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Hitesh Raj Bhagat

Saturday, December 16, 2006

The dumb phones' days are numbered. Enter smartphones, which are climbing the popularity charts and are here to stay. Loosely defined, a smartphone is a notch above ordinary phones and enables advanced functionality akin to a PDA, but usually without a touch screen. Some smartphones come with proprietary operating systems, while others can have the popular Symbian operating system or Windows Mobile.

So what can this little device do for you? All smartphones will have expandable memory, media players, downloadable apps, several modes of wireless data transfer (Bluetooth, infrared, Wi-Fi), and will handle all your personal information management needs. Many will even take care of emails, Internet and wireless communication.

In this guide, you'll see several types of phones, listed according to their manufacturer. Our recommendations are clearly highlighted with a photograph and a short description. All the rest will be in the price list.

	6670  Rs 9,500 One of the older Series 60 platforms, the 6670 has a good camera and an appealing design. This one wins because of a good feature set available at an affordable price.		N70  Rs 17,000 One of the first N series devices; you get a good camera, screen and the latest version of the Series 60 platform
	E61  Rs 18,500 A clean, simple, no-nonsense design aimed squarely at business users. Even a camera is done away with to keep the cost down. Keyboard is easy to use and apps abound.		N80  Rs 24,500 A slider N series phone with Wi-Fi, this one has a lot of functionality in a small package.
	N91 8GB  Rs 25,000 The original hard disk phone from Nokia has seen an upgrade, doubling the original capacity of 4GB. Good if you want that extra capacity and yet don't want to carry around a separate MP3 player.		N73 music edition  Rs 26,000 In our opinion, this is the best N series phone yet. Well built, sleek, great 3.2 MP camera, and all the other features you might need.
			N93  Rs 34,000 This phone is highly regarded for its great video capture quality (640 x 480 @ 30fps). Also a Series 60 phone, the flip can open up normally or to the side like a laptop-a unique feature.

	K750i Rs 10,000 The original and the best with a great 2 MP camera. Affordable, good looking, easy to use, packed with features, and overall excellent value for money.		W810i Rs 15,000  Successor to the popular W800i, the W810i adds a sharper color scheme and display. It's got a good camera and is great for music like all others in the Walkman series.
	K790i  Rs 18,000  One of the best camera phones around currently. Amazing design and functionality, with a great screen to boot. The Xenon flash makes taking photos at night a breeze.		W950i  Rs 30,000  This phone blurs the line between PDAs and smartphones. Powered by Symbian UIQ (like the P990i), it has 4GB of flash memory and a touch screen.

	L7 Rs 8,000 Abhishek's phone! Super slim and sexy, but the camera could have been better. Still, the overall design and appeal wins us over.		KRZR V3i Rs 17,000  The new launch, inspired by the RAZR, but slimmer, sleeker and glossier. Better camera and overall functionality but a higher price. Metal gives way to plastic.
	RAZR V3i Rs 9,000 This has still got a lot of steam. V3i has a better camera and expandable memory. Comes at a great price too. And it feels expensive and super sturdy even now.

	X820  Rs 12,000  So thin, it looks like it might break (but it won't). Brilliant screen with superb clarity and depth.		D830  Rs 17,500  Thin in a clamshell design. Part of the Ultra range and has solid build quality and loads of features.
D900 Rs 22,000  3.2 MP camera in a slim, slider design and even direct TV out to playback videos and photos. It's quad band and weighs only 85g.

KG300  Rs 9,990  Explosives for cheap! Fully loaded with functionality, great screen and great value for money. Look for the review in this issue.

XDA Stealth  Rs 35,000  Looks like a slider smartphone, but hides complete PDA functionality and power. Windows Mobile 5.0 and touch screen complete the package.

Xphone IIm  Rs 21,000  Great looks and music capability with dedicated playback buttons. Windows Mobile for smartphone enables all the functionality you need.

SP5m Rs 18,000  Similar to the Xphone IIm (even made by the same manufacturer, HTC), i-Mate differs only in price and color.

Smartflip  Rs 23,500  Windows Mobile in a sleek, metallic design. Good screen and unique keypad design. Flips easy and works well.

Source: Living Digital