First impressions are good. In the box there’s a slipcase with belt-clip, an AC adapter, USB charging/sync cable, wired stereo headset and the battery. The phone itself is smaller than the Bold at 4.4 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches, though a little heavier than the Curve. Up front there’s a gloriously crisp, bright and high-resolution 2.4-inch 480 x 360 display and a backlit QWERTY keyboard; in-between there’s a familiar RIM trackball and the usual call-handling and menu keys.

Down the left-hand side of the phone there’s the voice-control trigger button, while the right-hand side has a 3.5mm headphone socket (which we wish was up top or on the bottom), volume keys, microUSB port and a camera shortcut key. The base of the phone is blank, while there are two keys – for locking and muting – on the top.

BlackBerry handsets are judged in no small part by their keyboards, and the Tour obviously arrives bearing that in mind. The closely packed keys use the same curved bezels as on the Bold, which do a great job of guiding your fingertips or thumbs into place. There’s obviously slightly less room than on the Bold – which is 0.2-inches wider – but it seems a reasonable sacrifice for a more pocket-friendly device. As with the Bold key-feel is excellent, quiet but tactile.

That’s good, because much of the Tour’s strength lies in its messaging abilities. RIM is known for its email client, and that’s no different here: as well as Microsoft Exchange support there’s POP and IMAP account functionality, together with instant messaging for the popular formats.

Elsewhere it’s the same old BlackBerry OS, which means a serviceable if not exactly outstanding browser, fair media player and Office file viewing and editing via Documents To Go. There’s also access to the BlackBerry App World, though you can only install software to the Tour’s 256MB of internal storage, not to a microSD card. There are far fewer titles on offer than in Apple’s App Store, but more than you’ll find in Palm’s version. Happily the OS supports multitasking, which means you, can have audio from the onboard PMP app (or streaming via Pandora) in the background while browsing or checking email.

The browser, though capable of visiting mobile and full HTML sites, pales in comparison to its counterparts on the iPhone, Pre or other platforms. Thanks to the high-resolution display you can fit plenty of page on-screen at any one time; the flip side is that you’ll do plenty of zooming in order to actually read the text. Here, the iPhone 3GS storms ahead, drawing and re-drawing pages far quicker than the Tour can manage. You’ll be accessing all this over Verizon’s EVDO Rev.A network, too, as there’s no WiFi provision on the Tour. Verizon make strong claims about the extent of their coverage, but there are still times we’d rather use faster or more accessible WiFi networks in preference to 3G.

On the back of the Tour there’s a 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording, which we found delivered mixed results. Still images are strong, with reasonable color reproduction; the LED light, like most of its kind, has a narrow sweet spot of effectiveness, outside which it’s either underpowered or prone to washing out detail. The 15fps video the Tour records, however, struggles with fast-moving scenes; that’s a common flaw for phone cameras.

Though we wish it had been fitted somewhere else on the Tour’s body, the 3.5mm headphone socket is a useful touch for anybody planning to make the smartphone their PMP. Tracks can be loaded directly via a microSD card or copied over with a USB connection. There’s also Verizon’s own V Cast Music Store, which charges a significant $1.99 per song; a 4GB memory card is in the box. The Tour is also comparable with Rhapsody, offering unlimited tracks for a $14.99 subscription. Audio quality is good, especially when you ditch the cheap included headset and replace it with your own. We were pleasantly surprised by the integrated speaker, which manages to produce loud and – until you reach the top end of the volume range – mainly crackle-free sound.

That’s handy, as Verizon offer their VZ Navigator GPS app pre-loaded on the Tour, and one of its more appealing features is voice-guidance. VZ Navigator is exactly the same here as it is on other Verizon phones, though the Tour does a decent job of finding – and keeping track of – a GPS signal. After the initial cold fix was past, the Tour could generally re-acquire a lock in under twenty seconds.

The business users that are drawn to BlackBerry devices prize their voice call ability, and the Tour can hold its head up here, too. Whether with a Bluetooth headset (which paired with no problems) or otherwise, sound quality at both ends was very high. Since the Tour offers global roaming, courtesy of an integrated GSM radio and SIM card, you can also use it when abroad; be aware, though, that Verizon’s per-minute fees for this are on the costly side, as is data roaming.

RIM rate the Tour as good for five hours talktime or up to 14 days standby. With heavy use during our initial testing we blasted through more than three-quarters of the indicated charge; more typical use will likely see the Tour go two days without needing attention.

There are a few obvious flaws with the BlackBerry Tour. The absence of WiFi may be mitigated somewhat by the prevalence and speed of Verizon’s EVDO Rev.A network, but it’s still an omission that feels miserly. RIM’s OS, too, may look the best it has in years, but newer rivals such as Palm’s webOS do show it up somewhat. Finally, the browser is reasonable but nothing special, and again other smartphones edge ahead with their Webkit-based apps.

