without the AT&T bloatware-- please stop that AT&T! Give us the useful stuff like AT&T Navigator and AT&T Mobile Video but axe the insulting Mobile Banking and Where apps that seemingly are there to dupe smartphone newbies into paying for services they can get other ways for free.

Voice quality was good with crisp and clear audio and slightly better than average volume. Our call recipients said we sounded good and the phone's DSP kept background noise to a minimum. The Liquid has a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and a stereo earbud headset is included in the box. The phone has Bluetooth 2.0 with support for headset, handsfree and A2DP stereo profiles.

Here's our 8 minute video review of the Acer Liquid with comparisons to the Nexus One.

The Liquid's Snapdragon CPU is currently cream of the crop, and even though they've underclocked it from 1GHz to 768MHz, it's a fast smartphone. It doesn't feel quite as fast as the Nexus One (currently the fastest Android phone) but it's even more responsive than the Droid. The phone has 256 megs of RAM which is fairly standard for a current Android phone and it has 512 megs of flash storage. You'll put music, videos, photos and documents on the microSD card while applications must be installed on that 512 megs of flash storage (Android currently can't install apps to a card).

The 480 x 800 pixel capacitive display is simply lovely. It doesn't have the incredible color saturation of the Nexus One's AMOLED display but it's equally sharp and bright. The 3.5" display has a proximity sensor and automatically rotates using the accelerometer. This is the first capacitive display we've seen that offers 3 pressure sensitivity settings.

The Acer has a 5 megapixel camera with an autofocus lens and no flash. Photo quality isn't among the best and doesn't rival Nokia and Sony Ericsson high end camera phones. Outdoor shots have good color and reasonable clarity but there are JPEG processing artifacts that reduce image depth and reduce clarity of details (leaves on trees and grass that isn't in the foreground both look processed and indistinct). Foreground subject matter is generally quite sharp. Indoor shots are noisy and lack detail unless you've got very good lighting. As we mentioned, the shutter button is hard to press so be careful to not move the phone when pressing it.

Video max resolution is VGA at 20fps in .3GP format. The quality won't wow you if you've been using the iPhone 3GS or a high end Samsung or Nokia camera phone, but it's not bad and is certainly better than the Motorola Backflip's video.

The phone has a GPS that was quick to get a fix in our tests, and like all Android phones, it works with Google Maps. Google Maps has layers and even street view but there are no spoken turn-by-turn directions since that feature requires Android 2.0 or newer.

Though underclocked, the Liquid's 1350mAh battery is only good for a day of moderate use on a charge. This is still a fast CPU, and the large display and 3G wireless are power-hungry. It's no worse than Motorola phones running MOTOBLUR, but our Nexus One lasts about 50% longer on a charge. As 3G smartphones go, the Acer isn't going to win the Energizer bunny prize but it can make it through the day.

The Acer Liquid A1 is a solid high end Android smartphone. The no-contract price isn't bad, in fact it's less expensive than the Nexus One. We like the sharp and bright high resolution display, the overall design and fast CPU. We'd like to see a newer version of the Android OS, but that's a problem with many recent Android smartphones-- they just don't ship with the latest OS. Since the Liquid lacks heavy manufacturer software customizations vs. HTC Sense, MOTOBLUR and Samsung TouchWiz, the Liquid is good for those who want and like vanilla Android. If you're looking for a high end Android phone that works with AT&T 3G (in most but not all locations), the Acer Liquid is definitely worth a look. It's a phone we wouldn't mind using as a daily driver.

The optical d-pad up front is a mixed bag. We found it hard to control and superfluous given the touch screen just above. You can adjust the touch pad's sensitivity and turn it off. The display itself works wonderfully with touch, but alas there's no multi-touch and thus no pinch zoom. The touch-sensitive buttons below the display require a firmer touch than the display which is as it should be, in our opinion.

The display is sharp, colorful and bright. The resolution is the same as that on the HTC Hero, MyTouch 3G and Droid Eris, and while it's not as impressive as the Droid and Nexus One, it's more than adequate. The phone is responsive both in terms of touch screen and performance, and we didn't find ourselves wishing for the Droid.

Here's our 7 minute video review of the Motorola Devour that includes a comparison with the Droid.

Like all Android phones, the Devour ships with Google sync for calendar, contacts and Gmail. It has Google Maps, Google Talk IM, Google search and Google's YouTube player. Moto adds their MS Exchange sync connector. The standard music player and photo/video viewer are on board and QuickOffice (MS Office document viewer) is included.

Verizon software includes VZ Navigator, V Cast Music and V Cast Video. VZ Navigator was a bit slow to re-route (it took 30 seconds for it to offer a new route) but other than that, it worked well.

