Going Mobile

Smart Phones

E-mail, instant messaging, and Web access are big parts of staying connected, but often the most important tool is a good cell phone. Even standard-looking phones have become better at handling data, photos, and video. These are a couple of the best.

Motorola Razr V3

Photograph: Rick Rizner
Photograph: Rick Rizner Price: $599
Service provider: Cingular
Weight: 3.4 ounces
Dimensions: 3.9 by 2.1 by 0.5 inches
Screen quality: Excellent. Photos and video clips looked especially good on the unit's internal, 176-by-220-pixel, 2.2-inch screen. It's bright, and colors are vivid.
Text entry: Fair. Motorola's ITap software is on a par with the T9 system that many cell phones use to assist in text entry, and it arguably has a better interface.
Web worthiness: Fair. The device runs both AOL and Yahoo Messenger IM. It is capable of browsing WAP 2.0 sites, but it does better at displaying text-based content from partner sites like CNNtoGo and The Weather Channel. Phone quality: Very good. For such a thin device, the Razr is surprisingly comfy to hold. Add the Bluetooth and speakerphone capabilities, and you've got an almost indispensable cell phone.
Bottom line: As a standard cell phone, nothing is sexier than the Razr. Plus, you get a VGA camera, a voice recorder, and the ability to play back (but not record) MPEG-4 videos that you've downloaded to the phone's 5MB of memory. However, you can buy a more e-mail-friendly PDA/phone hybrid device--or an entire PC, even--for the same price.
Vendor link: Motorola Razr V3

Grace Aquino

Up Close

Photograph: Rick RiznerAttractive external display: You can screen your calls by viewing the caller's number on the unit's bright, four-line, external display.
Thin is in: The Razr V3 measures a hair under 0.5 inches thick, making this model one of the thinnest phones we've ever tested (see side-view photo at upper right).

Audiovox SMT5600

Photograph: Rick Rizner
Price: $320
Service provider: Cingular
Weight: 3.6 ounces
Dimensions: 4.2 by 1.8 by 0.7 inches
Screen quality: Good. A little grainier than the best phone displays, but easy enough to read both indoors and out.
Text entry: Fair. Like most cell phones without a true QWERTY keyboard, the SMT5600 forces you to enter alphanumeric data by tapping on the dial pad--and even with T9 predictive text entry, doing so is a chore.
Web worthiness: Fair. If you intend to spend much time online, you'll want a PDA/phone hybrid like the Treo 650. But Windows Mobile's Internet Explorer, Outlook, and MSN Messenger give this cell phone decent Web capabilities.
Phone quality: Very good. Hey, it's a phone--and a serviceable one at that, with a dedicated volume control, well-designed buttons, and a user interface that allows you to wrangle contacts with a minimum of key presses.
Bottom line: With a full suite of Windows Mobile entertainment and Internet apps, a Mini SD slot that supports up to 256MB, Bluetooth, a (so-so) camera, and more, this phone comes fully loaded. Yet its trim design keeps things simple, pocketable, and effortlessly portable. Its features also make it a respectable small-capacity music player--but use it to watch videos only if you don't mind tiny, fuzzy images.
Vendor link: Audiovox SMT5600

Harry McCracken

Up Close

Photograph: Rick RiznerThumb friendly: The phone's accurate and intuitive five-way rocker switch and Home/Back buttons let your thumb do most of the work of navigating through the phone's features--a great design for one-handed use.
Media savvy: An IPod or a Portable Media Center it's not, but the SMT5600's Windows Media Player and support for services such as Napster make it more of an entertainment machine than your average cell phone.