Apple MacBook Pro (17-inch)

The Apple MacBook Pro proves that a desktop replacement notebook doesn't have to be a behemoth. Weighing just 6.8 pounds and measuring about an inch thick, this sleek system delivers a 17-inch widescreen and plenty of extras.

The simple brushed-aluminum shell of the MacBook Pro (compare prices) is as pleasing to the touch as it is to the eyes, and the clean look continues inside, with a monochromatic brushed-silver keyboard and deck. The keyboard is exceedingly comfortable and quiet, and we appreciate the oversized touchpad and single mouse button. One casualty of the minimalist aesthetic: The system lacks multimedia control keys, although you can use keyboard shortcuts to control these functions.

The 17-inch, 1680 x 1050-pixel widescreen (your choice of antiglare or glossy) is sharp and bright, with excellent color reproduction for image and video editors. It also has the best viewing-angle performance we've seen, which makes the MacBook Pro an ideal presentation tool. If you need a larger screen, the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics engine can drive an external display up to 2560 x 1600 pixels.

Hardware and software features abound. We love the backlit keyboard that illuminates automatically, thanks to the machine's light sensor. The built-in iSight camera and software enable four-way videoconferencing, and the included remote launches and controls Apple's Front Row interface for playing movies, music, and photos from across the room. You'll find FireWire 400 and 800 ports, and the ExpressCard slot accepts a Verizon Wireless EV-DO wireless broadband card. The newest MacBooks are equipped with the latest 802.11n technology.

Then there are the extras of the Mac OS X 10.4 itself, such as the handy Finder search utility and the Dashboard with dockable Widget applets. The included iLife suite makes it easy to manage and edit photos with iPhoto, manage and expand your music library with iTunes, make your own music with GarageBand, create movies and DVDs with iMovie and iDVD, create a Web site with iWeb, and more. Not enough? Load Apple's Boot Camp utility and set up the MacBook Pro as a dual-boot machine running either Mac OS X or Windows XP. In fact, the only software you're likely to need to add is an office suite.

Performance from the 2.33-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (married to 3GB of RAM in our test configuration) and ATI graphics was good but not class-leading. The machine scored 4,871 on PCMark05, and 4,996 on 3DMark03 while running Boot Camp (both acceptable, but on the lower end of the range here). Our F.E.A.R. test got a playable frame rate (39 fps) on its autodetect settings with a resolution of 1024 x 768. On the plus side, wireless throughput was excellent at 19.3 Mbps at 15 feet, and 14.6 Mbps at 50 feet. Battery life of 2 hours and 44 minutes was good for a 17-inch model and the best in the roundup.

For the price, you could certainly get a faster 17-inch Windows notebook, even one with a high-def DVD drive (which Apple doesn't yet offer). But it won't have all the Apple software and hardware extras, it'll weigh at least two pounds more, and it won't look nearly as good. We recommend opting for the standard 2GB of RAM instead of 3GB, which will bring the price down to $2,799.


Notebook owners: Do you have a great tech-support story? We want to hear all about the good, the bad, and the just plain stupid. Vent, give praise, or tell us how they couldn't help you at all. Our editors will feature the best stories in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

Specifications:

RAM Included:  3GB

RAM Upgradable To:  3GB

Hard Drive Size:  160GB

Hard Drive Speed:  5,400rpm

Optical Drive Type:  DVD+R DL;DVD±RW

Optical Drive Speed:  8X

Display Size (inches):  17

Native Resolution:  1680x1050

Graphics Card:  ATI Mobility Radeon X1600

Video Memory:  256MB

Wi-Fi:  802.11b/g

Bluetooth:  Stereo Bluetooth

Ports (excluding USB):  DVI; Ethernet; Firewire; Headphone; Microphone

USB Ports:  3

Card Slot(s):  ExpressCard

Warranty/Support:  One-year parts and labor/90-day toll-free 24/7

Size:  15.4x10.4x1

Weight:  6.8lbs

Everex StepNote XT5000T

The Everex StepNote XT5000T is designed for budget-conscious buyers who want a big screen and not much more. You don't get top-shelf components or a lot of multimedia extras, but considering it costs $899 in a sea of $2,000-and-up fish, some might be eager to overlook its faults.

