Hands On: Keyboard-Capable Cell Phones

The moment I laid my thumbs on Sidekick's QWERTY keyboard, I was hooked. I went from being the happy owner of a basic cell phone to being an aspiring owner of a smart phone. Even though I had looked at other keyboard-capable phones--including Handspring's Treo 180 and Nokia's Communicator 9000--before the Sidekick came along, I didn't really warm up to PDA phones until the Sidekick. It won me over for some very good reasons: It was fun to use, and (despite its small keyboard) thumb-typing messages on it wasn't half bad.

The Sidekick became the standard by which I judge other QWERTY phones, and over the years I've thumb-typed on the keyboards of many of them. Several of the latest keyboard-capable handsets are in the same league with the Sidekick, and each has its own forte. Here are my picks for the best QWERTY phones, by application type.

E-Mail Champs

For handling e-mail, nothing beats a BlackBerry's speed, reliability, and ease of use. These devices really are an e-mail addict's best friend.

With the BlackBerry Curve 8320 from T-Mobile and the BlackBerry 8820 from AT&T, you can now hop onto a Wi-Fi hotspot--a new feature for BlackBerrys. Wi-Fi gives your phone another way to establish an Internet connection, in addition to using the carrier's data network. The key benefit of Wi-Fi is that it's a faster connection than the EDGE network used by AT&T and T-Mobile. (AT&T does have speedier data connections--UMTS and HSDPA--in some cities, but the 8820 doesn't support these 3G standards. At this point, T-Mobile doesn't offer 3G at all.) Wi-Fi can fill the void of a spotty or nonexistent data signal, too.

Satellite tracking is another cool feature of the 8820. The embedded GPS combined with programs such as TeleNav can deliver audible driving, walking, or biking directions. Both the 8320 and the 8830 feel sturdy enough and are reasonably thin and light. On both handsets, the trackball is responsive and the keyboard is a pleasure to use. If you want to become a speedier thumb-typist, I highly recommend learning the BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts. For example, pressing the spacebar twice automatically inserts a period.

If you're looking for a BlackBerry that does more than function as an e-mail machine, the Curve is the way to go. It's one of the few BlackBerrys that comes with a 2-megapixel camera (but no video capture), and it's preloaded with several IM clients: AIM, BlackBerry Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, Windows Live, and Yahoo. My wish list for the next Curve upgrade: Improve the browser, add 3G on GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) models, and support the carrier's multimedia services such as over-the-air music downloads and streaming video.

T-Mobile's Curve goes a step further than the 8820 in being able to use Wi-Fi for phone calls. If you sign up for T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service, you can make unlimited calls when the Curve is connected to a Wi-Fi network or to a T-Mobile HotSpot, which are available in cafes, airports, and other places. Calls conducted on Wi-Fi don't use up the minutes on your calling plan. If your phone goes out of Wi-Fi range, the call seamlessly transfers to T-Mobile's cellular signal without interrupting the call. Sometimes this arrangement worked for me; but when it didn't, several of my calls got dropped. T-Mobile says that it is working out a few of the system's kinks, so performance should improve soon.

Folks who need a smart phone that's better integrated (in terms of look and feel) with Microsoft's corporate e-mail should consider getting one of the Windows Mobile-based smart phones from HTC, such as the AT&T (formerly Cingular) 8525, the Sprint Mogul, or the T-Mobile Wing.