Having looked through Verizon’s call-cost list, we’re a little surprised (and not in a good way) about the cost of international roaming. We suppose we should be grateful that an ostensibly CDMA device has any GSM capabilities whatsoever, but we can’t help thinking that frequent travelers would be better served with an unlocked device and a wallet full of pre-pay SIM cards.

Nonetheless, we won’t level that carrier criticism against the Tour. It does – noted exceptions aside – pretty much everything you ask of it, and in a sturdy, attractive and usable form-factor. The slimmed casing and rock-solid email functionality are a great combination to business-people and messaging-obsessed personal users, to which decent multimedia functionality is the icing on the cake. If a hardware keyboard is a must, then the BlackBerry Tour may just be Verizon’s best device.

BlackBerry Tour for Verizon hands-on demo:

Design-wise, the Dash 3G is relatively sober with a plain black and red color scheme. The left side of the handset has the volume rocker, which is usefully broader than on other models from the company. However unlike most HTC smartphones the charging/headset port is on the right-hand side of the handset, not the bottom. This makes no real difference when recharging, but does get in the way somewhat when using the supplied hands-free headset. T-Mobile also include a headset adapter in the box with the Dash 3G, so that you can use your own headphones; it’s a nice addition, but it does protrude significantly from the side of the smartphone making the whole thing unwieldy.

Up front, there’s a 2.4-inch 65k color LCD display, running at QVGA 320 x 240 resolution. It’s a bright panel, certainly, but compared not only to other Windows Mobile devices but to rival platforms it looks small and light on pixels. Happily the trackball makes navigation relatively speedy, but we did find ourselves wishing for at least a 480 x 320 panel.

The QWERTY keyboard takes up the lower half of the Dash 3G, and here the phone really shines. The keys are hard rubber and domed so as to increase the feeling of space between them, and manage to be both quiet in operation and yet offer plenty of tactile feedback. Backlighting is bright and even, and there are some useful shortcuts along the bottom row for the camera, messaging and silent mode, among other things.

HTC equip the Dash 3G with a microSD card slot, which is a good thing as onboard memory is just 256MB. To access it you have to remove the back cover, but happily you don’t need to remove the battery. Also on the back is the 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera with no flash.

To say Windows Mobile 6.1 is looking old-in-the-tooth is an understatement; it looked that way six months ago, now it’s holding on by a thread. The UI is the same as has always been featured on non-touchscreen “Standard” devices, and loses HTC’s InnerCircle modifications. That feature, introduced on the Snap, allowed you to nominate key contacts and have their communications – such as emails – prioritized to the top of your inbox. Given the relatively pokey display, we wish T-Mobile had left the feature in place.

Still, the Microsoft OS supports Exchange email with push, POP3 and IMAP accounts, and includes a useful wizard to make setting up those accounts straightforward. T-Mobile deliver the Dash 3G pre-loaded with AIM, Windows Live, GTalk, and Yahoo! and MySpace IM clients, and you also get the carrier’s MyFaves app to prioritize certain contacts. As with any other smartphone using Windows Mobile there’s a basic media player with audio and video support; audio quality through the supplied headphones is reasonable, but plugging in your own set shows the Dash 3G is capable of decent sound. Similarly, using Bluetooth A2DP with wireless stereo headphones presented no problems. As with other HTC devices we’ve seen lately, there’s also a dedicated YouTube client which goes some way to making up for the lack of Flash support in the smartphone’s browser.

Our expectations for the 2-megapixel camera were low, but the results were surprisingly good. Lacking a flash and autofocus this is the very definition of point-and-shoot, and obviously benefits from plenty of natural light, but colors are generally accurate and there’s reasonable detail. Video recording is less impressive, with blurring and smudging in all but the stillest scenes. As with other Windows Mobile phones you can quickly send images or short clips as MMS messages or emails, but T-Mobile also throw in access to their own T-Mobile Album.

Performance from the new 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor presented no issues, with the smartphone proving snappy in navigating between apps and loading pages. Battery life is rated at 8.5hrs GSM talktime (5hrs 3G) or up to 15 days GSM standby (20 days 3G); we’re still putting the battery through its paces, but so far the Dash 3G seems to be easily capable of lasting a couple of days even with push-email turned on.

In terms of wireless connectivity, as well as T-Mobile’s 3G connection there’s also WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. Oddly lacking is support for UMA, meaning the Dash 3G won’t work with T-Mobile’s Hotspot@Home unlimited VoIP service. We’re also left in the dark as to whether the carrier will be offering upgrades to Windows Mobile 6.5 when the new OS is released; locking yourself into a two-year agreement with a device that might be significantly outdated in a few months doesn’t seem like a great idea to us.