The black-on-black lid (with a chrome accent strip) gives this machine a rather generic look, and the one-third silver/two-thirds black keyboard deck is not the pinnacle of ergonomics. In fact, the keyboard layout is unacceptable for a machine this size. While the letter keys are full-sized and comfortable, some ancillary keys-including oft-used Enter, Shift, and the period key-are shrunken to accommodate a dedicated number pad (that you'll probably never use). Also, the plastic chrome mouse buttons felt cheap and were very loud.

Another cost-saver comes in the LCD panel: The 17-inch widescreen is bright enough, but the resolution (1440 x 900 pixels) is low for this class. Still, text in applications was crisp and legible, and DVD playback looked fine. Since there is no high-def optical drive option (a dual-layer multi-format DVD burner is standard), you probably won't miss the HD screen. On the plus side, the deck-mounted speakers delivered decent sound quality, and you get a 100GB hard drive.

The XT5000T's selection of ports is fairly basic; a 4-in-1 memory card reader, three USB ports, FireWire, an ExpressCard slot, and S-video and DVI-I connectors for outputting the video signal to a TV or bigger LCD. Everex also includes four application-launch keys below the screen and a volume dial on the front edge. Aside from the features found in Windows Vista Home Premium, the only software included is CyberLink's DVD Suite.

As for performance, the 1.66-GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 CPU is fine for typical chores but couldn't keep pace with the Intel Core 2 Duo machines here, posting a score of 3,411 on PCMark05, the lowest of the group. The 256MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 GPU is good enough for casual gamers and plenty powerful for Vista's Aero interface, but the machine posted a merely okay score of 7,009 on 3DMark03. F.E.A.R. scores were good, but not great, at 41 fps on autodetect. Wireless throughput was slightly below average for this class at 10.9 Mbps at 15 feet, and 7.1 Mbps at 50 feet, as was the XT5000T's battery life of 1 hour and 18 minutes.

All told, the StepNote XT5000T doesn't have the flash or power of the other entries here. But considering you can get two-or three or four-of them for the money you'd spend on one of the others, buyers with modest needs and budgets might not mind.

Specifications:

RAM Included:  1GB

RAM Upgradable To:  4GB

Hard Drive Size:  100GB

Hard Drive Speed:  5,400rpm

Optical Drive Type:  DVD±RW Dual Layer

Optical Drive Speed:  8X

Display Size (inches):  17

Native Resolution:  1440x900

Graphics Card:  Nvidia GeForce Go 7600

Video Memory:  256MB

Wi-Fi:  802.11b/g

Operating System:  MS Windows Vista Home Premium

Ports (excluding USB):  DVI; Ethernet; Firewire; Headphone; Microphone; Modem; S-Video

USB Ports:  3

Card Slot(s):  4-1 card reader; ExpressCard

Warranty/Support:  One-year parts and labor/one-year toll-free 24/7

Size:  15.7 x 11.8 x 1.6

Weight:  8.5

Pantech duo

More compact than most Windows Mobile phones, the Pantech duo sports a dual-slider design, so you get both a QWERTY keyboard and numeric keypad. (It's actually kind of addictive.) Other highlights include high-speed HSDPA data and easy access to instant messaging. It's not nearly as innovative as the dual-slider Helio Ocean, and the keyboard could be better, but the duo still supplies messaging-savvy consumers and young professionals with a good all-purpose device that won't weigh them down.

The dark-gray body with textured metallic trim has a simple elegance suitable for the boardroom or a night on the town. At 4.6 ounces, the 4 x 2 x 0.8-inch-thick Pantech duo slips easily into a shirt pocket and is lighter and more streamlined than the 5.6-ounce, 0.9-inch thick Ocean. (On the other hand, the Ocean justifies its bulk with a sharper two-megapixel camera, more robust instant messaging, better MySpace integration, and GPS.) The duo's round corners felt good in the hand, providing a solid grip even for those with large mitts. On the right side of the phone are keys for launching the voice recorder and 1.3-MP camera. We appreciated the raised volume keys on the left side.

