HANDSETS

Palm Treo Pro

Palm has introduced Treo Pro, a smartphone that looks and feels cool, but is designed for businesses that want to simplify their IT infrastructures and lower costs.

With its streamlined design and Palm shortcuts layered on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, Treo Pro seems to have it all. Yet there are a few little things that mess up the dream.

One is the fact you can’t turn the damn thing off, unless you pull the battery out. Even business users like to switch off sometimes! It also isn’t the easiest interface to learn your way around, requiring constant help from the online handbook. The other issue is battery life; when we gave the Pro to a serious mobile user to play with, he reported that after dislocating it from the mains at 8am, it ran out of juice by 1pm. Hmmm. Still, looks pretty.

Mototrola MOTO EM325

The EM325 is billed as having a luxurious finish with quality detailing that is a pleasure to hold in your hand – kinky!

This is a slider with FM radio sharing capabilities; consumers can use FMShare to share a favourite station with friends by sending it in a text message and playing music out loud with a forward facing speaker for optimum surround sound.

It offers a genuine music player experience, including immediate access to a stored music library and built in FM radio, in a sleek handset. The phone, available from 13 October, also has a dedicated music key so consumers can simply access stored music and familiar music controls to play, pause, forward and rewind songs.

Motorola MOTO EM330

Out on 10 October, MOTOROKR MOTO EM330 is a clamshell device with sonic features and touch sensitive keys. And it’s got Sonic Performance, according to Motorola, with easy access to a genuine music player experience. It allows users to control their music using touch sensitive keys that appear only when they’re needed. The front of the phone shows the name of the artist and song without even opening the flip. Handy – we like it!

Velocity 103

After a mere nine months of existence, Velocity Mobile, a collaboration between Inventec, a global notebook computer manufacturer, and a team of veteran wireless designers and engineers, has announced the availability of its first touchscreen phone, the Velocity 103.

Velocity Mobile 103 combines an easy to use Odyssey Interface, built on top of Windows Mobile 6.1, and Velocity Over The Air updates (Vota) and a sleek and attractive design, to change the way people think about and use smartphones. It’s not an easy market to break into, so good luck Velocity!

HTC Touch 3G

The Touch 3G, available in October, offers a touch phone experience with powerful internet capabilities, including wireless download speeds up to 18 times faster than standard 3G. Now that’s what we call nippy – as long as your service provider is playing along.

As part of this browsing experience users can zoom and pan websites with one hand. This allows users to navigate more easily, says HTC, letting users search for and watch streaming video from YouTube, get directions and mapping using Google Maps for mobile and stay updated on the latest news with the integrated RSS reader. Shown here in shiny gold. Sexy

HTC Touch Viva

Coming this month is the Touch Viva. This handset is about a blend of an affordable touch phone, with the benefits of HTC’s TouchFLO. With Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, users can easily synchronise their calendar, contacts, emails and more with their personal computer.

Touch Viva will be available in moody storm grey, as shown in our delightful illustration.

Sony Ericsson W902

This is music as it’s meant to be, according to Sony Ericsson. On this slick little black handset, users can stash up to 8,000 tunes on the 8GB memory stick Micro. It has been designed to switch seamlessly from music to media to experience with crystal clear video capabilities.

This is about clear bass, clear stereo and the premium HPM-77 headset for a serious audio experience. It’s also got a five megapixel camera and a bright and clear 2.2 inch display.

To top it all, it’s a nice smooth design with rounded edges, so when you drop it there’s more surprise involved in trying to catch it as it pings away in a random direction.

Sony Ericsson C905

The C905 is Sony Ericsson’s first Cyber-shot slider and its most advanced camera phone yet, it reckons. With a whopping great 8.1 megapixel camera and real camera flash amongst its capabilities, it offers easy photo taking in a phone that derives its looks from a digital camera and offers the picture quality to match.

This one comes with 2Gb storage on the Micro memory stick, a scratch resistant 2.4 inch screen and is GPS-enabled for geotagging of photos and navigation support.

It also feels quite indestructible, something we at Mobile Business like about a handset. It’s good to bounce.