GPS was quick to find a fix, aided by the QuickGPS satellite-caching app, and worked both in Google Maps and TeleNav Navigation. The latter offers turn-by-turn directions and works well, but it’s worth noting that T-Mobile only includes a fourteen-day trial of the service; beyond that it’s subscription-based.

Still, our feelings about the T-Mobile Dash 3G are positive, even with an aging OS, missing VoIP support and miserly TeleNav trial. That’s in no small part down to the excellent keyboard and what looks to be stellar battery life; the Dash 3G makes no real pretence at being a multimedia maven – though obviously it will do the A/V basics – but instead takes everything good about the original Dash and makes it better. Faster data and a slicker casing join sturdy build quality and add up to a highly usable business phone. Anyone who prizes keyboard feel above all else should definitely have it on their shortlist.

T-Mobile Dash 3G unboxing and hands-on video:

Starting from the left is the Send key, followed by the Left Soft key and Home key. On the right hand side of the trackball is the Previous Screen/Back key, Right Soft key End key. The Charger/Headset Jack resides on the top right hand side and the Volume keys are on the left hand side of the Dash 3G.It has a 2-megapixel camera with digital zoom on the back. Unfortunately, HTC forgot to add a flash of any kind. Positioned immediately above the camera is the speakerphone, and yes voice-activated dialing is possible.

Under the hood is T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G network and Wi-Fi supporting Dual-band UMTS/HSDPA (AWS Band IV and Band I). The Dash 3G is by all means a worldphone thanks to quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz). There’s also assisted GPS with location base services by Telenav. Taking off the back cover reveals a 1500 mAh battery, SIM slot and microSD card slot right below it. In fact, the only place you’ll find HTC branding on the Dash 3G is on top of the battery. Battery life is yet to be determined and we’ll report results in the review.

While a full review is forthcoming, my overall initial impression of the Dash 3G is – wow, love at first sight. It feels great, has an exceptionally awesome QWERTY keyboard and as a big bonus, Windows Mobile 6.1 is speedy. Seeing the new Dash 3G brought back oodles of memories I’d shared with the first Dash.

It has been too long since I was this excited about a “smartphone” powered by Windows Mobile.

T-Mobile Dash 3G unboxing and hands-on video:

Saying that anticipation has been high for the Nokia N97 is an understatement. The handset’s spec sheet reads like a must-have list: 5-megapixel camera, triband HSPA, WiFi and Bluetooth, plus a 3.5-inch touchscreen, hardware keyboard and 32GB of standard storage, all features which are just as relevant to flagship smartphones today as they were when the N97 was first announced.

First, the good parts. The design of the N97 may be relatively sober, but build-quality is very high; the matte-finish plastics are tough but surprisingly light, and the hinge is sturdy and reassuring. Anybody who regularly switches devices or wants to use their own peripherals won’t be disappointed: the standardized connectors like mini-USB, 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD mean you won’t be carrying a bundle of proprietary leads and accessories. Nokia haven’t forgotten that a smartphone is, at its core, a phone, either; call performance is as good as we’ve come to expect from the company, with the full-bodied earpiece and well balanced microphone meaning that those on each end of the call have a decent audio experience. The speakerphone isn’t, perhaps, the loudest we’ve heard, but it does rate highly as one of the clearest.

That phone performance continues when it comes to connectivity, with the N97 proving tenacious with a 3G signal and offering speedy browsing speeds. Using AT&T’s network we had no problems with lag or premature disconnects, and it was rare to see anything but full or almost-full bars on the signal meter. Battery life is also decent, though you’d expect nothing less from a 1,500mAh Li-Ion pack. Nokia quote up to 360 minutes of WCDMA talktime (up to 570 of GSM) or 400 hours of WCDMA standby (up to 430 hours GSM); our testing found that they’re reasonable estimates, with the N97 easily capable of lasting a couple of days with moderate use.

Unfortunately, over those days the areas in which the N97 drops the ball will become all too obvious. That hinge may be well put-together, but it’s limited to a single angle; unfortunately, the angle Nokia have picked is not quite right for our tastes. For table-top use, it could do with being slightly more horizontal, unless you’re content to use the phone at arms-length. Either way, you’re faced with a QWERTY keyboard that’s frustratingly lacking in tactile response or finger feedback. Our first-impression was that their shallow travel might be an issue, and that’s turned out to be something of an understatement.

After the promise of such a broad, well-spaced keyboard, the end result is incredibly disappointing. The hard rubber keys themselves are pretty tactile, but their singular lack of travel drains away both accuracy and appeal. It’s a shortcoming shared by the D-pad, too, which means that not only is text-entry impaired but non-touch navigation. We recognize that Nokia had to make some compromises to accommodate the sliding form-factor, but it’s a similar situation in the HTC Touch Pro2 or even the T-Mobile Sidekick and we’d choose their keyboards in a heartbeat. Ironically, the one aspect we thought would present a problem – the offset spacebar – was the easiest thing to get used to.