Sliding up the bright and colorful 2.2-inch (320 x 240-pixel resolution) display reveals a good-sized numeric keypad that makes for easy dialing. Flipping the duo horizontally and sliding out the QWERTY keyboard changes the orientation of the display to landscape mode (sometimes with a noticeable delay). We were able to thumb text messages, craft e-mail, and type URLs with decent accuracy. The duo's flat keys have a decent amount of depth, but the cramped layout takes some getting used to. Most frustrating is the placement of the soft menu keys in landscape mode; they're positioned on the extreme opposite ends of the keyboard instead of right underneath the menu options on the display.

Multimedia options abound, but none exactly wow on this device. Riding AT&T's 3G network, the duo offers Cellular Video, which features programming from Comedy Central, ESPN, HBO, and other content providers. We launched a clip of The Colbert Report, which buffered quickly, courtesy of the HSDPA connection. However, even though the video stayed in sync with the audio, the picture quality was less than stellar. On a few occasions we couldn't tune in and were greeted with a "We are temporarily experiencing technical difficulties" message. A free three-day trial to MobiTV ($9.99 per month) offers a smoother experience and adds shows from The Discovery Channel, Fox Sports, TLC, and more.

Users can sideload all sorts of music (MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA) and video (H.263, MPEG-4, WMV) files to the Pantech duo via the microSD Card slot (which is located on the top of the phone for easy access). For now, you can subscribe to Napster ($9.95 per month unlimited) and Yahoo Music ($8.99 per month unlimited) from the phone, but they're sent to your home PC for downloading. Unfortunately, over-the-air music download services, including Napster Mobile and eMusic Mobile, won't be available on the duo. If satellite radio is more your speed, we recommend XM Radio Mobile ($8.99 per month after a free three-day trial) which streamed smoothly on this device so long as we were in a 3G coverage area. Pairing the duo with our stereo Bluetooth headset for an untethered audio experience was simple; a 3.5mm adapter is in the box for using traditional earphones.

Web surfing was quite speedy. CNN.com Mobile loaded within 8 seconds; the mobile version of NYTimes.com took 13 seconds; and Gizmodo.com took 26 seconds. We found text generally easy to read despite the duo's small display, but some may prefer Opera Mobile 8.65 ($24 after free trial), because of its better page formatting and zooming options. Instant messaging clients from AIM, MSN, and Yahoo are included and performed adequately, and we like that they're easily accessible from the Today screen. However, it took the duo nearly a minute to log us in and display our contact list.

Like all Windows Mobile 6 Standard smart phones the duo includes Office Mobile, which let us swiftly download and read and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint e-mail attachments. Speaking of e-mail, the included Xpress Mail client allowed us to painlessly set up our POP3 Gmail and Yahoo accounts.

The camera implementation is a bit awkward. The live preview defaults to portrait mode, and it fills up only half the display. We'd prefer a full landscape view, and for the camera button to be positioned on the bottom part of the right spine instead of the top part. That would make it easier to hold and use the duo like a regular digicam. Image quality was fair for a 1.3-MP sensor, and we appreciated the quick shutter speed.

Call quality was good in our tests. Other callers said we came through fine, and a test voicemail message we left on a landline sounded louder and clearer than one left with the AT&T BlackBerry Curve 8300. With moderate use, the duo barely lasted a full day on a charge, so be sure to keep that charger handy.

The Pantech duo is a solid phone for staying productive and connected on the go, but there is plenty of smart phone competition at or below this price. We prefer the $199 AT&T BlackBerry Curve because of its ease of use and better keyboard; plus, the latest version adds GPS while staying under $200. If you're leaning toward Windows Mobile, the upcoming BlackJack II ($149) has more features than the duo, but this dual-slider is more pocket-friendly. Presuming you can get comfortable with the tiny keyboard and don't mind recharging often, you'll be satisfied with this device.

