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Longing for a merger of your cell phone and PDA? Samsung's on the right track with its SPH-I300, a CDMA/analog cell phone that's also a Palm. Lightweight (6 ounces), compact (4.9 by 2.28 by 0.82 inches), and graced with a bright color screen, a built-in Web browser, and a cornucopia of phone features, it's a gadget-lover's dream.

Fairly priced at $500 from Sprint's Web site, the SPH-I300 looks more like a Palm than like a phone. The 160-by-240-pixel, 256-color display is smaller than a regular Palm screen, but its exceptional crispness and clarity make it fairly easy to read. Colors are less brilliant than on a Pocket PC, but they look better than the dull hues of Palm's M505. You get 8MB of RAM.

Samsung integrated the phone functions nicely into the Palm OS: You can access a screen-based keypad either by tapping the phone icon on the main screen or by pressing the phone button situated next to the power on/off button on the device's right side. A small, monochrome LCD on the unit's top displays battery life and other information about the phone's status.

You dial phone numbers by scrolling through the contact database screen by screen (it's tedious if you have hundreds of contacts). Alternatively, you can tap out a number on the screen keypad, or create up to 20 entries in a voice-dial database. Voice quality is on a par with other Sprint PCS phones I've used.

The unit has a port for accepting hands-free kits, but a headset is not included. In my tests with a shipping unit, the battery lasted a full three days with moderate PDA and phone use, not far from the promised 100 hours of standby time and 4 hours of talk time. Note: If you are using Windows XP, upgrade the included Palm Desktop software to the XP-compatible version 4 before attempting to hot-sync; otherwise, Palm apps won't install properly.

SUMMARY

Samsung SPH-I300 This sleek, light, color Palm/cell phone oozes innovation. List: $500