Bizarrely, having made such a big deal of the text-entry options, Nokia don’t really give much opportunity to use them out of the box. There’s a Facebook client with a homepage widget and support for messaging, but other than that there’s no IM client and no threaded SMS or MMS. The Facebook app works well, and the homescreen widget shows real-time updates rather than just acting as a shortcut, but right now the Ovi download store is looking relatively barren of similarly well-coded software.

The camera offers 5-megapixels, autofocus and an LED flash, but falls a little short of some of Nokia’s more photography-centric devices. It’s certainly sufficient for taking outdoor shots, though the LED flash demonstrates the usual minute sweet-spot outside of which subjects are either washed out or hopelessly dark. Still, colors are generally well preserved and the autofocus is quick to lock on, and only indoor noise really shows the limits of the optics.

Video recording is also possible, either in widescreen 640 x 360 to fit the letterbox display or in more standard 640 x 480 VGA resolution. You can also upload content directly to online galleries from the handset, which is a neat trick, though it doesn’t seem possible to do this automatically. Video quality falls short of the iPhone 3GS, showing periodic blocking and smears when panned quickly or attempting to capture fast-moving subjects, though at least the capacious memory means you can store plenty of footage.

That’s if, of course, you’re not using the N97 as a media player. Audio quality is strong, and aided by the fact that you’re free to use your own headphones with the standard 3.5mm jack. The N97 not only has an FM radio but a transmitter as well, meaning you can pipe audio from the smartphone out through a nearby tuner. This is particularly useful in the car, though it’s worth noting that sound quality takes a significant dive as with any FM transmitter. There’s also Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP, which worked with no problems with the test headset we tried.

Files can be transferred quickly over the USB 2.0 connection, but the range of supported file types isn’t all that comprehensive. MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA audio files can be played, but only MPEG4 or 3GP video files are supported. That’s a shame, as the N97’s decent screen quality would make it a neat companion for impromptu DivX or H.264 films. We’re also distinctly underwhelmed by the media apps, which lack any of the visual appeal of rival devices. Buttons are large and displays clear, and there’s a handy homescreen widget for audio control, but it all feels like the basic PMP functionality you’d get on an entry-level handset, not something with 32GB or more of capacity and an eye on taking out your iPod.

It’s S60 5th Edition that provides perhaps the biggest usability frustration, though. Nokia’s OS is, in the face of attractive and modern platforms like that the iPhone or Palm’s webOS, looking a little visually tired, and the touch enabling they’ve done feel half-hearted. Not only is there little in the way of visual gloss that users have come to expect, such as screen transitions or animations, but the way touch has been implemented seems an afterthought. There are no gestures or similar controls, instead buttons have merely been made chunkier and menus larger. There’s also a slight graininess, which is visible from some angles, which mars an otherwise decent LCD panel with high resolution.

One of the most obvious areas where touch on the N97 falls short is in the browser. Rendering remains speedy, but Nokia have unfathomably removed the full-page preview map, which used to pop up in the corner and show whereabouts you are on the page. Since there’s no multitouch, zooming uses a slider control or a double-tap. On the plus side, the presence of Flash Lite 3.0 means that YouTube videos can be watched from the browser itself, generally playing smoothly. However, while Internet browsing on full touchscreen devices is usually an effortless, straightforward affair, there’s nothing really in the N97 where the technology puts it any further ahead than the company’s own non-touchscreen phones.

To sum up, our disappointment in the touch-amendments to S60 5th Edition for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic pretty much all applies to the N97. Nokia have made no noticeable improvements to how touch is handled, and while that was frustrating but perhaps bearable on the 5800 it’s simply not good enough on the N97. This isn’t about resistive or capacitive; it’s about fundamental usability that goes beyond replacing a D-pad with a finger. RIM had the good grace to listen to criticism about the first-gen Storm and seemingly address it for the upcoming second-gen version; we can only assume that the N97 has been so long in development that it predates any significant work on S60 that may be going on.

In our first-impressions, we described the Nokia N97 as a serious, business-like phone. That remains our lasting impression, despite the multimedia features on offer. Unfortunately, usability issues like the less than mediocre touch functionality and lackluster QWERTY keyboard are likely to prove just as annoying to business users as they do to everyone else. There are certainly some strong points to the N97, and its performance as a phone continues to impress, but at $650 unlocked and contract-free it’s an expensive way to make clear calls. Perhaps the months of anticipation have worked against it, but we’d struggle to recommend the Nokia N97 over its smartphone rivals.

