New cell phones packed with messaging capabilities

NEW YORK -- The old Army slogan "Be All That You Can Be" might as well be the motto of the cell phone industry today. Virtually every new device on the market comes packed with as many features as possible.

Camera functions have captured a lot of the buzz lately, but still another category is emerging: the all-purpose communications device.

These machines offer full -- though small -- keyboards and multiple means of staying connected. Beyond voice, there's instant messaging, e-mail and short text messaging.

I tried two new feature-rich devices:

The color T-Mobile Sidekick by Danger Inc. is a messaging device first, a phone second. And the Nokia 6800 Communicator, which is a phone first, messenger second. Both are ingeniously designed and impressive.

The 6800 almost universally provoked wows from people who saw it.

Slightly wider and longer than other new Nokia phones -- but still much smaller than models from two or three years ago -- the 6800's number pad flips up to change the device from a vertically oriented cell phone into a horizontal messaging machine with a full QWERTY keyboard.

I find text messaging on a normal numeric phone keypad a dreadful experience. This solution is perfect, so right that it provokes the response all product designers want to hear: "Of course! Why didn't anyone else think of that?"

The 6800 also has a decent and easy-to-use e-mail client and can receive e-mails forwarded from other networks via the IMAP or POP3 standards. There's Web connectivity, but don't expect more than what other cell phones offer -- shorthand versions of popular news, sports and weather pages.

One of my favorite functions was the 6800's FM radio, which plays through a headset or the phone's loudspeaker. The tuner is not all that sensitive, so you can't get nearly as many channels as you would in a car.

I was also very impressed with the phone's battery life. It rarely needed charging, even after heavy use.

The 6800 is available from Cingular Wireless for $249 with a two-year contract. Nokia expects other carriers to sign on soon.

Danger's device boasts a full keyboard behind its swiveling rectangular screen, plus Web browsing, e-mail, a cell phone, calendar and two features not found on the 6800 or most other handhelds: AOL instant messaging and a camera.

It is an upgrade on the Hiptop it introduced last fall. Back then the device stood out as a well-crafted gadget but its monochrome screen was a letdown.

That problem has been solved with the new 65,000-color display. Danger also has doubled the memory, to 32 megabytes; doubled the processor speed; given the camera richer resolution and bigger picture size; and facilitated a connection to AOL e-mail in addition to its own e-mail client.

The camera is noticeably better, though it requires a plug-in attachment that suddenly seems outdated in this age of integrated picture phones. And the color screen is fantastic. Pictures on Web pages show up remarkably clearly, and the device overall is now much more fun and addictive.

But I didn't really notice any improved speed or power when it came to Web surfing. There's only so much a device can do when it gets its data over a standard wireless phone network rather than any supercharged connection.

Web pages load slowly, and too often not at all. I wasn't surprised to find T-Mobile's GSM network inaccessible in a rural part of southern Wisconsin, but this device is perfect for train commuters, so it's a shame T-Mobile's coverage is still patchy along the rail corridor linking New York and Connecticut.

Not all is lost, of course: in those down times, you can still write e-mails or instant messages to send later, take pictures or play games. As with the Nokia 6800, the Sidekick deftly coordinates your contact database with the phone and messaging functions.

Drains batteries

Danger also claims to have improved the battery life slightly, but I found it a power sucker even in standby mode. Expect to charge it pretty often if you want to leave it on often -- which would be required if you used it as a phone.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Danger makes the devices for wireless carriers to sell and rebrand. T-Mobile, the only nationwide carrier to offer the device, plans to release the color version as the new T-Mobile Sidekick for about $300 this summer.

Triton PCS, a carrier in the Southeast, has announced plans to sell it as the SunCom Hiptop, but it will be the monochrome version at first.