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Functions Speak Louder
Chasing the latest fad is no fun. When the geeks are wearing Dockers, you buy denim. When the cool kids suddenly switch to skateboards, you're stuck with rollerblades. Mobile phones, like any fashionable device, are just as susceptible to fads. One minute everyone has USB, the next they're into Bluetooth. You just figure out how to use GPRS, and everyone starts talking about EDGE. Yes, those tiny flip-open phones were common last year, but now PDA-like smartphones are popular. How does anyone stay current?
Well, here's one tip: finding the perfect phone is less about following trends as it is about studying the specs and picking the one that matches your needs. Of course, squinting at a bunch of sterile numbers and network carrier acronyms is about as fun as watching the credits of a corporate training video. So, as a service to you, we've scoured the websites of the major mobile manufacturers and tested three hot phones, all of which happen to boast fashionable clamshell, swivel or "candy bar" designs. But which one has the goods to back up the flash?
Motorola released the first RAZR V3 late last year; this is the updated V3 Black model. In order to squelch any hyperbole and bring the marketing hype down to earth, let's just say this: the RAZR Black is both an amazingly cool, slim-line phone and one that is missing some critically important features. It's cool because no other phone is so lightweight-it's just 3.4 ounces-or as slim; it measures just over a 1/2" thick and just under 4" tall. The size and weight are important especially for a clamshell phone that folds open, because it means better portability. Motorola uses buttons with a chemical etching process on a sheet of nickel-plated copper that responds well to each key press. Other phones use raised letters that make the phone bulkier.
Yet, apart from the trendy design, the RAZR Black is just a standard mobile device. It's not a smartphone, so you only get limited PDA functionality, such as a contact manager and AOL instant messaging. There's no media player, so the V3 will not double as an MP3 listening device. The email program is easy to use and configure, and you can surf the web, but only over a standard GPRS connection that falls right around the same speed as a dial-up modem.
The RAZR Black does let you snap photos though, at a respectable 640x480. Unfortunately, the images looked dull and blurry after we moved them over to a Mac using the Bluetooth File Exchange program. The reason for that probably has more to do with the tiny optical lens on the phone than resolution. One surprise: the RAZR does not support any flash media cards, so Bluetooth and USB are the only options for moving files around. For that, Apple iSync worked perfectly.
Overall, if looking cool, snapping quick photos and becoming more mobile with a slim phone are important factors for you, then the RAZR Black does the job. Otherwise, it's also a little slim when it comes to extra features.
Pinch us; we're in mobile phone nirvana. The Nokia 6682 is an outstanding phone that does everything better, faster and more intelligently than other mobile devices. It's a smartphone with a powerful media player-one that supports both MP3 files and video. It's a 1.3-megapixel cameraphone, but most important is that it actually takes pretty good photos. Once we moved these over to a Mac using the Bluetooth File Exchange program (you can also pop out the MMC cards and use a flash card reader), the 1280x960 images looked colorful and clear. One word of caution though: hold the phone super-steady, or images will look fuzzy. Nokia provides options for brightness, quality level, white balance and other settings you'd find on a dedicated digital camera. There's also a 6x digital zoom and a burst mode for taking six quick shots.
Did we mention we love this phone? Here's one amazing discovery: the 6682 actually adjusts the display brightness automatically using a sensor on the front of the phone. Step outside in the hot sun and you can actually see the phone display. This is the first Nokia phone for the U.S. market that does that. The 176x208 display is smaller than the Sony Ericsson S710A, and we can't say it looks as clear. However, the Symbian OS is easier to use than just about any phone OS.
The 6682 weighs 4.6 ounces, so it's heavier than the RAZR Black, but it also does a lot more. There's a nifty XpressPrint feature that lets you connect the phone directly to a USB printer. Over a Bluetooth connection, the 6682 worked well with Apple iSync and iCal. The only problems we had were in trying to send about 15 high-res photos over email all at once. The 6682 gave us an error message because it ran out of system memory. Sending just a few images at a time solved that problem. Configuring the phone was a breeze; so was using it. Our overall impression was that Nokia has finally edged into true smartphone territory. The fact that the 6682 also supports the EDGE high-speed service in many major cities was another bonus.
The Sony Ericsson S710a is a swivel phone that works exactly like a digital camera. In fact, when you turn it to conceal the keypad, you can hold the phone horizontally and take pictures using a photo button. This was surprisingly easy and intuitive. The 1280x920, 1.3-megapixel images looked slightly more washed out than the snapshots we took with the Nokia 6682, perhaps because the S710a doesn't provide quite as many camera features. The phone does use the more ubiquitous Sony MemoryStick Due flash cards, so you can add tons of storage to the phone in addition to its 32MB of internal memory.
The most stunning feature on this phone is the bright and colorful interface. It's a step up from previous Sony Ericsson models, although it's still proprietary and not extensible like Symbian, Palm or Pocket PC devices. You can't just surf the Web and find applications for it. The S710a does offer one unique feature, though. When you make the Mac connection over Bluetooth, you can use the S710a as a remote control that lets you click and even navigate websites, all as a built-in feature that you don't have to add after the fact.
The 4.8 ounce device is the heaviest of these three phones, but it's still highly portable. The 240x320 display is brighter and bigger than just about any other mobile phone. The interface is almost as easy to use as the Nokia 6682. Also, there's a built-in MP3 and MPEG-4 movie player, an FM radio and buttons on the phone for instant access to the Web and other functions. Other than poorer quality photo images, the S710a certainly gives the Nokia 6682 a challenge. We also liked the earbud headphones on the S710A because they sounded better than the ones included with the 6682. Finally, the S710a also supports EDGE high-speed networks such as Cingular Express, at least in most major markets.
In the end, it was a close race between the Sony and Nokia, but we prize the 6682 more, because you can add more programs, the phone itself works slightly better and the photos are actually all worth keeping.
–JOHN BRANDON
RAZR V3 Black 
Motorola | www.motorola.com | 800-289-6686 | $400
Pros: Stylish, thin and lighter than just about any cameraphone.
Cons: No flash card support, poor photo quality.
Requires: Any Bluetooth-enabled Mac with OS X
macHOME recommends: G4 1.5GHz with built-in Bluetooth
Nokia 6682 
Nokia | www.nokia.com | 972-894-5000 | $600
Pros: True smartphone, great photo features, software add-ons.
Cons: Errors when sending too many photos.
Requires: Any Bluetooth-enabled Mac with OS X
macHOME recommends: G4 1.5GHz with built-in Bluetooth
S710a 
Sony Ericsson | www.sonyericsson.com | 866-766-9374 | $400
Pros: Bright and big display, FM radio, MPEG-4 movie playback.
Cons: Somewhat hard to use, images looked a little blurry.
Requires: Any Bluetooth-enabled Mac with OS X
macHOME recommends: G4 1.5GHz with built-in Bluetooth
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