Nokia N97 unboxing video:

Apple are keen to remind us that the “S” here stands for Speed, and our initial experience with the iPhone 3G S certainly bears that out.  Not only do applications – both native and third-party – load more quickly, but graphics in visually-intensive games show a marked improvement in the few titles we’ve already downloaded.  More useful day-to-day, perhaps, is the way the iPhone 3G S now whips through email-stuffed inboxes and contact-loaded address books.  This was always one of our key frustrations with the original iPhone and iPhone 3G, and together with the storage boost is arguably worth the $100 premium over the newly-discounted iPhone 3G 8GB.

The camera – now 3-megapixels with autofocus and video recording – still lacks manual settings, and the white balance and exposure remains over-enthusiastic, but we’re enjoying the touch-focus and straightforward clip trimming tools.  We’d enjoy it all the more if we could edit copies of individual clips, rather than irreversibly edit the originals, though.

The last two significant hardware changes are the new digital compass, which now means the iPhone can tell in which direction you’re facing, and the prolonged battery life.  The former will probably only come into its own once third-party turn-by-turn PND apps arrive, but the latter we’re hoping to see the effect of even sooner.  It’s obviously too early to make any particular judgments on runtime, but we’ll be watching closely to see if the iPhone 3G S really does last longer than the iPhone 3G.

Two big questions remain: is the iPhone 3G S worth upgrading to, and is it the best smartphone on the market?  You’ll have to wait until our full iPhone 3G S review next week to hear the answers, but until then check out our full first-impressions post over at SlashGear.

With CyberShot branding, it’s no surprise that Sony Ericsson are pushing the C510’s imaging capabilities before anything else. The 12.5mm-thick body hides a 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera with an dual-LED flash, and onto that the company have heaped Smile Shutter and Face Detection. These work reasonably well, but there’s more delay than we’d like in-between hitting the dedicated shutter release button and the shot actually taking. As for the LED flash, it suffers the usual problem of having a very narrow sweet-spot: it’s all too easy to get too close, and wash out the subject, or be too far away and not have enough light.

Once taken, photos can be viewed in portrait or landscape orientation, with the C510 flipping between them automatically, and Sony Ericsson load a few editing tools – including an automatic correction for light balance, brightness and contrast – to tweak shots on-device. These can sometimes eke a little more crispness out of a frame, but aren’t really comparable with even the most basic of Photoshop fondling. Happily the 2.2-inch QVGA 320 x 240 display does a decent job of displaying both images and video, the latter of which is recorded at 30fps.

There are a clutch of photo tools on offer, including a panorama mode which helps you line up your panned shots with translucent edge-previews, but it’s undermined by only working in VGA mode. Similarly, attempt to zoom in and the C510 won’t allow it, unless you’re down to just VGA quality. Internal storage is 100MB, with a Memory Stick Micro M2 slot taking cards up to 8GB.

Sony Ericsson preload Google Maps onto the C510, but with no true GPS it’s not something you’d want to rely on for everyday navigation. The C510 instead uses cell-tower triangulation to pinpoint your position, something that works better in densely-populated areas as they tend to have more active towers. Don’t expect accuracy to more than a few streets, however.

More successful is the YouTube client, and though you wouldn’t choose it over a desktop computer were one available, it’s certainly good enough for a casual distraction while out and about. The C510’s UMTS/HSPA 2100MHz support makes for speedy viewing, and the browser and RSS have neat integration with the phone’s homepage, new RSS feeds popping up in a discrete ticker.

Media playback is unchanged from most other non-smartphone Sony Ericsson handsets, with sound quality through the supplied headphones a little better than the average set. That’s good, because the company insists on using its own proprietary connector, rather than offering a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Album art shows up and the TrackID song-title identification service is a neat addition, albeit one you may not actually use all that often, but Sony Ericsson’s confusing and sluggish PC sync software lets the side down.

Call quality, happily, is clear and strong, both through the earpiece and the speakerphone, and the C510 proved tenacious with a signal. The chassis feels sturdy and well put together, with little creaking or flex, and though the blue LED lighting might edge toward cliché it does stay just on the right side of tasteful. Battery life is quoted at 400hrs of standby or 10hrs of GSM talktime (or 4hrs 3G talktime); regular camera use will impact that the most, but if long battery life and ease of use are your top priorities then the C510 should appeal.

Overall, the C510 is a serviceable handset and slots neatly in among the ranks of budget devices. Its appearance – soberly well-judged, rather than glamorous or over-designed – make it a sensible choice, though the specifications don’t particularly stand out in the crowd and the CyberShot branding promises, perhaps, more than it can deliver.

The MiFi 2200 measures 3.5” x 2.3” x 0.4” and weighing 2.05 ounces. Novatel managed to integrate an internal CDMA and Wi-Fi antenna as well as a battery with a large enough capacity to give you four hours of active use and 40 hours of standby time on a single charge. I would imagine that the length of time on “active use” will vary depending on signal strength as well as how many connections are actually connected to the unit – so I won’t know for sure until I can put it through some rigorous tests. For the full review, I plan on benchmarking up and downstream speeds with various number of active connections to the MiFi as well, so make sure to check back in a few days for full results.

