A Fistful of Cell Phone

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People may one day look back and wonder why mobile phones and PDAs were ever separate. It's sensible to have your contacts list, diary and other crucial personal data stored in the one item you never leave home without—your cell phone. In recognition of the obvious, hybrid phone-PDAs such as Handspring's Treo began arriving in Asia this year. Now the xda, a versatile combo from British company mm02—a wireless spin-off from BT—may move the multipurpose devices closer to the mainstream.

Powered by a 206-MHz Intel StrongArm processor with 32 MB of memory, the xda will seem familiar to those who use handheld computers running Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 operating system. The device is handsome (thanks to a plastic casing that looks like brushed titanium), has a decent color screen and comes equipped with a full range of applications (such as Pocket Outlook) that can be synchronized with your PC through a USB or serial port.

The xda works fine as an organizer, but its real utility becomes apparent when you begin to explore its wireless communication capabilities. It uses Microsoft's recently released Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition software, which nicely integrates ordinary phone functions with those of a handheld computer. SMS messaging and e-mailing are effortless, thanks to the handwriting recognition software that allows you to jot a missive on the touchscreen and send it off to someone in your address book with just a couple of taps—no more thumb typing. Even cooler: if you're listening to music through the included headset—the xda can play MP3 files—and a call comes in, the system automatically turns down the volume so you can answer the phone.

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The device can link to your inbox at work and retrieve e-mail while you are on the go, although I was unable to test this feature. But trying to use it to surf the Internet exposes the current limitations of wireless data transfer. The xda works on GSM and GPRS mobile networks; I tried it on a GPRS system in Hong Kong, and even though I was supposed to be able to get data at rates comparable with dial-up services, I found Web access frustratingly slow. Not only that, the Web doesn't have a lot of content that is optimized to fit the small screens of handheld devices.

As cell phone networks become faster and content proliferates, those drawbacks may go away. But there are a couple of other factors impeding the spread of phone-PDA hybrids. The xda, which was recently launched in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, costs more than $750—only corporations and true road warriors will be able to swallow that bill. Then there's the size factor. Asians have grown to love their tiny cell phones. The xda can slip into a coat pocket, but it's still a handful at about 200 grams.

Are phone-PDAs about to replace the ordinary cell phone? My guess is not yet. But clearly, as phones sprout cameras and music players and other ancillary functions, demand is there for multipurpose devices. The xda may not have the price and size right. But with each new attempt, manufacturers are getting closer to the ideal.