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Kyocera Wireless has begun selling its latest Palm OS-based cellular telephone in the U.S.

The Kyocera 7135, which has been shown in prototype form since TechXNY in New York in the middle of 2002, is a follow-up to the company's 6035 Palm OS-based phone.

The new phone features a complete redesign so it looks more like a traditional, albeit large, clamshell-style cell phone than a Palm PDA with a phone keyboard attached. It also differs from the earlier model in its 65,000 color LCD screen.

The clamshell design means the main screen and graffiti text input area have to be separated. The main screen occupies most of the upper half of the phone, while the graffiti area occupies the top of the lower half just above a row of PDA control buttons and, below them, a conventional telephone keypad.

PDA Portion

The PDA portion of the phone is based on version 4.1 of the Palm operating system, which is not the latest version but is one of the most used. A Motorola Dragonball processor running at 33 MHz powers the PDA, which also has 16MB of memory and a slot for Multimedia Card or Secure Digital expansion cards.

Those specifications make the PDA portion of the Kyocera 7135 similar to Palm's m515 handheld, which has similar processor, memory, screen, OS, and expansion slot specifications. However, expect to pay a hefty premium over the Palm's $350 price tag for all of the extra features offered by the device, not least of which is the integrated cellular telephone.

Like the previous model, the 7135 is a tri-band phone operating on CDMA 800-MHz and 1,900-MHz bands and the AMPS analog system. The CDMA portion of the phone also supports CDMA2000 1X, which supports data transmission at speeds of up to 153kbps.

Software Side

Other software features include an MP3 player and PhotoSuite software that allows users to download images from a personal computer directly into the handset's memory for displaying on its screen. There is also a speakerphone, voice-activated dialing, SMS, and e-mail and browsers for access to HTML or WAP Web sites.

The phone measures 3.9 inches by 2.4 inches by 1.2 inches and weighs 6.6 ounces. Its battery provides enough power for 3.5 hours of talk time and 160 hours of standby time, according to the manufacturer.

The Kyocera 7135 is currently available through Alltel in the U.S. at a price of $650 for the phone only or $550 if combined with a service plan. In Australia, where the phone went on sale first, it is available through Telstra for $875.

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