The MiFi 2200 is available online and in Verizon Wireless stores for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. There are two price plans available:

• $39.99 monthly access for 250 MB monthly allowance and 10 cents per megabyte overage

• $59.99 monthly access for 5 GB monthly allowance and 5 cents per megabyte overage

The overage charges are steep so make sure to watch your usages. There’s a third option for those that don’t want to be locked into a contract/monthly service plan, by using Verizon’s DayPass with the MiFi for $15 for 24-hour access if you buy the unit at full retail price.

“The MiFi 2200 gives more than 86 million customers access to the nation’s largest and most reliable 3G network,” said Mike Lanman, vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless. “With projected growth rates of over 30 percent for Wi-Fi mobile phones, MiFi will be of great benefit to both business customers and consumers. It gives customers the flexibility to transform their Wi-Fi-enabled consumer electronics into Mobile Broadband devices and to choose how and when they need to be connected at a price point that will match most budgets.”

“The MiFi 2200 offers unprecedented possibilities for students, mobile workers and families to all stay connected while on the go,” said Peter Leparulo, chairman and chief executive officer, Novatel Wireless. “We are very pleased to work closely with Verizon Wireless to deliver the most advanced connectivity solutions possible to our combined customers.”

When you pull the LX out of your pocket, you’ll still be making a statement. The phone retains the iconic swivel design and form factor. The major change to the body came as a slimming of the phone, and elongating of the device overall. The Sidekick LX will fit nice in most late teen to adult hands, but 14 year old high school girls might have some trouble holding it comfortably when making phone calls. If ever there was a device that needed a touchscreen and an accelerometer, it’s the Sidekick LX. The giant display is gorgeous, but I kept wanting to navigate with my fingers rather than the track ball. Touching would be more intuitive, and the trackball doesn’t provide as smooth of an experience as it should. I often would scroll through the hemisphere-style menu and overshoot because the interface would lag behind the scrolling. When I tried to scroll back, I would again overshoot simply because the trackball wasn’t sensitive enough. I was able to adjust the settings to the point where it was manageable, but the interface seemed a little counter-intuitive.

As far as the phone software itself, it’s received some upgrades that previous Sidekick users will probably love. With built-in Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook clients, users can access mobile versions of the popular social networking sites to stay updated on the go. This is where the main draw of the Sidekick is supposed to be: the ability to connect users with their texts, email, chat and social networks. The original Sidekick was a pioneer with this feature set, and gave users one of the first non-smartphone QWERTY keyboards to make bastardizing the English language all that much easier, lol. Yet the LX didn’t seem to update ANY of those features. You’re still limited to 100 text messages in your inbox, and I was only allowed to add 3 external email accounts. The AIM and Yahoo chat clients worked well, but were just like any other mobile phone chat clients. I’m sorry, but shouldn’t a phone that champions mobile networking and chatting feature some insanely different and improved software to set it apart from the rest? Using Facebook and Twitter were fine, but that’s it. It was just any other mobile browsing experience this side of a smartphone.

It dawned on me that this isn’t a revolutionary, groundbreaking device. The Sidekick is happy with what it created for the world, and every mobile phone after it copied the mobile social networking features. The LX is simply an update for current users of the Sidekick who want a new phone with some crazy-cool lights and a gorgeous display. Confusing menus and buttons aside, there is nothing wrong with the LX at all. Instead, I’ve been spoiled by phones that are now mimicking the iPhone, and having never used the first Sidekick, I didn’t really understand the design philosophy of the device. Again, the phone is a solid phone for those who are used to this sort of thing. They’re going to love the new look, the display, and the incorporated notifications for their mobile applications (I found myself loving the Twitter updates right on my home screen). The phone calls were clear, and the camera takes surprisingly good pictures for a 3.2 MP camera (though the flash had a tendency to wash out the photo if you were too close). The keyboard was very nice to type on, and provided for almost no typos at all. The menu system, after a long confusing time trying to figure out which button did which (manuals? Who needs those?) started to make sense, and navigating the phone became less painful. It was as if the spirit of Paris Hilton was guiding me…wait, she’s not dead yet? Never mind.

As I said before, I had certain expectations of this phone that were determined by my experience with other mobile devices such as the iPhone. The phone wasn’t meant for me, and therefore, my expectations didn’t match the purpose of this device. The LX’s solid construction, comfortable keyboard, bright display and thinner form factor will appeal to current users, and potentially text-addicts who have been eying a simpler phone than a Blackberry. This is a text centric device, that also happens to browse the internet and make phone calls; a social butterfly’s Sidekick if you will.

