Siemens SX66

Weighing in at a hefty 7.4 ounces, the Siemens SX66 looks and acts like a top-of-the-line Pocket PC. It's got almost all the extras you'd expect in such a device, including a big, bright 3.5-inch diagonal screen; a fast 400Mhz Intel processor; built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; a slide-out keyboard; Pocket Word and Excel; and 128MB of onboard memory. The only major omissions are a camera and high-speed EDGE network support. While the SX66 offered fast, easy Web and e-mail access, using the large device for making calls wasn't optimal.

With its large 4.9 x 2.8 x 0.7-inch design and lack of an antenna, you'd never guess the SX66 is anything but a Pocket PC. Even its membrane-style keyboard is a surprise, revealed only when you slide the screen up. And while there's also a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) worldphone lurking in its bulky exterior, you'll most enjoy using the SX66 when you stick to data applications rather than voice.

When you're within range of a hot spot or your home or office wireless network, you'll find the SX66 delivers a smooth, fast Web experience over Wi-Fi with a data rate of 300 Kbps. Even over the wide-area GPRS connection, performance was snappy, with average speeds of 50 Kbps. Standard content pages loaded smoothly, and the WSJ Online took about 40 seconds to load (using GPRS) and looked great on the large screen.

Although it took a little fiddling to get the network settings configured properly, e-mail worked quickly and well once we got it set up. The built-in messaging app makes it easy to check e-mail for multiple accounts, then read them on the sizable screen. While the keyboard wasn't as comfortable as the Treo 650's, it was more than adequate for quick replies.

With the device's capacious 128MB of memory and pocket Office applications, downloading and viewing attachments was a snap, although you'll want to wait until you're in range of a Wi-Fi access point for longer documents. Moving data to and from Outlook was a breeze. The Siemens was recognized instantly by our fairly recent version of Microsoft ActiveSync, and moved 1,000 contacts over in a speedy 11 seconds, comparable with other current Pocket PCs.

Unfortunately, the SX66 didn't acquit itself nearly as well when it came to making calls. While it does include all the phone features you'd expect, such as speakerphone and an integrated numeric keypad hidden inside that membrane keyboard, it's still no great shakes as a phone. Holding it up to your face is awkward, and the software phone interface doesn't make the most efficient use of that huge screen. While the virtual buttons are large, extra shortcuts to features like call history or contacts could be used to eliminate some clicks. Battery performance was comparable to the Treo, with about four hours of talk/surfing time and three days of standby.