Specifications:

Carrier: AT&T (formerly Cingular)

Form Factor: Slider

Fast Data Network: HSPDA

Internal Memory: 64MB

Memory Expansion Type: TransFlash/MicroSD

Music Player: Yes

Video: Yes

GPS: No

FM Radio: No

Display (main): 2.2 inches (320 x 240 pixels, 262,000 colors)

Talk / Standby Time: 3 hours/10 days

Size: 4 x 2 x 0.8 inches

Weight: 4.6 ounces

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Palm Centro

The Palm Centro for Sprint is a slick-looking device targeted to first-time smart phone users. It features the same operating system, basic specs, and applications of the Treo 755p but in a smaller form factor. The Centro is very affordable ($99 with two-year contract, after rebates and instant savings) and has enough going for it to entice regular cell phone users to upgrade to something that can keep their life organized while offering e-mail, instant messaging, and Web browsing. The keyboard could be better, but you won't find a better smart phone at this price.


This compact phone (4.2 x 2.1 x 0.7) fits easily in your pocket and is available in two colors: a hip Ruby Red and a more elegant Onyx Black. The touchscreen measures only 2.2 inches, but it has a nice 320 x 320-pixel resolution, which is perfectly fine for the light-on-graphics Palm OS. The phone has a microSD slot on the side but isn't bundled with a miniSD Card. Even though Palm claims the MicroSD slot is external, you still have to remove the phone cover from the back of the phone to get at it. That's annoying.
On the front of the phone just below the screen you'll find a silver bar with the navigation buttons. The Centro comes with a comfortable five-way navigation key, two large answer on and off buttons, and quick-launch keys to access the dialpad, main menu, calendar, and e-mail. On the side you'll find the up and down volume buttons and a programmable key.

The stylus is a bit flimsy, and the backlit QWERTY keyboard is disappointing. Although the keys are raised and rubbery, they're too tiny for average fingers. A teen or someone with narrow fingers will likely manage with it, but the target soccer mom or average first-time smart phone adult user won't feel very comfortable typing on it until they get used to the layout.

Despite Palm's target market, the Centro isn't any easier to use than the 755p, since it runs on the same OS. In fact, the Centro comes with a couple more apps instead of fewer. But it's still easier to use than Windows Mobile-based and Symbian-based smart phones, which have steep learning curves. The Centro comes with the usual Calendar, E-mail, and Contacts applications. It also includes the Sprint Mobile Instant Messaging application, which allows you to log into AIM, MSN, or Yahoo Messenger; on our tests, the phone took an average 18 seconds to log into Yahoo Messenger. You also get the latest version DocumentsToGo Professional for viewing and editing Office files.

The 1.3-megapixel camera on the back produced run-of-the-mill pictures with its 2X digital zoom. Video capture is also available, but the low 352 x 288-pixel resolution is nothing to get excited about, On our tests, it performed poorly in dimly lit areas, which is to be expected for a smart phone.

On our Web-browser tests, CNN.com took an average of five seconds to load on the Centro's Blazer browser, making it comparable to other Sprint smart phones that use the carrier's EV-DO network. Downloading a 1.8MB application from Sprint's severs took only 35 seconds, an impressive speed for this category of smart phone.

We love the Google Maps feature, which we also saw in the Treo 755p. You can view street and satellite maps and get directions and traffic reports. Unfortunately, you still can't use location-based services to get live navigation or to pinpoint your location automatically on the map.

The Centro also comes preinstalled with the PocketTunes Deluxe (normally $39.99). This application lets you listen to your favorite MP3s, AAC files, and DRM-protected WMA tracks, which you can download to the 64MB of onboard storage when you sync your phone with your computer or by simply playing the songs stored on your microSD Card. Music playback was good, but the speaker is located on the back of the phone, so don't plan on listening to music with the phone sitting on a table.

Sprint also offers access to Sprint TV, which lets you watch live content and video on demand from the likes of CNN and Comedy Central. The Daily Show clips we watched started out decent but devolved into a pixelated mess.

During our tests, call quality was good, and like other Palm phones, this one requires an adapter to plug in 2.5mm headphones. The adapter is included in the package, but we'd recommend using a Bluetooth headset as a workaround. Stereo Bluetooth isn't an option, which is a bit disappointing.