Video demo of the T-Mobile 3G Sidekick LX coming shortly.

The Versa allows the user to swipe through 4 different home screens (3 when the keyboard isn’t attached) and the touch screen responds extremely fast. The haptic feedback is a nice touch, and the responsiveness of the touchscreen is very well executed by LG.  It definitely outperforms the LG Dare, which was the last major touchscreen player from LG on Verizon.

The big draw with the LG Versa is the detachable keyboard.  It works well, and it is definitely sturdier than I was expecting.  However, it adds considerable bulk to the device, and that cheesy faux-leather look.  The external display is a nice addition, with the ability to take and end calls with the keyboard on, and you can still talk through the leather cover. I tried resting the phone as if it were a laptop, keyboard out and phone folded back, but the Versa was just too heavy, and it made typing on a surface too difficult to manage.

The Versa sounded great on all my phone calls, and Verizon didn’t drop a call once. I had to use the speakerphone on a few occasions, and I was very pleased with the performance. Calls came through loud and clear on it, and I never had a hard time understanding the caller.

Other nice little nuances include a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor and a very sensitive accelerometer for changing screen orientation.

Overall, the Versa is a great phone, and a definite progression in Verizon’s touchscreen lineup. My only concern is that the small screen and reliance on the keyboard might make every day use a bit frustrating. After the novelty wears off, carrying around that keyboard, which swaps with the battery cover or vice versa (ha, wait, I get it), will get tiring.

The LG Versa is out on Verizon Wireless for $199 after discount and with a 2-year contract.

The phone menu is called a “smart menu” and includes the top picks for Media, messaging, settings, etc., and allows you to scroll through them quickly to find what you’re looking for.  The menus have a nice, refined look, like they got the idea from Windows Vista (if you think that’s “refined”).

The browser is definitely an item of interest. It’s relatively full featured, if cramped on the undersized screen, yet it features tabs and FLASH, besting the iPhone with the ability to play Flash content.  However, the UI is cluttered on that small screen, and your finger presses better be dead on, or you’ll find yourself hitting the back button frequently.

The Samsung Memoir, out on T-Mobile, is the follow-up device to the Behold-a 5MP camera with phone (with this phone, it’s a distinction because the devices don’t look like camera phones, but rather phone cameras).  It features the TouchWiz interface, which gives a very smooth and snappy response.The phone had lots of nice subtle features that made the overall experience enjoyable.

Size and feel

The Memoir is basically the size of a point and shoot, which I feel is the point.  It’s got some heft to it, giving a feel of quality, and it’s just the right size.  I say that because if the Memoir was any larger it would be too big.  As it stands, the device fits well in your pocket, and is a comfortable size in hand.  At first I thought the protruding optics on the back of the phone (or is it the front of the camera?) would pose a problem, but it isn’t noticeable when being used or carried.

Call Quality and Phone Functionality

The Memoir performed well on phone calls. I had clear reception and sound on all the calls I made, and the speakers were apparently high quality. The phone interface was easy to navigate and the UI performed smoothly.  The phone had decent reception most times, and I never had a dropped call.

TouchWiz and the UI

I like this interface. The widget placement on the home screen makes it easy to get to the things you want easily, and is probably the first interface that successfully uses widgets.  The most-used widget is the myFav’s which no longer takes up the whole display, and can easily be relocated to any position on the screen.  Using the full size keyboard for texting was accurate though the pop-up letter placement goes to the side, which is generally covered by your thumbs, so I have no idea why Samsung chose to do that.  Otherwise, there were few typing mistakes during my testing.

Camera

The 8MP is a lot, but in my testing, I found that it couldn’t really compete with a less expensive point and shoot.  The xenon flash was a nice addition, but the photos turned up soft as a result of all the noise correction the camera was doing.  In all reality, the 8MP is a bit much. I appreciate that it’s able to produce large, relatively high quality photos, but the sensors of the camera are so small, the photos still look like they were from a camera phone…except bigger.

Browsing and Internet

T-Mobile’s 3G is still in its infancy, but I had some great coverage, and my browsing speeds were relatively fast.  I loaded websites on the HTML web browser in roughly 30 seconds or so. Using the browser was also one of the better experiences I’ve had on a touch screen (non-iPhone) device.  Scrolling was smooth, and general operation was nice.

Final Impressions

The Memoir is a quality phone, with a hyped up camera that really doesn’t make a big enough impact to influence the decision to buy the phone or not.  The Behold has relatively all the same features, same form factor, and a 5MP camera for a $100 less than the Memoir’s $249.  If you’re looking at this phone, I would consider the Behold instead, or another phone, and use the money you saved to buy a decent point and shoot camera.

The first photos in the gallery are from the Memoir. You can see what I mean on the softness. All the noise reduction gets in the way of taking clear and sharp pictures.

