Motorola Pda

Stylish phones deliver fun, versatility for execs on the run; plenty of bells and whistles on the Motorola T720 and Kyocera 7135, but they can't be considered true replacements for your PDA - Review; Motorola T720 and Kyocera 7135 - Product/Service Evaluation

Gerry Blackwell

Whether you're a wild and crazy gamer or the button-down type who just needs to take care of business on the road, consider one of these sexy new clamshell-design mobile phones.

The Motorola T720 is a dual-band (850/1900MHz), GSM/GPRS phone that works on the Rogers AT&T Wireless network. The Kyocera 7135 smartphone is a trimode CDMA (1X) phone that doubles as a Palm OS PDA and operates on Bell Mobility's network.

They have a few features in common: the elegant flip-phone design, the colour screens inside and the second displays on the outside to show caller ID and other data (on the front of the T720's flip top, at the hinged end of the Kyocera 7135.)

That's where the similarities end. The Motorola unit is a dainty, shirt-pocket-size device--90 x 47.5 x 21mm (3.5 x 1.87 x .83 inches) inches, 101 g (3.56 oz). The Kyocera phone--100.8 mm x 61.6 mm x 29.7 mm (3.97 x 2.43 x 1.17 inches), 186 g (6.6 oz.)--looks like its big brother on steroids, though it's still sleeker and smaller than its main smartphone competition, the Handspring Treo.

While the 7135 is a phone first, it feels like a phone in your hand and has a standard phone keypad--a key differentiator against the Treo--it is also a fully functional and perfectly practical Palm PDA. It comes with the usual suite of schedule, contact and to-do applets. You also get a choice of e-mail clients and browsers to take advantage of 1X wireless data connectivity, plus an MP3 player and photo suite. Inevitably, there are a couple of compromises: slightly smaller than standard PDA screen (1.8 in. square) and writing pad (1.9x.75 in.) and no QWERTY keyboard. On the other hand, the 7135 boasts more colours than Treo (65,000), an expansion slot that takes SD/MMC memory cards and 210 minutes of talk time.

The T720 is, of course, also a phone first. It has a 28 x 48 mm colour screen and rudimentary personal organizer functions--notepad and phone book. A newer model, the T720g, adds calendar and to-do functions. But while it does also have a built-in Java browser and e-mail, this is not a true smartphone or a replacement for a PDA. For one thing, the task of entering data requires laborious input using the phone keypad.

The T720 offers up to 270 minutes of talk time and comes loaded with four surprisingly effective games--racing, hockey, Tetris clone and volleyball--and you can download several more from the special Java-powered Rogers Web site.

So take your pick: shirt-pocket-size and fun, or jacket-pocket-size and business first.

Contact: www.kyocera.com