Battery life is rated at 3.5 hours of talk time and 12.5 days of standby. That's a little shy of what we expect from most phones these days, especially with the 755p managing more than 4 hours of talk time. After talking for 20 minutes, spending two more hours browsing the Web and navigating the device, and then leaving the Centro on standby overnight, we woke up to a device that still had more than half its juice.

Specifications:

Carrier: Sprint Nextel

Form Factor: Candy Bar

Operating System: Palm OS

Fast Data Network: EV-DO

CPU: 312-MHz Intel XScale

Music Player: No

Video: No

GPS: No

FM Radio: No

Display (main): 2.2 inches 320 x 320 pixels/65,000 colors

Talk / Standby Time: 3.5 hours/12.5 days

Size: 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches

Weight: 4.2 ounces

Fujitsu LifeBook P7230

With the exception of Sony, no company has mastered the art of ultraportable laptop design like Fujitsu. The compact LifeBook P7230 is one of the most lightweight systems on the market, and it's one of the sexiest, with your choice of two colors: black or white (an extra $50). The fact that this system has an integrated optical drive makes it all the more impressive. The LifeBook P7230 comes somewhat more modestly configured than several competitive models, but at $1,899, it's worth a look if every ounce counts.

Measuring 10.7 x 7.9 x 1.1 inches, the attractive and solidly built LifeBook P7230 (see photo gallery) is slight enough to tuck into the smallest carry-on, and at three pounds, it's light enough to carry all day. With such diminutive dimensions, however, come sacrifices: The keyboard is cramped and may fatigue your fingers during extended typing stints, particularly if you have big hands. Likewise, the touchpad is tiny, and the petite mouse buttons offer insufficient tactile feedback; you'll definitely want to use an external mouse hooked up to one of the LifeBook P7230's three USB ports.

The 10.6-inch widescreen display, with its average 1280 x 768 (WXGA) native resolution, delivers adequate screen real estate, though text looks considerably smaller than what you'll see on even a 12- or 13-inch display with comparable resolution. That said, the LifeBook P7230's display is crisp and bright enough for productivity tasks and is the perfect size for watching DVDs on a plane or train.

Placed above the keyboard, the LifeBook P7230's two stereo speakers deliver the weak, tinny audio common to ultraportable laptops. There isn't much in the way of dedicated multimedia controls, though there is one programmable quick-launch button that you can set to open your most often-used application or folder.

The LifeBook P7230's notable features include an "Eco" button that toggles on a special battery-saving mode, reducing screen brightness, switching off the optical drive and wireless connection, and disabling peripherals. Also, like many other modern laptops, the LifeBook P7230's shock-mounted hard drive will better absorb the impact of a drop; however, we found Fujitsu's intelligent shock-sensor technology a bit overly sensitive; the laptop needlessly retracted the hard drive a few times during our testing. Security features include a Trusted Platform Module and an integrated fingerprint sensor, which doubles as a vertical scroll button for quickly navigating through documents and Web pages.

In addition to a DVD burner, you get one FireWire and three USB 2.0 jacks that are well distributed around the case; a VGA output, for connecting to an external display; microphone and headphone jacks; one Type I/II PC Card slot; and a 3-in-1 media card reader. Although some fairly standard business-class features such as an ExpressCard slot and S-Video output are absent, Fujitsu offers a more complete configuration that includes an integrated webcam, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and a port replicator for $2,179. The webcam option alone costs only $30, an upgrade we recommend.

Built-in networking features include Ethernet and modem jacks as well as 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi (plus an external Wi-Fi on/off switch). The LifeBook P7230's throughput of 17.8 Mbps at 15 feet and 14.2 Mbps at 50 feet signifies extremely robust connectivity. This system, however, lacks integrated mobile broadband, a feature found on a growing number of comparable ultraportables.

Our LifeBook P7230 test unit came with Windows Vista Business (you can also configure it with Vista Home Basic or XP Professional), a solid collection of multimedia and productivity software, but a wispy array of components, the centerpiece of which was a 1.2-GHz Intel Core Solo U1400 ultra-low-voltage processor. Also on board is Intel's integrated GMA 950 graphics engine, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and a modest 60GB hard drive, which spun at a deficient 4,200 rpm (an 80GB drive is also available for an extra $100).

