Subject: [NEXTEL-1] "Hey Dude! You're Getting A Nexthell"

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 05 Jan 2003 22:47:26 -0500

"Hey Dude! You're Getting A Nexthell"
The Orlando Sentinel, Fla., Technology Column
Source: The Orlando Sentinel
Publication date: 2003-01-04

Jan. 4--The Dell dude has faded from TV spots, replaced by some guy with
pants pockets concealing one or more organizers, pagers or phones.

But, let's face it, only the geekiest among us cares to be seen with two or
three gizmos tossed in a purse, clipped on a belt or stuffed inside Dockers
pockets.

The desire to stay organized and in touch has to coincide with the social
need to look cool and neat.

And that fuels the effort to invent a device that can take the place of both a
handheld and a pocket phone.

One of the newest and more intriguing gadgets is the Siemens SX56 Pocket
PC Phone from AT&T, which mates a cell phone with a PDA using
Microsoft's Pocket PC software.

After a few days of playing with it, I'd rate the SX56 a slightly underpowered
PDA and a slightly oversized phone. On balance, it's about as good as
anything out there at the moment, but there's still more tweaking to be
done.

A Pocket PC is sort of a Palm Pilot on steroids, typically with a larger color
screen, more memory and multimedia functionality. Pocket PCs cost $300
to $700, making them a bit pricier than the competition that uses Palm
software.

Combo Palm-phone devices have been on the market for more than a year,
led by the Handspring Treo line. Not wanting to leave profits on the table,
Microsoft went to work to make its Pocket PC software adaptable to cell
usage.

And so we have the Siemens Pocket PC phone from AT&T, which costs
$549 plus monthly service fees that vary with usage.

The device is shaped like a soggy bar of soap that has been squeezed to
make it a little longer and thinner. With a silver metallic coating and a black
antenna nub, the SX56 is stylish and feels both solid and comfortable in the
hand. It comes with a leather case and a battery that's good for 3.5 hours of
talk time and 15 hours of PDA usage between charges.

Among its many capabilities beyond chat are wireless Web access, text
messaging, voice memos, MP3 playback and Pocket PC versions of
Microsoft Office applications such as Word and Excel.

I mentioned that it's slightly underpowered, and that's because it has only
32 MB of memory, when 64 MB is the norm on most Pocket PCs. Extra
storage can be added via a slot for a postage stamp-sized memory card.

Its screen, which would turn heads on a Palm OS handheld, isn't quite up to
the standard for brightness and clarity set by Pocket PC handhelds such as
the HP iPaq 3900 and 5400 series.

Weighing nearly 7 ounces, the SX56 is also a handful compared with any
number of cell phones.

For the sake of comparison, there's the $249 Nextel i90c Special Edition
phone, a petite 4.8 ounces tucked inside a translucent cherry red plastic
case. It comes with a plastic holster and swivel belt clip. Another mighty
mite is the Sprint Sanyo SCP-5300, a $399 device that features a built-in
camera and weighs only about 4 ounces.

Neither the Nextel nor Sprint phones can match the overall power of the
Pocket PC Phone, but they're trimmer and easier to master.

I'm confident that the perfect PDA-phone is coming, but it's just not here
yet.

Chris Cobbs welcomes your questions and comments. Phone:
407-420-5447. Mail: Orlando Sentinel, 633 N. Orange Ave., MP 240,
Orlando, FL 32801. E-mail: [email-masked].

-----

To see more of The Orlando Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go
to http://www.OrlandoSentinel.com

(c) 2003. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

SI, T, MSFT, DELL,
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