The Devour has very good voice quality for both incoming and outgoing voice, and the speakerphone is loud and clear. Motorola is known for their strong reception, and the Devour is better than average but not as good as the Droid which manages about 8 -db stronger signal when tested in the same location. Nuance's voice dialing works well and we're glad to see it on board, and the phone played well with several current Bluetooth headsets.

EV-DO Rev. A handles the Devour's fast data connection, and web pages loaded quickly. Android Market applications likewise downloaded speedily and email is a breeze. The phone supports Gmail, POP3, IMAP and MS Exchange email.

The phone comes with news and weather widgets, MOTOBLUR's collection of social networking widgets and and you can download more from the Android Market.

Ouch. A powerful smartphone that's always keeping up with myriad social network status updates? Don't expect this to be the energizer bunny of Android phones. Like the Cliq, the Devour takes a hit thanks to MOTOBLUR though it does have 3 battery conservation settings (go broke, middle of the road and miserly). On the least conservative setting, the phone lasted just a day with light use. Thankfully you can swap in a spare battery if needed. The standard Lithium Ion battery is 1400 mAh capacity, which is decent enough by smartphone standards.

The Motorola Devour is (literally) a solid Android smartphone with a strong set of features. MOTOBLUR is a big part of this package, and we recommend it if social networking is your thing. Of course, you can turn off most MOTOBLUR features if you just like the hardware, but then Moto's own Droid is worth a look since it has a higher resolution display and a newer version of the Android OS. Given the relatively close pricing, unless $50 over the course of your two year contract is that dear, you should choose between these two based on MOTOBLUR vs. vanilla Android, features and the look. The Droid is thinner, but some find the design off-putting (we think it looks better than the Devour).

We like the colorful and responsive display, fast performance and integrated Verizon services. The GPS is a bit less responsive than other current smartphones, but it doesn't drop a fix (the problem may be with VZ Navigator more than the hardware since Google Maps performed well after an initial slow first fix). The battery life isn't a selling point and the keyboard, though roomy, is low travel.

While HP's smartphones have had excellent voice quality and volume since the hw6915 that preceded the 910c, the Glisten has average voice quality and its earpiece isn't particularly loud. Incoming voice is clear with very light background hiss but outgoing voice sounds digitized and this was augmented with many of the Bluetooth headsets we tested with the iPAQ. Volume is average for a GSM phone and it's fine for home and office but it can't combat very noisy public locations. The speakerphone isn't among the best we've heard, but it's suitable to increase volume in a loud place when the earpiece doesn't do the job, and it's fine for in-car navigation using the included AT&T Navigator's spoken directions.

Like all Windows Mobile phones, the Glisten ships with Internet Explorer Mobile and the mobile version of Outlook which is comprised of Messaging (for email, SMS and MMS) and PIM applications (calendar, contacts, tasks and notes). These sync to MS Exchange over-the-air flawlessly and the phone can also sync to Outlook on the desktop via USB. Messaging is a solid email client that works with POP3, IMAP, Gmail and other accounts well, and the Exchange experience is top notch.

Though many Windows phone manufacturers include the superior Opera Mobile browser, HP thinks you can make do with IE. Honestly, the screen is so small and the QVGA resolution so outdated, that we don't consider the Glisten optimal for web browsing anyway. If web browsing is important to you and you plan to do a lot of it, consider a smartphone with a larger, higher resolution display like the HTC Tilt 2. For full HTML sites, you'll see only a fraction of the web page on screen at a given time and selecting links, even with the stylus, takes patience.

Here's our 7 minute video review of the HP Glisten:

The HP Glisten is literally a solid Windows Mobile QWERTY bar phone. It's well-made, sturdy and not bad looking as business phones go. But we can't say it adds anything new or enticing to the mix, and there's little that's changed since the HP 910c (which was a decent smartphone). What has changed is the OS, and unfortunately, Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional is less well suited to the QWERTY bar form factor than was Windows Mobile 6.1. One handed operation is limited and you often must touch the display to get things done. That wouldn't be such a bad thing if the display wasn't so small and the on-screen targets too tiny to easily tap with a finger. The iPAQ is definitely better suited to those who are comfortable with the stylus.

In terms of features and performance for the price, the HP does well and has all the bells and whistles you'd expect on a business smartphone at this or even a slightly higher price. The 528MHz CPU generally does a good job of keeping up with tasks and with 256 megs of RAM, you can leave several applications running simultaneously. Windows Mobile is often maligned, but it offers solid business features including strong MS Exchange support, a built-in Office suite, good security and compatibility with Windows desktops.