Unsurprisingly, these components made an unspectacular showing on our PCMark05 benchmark test, notching a relatively low score of 1,191; the laptop can handle most productivity tasks but lacks the processing muscle to elegantly manage numerous applications simultaneously. The LifeBook P7230's score of 726 on our 3DMark03 benchmark is below average for an ultraportable.

The LifeBook P7230's standard six-cell battery lasted a decent three hours and one minute on our DVD drain test. This means you should get closer to five hours of runtime when performing regular productivity tasks. Fujitsu sells another six-cell battery that fits in the system's modular bay (which costs an additional $116) that should give you another three or four hours of life.

One of the lightest notebooks on the market with an integrated optical drive, the LifeBook P7230 delivers extreme portability for a very reasonable price. We'd prefer a little more performance and the option of mobile broadband, but otherwise this mini notebook satisfies.

Specifications:

RAM Included:  1GB

RAM Upgradable To:  2GB

Hard Drive Size:  60GB

Hard Drive Speed:  4,200rpm

Optical Drive Type:  DVD±RW Dual Layer

Optical Drive Speed:  2X

Display Size (inches):  10.6

Native Resolution:  1280x768

Graphics Card:  Intel GMA 950

Video Memory:  224MB

Wi-Fi:  802.11a/b/g

Operating System:  MS Windows Vista Business

Ports (excluding USB):  Ethernet; Firewire; Microphone; Modem; S/PDIF; VGA 

USB Ports:  3

Card Slot(s):  3-1 card reader; PC Card; Type I/II

Warranty/Support:  One-year parts and labor/one-year 24/7 toll-free

Size:  10.7 x 7.9 x 1.1 inches

Weight:  3 pounds

Samsung Beat SGH-t539

The Samsung Beat is a sleek clamshell with an onboard music player, quad-band GSM/EDGE support, and a 1.3-megapixel camera for a reasonable $99. A music-friendly accessory bundle and external playback controls make the Beat a capable music phone. It also has useful extras, including a Web browser (despite its lack of 3G), instant messaging, and over-the-air contact sync, but the interface could use a lot more polish, and the keypad is tricky for thick fingers. As long as you can live without over-the-air downloads, the Beat is a decent choice.

This handset measures 3.5 x 1.8 x 0.7 inches, and it weighs just 2.7 ounces--small but cheap-feeling. On the outside of the glossy black shell is a 96 x 96-pixel OLED display, as well as iPod-like playback controls ringed by a lime-green speaker. The camera lens (with 4X digital zoom) is just above the screen, but there’s no flash. On the right side is a covered microSD slot for up to 2GB of expandable storage, as well as dedicated camera and music player buttons, the latter doubling as a Hold button. On the left are the proprietary headphone/sync connector (also covered) and volume buttons. The battery compartment on the back is secure but easy to remove.

Inside, the color LCD is bright but low-resolution at 128 x 160 pixels. The keypad is mostly smooth, which makes no-look dialing impossible, and keys are close enough together to stymie large fingers. One nice touch is an assignable shortcut key. The included 1GB microSD card comes loaded with tracks from Anisha Nicole and Natalie Williams, and you get an SD adapter, too. Also in the package is an AC adapter, a USB cable, a 3.5mm headphone adapter with built-in mic and call button, and Samsung’s own phone-friendly earbuds.

Startup time was a respectable 15 seconds, and navigation through the interface was mostly speedy, though we noticed a lag when accessing content on a microSD Card. While the menus are simple enough to navigate, the graphics are about as advanced as an old Atari, and the fonts are blocky. Options are presented clearly but not very attractively. The directional pad and Select button offer precise navigation for the most part, though we did have the occasional misstep because of their small size. On the bright side, there was no noticeable lag between menus or while texting.

Supported music formats include MP3, WMA, AAC, and AAC+--no DRM here. You can transfer files in Windows via Windows Media Player or drag and drop them onto the drive for Mac and Windows systems. Copying a 50 Cent album (about 80MB) to the memory card took nearly three minutes, which is on the slow side; you’re better off using a card reader. The phone works with stereo Bluetooth headphones, but you can also transfer files and print pictures via Bluetooth. Other extras include a world clock, a calendar, a calculator, an alarm, and a stopwatch. The Beat also does voice dialing and recording, though the former didn’t work so well in our testing. It had a tough time recognizing names that we spoke, succeeding about a quarter of the time. A few basic games come preloaded, but nothing special.

