Objects of desire

With cell phones having gone beyond just 'that boring tring tring' and getting smarter every- day, we test twelve of the latest smartphones on the market to help you sift the wheat from the chaff and make a truly smart choice.

So your phone has a snappy music player and a camera that lends a little something extra to even the most candid shot. So what? Handsets with these features are mere minnows in the sea of smart phones that are flooding the market today. With mobile devices getting more business oriented and ensuring that you truly have your office on the go, the only problem you may face is one of plenty and selecting which device is best suited for you.

On the testing block are Nokia E61i, Nokia E90 Communicator, HTC Touch, HTC S710, HP iPAQ 512, Asus P750, Asus m530w, O2 Atom Life, Palm Treo 750, Blackberry 8820, Blackberry Curve 8300, and Moto Q 8. We list them in our order of preference. We tested these handsets based on utilities, email and browsing facilities, the ability to handle office documents, user-friendliness, performance and multimedia capabilities to put together a simple guide that will help you make an informed choice for your next phone purchase

Nokia E61i

The Nokia E61i came up trumps as the most well balanced smartphone in this comparison. With a rich set of connectivities and features, it served its primary functions as a business phone unfailingly. The phone has a superior 2.8 inch screen supporting a 16 million color resolution that displays all the contents vividly in clear and crisp colors. The metallic body is sturdy and yet lightweight. Its QWERTY keypad is responsive and is pleasingly tactile, with well-spaced keys with a rubberized feel that makes typing long messages or e-mails a pleasure.

The browsing experience on this phone was a breeze with its excellent built-in browser that rendered full pages on its large screen. While on the e-mailing side, this phone had an easy-to-configure e-mail client that supports IMAP4 and POP3. For Blackberry service users the phone has Blackberry Connect pre-installed. All these online features were enhanced by its Wi-Fi, 3G or EDGE connectivity support for a high-speed broadband experience. It came pre-installed with QuickOffice that let us create, edit and view office documents though in the case of presentation files, one could only view them. Working on long sheets of documents did not strain our eyes as the screen display was large and sharp.

The phone's Symbian S60 v3 interface supported more applications than any other OS for mobile devices. Previous Symbian users will feel right at home. The system response while browsing the menu and opening different application was a breeze. The E61i handled our calls with great reception quality and the loudspeaker delivered clear sound at just the right volume.

On the multimedia side, the phone has a standard 2MP camera with no extras which made it good enough for casual shooting. A standard music player that plays back MP3 and AAC files was also present while Real Player takes care of video. One useful application was Widset with shortcuts giving access to various online services while maintaining a simple interface. For data storage, there is a microSD slot which was accessible only after removing the battery cover but did not require removing the battery. A 256MB microSD card is provided along with the package. Data transfer is done through Bluetooth, Infrared or via the data cable. We wished it came with a miniUSB port in stead of the older pop-port connection but the USB v2.0 support via the data cable is still an advantage. The 1500ma Li-Po battery life is impressive as it lasted us almost four days on normal usage of all its features.

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