Cell phone guide: Gifts to gab on the go

While the iPhone is a hot holiday gift, it isn't for everybody. The business department decided to check out some cell phones that have been making news lately. Here's our roundup of reviews for a cross section of cell phones now on the market:

T-Mobile Shadow
Price: $149 after rebates
Carrier: T-Mobile
Category: entertainment phone with slide-out keyboard

The iPhone it's not. But the T-Mobile Shadow has a couple of cool features. Calling friends is easy because it has T-Mobile's MyFaves quick-dial icons that allow you to call up to five friends with just a push of one or two buttons.
The phone feels solid in your hand and has a slide-out keyboard that I kept sliding in and out as a nervous habit. The phone was designed to allow the edge of the screen to blend with the dark borders, hence the Shadow name. It has a pretty 2.6-inch display, a "spin navigation wheel" that allows you to scroll through menus at high speeds, and a 2-megapixel camera with video capture. It has Bluetooth and WiFi. It isn't as big as an iPhone, nor is it tiny. It runs with Windows Mobile 6 software, meaning you can run Windows compatible software for viewing Word or Excel documents.

BlackBerry Curve 8320
Price: $249
Carrier: T-Mobile, Wirefly
Category: smart-phone for work

For the past year, I've been searching for the impossible: a cool smart-phone that would let me hop on and off any network I wanted, whether it was WiFi or regular wireless. I wanted to be free and connected at the same time. That ruled out the iPhone.
Luckily, the new BlackBerry Curve 8320 was released in September. Deceptively sleek and petite, the new Curve is the closest thing to communications freedom on the market today.
It handles all the typical BlackBerry tasks - e-mail, calendar, Web search - and also lets you add your own apps, like Google maps or Yahoo oneSearch. Plus, it has some nice extras: a built-in camera and voice recognition tool that lets me yak to my heart's content during a brutal commute - without taking my hands off the wheel or my eyes off the road.

Jitterbug
Price: $147
Carrier: GreatCall

Category: simple phones

Sometimes simplicity is a virtue when it comes to tech gadgets. Certainly that's the marketing shtick of the Jitterbug phone and accompanying cell service from GreatCall.
In fact, the clamshell-style Jitterbug is as simple as you can get. No text messaging. No Web browsing. Nothing except phone calls. In other words, the kind of phone my mom would like.
And people my mom's age are the target audience for this phone. The keyboard features large lighted keys, which make for easy dialing even if you're all thumbs.
The Jitterbug interface scores points for guiding you through its menu. At every screen, the phone asks you a yes-or-no question, such as "Voice Dial?" or "Call?" You answer with the "yes" or "no" buttons. That's a lot more intuitive than most phones.
Still, the Jitterbug is so basic that it drove me crazy. Scrolling through the phone list is clunky - there's no search function, so you have to page through the names with the arrow keys. Figuring out how to access the most recent calls also took some hit-or-miss keypunches.

Sidekick LX
Price: $299 with two-year contract
Carrier: T-Mobile
Category: texting phone for social teens and young adults

While my first impression of the new Sidekick was lukewarm, I found it was a much different story in the eyes of my kids.
The new Sidekick LX has a sleeker design and larger display screen than its previous version. It is a great messaging device with a spacious keyboard that operated well even under my clumsy fingers. I also liked that it offered Bluetooth, MySpace and a camera. This should all impress me, right?
But it wasn't really enough. Overall, the device still felt plastic and lightweight. It didn't seem solid enough to withstand being dropped more than once. The roller - mouse? - was probably the least fluid roller I've used and I initially thought it was broken. (It wasn't).
On the other hand, the interface was easy to figure out and the screen color felt crisp. I could navigate well and liked the modern look.
I left the phone lying on the table just to gauge the reactions of my kids. Needless to say, they (ages 11 and 14) both swooned over the device and begged to keep it. In their eyes, it completely outshines my iPhone, which for some reason doesn't really compare in the "coolness" factor.
The Sidekick line deserves a good look for its cool-looking design, past innovations and great IM capability. It should also be applauded for it's superb marketing in selling an image to teens. Sadly, I can't recommend the LX unless you fit within a certain demographic and spend more time texting your friends rather than talking to them.

Palm Centro
Price: $99 after rebates with two-year contract
Carrier: Sprint
Category: smart-phone for the rest of us

It may lack the name, but the Centro is essentially a Palm Treo at heart. Indeed, the biggest noticeable difference between it and its predecessors - besides its bargain basement price - is its size. Compared with the Treo line, it's tiny. Still, this is no RAZR-thin phone.

And the phone's new size has its drawbacks. The keyboard - already compressed on previous models - is downright cramped.
Like all smart-phones, the Centro can be used to surf the Web and check e-mail. But both features are rudimentary at best - don't expect much more than text e-mail, for instance. Despite hooking up to Sprint's high-speed network, the Centro's display of Web pages is somewhat slow.
And don't plan on doing a whole lot at once because the phone runs Palm's aging operating system that doesn't support true multitasking.
Still, the phone is worth a look for those who are looking for a smart-phone, but can't afford to pay the typical smart-phone price.



Source: http://origin.mercurynews.com/business/ci_7622069?nclick_check=1