Music sounded very good through Samsung’s earbuds as well as through our own high-end Shure SE420 earbuds (via the adapter), with rich, clear sound marred only by some system noise between tracks. The external speaker is more useful for speakerphone than music listening, since bass was nearly inaudible. The music automatically stops when you receive a call, and it picks back up where it left off when you hang up. Unfortunately, neither the button on the included earbud cable nor the one on the headphone adapter can pause music; they just answer and end calls, but the music stops automatically when a call comes in.

Pictures and videos captured with the Beat looked pretty bad on the screen, so we wouldn’t necessarily bother uploading them wirelessly to my.t-mobile.com for online sharing. Our favorite feature is the ability to sync contacts wirelessly online--even with Outlook--via my.t-mobile.com. Web browsing was reasonably speedy for an EDGE device; CNN’s mobile Web site loaded in about 15 seconds.

The Beat’s call quality was acceptable, but T-Mobile’s reception is quirky. The phone showed four bars of service out of five, yet when we called repeatedly from our Verizon phone, the Beat failed to register the call about half the time. Voices were loud and clear through the included earbuds, and our own voice came through the hands-free mic clearly on our test calls. The Beat’s battery life is rated at about 6 hours of talk time and 360 hours (15 days) for standby, which is about average. For typical use, this phone needs to be charged about every other day; if you use the speaker and music player regularly, you can expect to charge the Beat daily.

If you opt for this phone, don’t expect the attractive speaker on the front to replace your boombox, and be sure to carry a real camera with you if you want to take clear pictures. Other than that--and yesterday’s user interface--this music phone offers a decent music player and some handy Web features that will satisfy bargain hunters.

Specifications:

Carrier:  T-Mobile

Form Factor:  Candy Bar

Fast Data Network:  EDGE

Internal Memory:  28MB

Memory Expansion Type:  miniSD Card

Music Player:  No

Video:  Yes

GPS:  No

FM Radio:  No

Display (main):  128 x 160 pixels/65,000 colors

Display (secondary):  96 x 96 pixels

Talk / Standby Time:  6 hours/15 days

Size:  3.5 x 1.8 x 0.7

Weight:  2.7 ounces

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T-Mobile Dash

Sexiness meets versatility in the T-Mobile Dash ($199 with two-year contract), a compact Windows Mobile smart phone that attempts to one-up both the BlackBerry Pearl, by featuring a full QWERTY keyboard, and the Moto Q, by packing in Wi-Fi. This diminutive device keeps you organized and entertained on the go, but its occasionally sluggish performance and T-Mobile's spotty network coverage prevent us from giving the Dash a top rating.

Designed by HTC, the Dash is one of the sleekest smart phones around. It's nearly as thin as the MOTO Q (0.51 inches versus 0.47 inches) and weighs only 0.1 ounces more (4.2 versus 4.1). More importantly, this device feels better in the hand, thanks to its soft-touch texture and larger four-way navigation button. The keys are packed very tightly together, but they offer excellent tactile feedback. We also like how you can type special characters by just pressing and holding a key, as opposed to using an Alt/key combination.

The Dash boasts a bright, 2.4-inch display with 320 x 240-pixel resolution. It provides more than enough room for looking up contacts, surfing the Web (when Windows Mobile 5.0 doesn't mess up the formatting), and checking e-mail. To the right of the screen are two touch-sensitive volume controls; these take some getting used to but worked fine once we changed the tap speed to Fast.

The left side of the device holds the power button, and on the back side, underneath the cover, is a slot for a microSD Card. At least you don't have to remove the battery to insert a card. The 1.3-megapixel camera lens is located above the battery cover, complete with a tiny self-portrait mirror.