Nice fit in the hand.

Hardware, Design, and Using the Phone

Palm didn’t depart too radically from their popular Centro design with a few exceptions. Seemingly as with all phones these days, Palm opted for Piano (glossy) Black all over, which of course is a fingerprint magnet. The Treo Pro has a round button style to it that seems to try to break the boring design styles of previous phones, and it loses the Centro’s silver band of buttons across the middle. The device is substantially slimmer than previous Treo phones, instead being comparable to an iPhone 3G in physical dimension. The phone fits well in the hand, and has a decent weight to it, enough to give the impression of being sturdily built as well as to remind you if you forget it somewhere because of the weight missing from your pocket.

Against an iPod Touch 2nd Generation

The 320X320 display is a basic resistive touchscreen that Palm users will be familiar with, providing a somewhat cramped workspace for using the included stylus with Windows Mobile. The lack of screen real estate provides for a lackluster browsing experience on the web especially compared to other phones on the market today. With larger displays so common these days, one wonders why Palm doesn’t just ditch the almost excessive use of black plastic in favor of a bigger display.

The internal components are modest, weighing in with a 528MHz processor, 802.11 b/g wi-fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, and 256MB of RAM. The camera takes decent quality pictures at 2.0 megapixels with enough lighting, and the phone will support up to a 32GB microSD card for all of the Mobile Office documents and media files your heart desires. Call quality was impressive to me. I had no trouble understanding the person at the other end, and my voice was heard clearly. The speakerphone works surprisingly well for such a small speaker on the backside of the phone.

My only real complaint with the physical aspects of the Treo Pro is the keyboard, which feels a bit cramped for prolonged use, and the jelly-like keys don’t give the depression and solid feel I’m looking for so I know I’ve hit the right key. I don’t have terribly large thumbs, but after a few emails, the cramped keyboard was driving me crazy enough to wish for T9.

Software

Not much needs to be said about Windows Mobile 6.1 on the Treo Pro. There’s nothing noticeably different about this flavor than most others. Users will find it familiar, as it is cumbersome and convoluted with menus and notifications. Windows Mobile does run pretty snappy on this device, but using it was still tiring on such a small screen and keyboard. It will be familiar and well suited for the users who have always used Windows Mobile and rely on it for their daily jobs.

Final Impressions

The phone is a good phone. It works well, has decent hardware, and anyone who decides they’re too impatient to wait for the Palm Pre will probably be satisfied with this device. The real question remains however: Why would Palm put out the Treo Pro with the Pre launch so close? Their numbers couldn’t be hurting much more, so why not wait to make this a webOS device, or if not that, Windows Mobile 6.5? What it comes down to is the end user. In my opinion, Palm needed a new device to stay relevant in this market, and the user base for the Palm Treo Pro is going to be the same businessmen and women that rely on and are familiar with Windows Mobile 6.1 for their out of office workings. The Treo Pro, while not shining through in any particular area, still holds its own as a Windows Mobile device, if that’s what you’re looking for. It most certainly satisfies the needs of the desk warrior who isn’t too concerned with having the latest and greatest technology, but rather just needs something to work that they’re familiar with; the individual who doesn’t want to risk trying a new device and having to go through the effort of relearning and redoing all of their work with a new OS. The Treo Pro is meant to satisfy that need. However, that market is slowly drying up as the iPhone 3G becomes more geared towards businesses, and RIM produces faster and better phones running their proven Blackberry OS.

But remember, webOS and the Pre are meant to be Palm’s savior, keeping them relevant in the world of mobile phones. The Treo Pro is more of a follow-up to the Centro, and another entry into the business/smartphone market. The Treo Pro isn’t a game changer, but that’s not what it’s meant to be.

There’s a cut out for the 2.0-megapixel camera and holes for the speaker located on the back of the case.  On the front is a monochrome OLED sub-display for keeping track of the time, Caller ID, battery and signal status.  Towards the bottom is QWERTY SEND key and QWERTY END key.  The left hand side house the 2.5mm headset jack, dedicated camera key, volume rocker, cover lock latch and charger port.  The microSD slot is located on the top right hand side, which is not accessible if you’re using the case.  I didn’t experience any issues using the Versa with the case on; matter of fact, it feels very comfortable.  The Versa turns on instantly whether it is opened in landscape or portrait mode with zero wait time.

I really like how the keyboard lights up in the dark!

One big concern I had was whether I can do text entry without the physical keyboard.  The answer is YES – in both landscape and portrait mode.

Overall, I really like the LG Versa and look forward to testing it out over the next few days before I can fully give you a reasonable review.  If you have questions or concerns, please drop me a comment below and I promise answer them to the best of my abilities.  So make sure to check back on PhoneMag.com for my full review; meanwhile enjoy the unboxing ceremony video and image gallery.