To help you stay connected, this smart phone packs in three wireless radios: GSM/EDGE, Wi-Fi, and stereo Bluetooth. We especially like the Comm Manager utility, which makes it simple to toggle each connection on and off. From this same screen you can also access the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings, activate ActiveSync for syncing with Outlook, turn the ringer on and off, and beam info to other nearby devices. Unlimited data costs $29.99 per month, which inlcudes T-Mobile Hotspot access.

Like other Windows Mobile 5.0 phones, the Dash manages your contacts, calendar, and tasks, but T-Mobile's intuitive setup wizard makes it especially easy to get e-mail wirelessly. Unlike the Moto Q, the Dash lets you enjoy instant messaging out of the box using your choice of AIM, Yahoo, or ICQ. Unfortunately, our experience didn't exactly feel "instant," as it took an average of 25 seconds to sign onto Yahoo and anywhere from 4 to 40 seconds to send and receive messages.

Web browsing wasn't much faster over T-Mobile's EDGE network. It took us about 50 seconds to download the entire New York Times homepage. The BlackBerry Pearl, which rides on the same 2.5G network, is faster because it uses a more efficient Java-based browser. Switching over to Wi-Fi on the Dash helped, but it still took a rather pedestrian 27 seconds for the same page to load.

In fact, the Dash was a little bit sluggish overall. We experienced a number of delays when opening and closing applications, and when we tried to open an e-mail while the device was downloading new messages, the device crashed, forcing us to reset. Some of the blame goes to the relatively pokey 210-MHz TI OMAP processor (compared with the Moto Q's 312-MHz Intel XScale CPU), but the Windows Mobile 5 OS itself also continues to be flaky.

Note that this isn't the more robust Pocket PC version of Windows Mobile, either; it's the Smartphone edition, which means you don't get a bundled Notes application, and you can't edit e-mail attachments. Yes, you can view Office docs with the included ClearVue suite, but it was impossible to see a Word file without zooming in. And even then we couldn't see all of the text within the margins, requiring us to scroll from left to right.

The Dash fares better as an entertainment device. Its Windows Media Player 10 Mobile software allows you to listen to your own MP3s or tunes you've purchased from any online PlaysForSure service. And thanks to its stereo Bluetooth support, we could enjoy our tracks wirelessly using Motorola's HT820 headphones.

The 1.3-MP camera takes pretty sharp pictures for a smart phone, providing plenty of details in shots, even if they were a bit washed out. What makes the Dash stand out as a camera phone is how easy it is to share your shots and low-res video footage; clicking on the envelope icon after you're done recording takes you directly to an MMS or e-mail message prepopulated with your photo or video attachment.

As a phone, the Dash is just adequate. During our tests, it delivered decent volume but only mediocre audio quality. We noticed a slight gurgling on the line during most calls. T-Mobile's network continues to lag behind other carriers when it comes to coverage, but at least the Dash's signal strength wasn't any worse than the BlackBerry Pearl's.

On the plus side, the new MyFaves feature gives you unlimited calling to the five U.S. numbers you call most often, with plans starting at $39.99 per month. You can even customize the Today screen to display the pictures of those five people for easy, one-click dialing.

T-Mobile rates the Dash for five hours of talk time and nine days of standby time. In our tests, this smart phone lasted about a day and a half, but that was with the Dash set to automatically retrieve new e-mails every 15 minutes and with intermittent use of the Wi-Fi connection.

Overall, typing on the Dash is easier than on the BlackBerry Pearl, and the Dash offers faster Web surfing (when you're in a hotspot). However, these perks are nearly outweighed by the phone's less-than-snappy performance.

Specifications:

Carrier:  T-Mobile

Form Factor:  Candy Bar

Operating System:  Windows Mobile OS

Bluetooth Type:  Bluetooth Stereo

Fast Data Network:  EDGE

CPU:  210-MHz TI OMAP

Internal Memory:  64MB RAM, 32MB available for users

Memory Expansion Type:  TransFlash/MicroSD

Music Player:  No

Video:  Yes

GPS:  No

FM Radio:  Yes

Display (main):  2.4 inches (320 x 240 pixels, 65,000 colors)

Talk / Standby Time:  5 hours/9 days

Size:  4.4 x 2.5 x 0.5 inches

Weight:  4.2 ounces